Well, good morning. It's good to see you all here.
When we fail in a relationship, we wonder what happens next.
!
What happens next with your teacher?
If you ignored your coach's instructions, ran your own play, and lost the game, what happens next?
If you proudly insisted on your own plan and lost the client, what happens with you and your boss going forward?
In these circumstances, we may feel all sorts of different reactions and feelings.
We may want to deny that we did wrong or try to cover it up or minimize how bad it was.
We may want to run away, just give up on the relationship altogether in guilt and shame.
Sometimes we say, well, tell me what I can do to make it right.
How can I atone for this?
Punish me somehow so that then we can somehow move forward.
Whatever it is, we expect that there will be consequences, but deep down, the question that we ask ourselves is,
what will our relationship look like going forward?
This, maybe surprisingly, is the question that Numbers 15 is going to answer for us today.
If you're visiting, we are in a series this summer in the book of Numbers,
and the people of God as they journey from Mount Sinai to the edge of the promised land.
And as we have seen in the last couple of weeks, the launch out from Sinai has not gone well.
Rebellion in the hearts of God's people has been the theme of the day.
Grumbling and complaining about God's provision.
Envy and jealousy about God's sovereignty and his roles that he's determined.
Distrusting God and not obeying him to go in and to take the land that God had promised that he would give to them.
They had sinned against God over and over again.
And if you remember last week, they had received a consequence.
There was a judgment.
The generation of those above the age of 20, at the present time, as they're launching out from Sinai,
they would not enter into the promised land.
And the people are asking, where do we go from here?
And so God gives us a chapter of laws, which is surprising.
Why laws?
Because in these laws, in this chapter, God is instructing his people on how they will go forward together.
And that's what we're going to see in this chapter.
So we'll see God speaking to his people back then, and probably to us, too,
as we recognize that we also, like them, sin and rebel and ask the question, how do we go forward together?
So with that, let me invite you to turn to Numbers 15, if you haven't done so already.
I forgot the page number.
It's like 112, 115.
There you go.
115 in most of the Pew Bibles.
And what I'm going to do is read the whole chapter.
It's a little long, but I'm going to pull themes and threads out rather than walking through it.
So we're going to read the whole chapter together.
And you know what?
It's really hot.
I'm going to say this.
If you're able to do this, why don't we stand for the reading of God's Word just to give you something to do,
keep you awake, and then we'll sit down again as we…
If you're not able to stand, that's fine.
But Numbers 15.
The Lord spoke to Moses, saying,
Speak to the people of Israel and say to them,
When you come into the land you are to inhabit, which I am giving you,
and you offer to the Lord from the herd or from the flock a food offering or a burnt offering or a sacrifice
to fulfill a vow or as a freewill offering or at your appointed feast to make a pleasing aroma to the Lord,
then he who brings his offering shall offer to the Lord a grain offering of a tenth of ephah of fine flour mixed with a quarter of a hin of oil,
and you shall offer with the burnt offering or for the sacrifice a quarter of a hin of wine for the drink offering for each lamb or for a ram.
You shall offer a grain offering, two-tenths of an ephah for fine flour mixed with a third of a hin of oil,
and for the drink offering you shall offer a third of a hin of wine, a pleasing aroma to the Lord.
And when you offer a bull as a burnt offering or sacrifice to fulfill a vow or for peace offerings to the Lord,
then one shall offer with the bull a grain offering of three-tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed with a hin of oil,
and you shall offer for the drink offering half a hin of wine as a food offering a pleasing aroma to the Lord.
Thus it shall be done for each bull or ram or each lamb or young goat,
as many as you offer, and so shall you do with each one as many as there are.
Every native Israelite shall do these things in this way,
in offering a food offering with a pleasing aroma to the Lord.
And if a stranger is sojourning with you or anyone is living permanently among you
and he wishes to offer a food offering with a pleasing aroma to the Lord,
he shall do as you do.
For the assembly there shall be one statute for you and for the stranger who sojourns with you,
a statute forever throughout your generations.
You and the sojourner shall be alike before the Lord.
One law and one rule shall be for you and for the stranger who sojourns with you.
And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying,
Speak to the people of Israel and say to them,
When you come into the land to which I bring you,
and when you eat of the bread of the land,
you shall present a contribution to the Lord.
Of the first of your dough you shall present a loaf as a contribution.
Like a contribution from the threshing floor, so shall you present it.
Some of the first of your dough you shall give to the Lord
as a contribution throughout your generations.
But if you sin unintentionally and do not observe all these commandments
that the Lord has given to Moses,
all that the Lord has commanded you by Moses,
from the day that the Lord gave commandments and onward throughout your generations,
then if it was done unintentionally without the knowledge of the congregation,
all the congregation shall offer one bull from the herd
for a burnt offering, a pleasing aroma to the Lord.
And with its grain offering and its drink offering,
according to the rule, one male goat for sin offering.
And the priest shall make atonement for all the congregation of the people of Israel,
and they shall be forgiven because it was a mistake.
And they have brought their offering,
a food offering to the Lord and their sin offering before the Lord for their mistake.
And all the congregation of the people of Israel shall be forgiven,
and the stranger who sojourns among them,
because the whole population was involved in the mistake.
And if one person sins unintentionally,
he shall offer a female goat a year old for a sin offering,
and the priest shall make atonement before the Lord
for the person who makes a mistake
when he sins unintentionally to make atonement for him,
and he shall be forgiven.
You shall have one law for him who does anything unintentionally,
for him who is native among the people of Israel,
and for the stranger who sojourns among them.
But the person who does anything with a high hand,
whether he is native or sojourner, reviles the Lord,
and that person shall be cut off from among his people.
Because he has despised the word of the Lord
and has broken his commandment,
that person shall be utterly cut off.
His iniquity shall be on him.
Now while the people of Israel were in the wilderness,
they found a man gathering sticks on the Sabbath day.
And those who found him gathering sticks
brought him to Moses and Aaron and to all the congregation.
They put him in custody,
because it had not been made clear what should be done to him.
And the Lord said to Moses,
The man shall be put to death.
All the congregation shall stone him with stones outside the camp.
And all the congregation brought him outside the camp
and stoned him to death with stones,
as the Lord commanded Moses.
The Lord said to Moses,
Speak to the people of Israel
and tell them to make tassels on the corners of their garments
throughout their generations,
and to put a cord of blue on the tassel of each corner.
And it shall be a tassel for you to look at
and remember all the commandments of the Lord,
to do them,
not to follow after your own heart and your own eyes,
which you are inclined to whore after.
So you shall remember and do all my commandments
and be holy to your God.
I am the Lord your God,
who brought you out of the land of Egypt
to be your God.
I am the Lord your God.
This is God's word.
Go ahead and take a seat.
So friends, I want to be clear.
I have two goals this morning.
One is to help you as you're reading a book
like the book of Numbers
to figure out what the heck.
Like, what does this mean?
What does this chapter in this part in the book,
why is it there and how does it fit?
And then to see that
in all of the richness of the Old Testament,
it points us to the glorious work of God
in the redemption of Christ that we have
and to see that.
So that's what we're going to see.
Break it down into four things.
We're going to see four things
that God says to his people
after they've blown it.
They've done the worst that they could do
and they've borne consequences for it
and now they're wondering,
how do we move forward?
God says to them in this chapter four things.
First, he confirms his promise with his people.
Secondly, he calls his people to wholehearted worship.
Thirdly, he warns his people of his holiness
and his righteous judgment.
And finally, he reaffirms his plan of redemption
for his people in Christ.
So those are our four points.
If you're taking your outline, there it is.
God confirms first.
God confirms his promises with his people.
Did you notice in verse one?
Sorry, the wind is getting my pages here.
We'll figure this out.
All right.
In verse one.
Nope.
In verse two.
Speak to the people of Israel
and say to them,
when you come into the land.
Friends, you have to get this in context of the story
to see how momentous this is.
Because God is not saying,
if you will continue to obey me,
then you're going to come into my land.
He says, when I fulfill my promise to you,
the promise that he gave back in Exodus chapter three,
Sam, if we can put it up,
Exodus chapter three,
when God came to Moses and he said this,
I have surely seen the affliction of my people
who are in Egypt
and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters.
I know their sufferings
and I have come down to deliver them
out of the hand of the Egyptians
and to bring them up out of that land
to a good and broad land,
a land flowing with milk and honey.
The first thing that God says to his people is,
I have not forsaken my promises to you.
I will accomplish this plan.
And this isn't new
because Nick talked about it last week.
The next generation, God said,
I will take them in.
But he reaffirms it here.
He says, when you enter into the land.
And then says, when you enter the land,
this is how you want to live.
And he gives all these laws
and all these very particular instructions
about how they're to be his people
because he is their God.
But the most important part is that
he's saying, this will happen.
I have not forsaken you.
My relationship with you is not broken forever.
We will go ahead.
And this is reaffirmed in all sorts of little cool details
throughout this.
When God says, hey, when you bring these offerings,
like a peace offering or a free will offering,
you should add to it grain with oil and wine.
Now, do you know what?
Grain and oil and wine are all fruit of agriculture,
of settled societies, not nomadic people, right?
And so part of what God is saying is,
I'm leading you into a place flowing with milk and honey.
It will be a place of abundance.
And you will have all of these things,
crops to harvest, grapes to harvest,
olives to press to have oil.
You will have all of this to worship me with
because I'm going to take you into the promised land.
He says, you will have bread.
Remember in the wilderness, they're eating unleavened bread.
This is kind of the pattern.
They're eating basically unleavened bread
because they don't have time to sit around
and wait for the yeast to rise.
But when you come into the land, you will have this.
And remarkably, remember how God provided for food
for the people in the desert?
He gave them manna from heaven.
But you know what?
When they enter the land,
the land will produce fruit that will provide for God
just as miraculously as the manna in some ways,
and yet much more normally.
Reminding the people of this is the abundance
that you have to look forward to
because of my faithfulness to my promises,
says God to his people.
What a remarkable thing.
Imagine if your grandpa promised you on your 16th birthday
that he would give you a car when you turned 21.
But then in high school, you drove foolishly
and you wrecked his car.
And then he comes to you on your 18th birthday,
and do you know what he gives you?
He gives you a keychain,
and he gives you a cell phone holder,
and he gives you a car wash kit.
Now, you don't have the car yet,
but what has grandpa said to you?
I'm going to fulfill that promise to you.
You're going to get the car.
God says,
I'm going to fulfill my promises to you.
I will bring you in to a land of abundance.
I will bring you in to a land flowing with milk and honey.
Even though you have been rebellious,
even though you have blown it,
this is who I am,
and I will continue to be so.
So that's the first thing that God says to his people.
I will be faithful.
I will confirm that my promises to you,
I will fulfill.
Then the second thing that he says is,
flowing from this,
therefore, I call you to a wholehearted worship.
Why do I say this?
Well, because the whole sacrificial system
is a key.
It's actually a language,
and we don't speak sacrifice very well, do we?
There's actually a great article on desiringgod.org
called The Syntax of Sacrifice.
I highly recommend it.
It'll just give you a good breakdown
of the sacrificial system in the Old Testament
and what it's actually speaking to.
And I will confess to you
that I don't even know
if I have it completely clear,
because I'm not sure that it's always
as precise as we want it to be,
that this always means this,
and these words are always meaning this.
I think God, throughout the Old Testament,
uses it sometimes in overlapping categories.
But what we can say is
that there is a call to wholehearted worship
that has caught up in all of the instructions
for them to offer things to God, right?
And so when God commands them
with food sacrifices and peace offerings
to bring grain and wine and oil with it,
this is all meant to be not a ritual
in order to make sure things are right with God,
but a joyful worship that God has provided for them.
So every time they bring these sacrifices to God,
the intent is that they would come
with a heart of thanksgiving and of gratitude
to exalt God and to say,
God, you are the one who's provided
and you are a great God for us.
What a beautiful thing that is.
And notice that in these instructions,
God gives all sorts of particularities.
And you know what?
I don't have a good answer for you
on why it's one hen or two hens
or a half a hen or a third of a hen.
You can see that there's a graduated system.
And what it might be,
this is my speculation,
what it might be is that
the wholehearted worship we give
is related to our capacity.
If we have lots of things,
if I have lots of bulls,
then I have lots of things to offer
and I'm going to give all of those things to you.
If I have very little,
then I'm going to give all that I have to you,
but it might be little.
But God graciously says,
all of us can come to Him
in a wholehearted worship through this.
And that's what we see
through these food offerings.
Through the burnt offerings,
we recognize that wholehearted worship
includes a regular confession
of our sinfulness and our need for atonement.
Right?
By offering these burnt offerings,
we are recognizing that our sin must be judged.
Right?
And it's this picture that God gives us
of these offerings which are burnt up.
That means they're not eaten by other people.
The other offerings,
they get offered to the Lord,
but then they get shared.
The priests get to eat some
and people get to eat some
and it's great.
But the burnt offerings,
they're burnt up completely.
But as they're burnt up completely,
there's an aroma that's lifted up to the Lord
that is pleasing to God.
Why is that?
Because this picture of sin being atoned for
by death being enacted in this burnt offering
is this picture of how God has promised
that He will redeem His people.
And so in our wholehearted worship,
we continue to do this over and over again.
Right?
We recognize, God, we are sinful,
but You are a merciful and a gracious God.
And we want to please You.
And so in our pleasing,
it doesn't mean we have to be perfect
in order to please Him.
And part of the perfection is our recognition
that we sin,
that we confess our sins,
and He is faithful and just
to forgive us of our sins
and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
So that's the second part
of wholehearted worship we see.
The dough offering is a firstfruits offering.
And again, this is one of the themes
that we see in the Old Testament.
Firstfruits, right?
It's the firstborn children.
It's the first oil pressing, right?
It's the first of the harvest.
And God constantly reminds us to say,
take the firstfruits of our lives
and offer them to God.
Dedicate them.
Consecrate them.
Set them aside to recognize
that all that we have has come from God.
And all that we have,
we are merely stewards of it
to use for His glory
and for His kingdom in the world.
So these are the ways
that the sacrifices picture
this wholehearted worship.
And then at the end,
did you notice what happened?
God says, oh yeah,
and one more thing.
Because I know that you're
a forgetful people
and because you don't worship me every day,
I'm going to give you this command.
And you know what?
I live in a neighborhood in New Haven
where we have a lot of Orthodox Jews
in our community.
And do you know what?
I can always recognize them.
You know why?
Because they have tassels
sticking out of their shirts,
under the bottom of their shirts.
Right?
God says, I know that you're
a forgetful people,
so I'm going to graciously
give you this sign.
Put this on all your clothing.
These tassels with a blue thread.
Blue being a very precious,
a very precious and rare color.
And therefore, there was a sense
in which you were putting
something valuable
into this reminder.
And these tassels are meant
to remind you.
And do you remember what he said?
To remind you what?
To do all my commands
and be holy to your God.
That is, be set apart.
That is, orient your whole life
not around what the world
says is important
or what you want to do,
but around who God is
and what he wants for your life.
This is the picture
of wholehearted worship
that God is saying,
though you've blown it,
return and keep going.
Keep going in this pattern.
And this is what I want for you.
How do we today do this?
Well, the Apostle Paul
reminds us in Romans 12
of what are the sacrifices today?
Because we know that
in the Old Testament,
there are all these sacrifices,
but those systems
were finished in Christ.
And we'll return to that again
at the end of the sermon,
but we read it earlier as well.
Felicia read about
how the sacrifices
were never fully sufficient
to accomplish redemption,
but there were pictures, right?
And the fulfillment is in Christ.
And so, Paul says this
in Romans 12, 1.
I appeal to you, therefore,
brothers and sisters,
by the mercy of God,
to present your bodies
as a living sacrifice,
holy and acceptable to God,
which is your spiritual worship.
Do not be conformed to this world,
but be transformed
by the renewal of your mind,
that by testing,
you may discern
what is the will of God
and what is good
and acceptable and perfect.
Friends, the sacrifices
we offer to God
are not little things,
but it's everything.
Everything we do,
all of our lives,
we are meant to come to God
daily and say,
God, here's my life.
May it be to your glory.
May I worship you wholeheartedly.
And this does mean things, right?
It means that we value
our regular gatherings
of worship together
because we need to be reminded,
like the tassels,
of the goodness of God, right?
This is why we celebrate
the Lord's Supper
because that's God's reminder
in the new covenant
of the thing
that we most need to remember,
which is Christ's sacrifice for us.
But it's also the daily practice
of offering ourselves up to the Lord.
It may be daily dying
to our selfish and sinful desires.
It may be daily seeking Him.
It means daily thinking about
what are the firstfruits,
the firstfruits of our time,
the firstfruits of our love,
the firstfruits of our affection,
the firstfruits of our money,
small and large choices
of putting God first
in our lives in worship.
As God is instructing Himself
to do this,
He not only assures
His people of this call,
but He also does warn them, right?
This is what we see
in verses 22 through 31,
or actually 22 through 36, right?
He has this whole section
on unintentional and intentional sins.
And we're like,
what is this all about?
Well, here's the thing.
God cares.
God doesn't just care
are we externally performing properly,
but God cares about our hearts.
What is our motivation
as we do things, right?
And one part is about the community.
If someone in the community sins
and the whole community
is affected by it,
how do we respond?
And then verses 27 through 29
is about an individual sin,
one person who makes a mistake, right?
And what we are reminded of
is that all of these sins
require atonement,
but forgiveness is possible, right?
That God knows that we may sin,
but He's provided a way for us.
But then the warning
has a sting at the end, doesn't it?
Because in 30 and 31,
He uses these words,
but when there is intentional,
high-handed sin,
when we look God in,
and if you're a parent,
you've known it
when your child has done this,
when you look God in the face
and say,
I don't care what you think.
I don't want to do
what you want me to do.
I'm going to do it my way.
That kind of high-handed sin,
that kind of rebellion against God,
that rejection of His sovereign,
fatherly authority in our lives,
asserting ourselves,
we're going to do it our way,
He says,
this is a very, very serious thing.
He then goes on and tells an example
about this man who went out
and picked up sticks on the Sabbath.
And we think,
what is the big deal?
In the Old Testament,
keeping the Sabbath
was such a clear command
on how the people of God
would be set apart,
would be the wholehearted people
who would worship Him alone
by simply obeying the commands.
Don't do work on Sunday.
For Him to go out
and pick up sticks
was saying,
God, I don't really care
what you think.
I need fire today,
and I'm going to go get sticks.
Right?
He simply wanted to do life His way.
And maybe He wasn't consciously thinking,
I'm going to just, you know,
flip God the finger
and go and do what I want.
Right?
It may just be that
He was thinking of Himself
and not living a daily life
of worship to God.
But in doing so,
it was an act of severe rebellion.
And in that moment,
there was consequence.
There was no repentance
on behalf of the man.
There was no sign
of recognition
that he had done wrong.
No seeking the Lord.
And there was judgment.
And friends,
I wonder,
I wonder if we drift
into high-handed sin
far more often.
When we know
that something's wrong,
but we do it anyway.
Or when we wonder
if something's wrong,
we don't want to know
what God says,
so we just ignore Him
because I'd rather
just not know
than to know
and maybe
not get to do
what I want.
Maybe we look
at God's Word
and we just say,
I don't like it.
I don't like
what that says.
And so we do
our own thing.
Set ourselves up
as the ultimate decider
of what is good and bad.
This is the spirit
of intentional
and high-handed sin
and the consequences
are great.
The people are saying,
how do we go forward?
God says,
this is the one thing.
If you do this,
you will be cut off.
Now,
this probably sounds harsh.
We're trying to mix this
with what we just learned
in Galatians
for the last six months
about the gracious God
who saves us apart
from any of our works
and all of those things.
But we need to recognize,
first and foremost,
that this message
is a reminder
that sin against
an infinitely holy
and glorious
and majestic God
is infinitely horrible.
And it deserves
a judgment
that we just don't like
and we want to avoid.
We like to think of sins
as slip-ups,
as foibles,
as oops.
But it's not.
It's rebellion.
It's rejection.
It's a heart
to live independently
from God.
Now,
some of you are now,
particularly those of you
with tender consciences,
are thinking,
oh no,
that's me.
I'm outside the camp.
I'm done for.
There is nothing.
There's nothing more for me.
Friends,
the reality is
that the Bible
as a whole
tells us
that the wages of sin
is truly death
and it is truly great
and we need to reckon that
and to own that.
But our individual sins,
there is always
a chance
while you are living
for repentance.
Right?
And if you're sitting here
and you're thinking,
oh no,
I sinned against God
this morning
because I didn't have
my quiet time
because I overslept,
be of good cheer.
The fact that you
even think that thought
means that God
is at work in you
and recognize it
and repent of it.
Say,
God,
I don't want to do that.
God,
I want to honor you today.
But then receive
forgiveness from him.
God,
this high-handedness,
I believe in the Bible
is not a category.
Which side of the line
are you on
and you sin once
and you get on the bad side
and then you confess your sin
and you get back
on the good side.
It's about a trajectory.
It's about which direction
are we going.
Right?
And when we're heading
towards God,
we may sin along the way
and there's forgiveness
for that
and we pursue God.
And when we don't,
and as this continues,
as the trajectory
goes further and further,
our hearts become
more hardened,
our trajectory
becomes clear,
and our high-handed sin
increases.
So it's not about
where are we right now,
today,
but it's about
where are we headed
and what is it
that fills our hearts
and our minds.
Right?
So,
when we're facing this sin,
how do we think about it?
Do we have a heart
to repent of our sin
or do we choose
to justify or excuse
or minimize it?
Do we have a heart
to please God
or is it to,
ultimately,
to please ourselves?
Do we want to worship God
and make Him
the greatest treasure
of our lives
or do we make
our own pleasures
and our own treasures
the things that we
prioritize the most?
Do we think about
the honor of God
in our everyday life
or do we seek
to honor ourselves
and others
and what they want us
to honor?
we need to sit
with this warning
because it's real
and we need to recognize
that if you are
under the mistaken idea
that the Old Testament God
is a fierce
and judgmental
and harsh God
and the New Testament God
is a God of mercy,
recognize that
that is just
completely wrong
because the God
of the Old Testament
is a God of justice
and mercy
and the God
of the New Testament
is a God of justice
and mercy
and we need to hear
the warning.
Here's Hebrews 10, 26
and following.
This was written
to the church
after Christ
ascended into heaven.
It says,
For if we go on
sinning deliberately
after receiving
the knowledge
of the truth,
there no longer remains
a sacrifice for sin
but a fearful expectation
of judgment
and a fury of fire
that will consume
the adversaries.
anyone who has set aside
the law of Moses
dies without mercy
on the evidence
of two or three witnesses.
How much worse punishment
do you think
will be deserved
by the one
who has trampled
underfoot the Son of God
and has profaned
the blood of the covenant
by which he was sanctified
and has outraged
the Spirit of grace?
For we know him
who said,
Vengeance is mine,
I will repay.
And again,
the Lord will judge
his people.
It is a fearful thing
to fall into the hands
of the living God.
Friends,
to move ahead
as God's people
is to recognize
how bad sin is.
To recognize
that our sin
is a trampling
of the blood
of Jesus Christ.
It is an ignoring of it.
It is a rejecting of it.
It is devaluing it.
And friends,
when we've broken faith
with God,
it is a serious matter.
But this passage
reminds us
that in that moment,
while we still have breath,
we can turn to him.
Because this passage
closes with a reaffirmation
of God's redemptive purposes
for his people
in Christ.
There is still
a way forward
if you're like,
I've sinned.
That's where I am at.
I'm living a life
that rejects God.
It is high-handed
and I'm in a terrible place
right now.
I want you to hear
God's call and invitation.
You are not done
because you are here today
listening to this message
so you can respond to it.
Respond in faith
to the God
who has rescued
his people.
When you're reading
a narrative like Numbers,
the very beginnings
and the very ends
of these chapters
are often very important.
If you have the Bible open,
look with me
at the very end
of chapter 15.
What does he remind
his people again?
Verse 41.
I am the Lord your God
who brought you
out of the land of Egypt
to be your God.
I am the Lord your God.
Again,
this is the promise.
But it's specifically
about the fact
that God has redeemed
his people.
Right?
Remember the Exodus story.
They were enslaved
and oppressed
by the Egyptian people
and God worked
with a mighty hand
doing miraculous things
through Moses.
Right?
Including judgment
on Egypt
for its sin.
Breaking their power
so that his people
might be free.
And he delivered them
from the army
and he delivered them
through the Red Sea.
This is the God
who delivered his people
from Egypt.
And friends,
the good news
of the gospel
is that Jesus
is a second
and a greater
Exodus story
where God
has redeemed
his people
not from human oppressors
but from the oppression
of sin and death
that has been our lot
since the very beginning,
since Adam and Eve
fell in the garden.
And Christ came
and said,
I will be a sacrifice
for you.
I will be cut off
from the camp.
You who sin
heinously
and high-handedly
against me,
I will take that sin
upon myself
and be counted
among the transgressors.
And I will hang
on the cross
for you.
I will be the sacrifice
that is truly needed
because by my blood,
your sins
are now atoned for.
By my death,
justice is now satisfied.
By my resurrection,
there is now hope
and life for you.
this is why
Christ came.
To rescue
sinners
like you
and me.
To redeem us
out of our
former ways of life
and to be
his people.
And so,
friends,
when we have
blown it,
and some of us
here today
feel that
very poignantly
this morning,
that we've
blown it
yesterday,
the day before,
some of us
may be thinking,
I've blown it
for years.
Some of you
may be thinking,
I've never done
anything but blow it.
God calls you
to come to Christ,
to remember
what God
has done for you,
that he who is
faithful and said,
I will fulfill
my promises,
this is the way
that he calls us
to do it,
by trusting
in what Christ
has done for us.
And so,
the writer of
Hebrews tells us
this great good news.
Therefore,
brothers and sisters,
since we have
confidence to enter
the holy places
by the blood of Jesus,
by the new
and living way
that he opened
for us
through the curtain
that is through
his flesh,
and since we have
a great high priest
over the house of God,
let us draw near
with a true heart
in full assurance
of faith,
with our hearts
sprinkled clean
from an evil conscience
and our bodies
washed with pure waters,
let us hold fast
to the confession
of our hope
without wavering,
for he who promised
is faithful.
Friends,
this is what God
says to us
when we've blown
it that badly.
He who promised
is faithful.
Look to the cross,
be renewed,
and follow him.
Let's pray.
Lord,
thank you for this word.
Thank you for
the richness of it.
Lord,
thank you that
you reveal yourself,
even in some of the
most unlikely places.
Lord,
we pray that we
would worship you
this morning.
I pray for those
who may be
feeling now
a burden
of conviction,
Lord,
or of guilt
or shame.
Lord,
I pray that
by your spirit
you would
remind them
that Jesus
has borne
their guilt
and shame
and that
by repentance
and faith,
Lord,
they,
they can come
to you
with full assurance.
Know your
embrace
and be your people.
I pray this
in Jesus' name.
Amen.