Service with hymn number 442
from the Hardback Temple, 442. Praise hymn, praise hymn. Let's
all stand together. Praise Him, praise Him, Jesus
our blessed Redeemer. Sing, O earth, His wonderful
love proclaim. Hail Him, hail Him, highest archangels
in glory. Strength and honor give to His
holy name. Like a shepherd, Jesus will guard
His children. In His arms, He carries them
all day long. Praise Him, praise Him. Tell of His excellent greatness. Praise Him, praise Him, ever
in joyful song. Praise Him, praise Him, Jesus
our blessed Redeemer. For our sins He suffered and
bled and died. He our rock, our hope of eternal
salvation. Hail Him, hail Him, Jesus the
crucified. Sound His praises, Jesus who
bore our sorrows. Love unbounded, wonderful, deep,
and strong. Praise Him, praise Him, tell
of His excellent greatness. Praise Him, praise Him, ever
in joyful song. Praise Him, praise Him, Jesus
our blessed Redeemer. Heavenly portals loud with hosannas
ring. Jesus, Savior, reigneth forever
and ever. Crown Him, crown Him, prophet
and priest and king. Christ is coming over the world
victorious. Power and glory unto the Lord
belong. Praise him, praise him, tell
of his excellent greatness. Praise him, praise him, ever
in joyful song. Please be seated. We're going to be looking at
Hebrews 10 tonight, but for our scripture reading, I'd like for
you to turn with me in your Bibles to Psalm 40. There are several
verses from Psalm 40 that are quoted in Hebrews chapter 10. Psalm 40. I waited patiently
for the Lord, and he inclined unto me and heard my cry. He brought me up also out of
a horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a
rock, and established my goings. He hath put a new song in my
mouth, even praise unto our God. Many shall see it and fear, and
shall trust the Lord. Blessed is that man that maketh
the Lord his trust, and respecteth not the proud, nor such as turn
aside to lies. These are the words of Christ,
and the one who trusted God perfectly was the Lord Jesus Christ. He
had perfect faith. Many, O Lord my God, are thy
wonderful works which thou hast done, and thy thoughts which
are to usward. They cannot be reckoned up in
order unto thee. If I would declare and speak
of them, they are more than can be numbered. Sacrifice and offerings,
thou didst not desire. Mine ears hast thou opened. Burnt offerings and sin offerings
hast thou not required? Then said I, Lo, I come. In the volume, the book, it is
written of me. I delight to do thy will, O my
God. Yea, thy law is within my heart. I have preached righteousness
in the great congregation. Lo, I have not refrained my lips,
O Lord, thou knowest. I have not hid thy righteousness
within my heart. I have declared thy faithfulness
and thy salvation. I have not concealed thy lovingkindness
and thy truth from the great congregation. withhold not thy
tender mercies from me, O Lord. Let thy loving kindness and thy
truth continually preserve me, for innumerable evils have come
past me about. Mine iniquity have taken hold
upon me so that I am not able to look up. They are more than
the hairs of my head, therefore my heart faileth me. Be pleased,
O Lord, to deliver me. O Lord, make haste to help me.
Let them be ashamed and confounded together that seek after my soul
to destroy it. Let them be driven backwards
and be put to shame that wish me evil. Let them be desolate
for a reward of their shame that say unto me, aha, aha. Let all those that seek thee
rejoice and be glad in thee. Let such as love thy salvation
say continually, the Lord be magnified. For I am poor and
needy, yet the Lord thinketh upon me. Thou art my help and
my deliverer. Make no tearing. Oh my God. I think most of you
all know Caleb and Bobby Hickman from Kingsport and their little
girl, I don't know how old Abigail is, I think she's about five
maybe, but she's been diagnosed with some tumors in her abdomen
and they're running tests and are going to have to do something,
I guess, to treat that. So I want us to pray for little
Abigail. Also, Tom's son, Jimmy, as you
know, is living in Cottageville and attending the church up there
and dating Sarah Vandal. Sarah's grandfather, who is Jeff's
father, who has been the patriarch of that church in Cottageville
for years and years, is on his deathbed right now. They don't
expect him to. to be with us much longer. So, um, be a real trial for the
family and for the church to lose this, uh, this dear brother. So let's, uh, let's pray together. Our merciful heavenly father.
We're so very thankful that we have not only access into thy
throne of grace, Lord, we have your love, your acceptance, your
encouragement, your complete approval, as you see us in thy
dear son. For truly, it was his will to
do thy will, and thy law was in his heart, and he was faithful
to thee. Lord, might you give us the grace
to look to him and his faithfulness for all our righteousness and
to rejoice in his accomplished work. We pray for little Abigail. We asked Lord that you would
give the physicians lots of understanding and skill to be able to treat
her. And we pray Lord for your mercy
to Caleb and to Bobby and to the church there. Lord, just
pray that you'd be gentle with them and that you would be pleased
to bring healing to this little girl's body. We thank you for
Mr. Vandal and for the testimony
of your grace for so many years in his life and in that church. And we pray, Lord, for you to
give the brethren there spirit of rejoicing as they delight
in thy hand to take their brother home. We ask it in Christ's name. Amen. Let's stand together again and
we'll sing hymn number 352 from the hardback. 352. Jesus, lover of my soul, let
me to thy bosom fly. While the nearer waters roll,
While the tempest still is high, Hide me, O my Savior, hide, Till
the storm of life is past, Safe into the haven, God, O receive
my soul at last. Other refuge have I none, hangs
my helpless soul on Thee. Leave, ah, leave me not alone,
still support and comfort me. All my trust on Thee is stayed,
All my help from Thee I bring. Cover my defenseless head With
the shadow of Thy wing. Thou, O Christ, art all I want,
more than all in Thee I find. Raise the fallen, cheer the faint,
heal the sick, and lead the blind. Just and holy is Thy name, I
am all unrighteousness. False and full of sin I am, Thou
art full of truth and grace. Plenteous grace with Thee is
found, Grace to cover all my sin. Let the healing streams
abound, Make and keep me pure within. Thou of life the fountain
art, freely let me take of thee. Spring thou up within my heart,
rise to all eternity. Please be seated. Todd and I were talking today
and comparing notes of what we were going to try to preach on
tonight, and I told him I was hoping to preach from Hebrews
chapter 10. He said, well, he said, if you
can't preach from Hebrews chapter 10, you just need to quit trying
to preach. And I agree. I agree. This passage is so rich and so
clear for those who have eyes to see. I would introduce this
message by asking you, are you perfect? Are you perfect? That's what God requires. He
cannot settle for anything less than absolute perfection. Look at Hebrews chapter 10, verse
1, for the law having a shadow of good things to come and not
the very image of the things can never, with those sacrifices
which they offered year by year continually, make the comers
thereunto perfect. Now that's the same word that
our Lord spoke from the cross when he said, it is finished. It means that it lacks absolutely
nothing. In John chapter 17 verses 22
and 23, our Lord praying for his church says to the father,
and the glory which thou hast given me, I have given them that
they may be one, even as I am one with thee, I in them and
thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one. God can't have anything to do
with you and He can't have anything to do with me unless He finds
us to be lacking nothing. Absolutely perfect. His eyes are too pure to look
upon sin. And what the Lord is telling
us here is all those sacrifices that were offered in the Old
Testament never put away sin and never did they make a man
perfect before God. Now, one of the things that the
Lord has encouraged me with in preparing from this text is to
not consider those Old Testament sacrifices. That's really not
the issue here. It's really not the issue that
we would compare Christ to the sacrifices that were made in
the Old Testament. What is the issue is that we
would compare Christ to any attempt that we make to bring a sacrifice
for our perfection before God. That's the application. We could
just look at the historical sacrifices of the Old Testament and say,
well, they were shadows. Let me say something about a
shadow. In order for there to be a shadow, there has to be
substance before the shadow. And in order for that shadow
to be cast from the substance, there has to be light. Now what
the Lord is telling us is that all the sacrifices that were
made in the Old Testament and all the sacrifices that were
ever made in the sacrifices of the law were a shadow of the
substance. The substance is Christ. The
substance existed before the shadow. The work was finished
before the foundation of the world. The Lord Jesus Christ
himself is the lamb that was slain before the world began.
He's the substance. All those sacrifices in the Old
Testament were but shadows revealing the substance of Christ. If you
take a chair and put it right here and shine a bright light
on one side of that chair, you're going to have a shadow on the
other side of the chair. Try sitting on the shadow. It's not
going to hold you up, is it? You're going to fall flat on
the floor. You can't sit on the sacrifice. The substance is the
chair. And the light is the ministry
of the Holy Spirit that illuminates the chair. And all those shadowy
types were just for the sake of pointing those Old Testament
saints, yes, forward to the coming of Christ, but also back. to
the one that God had already determined would take away the
sins of the world. The law having a shadow of the
good things to come and not the very image of those things can
never, with those sacrifices which they offered year by year
continually, make the comers thereunto perfect. God settles
for nothing less. Now here's the glory of the gospel.
What God requires, God provides. What God requires, God provides. The law is the shadow. The substance that casts forth
the shadow in the light of the gospel is the person of the Lord
Jesus Christ and his accomplished work. Look at verse two, for
then would they not have ceased to be offered because that the
worshipers once purged should have no more conscience of sin. If those, if those sacrifices
were sufficient to put away sin, if the sacrifices that we contrive
were sufficient to put away sin, then we would have no more consciousness
of sin. But sacrifices don't put away
sin. Matter of fact, sacrifices only
make sin more conscious. It brings about the consciousness
of sin. That's all sacrifices does. That's our attempts to
make sacrifice to God to satisfy the demands of His law only accentuate
our sin. It doesn't clear our conscience. How are you going to have a clear
conscience before God? How is it going to be? How are
you going to be without condemnation before God? Only if there's no
sin. That's what he said. Look, for
then would they not have ceased to be offered because that the
worshipers once purged should have no more conscience of sin. Turn with me to 1 Peter chapter
3. First Peter chapter three. Verse 21, speaking of the arc
and Noah, the like figure where unto even baptism doth also now
save us. Baptism, the Lord says, saves
us. Not the putting away of the filth
of the flesh. Not water baptism. That's not
what he's talking about. The Lord said, I have a baptism
to be baptized with that you know not of. And Peter said,
Lord, we can be baptized. And the Lord said, and you will
be. You will. He's talking about the baptism
of death. And that's clear. Look. Not the putting away of
the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward
God by the resurrection of Jesus Christ. When we go through water
baptism, we are testifying that when Christ died, I died. When Christ raised from the dead,
I raised from the dead. Buried with Christ in baptism
and raised to walk a new life in Christ Jesus. He's not talking
about living a better life outwardly. He's talking about having life.
having our sin completely put away. There's no more conscience
of sin. Why? Because the sacrifice of
Christ has put away sin. There's no more... We have a
clear conscience before God. Why? You say, well, my conscience
isn't clear. If you believe the gospel, it
ought to be. If you're looking to Christ in
faith, That's the only hope we've got. I'm absolutely perfect before
God. I'm without sin. That's the only
hope I've got. My sin was all put away. Yeah,
the sin that I've committed in the past, the sin I'm committing
right now, the sins that I'll commit in the future, they've
all been put away. God says, I've removed them from
you as far as the East is from the West, and I remember them
no more. And faith believes what God believes. Faith believes what God says.
I've got no more conscience of sin. That's the glory of the gospel.
That's our rejoicing. When we're enabled by the light
of the gospel to look to the substance, we're not looking
to a shadow. We're not making sacrifices.
All those sacrifices did was bring up consciousness of sin. And whatever sacrifices you and
I make today, that's all it does. We feel guilty when we lose sight
of Christ and think that we're going to be able to do something
to appease God. In other words, we bring a sacrifice.
New commitment, dedication, better effort, I'm just gonna try harder.
All those sacrifices do is bring to mind the consciousness of
sin. That's where guilt comes, that's
where shame comes. Looking to Christ, this is the
glory of the gospel. Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ
says, I have no sin before God. I'm in Christ. My conscience
is clear. If those offerings, and if your
offerings, were sufficient to put away sin, then there would
be no more consciousness of sin. But in those sacrifices, there
is a remembrance again made of sin. Every time you try to make
a sacrifice, every time we get the idea that I can do something,
I can try harder, I can bring something to the table, all we're
doing is bringing up a remembrance of sin. For it is not possible, it's
not possible that anything you do or anything you bring, and
this is what I'm talking about. We're not talking about the blood
of bulls and goats in the Old Testament. Yeah, that's what
he's talking about, but how does that apply to you and me? It's
not possible that anything we bring before God is going to
put away our sin. Wherefore, when he cometh into
the world, he saith sacrifice and offerings, thou wouldst not.
That's Psalm 40, we just read it. A thousand years before the
Lord Jesus Christ was made in the likeness of sinful flesh,
made of a woman, born under the law to redeem those who were
judged guilty by the law. A thousand years before. The
Lord gave to David that prophecy, a body thou hast prepared for
me. Sacrifice and offerings thou
wouldest not. David tried making sacrifices
and offerings in Psalm 51 to satisfy his own shame and guilt,
didn't he? He felt very guilty as he should
have and as you would and I do. David, as a result of his sin,
he was eaten up with guilt, wasn't he? And he kept trying to salve
his conscience with more sacrifices and more offerings. It went on
for a better part of a year until Nathan came to him and
said, Thou art the man, David. What did David say? If sacrifices
and offerings were what you wanted, Lord, I'd bring them. And I have
been bringing them. What are the sacrifices of God?
A broken spirit and a contrite heart thou wilt not despise. Why? Because that's the ministry
of the Holy Spirit. Causing us to realize, Lord I
can't bring anything. I'm broken. I've got nothing
to offer. My only hope is that you would
purge my sin with hyssop. that you would put it away once
and for all through the sacrifice of the Lamb of God. Verse 6, in burnt offerings and
sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure. God's not pleased with anything
we bring. Whatever is not of faith is sin. What is faith? It's looking to
the sacrifice that the Lord Jesus Christ made in His body. When He bore in His body upon
that tree the sins of His people. Satisfying law and justice all
by Himself once and for all. That's what God's pleased with.
He's not pleased with anything else. Then said I, Lo, here's the Lord
Jesus Christ speaking, Lo, I come, in the volume of the book it
is written of me. Oh, brethren, this book, it's
an autobiography. It's all about the Lord Jesus
Christ. Don't make a rule book out of
it. Don't take precept upon precept, line upon line, here a little,
there a little, and think, well, I'm gonna do that. I can do that.
I'll bring that to God. God'll be pleased with that.
No, he won't. That's what he's saying. In the
volume of the book, it is written of me. Lo, I have come to do
thy will, O God. He did it. God's pleased with
Christ. He's not pleased with you. He's
not pleased with me. He's pleased with His Son. Here's
the glory of the Gospel. Above, when He said, Sacrifice
and offerings and burnt offerings and offerings for sin thou wouldest
not, neither hadst pleasure therein which are offered by the law. You're not under law. You're
not under the law. You're under grace. It's free. It's free. You can't make it
free enough. You know, there's times when I'm tempted
to put some hedges on grace, you know, to say, well now we're
not, don't misunderstand me, we're not advocating sin, we're
not actually, no, just leave that alone. The truth is that
people who don't know Christ are going to abuse grace. They're
going to do it. There's nothing we can do about
it. But I'm not going to discourage
the hearts of believers by trying to border up grace. I'm here to say to you, it's
free. It's finished. It's complete. There's nothing,
nothing, nothing for you to do. Then said He, Lo, I come to do
Thy will, O God, He taketh away the first, that He may establish
the second." All those Old Testament shadows
were for the purpose of pointing to the substance of the shadow,
that which was casting the shadow. The substance existed before
the shadow. The light of the gospel shines
on the substance. He said, don't go back to the
law. I love what the Lord said to Elijah when he went back to
Mount Horeb. You remember after he was on
Mount Carmel with the prophets of Baal and then Jezebel gets
after him? And we dealt with this recently
and Elijah goes into the cave on Mount Sinai. Horeb is the
same as Sinai. And the only reason Elijah survived
going to Mount Sinai is because the same reason Moses survived,
God put him in a rock. Remember, he came out, he's looking
for a word from God, and a storm. Three times the Lord said to
Elijah, Elijah, what doest thou here? What did you come back
to the law for? Why'd you come here? There's
nothing here for you. There's no deliverance from your
sin in making a better effort, in trying harder, doing more. You say, well, yeah, I gotta
resist sin. When God sent those fiery serpents
into the wilderness, into the children of Israel, I mean, there
were snakes everywhere. I mean, you couldn't take a step. There were venomous snakes everywhere. And you were just worried about
where the next one was and what did God tell Moses to do? Make a brazen serpent, put it
on a pole, and raise it up high. And whoever looks at that will
live. And Moses is telling the people
of Israel, get your eyes off the snakes that are on the ground
and look at the one up on the pole. And the people are thinking,
no, I can't. These things are about to bite
me. Isn't that the way we are? stomping out the snakes on the
ground. And God says, look to the one on the pole. There's your sin. There it is. You can't fight the sin in your
life. You look to Christ. He took away the first, then
he may establish the second. By the witch will we are sanctified. We're sanctified. He that sanctify
and they that are sanctified are all as one for which cause
he's not ashamed to call you his brother. The Lord Jesus Christ would call
me his brother? How could he do it? by sanctifying
me, by making me holy, by making me perfect. Look, look, by the
which will we are sanctified. How am I going to be sanctified?
How am I going to be, that's, that's be made perfect. How am
I going to be holy? By the offering of the body of
Jesus Christ once for all. If you can't preach the gospel
from this, do you see how clear this is? For every priest standeth daily,
ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can
never take away sin. How many times have you offered
the same sacrifice? Your conscience convicts you,
You think, I gotta do something. I gotta fix this. So you bring
something to the table. Instead of just, instead of fleeing
to Christ and trusting Christ and relying upon the Lord Jesus
Christ only, you bring your offering. So you act like a priest again
and again and again, don't you? But this man Oh, he stands in stark contrast
to our priestly functions. He's the priest. But this man,
after he had offered one sacrifice for sins, forever sat down at
the right hand of God. Why did he sit down? Because
the work's finished. It's finished. You remember the word finished?
It's the same word for perfect. You can't add anything to it.
It is perfect. It's finished. From henceforth, here's the Lord Jesus Christ,
expecting till His enemies be made His footstool, Hebrews chapter
7, the Lord likens the Lord Jesus Christ to Melchizedek. And he
says that the scepter shall not depart from him until Shiloh
come. And then he says, sit thou here
at my right hand until I make thine enemies thy footstool.
And the Lord and God Almighty has sent His Holy Spirit to take
those who are at enmity with God. We are at enmity with God
because we're trying to add to what Christ has already done.
We're trying to bring an offering. We're trying to bring a sacrifice.
We're trying to do something. Nothing dishonors Christ more. You don't honor God by trying
to keep the law. You dishonor Christ by trying
to keep the law. The law's been kept. Faith doesn't
make void the law of God. It establishes the law of God. When the Spirit of God comes
in His power and opens our ears and takes out our heart of stone
and puts in a heart of flesh We find ourselves, like Mary,
sitting at the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ, becoming His footstool. Lord, just teach me. Just speak
to me. Just feed me with the bread of
life. For by one offering He hath perfected
forever them that are sanctified. Are you perfect? David, are you
perfect? I mean perfect. Nothing can be
added to you. Absolutely perfect before God. If you're in Christ, you are.
If you're in Christ, you are. Where the Holy Ghost also is
a witness to us, for after that he had said before, Now God's
gonna confirm this promise with the ministry of the Holy Spirit.
This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days,
saith the Lord. I will put my laws into their
hearts and in their minds while I write them. Now what does God
do when he saves us? How does he change our relationship
to the law? Prior to him saving us, we come
into this world with knowing the Ten Commandments. We know
right from wrong. We know what we should be doing
and what we shouldn't be doing. We've got a conscience. And prior
to conversion, what are we doing? Trying a little harder. At least
I hadn't murdered anybody. And we look at the law and we
think, before conversion, we think that You know, I can do
a little better. I can come a little closer to
what God requires of me. And the law of God becomes our
rule book for presumed Christian living. That's the stony heart
that thinks that way. When the Lord Jesus Christ is
revealed to us and God writes His law on our fleshly hearts,
then we know that there's only one that's been able to satisfy
that law. I don't want anything to do with that law. I don't
want to be found under that law. I don't want to be judged by
that law. I don't want God to... That law is good, it's holy,
it's just, and it's good. But it's never made anyone holy,
it's never justified anyone, and it's never added any goodness
to anyone's life. I need the Lord Jesus Christ
for my law keeping. Now we see the law for what it
really is. Why? It's been written on our
hearts now. You know, before it was a placard on the wall
that we kept looking to and thinking that we could somehow do a little
bit better. You know what we need to hear?
We need to hear this gospel of God's free grace. Because we're
all a bunch of recovering Pharisees. We all keep wanting to go back
to the law and we need to be reminded again and again and
again. We need for the Lord to say to
us, like He said to Elijah, what doest thou here? What are you
doing at the law? The law has been written on your
heart. The law is glorious. But all the law does is make
sin utterly sinful. That's all it does. Verse 17, when God writes His
law upon our hearts, and with that law He writes the law of
grace, and the law of love, and the law of Christ, and the law
of the Spirit, and the law of liberty, then we're able to see,
and their sins and iniquities will I remember no more. Now
that's what I need. I need a God who can't even remember
my sins. I need a blood that is so pure
and so perfect that it hides my sins from the very eyes of
God. And if God says I can't remember
them, then my conscience is clear. I can come boldly into the very
presence of God. What are you going to say? Now
where remission of these is, there's no more offering for
sin. Don't make any more offerings
for sin. Don't bring anything. Why? Because it's put away. Through
the offering of the Lord Jesus Christ once and for all, sin's
been put away. And we dishonor Christ when we
bring our offerings. Having therefore, brethren, confidence. Do you have confidence before
God? I mean, can you come into the very presence of God Almighty
and know that you have acceptance before a holy God? That you are
as perfect as the Lord Jesus Christ is? It's what the gospel
does. It's what the gospel does. There's no more conscience of
sin. There's no more guilt. There's no more need for me to...
You see, otherwise, what do we do if we come with our shame
and that becomes our offering? You don't have to have something
in your hand. You just have it in your heart and that becomes
your offering. Oh, if I'll just wallow in my
guilt a little bit more, then God will be pleased with me.
That's exactly what the Lord's saying, don't do. Don't do it. There's no more offering for
sin. The offering that God required
was the Lord Jesus Christ. And He's put it away. come boldly and enter in to the
holiest. That's the holies of holies.
That's where the mercy seat is. That's where the blood of the
Lord Jesus Christ was shed and God said, here I will meet with
you. That high priest on the day of
atonement once a year brought in that blood from the most,
don't you know that on the day of, I mean all the sacrifices
that were made every day. blood of bulls and goats every
day. I mean, that was a bloody religion. But that one that they brought
on the Day of Atonement, don't you know they inspected that
thing from head to... I mean, it had to be without
spot, without blemish. It was perfect. Perfect as a
lamb could be. What a picture of Christ. And
he brought that blood in and put it on the mercy seat. God said, here, I'll meet with
you. And now he's saying to us, come in. The blood's been shed. It was put on a mercy seat, not
made with hands. You have acceptance in the beloved. You have boldness to come into
the very presence of God. I know you feel you feel ashamed
and you feel guilty, you loathe your old man. There's no question
about that. But don't ever get the idea that
that loathing and that shame and that guilt is somehow giving
you access before God. That becomes your offering and
you're denying the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ. How are we going to get there?
By a new. You know what that word new is?
I looked it up. Translated it means freshly slaughtered. Freshly slaughtered. And the
sacrifice that the Lord Jesus Christ made to the Father is
always new. It's always new before God. And
when the Lord is pleased to teach us again the gospel, it's new
to us. The gospel, I love it when I
hear the gospel and it's like I heard it for the first time.
And I know I've heard it many times before, and I know I believed
it, but I feel like I just heard it for the first time. It's new.
It's freshly slaughtered. And it's living. The Lord Jesus
Christ is a living sacrifice. He ever lives to make intercession
for us. He's offering Himself to God
on our behalf. And faith is just satisfied with
Him. by a new living way, which he
hath consecrated for us. He's made it new. He's made it
holy. It's made it acceptable before God. He consecrated the
new and living way for us through the veil. That is to say his
body, his flesh, his flesh. when he bowed his head on Calvary's
cross and cried, perfect. That's what he said to Leo. It's the same word, perfect. We have it translated, it is
finished. You can't add anything to it. Father, into thy hands
I commend my spirit. And the veil that separated the
holies of holies, those priests were in there making sacrifice.
And that veil was rent from top to bottom. And the scripture
tells us in Acts that not a few of the priests believed. They saw what God did. They saw
the sky darken. They felt the earthquake. they
saw the graves open, they saw that veil rent. They knew this
is the Christ. This is the Son of the Living
God. Now the way into the presence of God has been made. Don't bring
anything. We have a high priest over the
house of God. Let us draw near with a true
heart in full assurance of faith. Are you fully persuaded, fully
persuaded that He is able to keep that which you've committed
unto Him? You've invested everything, you're
trusting Him for everything. You're not trying to bring anything
else. Christ is all, and He's in all. That's what faith does.
Faith just believes that God is pleased with Christ, that
the Lord Jesus Christ accomplished everything necessary, and that
everything that God requires of me, He's looking to His Son
for. I'm fully persuaded of that.
I don't know much, but I know that. I've been taught of God.
I'm just fully persuaded. You're not going to talk me out
of that one. Having our hearts sprinkled from
an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. You need your conscience to be
sprinkled, don't you? Don't bring it. Don't bring it
to God thinking that he's gonna be pleased with how bad you feel
about your sin. He's not. He's pleased with Christ. Truth is, our sin is so much
worse than we think it is. Truth is, our consciences are
so dull You know, we think, oh, if I
could just... I feel so bad about the way I think and the way I
act and the things I do and things I don't do and how cold I am
towards God. I feel so bad about it. It's
worse than you think. Don't bring your bad feelings
to God thinking that He's going to reward you for that. He blesses us for Christ's sake. And if God gives us faith, to
look with full assurance to the Lord Jesus Christ, our conscience
will be clear before God. You can't stand in the presence
of God without having a clear conscience. You just can't do
it. You know, you have children.
You know when they've got a problem, when they're doing something
that they're ashamed of and they don't want you. Why? Because they avoid you, don't
they? They avoid you. They won't look you in the eye.
They can't rejoice in your presence. Why? Because they're hiding something
from you. If that's true with our children
and with us, how much more true that is with us and God. You
can't come into the presence of God with a guilty conscience.
You can't do it. You can only come boldly to the
throne of grace. knowing that all of your sin
has been put away by the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ,
and you have nothing to feel guilty about before God. Our Heavenly Father, we ask that
you would deliver us from the works of
the law. Forgive us, Lord, for for robbing
Christ of His glory, trying to bring our offerings before your
throne. We pray for the grace to trust
Christ and Christ alone. For it's in His name we pray.
Amen. 107 in the Sopactemna, let's
stand. Free from the law's great curse,
in Jesus we are free. For Christ became a curse for
us and died upon the tree. The rituals of the law and all
the law's commands have been fulfilled in Christ the Lord,
established by His hands. No covenant with the law can
now with us exist. Complete in Christ, we stand
by grace, both free and ever blessed. No more the dread of
wrath No more constrained by fear We worship and we serve
our God With gratitude and cheer In Jesus we are free. In Jesus we are free. Free from all sin and from all
guilt. We live in liberty. We'll join the happy song. With all the blood bought from,
And sing the praises of the Lamb, Whose grace makes us His own. Okay.