Covenant Established

[0:01] Genesis chapter 12 is where we're going to be this morning. Genesis chapter 12. And we're going to read just the first three verses, but really we will hit several places in Genesis 12, 15, 22, 26.

[0:15] We're going to kind of be all over. I'll have the verses on the screen so that you can see them. If later you would like to have the verses listed out for you so you can go look them up, just let me know, and I'll be glad to give them to you.

[0:31] But let's read and then let's pray. Genesis chapter 12, beginning in verse 1. Now the Lord said to Abram, Go forth from your country and from your relatives and from your father's house to the land which I will show you, and I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you, and I will make your name great so you shall be a blessing, and I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.

[1:01] Father, we praise you because we know that today you are truly blessing the world through the offspring of Abraham. You have been faithful to your promise, and we thank you for the Lord Jesus Christ through whom you have brought salvation and light to the nations, that you have ransomed from every tribe, nation, language, and people, a people for your own possession, that they might be priests to you, and they might serve you and honor you and love you above all things.

[1:36] And we pray, Lord, that you would right now help us to understand your word. We live in this day-to-day life where we go to work, where we visit with family, where we encounter people who are difficult, we look at the state of the world around us, and we see the decay, we see the sin, we see the immorality.

[1:57] And Lord, more than anything else, what we need is we need our eyes fixed upon you, that your promises, that your plan, that your person captures our attention, captures our heart, comforts our emotions, gives us hope, so that we can continue to go about living day after day for your glory, for our good, and for the spread of the gospel.

[2:24] Apart from you working in us through your word, all hope is lost. So we pray that you would use the preaching of your word to disciple your people and to win the lost.

[2:47] And we pray this in Christ's name. Amen. So I remember being introduced to Aesop's fables, you know, the little stories about nature that's supposed to teach some sort of life lesson kind of a thing, fictional little stories.

[3:03] The one I remember most was the little monkey with his greediness going in to grab the grape but can't get his hand out of the bottle because his hand is too big, right? There's been a season of our life in America where there's been those same kinds of fictional stories with the little life lessons.

[3:22] They were called, you know, chicken soup for the soul. You've seen those kinds of things. We love those things. As a culture, we have a tendency to enjoy those kinds of things.

[3:32] And the unfortunate thing is that many people treat the Bible in the same manner. That the Bible has these great little stories that we don't care if they're real or not but they give us some little life hint or life tip and that's really just what we're getting out of it.

[3:48] And the truth of the matter is the Bible is true. Every single bit of it. The Bible describes reality. The Bible helps us understand reality.

[4:01] And the Bible tells us who God is and what He expects from us. As a matter of fact, one of the things that we've been seeing is that the Bible has taught us that there is one and only one God who is both a plurality and a singularity at the same time.

[4:14] The Bible speaks a literal truth when it tells us that this same God is the one who created all things. That He created the spirit realm. That He created the natural realm.

[4:26] That He created the human race. This same Bible tells us of the beginning of the sin. Of the beginning of the spiritual war that exists today. It tells us of the beginning of the judgment through death and the hope that there is through the offspring of the woman that the world waited for for so long.

[4:47] And so in our series, Encountering God, we are taking a turn from creation and sin to covenant and kingdom. And eventually we will reach the fulfillment of these things.

[4:59] And in today's passage particularly, we're looking at the covenant established. I want everybody to say the word covenant with me. Covenant. Covenant. Now this is a true story, what we're about to embark upon.

[5:14] What we're about to look at about this man named Abram or Abraham. This is a true story. This is not a little fiction. This is not someone who might have existed, might not have existed.

[5:25] We know he existed because the Bible tells us that he existed. And this story is not some little life lesson story. This story has eternal ramifications to it.

[5:37] Because we were going to look at the covenant that God made with Abraham. Now a covenant is different from a promise. A promise, as you say, I promise to do something.

[5:49] Of course, we could talk about that when we come to Jesus' words down the line somewhere, but that's okay. But the covenant is a promise with an oath. It's a promise that has a swearing to it.

[6:02] The swearing is a legally binding swearing of a promise. It's much like a contract. And the interesting thing about the Old Testament is that the Old Testament has two layers to it.

[6:16] As we begin to look at things like the covenant, we begin to see two layers. The first layer is a shadowy layer, is what I would call it.

[6:29] The New Testament calls it a tapos, or a type. But it's a shadowy layer. The shadowy layer is about Abraham. It's about what was spoken to him.

[6:41] It's about how it all worked out. The second layer is what I would call the substance layer. Now you get why I'm saying shadow and substance? Let me see if I can help you just in case.

[6:55] If I'm standing here and I look around, the light behind me hits me and cast a shadow this way. The shadow is not the real thing. The substance is the real thing.

[7:09] It's the point. So all of this with Abraham that we're going to look at, while it is true, it's real, real history, real people, really happened, it was a shadowy thing that was prophesying, predicting, and pointing forward to a substance who is Christ.

[7:28] And so the substance of the Old Testament we find in Christ, in the Gospel, in the New Covenant. So the shadowy layer predicts, prophesies, looks forward, the substance is the fulfillment.

[7:42] Now I'm saying all that because as we go through and look at this covenant that God made with Abraham, we're going to look at three promises. We're going to look at land, blessing, and seed. Okay?

[7:53] Land, blessing, and seed. I'm just doing those hand motions just to get you, you know, clued in here. Okay? Each of these promises, we're going to look at it at that shadowy level, but we're also going to pull back and look at the substance level and make application of this to our lives as Christians today.

[8:13] So, let's look at these three promises and my prayer is that God would give us comfort and joy and hope in Him from hearing these things. The first promise is the land promise. Now we see the land promise hinted at, we also see the blessing and the seed promise hinted at in Genesis 12.

[8:32] You've got to understand that Genesis 12, Genesis 15, are a little bit like election and inauguration. Right? Election day, you know who's going to be the president.

[8:42] Inauguration, that's when it's the formally made the president. Right? Chapter 12 is election day. Chapter 15, 17, inauguration day. Okay?

[8:53] So, the promised land is hinted at in chapter 12 in verse 1 where He says, go to the land that I will show you. And then also in verse 7, which we didn't read, but He says, to your offspring I will give this land.

[9:06] But the formal stating of this promise comes in Genesis 15, verse 18, where God says that on that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying to your descendants, I have given this land from the river of Egypt as far as the great river, the river Euphrates.

[9:24] So, what He's saying is that the descendants are going to be given this land. He's giving the boundaries of what this land is going to be. That's a pretty big boundary. We see it repeated in Genesis 17, verse 8, with a little addition, where He says, I will give to you and to your descendants after you the land of your sojournings, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession.

[9:48] Now, right there, when He says everlasting possession, to me, that's one of those places where the shadowy and the substance have a tendency to kind of converge together. Because there's a sense in which this is directly to Abraham, and so it's shadowy, but this is also a sense in which this is substance, and it's kind of the same thing.

[10:07] It's just messy the way God did this, but that's the way it works. So, we have this something magnificently special going on in this promise of the land being an everlasting possession, being the land of Canaan, and I will be their God.

[10:24] Now, with that said then, how is this promise of the land fulfilled in a shadowy way? Well, in Joshua chapter 21, verse 43, it says this, So the Lord gave Israel all the land which He had sworn to give to their fathers, and they possessed it, and they lived in it.

[10:46] That promise of the covenant to give the land to Abraham and his descendants was fulfilled. It has been already fulfilled in a shadowy way.

[10:59] They finally possess the land. This demonstrates the faithfulness of God to His promises. But this is just the shadowy fulfillment.

[11:09] What is the substantial or the substance fulfillment? For that, we turn to the book of Hebrews in the New Testament. You have to understand the New Testament is the Holy Spirit inspired commentary on the Old Testament.

[11:23] So if you want to understand the Old Testament, you go to the New Testament because it tells you what it says, what it means. And in Hebrews chapter 11, beginning in verse 8, By faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed by going out to a place which he was to receive for an inheritance.

[11:40] and he went out not knowing where he was going. We know this already. We've just kind of read everything about that. Verse 9, By faith he lived as an alien in the land of promise, as in a foreign land dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, fellow heirs of the same promise.

[11:57] Now, think about that for a second. Why are you acting like a stranger in the land that God's promised to give to you? It's yours.

[12:12] Now, verse 10 gives us the answer, but I just want you to let that sit with you for a second. What was Abraham thinking? Verse 10 says this, For he was looking for the city which has foundations whose architect and builder is God.

[12:29] In other words, he was looking for something greater than what was in front of his eyes. You know, this is the very same thing that we see Jesus talk about in John 8 when he said that Abraham saw my day and rejoiced to see my day.

[12:46] Abraham understood more about Christ and the gospel than we've ever given him credit for. Because all of these things were to be a pointing forward. Yes, Abraham, I am going to give you this land, but it will be an everlasting possession.

[13:01] Therefore, something greater than just right here and you is in view. He is looking for a city that God himself has established and built.

[13:15] And so Abraham's looking forward to then the end or the final state with God forever. The reason that he could leave his family in chapter 12, the reason he could dwell in tents and not have a permanent place to live is because he knew that this is not the final fulfillment of this land that's now under the curse of sin.

[13:38] But instead, there's going to come a day when we will have the new heavens and the new earth. Revelation 20 and 21, 2 Peter 3.13. There's coming a day when we will have the new heavens and the new earth.

[13:49] He obeyed God. He followed God because God was promising something not just this land, but something greater. And that is, one day, we will be in our final state.

[14:02] Do you understand what I'm saying? It's this, yes, but it's this and more than this. And one day, that's what we're getting. This is where you and I as Christians, this is, man, this is good stuff here, right?

[14:17] Because this is about our final rest. When we read the promises to Abraham, it ought to help us to see that we have comfort in Christ because there's a final resting place, there's a final place of joy and delight and wonder with God where there's no more tears, no more pain, and no more death.

[14:35] And this place is called the new heavens and the new earth. The old earth, the old heavens, they will be, they've been cursed by the sin, they will be made clean by God's fire, and they will be remade, and God will be the light, and Christ will be seated upon the throne, and that will be our final state.

[14:56] Because when we look at this present world, what do we see? Man's sin has cursed this world.

[15:13] That's why tornadoes exist. That's why heat indexes can be dangerous. That's why rivers flood and kill. That's why wild animals attack. That's why there's venomous snakes and scorpions.

[15:24] That's why there's venomous snakes and scorpions. That's why humans seek to murder babies in the womb. That's why there's war, human trafficking, pornography, corporate corruption, greed, lawlessness, anarchy.

[15:41] That's why it all exists. Because this world is cursed and full of wicked sinners. sinners. But God in his promise to Abraham is hinting that one day he himself will descend with a shout and bring to an end all sin, wickedness, and decay.

[16:02] And he will remake this place. He will remake the heavens, the earth, the animals, the lion, will lay down with the lamb. It ought to bring us comfort because what we see in front of us is not how it's always going to be.

[16:19] So what do we need to do? We need to be ready. We need to be ready for that day. And the way we can get ready, number one, is to make sure of your relationship with the Lord.

[16:32] If you are not a Christian, then you need to get saved. You need to be born again. You need to have your life changed. You need to see your sin. You need to repent and believe and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ.

[16:44] But if you are a Christian, then you need to fight against your sin. You need to repent of your sin. As a matter of fact, I would say that repentance is the way to revival or maybe I should even say that repentance is revival.

[16:59] Every day, you and I as Christians to be ready for that day to meet the Lord, we need to make sure we keep short accounts of our sin.

[17:10] We need to go to the Lord and ask Him to forgive us of our sins. As Christians, we've been washed in the blood. We've been forgiven at the cross. But yet, we still have sin and we are still supposed to go to the Lord and confess that sin.

[17:23] 1 John 1.9 And so, we need to make sure of our relationship with God. But the second thing is that we need to make sure of the relationship that our family and friends have with God.

[17:36] It's not just about am I going? Am I going to be ready to meet the Lord? But the question is, will your family be ready to meet the Lord? Will your friends be ready to meet the Lord?

[17:47] That involves you making sure that you're sharing with them the gospel. We're going to come back to that in a second. And I'll just say that if you want to know more about that, come Wednesday night.

[17:58] That's what we're working on. We're working on how do we share the gospel. But the third thing I would say about us getting ready is this. It's really easy in church ministry. I don't know if you've seen this in your own life.

[18:10] I don't know if you've seen this in the lives of others. But it's real easy both in the church where we do ministry or outside the church where we try to minister to people outside the church in various forms or fashions.

[18:21] It's always very easy to become discouraged. It's easy to get burnt out. It's easy to have overload. It's easy to think to yourself that the time you're pouring into this person just doesn't seem to be accomplishing anything and there's times you kind of want to give up a little bit.

[18:41] And I think it's that very thing that Paul the Apostle was targeting as he was writing 1 Corinthians 15 where he talks about the second coming where he talks about that one day Christ sitting up on his throne will put all of his enemies under his feet including the last enemy death.

[18:57] And at the very end of that chapter he says these words. He says be steadfast and movable always always abounding in the work of the Lord knowing that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.

[19:13] Our knowing that we are headed to our final place with the Lord should be the very thing that encourages us to keep on keeping on.

[19:24] But that's just the land promise. Let's take a look at the blessing promise. He promises them a blessing. I think this sermon is going to be about an hour and a half. Okay? The blessing promise is hinted at in chapter 12 verse 2 and 3.

[19:43] In verse 2 he says I will bless you so you shall be a blessing. In verse 3 I will bless those who bless you and in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.

[19:54] Now the word blessed in the Old Testament has this idea of to endue with power for success and prosperity. It's just this big general word for God's presence with someone in order for them to be prosperous and successful in life.

[20:11] So what God is saying to Abram is I'm going to bless you. And then because of your prosperity your success you're going to be a blessing to others. Now this is formally stated in Genesis 22 beginning in verse 17 he says Indeed I will greatly bless you and I will greatly multiply your seed as the stars of the heavens and as the sand in which is on all the seashore and your seed shall possess the gate of their enemies.

[20:39] In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed because you have obeyed my voice. God says this after he stops Abraham from sacrificing Isaac and he speaks to him and says to him that by myself I have sworn this is a covenant I will greatly bless you in your seed verse 18 all the nations of the earth will be blessed.

[21:02] So God is promising that he blesses Abraham so that Abraham then through Abraham can bless the rest of the world. Does that make sense?

[21:14] It's super simple I think. So in Genesis chapter 24 verse 1 we find the just clear fulfillment statement that God blessed Abraham in every way.

[21:28] So there's a sense in which the shadowy fulfillment he's blessed in every way and is a blessing to others and here's how this works out not only does he grow in the size of the company of who's with him but he grows in riches and prosperity and as his descendants begin to interact with the world they bring a blessing to others.

[21:49] That's why Laban was so blessed with Jacob being with him. That's why Potiphar and Pharaoh were blessed because Joseph was with them. But there's a substance fulfillment of this.

[22:02] Right? That's just the shadowy fulfillment. The substance fulfillment of this we can see in Peter's sermon his second sermon in Acts chapter 3 beginning in verse 25. It is you who are the sons of the prophets and of the covenant which God made with your father saying to Abraham in your seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed.

[22:24] For you first that would be for you Jews first God raised up his servant and sent him to bless you by turning every one of you from your wicked ways.

[22:36] So he's telling the Jews in this sermon these people that he's preaching to the worshipers that have gathered he's telling them based upon the fact that Jesus is the one who healed the lame man he is telling them your sons of the covenant he identified which covenant and then he says God to you Jews first raised Jesus so that he could bless you and the way he blesses you is by turning you from your wicked ways.

[23:02] in other words where in the shadowy fulfillment it was a blessing of physical prosperity here in the substance fulfillment it's a blessing of spiritual prosperity that Christ would turn you from your wicked ways he would bring conviction and repentance to the heart of the Jews but the Gentiles are not left out in Galatians chapter 3 verse 13 says Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law having become a curse for us for it is written curse is everyone who hangs on a tree it's all about Jesus death for us right verse 14 his death in order that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham okay so you can understand it shadowy and miss the whole point but this blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles so that we would receive the promise of the spirit through faith so what we get here is that Jesus took our place he's our curse upon the tree so that in Christ the blessing of Abraham might come to the

[24:13] Gentiles and the blessing of Abraham that comes to the Gentiles is that they have the spirit the promised spirit through faith now you put these two things together what's happening for the Jews and the Gentiles and what he's saying is that the substance fulfillment of the promise to Abraham is the work of the Holy Spirit coming to convict to bring new birth to bring repentance in the heart of all Jews and Gentiles alike this is the gift of the Holy Spirit it is called regeneration being born again it's the promise of a new heart and this is as Christians this is what we need and we desperately need to understand something about the new birth and the truth and the doctrine of the new birth in the church today there are so many people who are abandoning the idea of new birth but as Christians we must believe that this blessing of the spirit is the new birth and that it is necessary

[25:15] Jesus said unless you're born again you cannot see the kingdom of God no one can come to God in faith no one can believe no one can be saved no one can be with God forever and ever unless they're born again by the power of the Holy Spirit there has to be I mean there's no oozing our way to God right you don't grow up in the church and come to church every Sunday every Wednesday every Sunday night training union I'm not really sure that was in the Bible but anyway you can't come to all of these things and do all of these things and ooze your way to God and hope that you get just a little bit closer closer closer closer there has to be a born again moment a moment in which you were dead in your sins and then you were made alive a moment when you were lost and then you were found there has to be that there's a necessity for being born again there is no being born a Christian in a physical sense just because your parents were Christians does not make you a Christian it may be the culture that you grow up in but you're not a

[26:19] Christian unless you've been born again and there are no exceptions to that there must be this born again! But the second thing is in the church we've got to believe and understand that the Spirit's new birth the promised blessing of the Spirit in this new birth it is a powerful thing it is a powerful thing I mean if you say you're a Christian then that means you've been born again and you have the Holy Spirit of God living in you and that means you can now obey the Lord you have the Holy Spirit living in you so when he says forgive one another you absolutely can forgive one another by the power of the Holy Spirit not out of your own strength but by the Holy Spirit but if you ever say if you ever ever ever say like because forgiveness is commanded all over the New Testament if you ever say

[27:19] I just can't forgive then you're basically telling me I'm not really a Christian do you understand the new birth is so powerful that it changes us so that we can obey the commands of God and therefore we must obey the commands of God as matter of fact Jesus said if you love me you'll keep my commandments well then what do we need to do how does this affect us how do we need to live I mean obviously it affects our life but I just want to focus in instead of thinking about how we would live this out on a daily basis with the commands I want to focus in on how this affects the way we do evangelism and I want us to think about this for a second I want you to think in your mind the answer to this what is the gospel now whatever popped into your mind just now it's probably not right and

[28:39] I'm not saying that because I know what you're thinking I don't know what you're thinking but I just know the general tenor of most churches that I've been a part of we struggle to define this word once I start talking then you'll be like oh yeah right but we just get it confused with so many other things so just want to see if I can kind of clear out the path right and help us to think correctly the good the gospel is the good news that the father in his great love sent his sent God the son into this world to take on flesh to die as a sacrifice paying the penalty for our sin let me see if I can read that again without stumbling all over it the gospel is the good news that God the father in his great love sent God the son into this world to take on flesh to die as a sacrifice paying the penalty for our sin that and that alone is the gospel that and that alone is the gospel here's why

[29:46] I'm saying this the gospel is not your testimony of what God's doing in your life the gospel is not your testimony of how you got saved the gospel is not joining the church the gospel is not the good things about your church or pastor because you know that's not the gospel that's not going to do anything for anybody you like me and you tell everybody that you like me that will change zero people the gospel is the good news about what Jesus who Jesus is and what Jesus has done as recorded in the Bible and here's why I'm hammering this so hard the reason I'm hammering this so hard is because if the promised blessing is the spirit and the new life that he brings about in a person's life from being born again then when Peter says in 1st Peter chapter 1 he tells us that we are born again by the word of

[30:47] God the preaching of the gospel and so if we want to see people changed then we have to stop talking about our church stop talking about the pastor stop talking about the events we do and talk about Jesus Christ and what he's done this is what happens when I miss one Sunday I get wound up but I just it's this is so basic and so good because because here's the thing I cannot change a single solitary person I can't make your heart think a thing I can't make you do anything if I could I would make you believe in Jesus but I can't but the power of God and salvation is the gospel Romans chapter 1 verse 16 and so we want to preach the gospel because it was promised and fulfilled in substance in the presence and the power of the

[31:48] Holy Spirit and let me just say that if you are not a Christian today you need to understand that you can't do what God's commanded in his word for us to do he commanded for husbands to love their wives the way Christ loved the church but if you're not a Christian you can't do that he's commanded wives to submit to their husbands as Christ as the church submits to Christ but if you're not a Christian you can't do that he's commanded for children to obey their parents in the Lord for the glory of God but if you're not a Christian you can't do that and what you need is the new birth you need to be born again and I would say to you the only way that that's going to happen is right now call out to the

[32:50] Lord admit you're a sinner and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ well we have one final promise the seed promise I am going long I'm sorry about that it's just the way it is the seed promise is hinted at in chapter 12 verse 2 he says I will make you a great nation he's also hinting at it I'm not sure what my notes mean but verse 2 we got I will make you a great nation we see it formally stated in chapter 15 verse 5 he took Abraham outside and said look towards the heavens and count the stars if you're able to count them and he said so shall your descendants be so your descendants will be as numerous as the stars and I want you to understand something the word seed is a singular and a plural right it's singular in shape but plural in meaning right so you have seed like if you're going to plant tomato seed that could be plural now for us here in

[33:53] Texas we probably say tomato seeds because that's just the way we are but the word seed can be said just seed! it's like deer right you don't say deers if you say deers I might say deers just to be annoying but you don't say deers it's deer and that means plural and singular that's the way this word in the Hebrew is it's a singular and a plural in that way we see this is repeated in Genesis chapter 22 when he says I will greatly bless you and I will multiply so what we have here is we have these analogies of sand and stars being singular being plural there's going to be a massive amount of them he's saying Abraham you are going to have lots of descendants you're going to have lots of seed your seed through your seed I will bless the world of course the shadowy fulfillment of this comes after the exodus right they go into captivity we'll talk about that they're set free and then

[35:02] God multiplies them and so that we see in Deuteronomy chapter 10 verse 22 your fathers went down to Egypt 70 persons in all and now the Lord your God has made you as numerous as the stars of the heaven so he already made them numerous so what's the substance fulfillment of this well because it has the two parts it's got two parts in Galatians chapter 3 verse 16 the promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed he does not say and to seeds as referring to many but rather to one and to your seed that is Christ in other words what Paul is saying in Galatians 3 16 is that the substance fulfillment of the promise is Jesus Christ Jesus is the ultimate fulfillment of a promise of many offspring but he's one okay so what does that what does it mean well if we go back in

[36:02] Galatians chapter 3 verse 7 therefore be sure that it is those who are of faith who are sons of Abraham so everyone who believes everyone who believes in the Lord Jesus Christ they are children offspring of Abraham so what we have then is we have Christ the head and the body the many yet we have one you see what I'm saying this promise of this seed is fulfilled both in Christ himself and the church or the kingdom of God or the people of God however you want to say that because according to Revelation 7 9 there's going to be a great multitude which no one can count of all of those!

[36:45] So what we have then is we have this promise of this seed and because of our oneness with Christ we are now with him in other words he's the head of the body he's the head and we're the body the singular the plural God is taking the promise of the seed who will put an end to sin in Genesis 3 15 and he's telling Abraham this seed will be one of your descendants and he will be a great nation the apostle Paul says that this promise was to the seed Jesus Christ Christ received the blessings of the Holy Spirit so that he could give the spirit to whomever he wanted and he poured it out upon his own body in other words Christ is the seed we are the seed because we are in Christ Christ is the seed and we are the seed because we are in

[37:45] Christ and this ought to bring us comfort because whatever happens or what has happened to Christ happens to us we're united to him so when he died we died when he rose we rose as he rules we rule as he's seated in the heavenlies we are seated in the heavenlies with him there's an example in the old testament in the sacrifices in the book of leviticus when you had to bring a sacrifice you brought an animal and as you brought that animal you had to put your hands upon the head of that animal and as you put your hands upon the animal you confessed your sins your sins were then credited to the lamb and then you would sacrifice the lamb you would slit sprinkled before the

[38:46] Lord on the altar and therefore your sins were forgiven but then that blood they would take a hyssop branch and dip it in that blood and come back to you and sprinkle you with that blood because not only did you need to be forgiven but you needed to be cleansed and so what we have in Christ is that not only have our sins been forgiven they have also been cleansed the promised seed through whom God would bless all the families of the world became sin for us he knew no sin but God gave our sin to him to his account so that we might be declared righteous and covered in the righteousness of Jesus you understand we don't go to heaven because I've worked on my own righteousness but we go to be with the Lord because we're covered with the righteousness of Christ this is why if you were to die right now as a

[39:52] Christian you would be in the presence of the Lord because to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord 2nd Corinthians 5 this declaring you righteous is a legal declaration it's your legal status before God you're not innocent and you're not guilty but you're righteous as though you had never ever ever ever sinned and this is why we sing this is why we should rejoice and worship the Lord this is why we live holy lives not because we're in fear of the Lord but because of what he's done for us I mean if I tell you this morning that when you come in you ought to sing heartily as unto the Lord I'm not saying that going like!

[40:49] that's not the reason you should sing heartily unto the Lord you should sing heartily unto the Lord because you knew that you were dead in sins you deserve death and hell but he's given you life you live a holy life not because you're afraid that God is going to squash you like a bug but because he's died for you he paid the price for you he's covered you with his righteousness that's why we sing when before the throne I stand in him complete wait that is not the meter of that song Jesus paid it all when before the throne I stand in him complete I'm just not going to get it right I can't even hear how the song goes and when before the throne I stand in him complete Jesus died my soul to save my lips shall still repeat Jesus paid it all yeah sing it all to him

[41:53] I owe sin had left a crimson stain he washed it white as snow so why why do I read my Bible every day why do I sing praises to him why do I do anything that he commands in his word because I am united to him and he has taken my sin and forgiven me and cleansed me and this is how it all gets started so my prayer and my challenge to you today is for you to come to the Lord if you're not a Christian for you to come and say to him I need you and if you are Christian which I'm assuming the vast majority of you are how are you living out this

[42:55] Christian life in fear or in love for! he's done for you! let's pray