WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:09.919 Now, we're going to return back to Hebrews chapter 10 for a little while because we're 00:00:09.919 --> 00:00:18.800 looking in our evening, assume calls, at Flesh and Blood Jesus and the title of tonight's 00:00:18.800 --> 00:00:24.560 message is, Here's the Real Thing. So we've been looking at the humanity of Christ while 00:00:24.559 --> 00:00:30.719 recognizing obviously His divinity as well and I think it's very important to remind ourselves of 00:00:30.719 --> 00:00:39.840 that. And this chapter, Hebrews chapter 10 is focusing on the central event of Christ's 00:00:41.200 --> 00:00:47.840 ministry and mission, which is death on the cross, the sacrifice on the cross. And we all know that 00:00:47.840 --> 00:00:58.160 the death and the resurrection of Jesus is absolutely core to our faith and it's core to our life as 00:00:58.160 --> 00:01:08.960 Christians. And I guess what I want to think about for a little while tonight is to think about that 00:01:08.960 --> 00:01:14.480 and to think about in the light of this chapter, but also to think about how we explain that 00:01:14.480 --> 00:01:23.200 in sharing the gospel with other people. You know, the death, it's the most important thing that we 00:01:23.200 --> 00:01:31.680 recognize and know and we focus on as believers. It's the very heart of the gospel. So obviously, 00:01:31.680 --> 00:01:36.880 it's very important that we're able to share that. But how do we explain the death of a Jewish man 00:01:36.880 --> 00:01:42.320 2,000 years ago on a cross? That's having any relevance to people today. How do we close the 00:01:42.319 --> 00:01:49.279 credibility gap that there is between what we believe and what people experience in their 00:01:49.279 --> 00:01:54.799 own lives? How can we make that gospel relevant? How can we provoke people to think about it? 00:01:57.359 --> 00:02:03.839 Well, I haven't got the answers to all these questions, but I think what we need to do is 00:02:03.840 --> 00:02:13.439 at least pray that this truth of the death and resurrection of Jesus is absolutely relevant 00:02:13.439 --> 00:02:18.480 and vital to us. If it's relevant to us in our day-to-day living, then it will become something 00:02:18.480 --> 00:02:24.000 that we find we're able to share with others more clearly. So we pray for that and we're going to 00:02:24.000 --> 00:02:29.840 look at that in the passage. Also, we pray, we must keep praying that people will open people, 00:02:29.840 --> 00:02:36.480 that God will open people's hearts. That is a vital prayer. It's vital that we keep doing that. 00:02:37.039 --> 00:02:43.759 It's vital because we need God to open people's hearts to see this. We know there's, we have to 00:02:43.759 --> 00:02:49.920 explain it well. We know we need to be relevant. We need to make it something that they can 00:02:49.920 --> 00:02:56.159 understand, but we also need them to have the Holy Spirit open their eyes. And I think we also 00:02:56.159 --> 00:03:01.919 need to live in a way that will open up opportunities to share that gospel. We need to be consistent, 00:03:02.560 --> 00:03:10.639 unashamed, authentic and wise. And as we do so, that will help us to know how to respond when 00:03:10.639 --> 00:03:15.120 people ask us for the reason for the hope and that it will focus on the death and resurrection of 00:03:15.120 --> 00:03:20.159 Jesus, which is so significant. So, I'm going to look at this for a few minutes this evening. 00:03:20.159 --> 00:03:26.879 It's a fantastic passage and it links, actually links very beautifully with the theme that we're 00:03:26.879 --> 00:03:32.879 doing in the morning as well as the story of the Old Testament. Because fundamentally what we 00:03:32.879 --> 00:03:43.599 recognise in the death of Jesus is justice being met. So, justice is at the core of the cross. 00:03:43.599 --> 00:03:50.000 And we, I think we all recognise that justice carries a cost to it. I think everyone understands 00:03:50.000 --> 00:03:56.639 that if we question and discuss with them. You know, whatever someone's morality is, whatever 00:03:56.639 --> 00:04:04.159 basis they have for their morality, fairness and equity and justice are important concepts to people, 00:04:04.159 --> 00:04:11.359 you know. And people know that there's a cost involved in committing adultery and breaking 00:04:11.360 --> 00:04:16.400 the vows of fidelity. People know that, they instinctively know that. They know there's a cost 00:04:16.400 --> 00:04:26.240 to lying, to breaking any law, you know, no matter what basis that law is made on. We all recognise 00:04:27.040 --> 00:04:35.199 the need for justice and we're all judges in many ways in our own lives. We make judgment and we 00:04:35.199 --> 00:04:43.599 cry out about injustice at a very personal level, but also maybe a more social level as well. We are 00:04:43.599 --> 00:04:53.919 in many ways a people, a universe of little gods. Everyone is their own judge and many have their 00:04:53.919 --> 00:05:00.560 own ideas of justice and fairness. And if God is taken out of that picture, it usually ends up either 00:05:00.560 --> 00:05:07.839 anarchic or dictatorial. But there's always this kind of recognition that justice must prevail and 00:05:07.839 --> 00:05:14.879 there is a cost to that. And in many ways that whole idea of justice takes us to the very root of sin 00:05:14.879 --> 00:05:22.000 because sin is very beginning. What we've looked at in the last couple of weeks in the morning is 00:05:22.000 --> 00:05:28.720 at one level it's an envy of God and it's an envy of God's position as the judge of all the 00:05:28.720 --> 00:05:35.520 earth. And it's that wanting within us to be what we're not. We want that place. We want to decide 00:05:35.520 --> 00:05:44.960 what's right and wrong. We want to be the judges and we see that so much in our lives and at the 00:05:44.960 --> 00:05:51.920 root of sin. And the Old Testament is the story very much of these beginnings and of the shadows 00:05:51.920 --> 00:06:07.920 of both sin and also of God's working towards his solution. We see that all through the Old 00:06:07.920 --> 00:06:19.200 Testament this cost to grabbing what was God's right in justice, the spiritual death and the 00:06:19.199 --> 00:06:28.639 physical death that came as a result of it. And I think it's important then when we are interacting 00:06:28.639 --> 00:06:38.319 with people who aren't Christians to try and provoke discussion on that area, to ask questions 00:06:38.319 --> 00:06:48.719 about them, about their source of justice or their model of justice, question them about 00:06:48.720 --> 00:06:57.680 being spiritual beings, question them about guilt or about their moral choices, ask them about death 00:06:57.680 --> 00:07:04.960 and all these things that will provoke, begin to provoke some kind of sense of their being more 00:07:04.960 --> 00:07:11.920 than what they just think about day to day. That there is justice and where is the source of that 00:07:11.920 --> 00:07:20.400 justice and how can we have justice without an independent source of truth on which to base it 00:07:22.240 --> 00:07:27.840 and the cost, all the cost that's involved in that. So justice carries a cost and the Bible 00:07:28.960 --> 00:07:36.080 makes that very clear and obviously the Bible points to the solution to our sin and our envy 00:07:36.080 --> 00:07:40.639 and our rebellion against God which introduced death. And as we're seeing in the morning the 00:07:40.639 --> 00:07:47.919 Old Testament is a shadow towards that answer and it points towards the answer and the interesting 00:07:47.919 --> 00:07:51.839 thing verse 1 it says the law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming. The Old Testament 00:07:51.839 --> 00:08:01.360 is a shadow and a shadow only makes sense when we look at it where there's something real of which 00:08:01.360 --> 00:08:05.919 it is a shadow and therefore the Old Testament, I think this is important because some people 00:08:05.919 --> 00:08:10.560 want to look and make sense of the Old Testament on its own but I don't think you can make sense 00:08:10.560 --> 00:08:17.120 of the Old Testament unless you see it as a shadow of the reality that is in Jesus Christ. 00:08:19.680 --> 00:08:26.480 So really we can only make sense of the Old Testament when we look through the prism of 00:08:26.480 --> 00:08:33.200 Christ and interestingly if you call Christ the light then it's the light of Christ that makes 00:08:33.200 --> 00:08:40.800 sense of the shadow that we see in the Old Testament and the Old Testament speaks of 00:08:40.800 --> 00:08:51.040 God's justice quite a lot and his love indeed and he makes clear that his standard for justice 00:08:51.840 --> 00:09:00.240 is what he's made clear from the beginning that where there's sin, sin needs to be atoned for, 00:09:00.240 --> 00:09:08.720 it needs to be paid for and it can only come by the shedding of blood because when we sinned 00:09:09.680 --> 00:09:15.919 we lost the right to live and in order to regain the right to live there must be the 00:09:15.919 --> 00:09:21.600 shedding of the life of another, the blood of the life of another. In Leviticus 17 I'm just going to 00:09:21.600 --> 00:09:29.200 look up there's a couple of verses I want to look up one in Leviticus 17 and verse 11 where Jesus says 00:09:29.200 --> 00:09:34.640 where God says rather for the life of a creature is in the blood and I have given it to you to make 00:09:34.640 --> 00:09:41.200 atonement for yourselves on the altar it is the blood or the life that makes atonement for one's 00:09:41.200 --> 00:09:47.440 life and then in Hebrews the chapter before we read in Hebrews chapter 9 and verse 22 it says 00:09:48.080 --> 00:09:53.440 in fact the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood and without the shedding of 00:09:53.440 --> 00:10:00.160 blood there is no forgiveness and that's God's standard of justice there is no forgiving of sins 00:10:00.160 --> 00:10:07.120 without the shedding of blood and a life for a life in other words when we have wrenched innocent life 00:10:08.400 --> 00:10:15.680 from its source that is from God we end up dying don't we and therefore the price of God's justice 00:10:15.679 --> 00:10:26.799 the atonement is that someone else must die if we are to live something else must die and so to live 00:10:26.799 --> 00:10:35.679 forever we need to be innocent not sinners or someone innocent needs to die in our place to offer 00:10:35.679 --> 00:10:42.479 their life to God now we can't do that because we are no longer innocent it needs to come from 00:10:42.480 --> 00:10:50.240 another source so the Old Testament right through the Old Testament we make clear that it is providing 00:10:50.879 --> 00:10:57.600 the shadows of what is to come and that is in the animal sacrifices which are spoken about here in 00:10:57.600 --> 00:11:04.240 Hebrews chapter 10 and he says it's impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins 00:11:04.240 --> 00:11:10.159 but they were pointing towards a real substitute a real shadow they're not the real thing 00:11:10.159 --> 00:11:18.159 they're repeated every year if they if they worked they would work once for all but they don't 00:11:19.199 --> 00:11:26.639 the animals are an inadequate sacrifice they're temporary and God knows that and he provided them 00:11:26.639 --> 00:11:34.799 only in preparation of something better which we know is Jesus I mean even in the Old Testament 00:11:34.799 --> 00:11:40.159 God taught that the sacrifices of animals were inadequate and they point but they did point 00:11:40.159 --> 00:11:46.319 towards the need for a change of heart towards him and to a more permanent solution a more permanent 00:11:46.319 --> 00:11:54.399 sacrifice for sin but they were used because as the blood was poured out it was a recognition 00:11:54.959 --> 00:12:02.240 that it was a life for a life and again I think if we ever get into discussions with people 00:12:02.240 --> 00:12:08.399 who maybe rubbish the Old Testament or think it's irrelevant or unimportant we can tell them that 00:12:08.399 --> 00:12:17.919 the Old Testament bears closer examination it consistently reveals one message and it's preparing 00:12:17.919 --> 00:12:26.720 for something to come and it does so very clearly and in great detail as Thomas mentioned this 00:12:26.720 --> 00:12:32.399 morning and as John mentioned last week there are some great images and pictures and shadows that 00:12:32.399 --> 00:12:37.360 are pointing towards Jesus but what we see here is that Jesus is the real thing 00:12:39.200 --> 00:12:46.879 verses 5 to 7 which is a quote from Psalm 40 interestingly it's just attributed to Jesus 00:12:46.879 --> 00:12:51.680 sacrifice in offerings you did not desire but a body you prepared for me with burnt offerings and 00:12:51.679 --> 00:12:57.279 sin offerings you were not pleased then I said here I am it's written about me in the scroll I have 00:12:57.279 --> 00:13:05.359 come to do at your will my God so Christ is the object as we know of the Old Testament shadows 00:13:05.919 --> 00:13:14.239 so the shadows of the Old Testament are all Christ shaped okay just like this my shadow is my shape 00:13:14.240 --> 00:13:22.799 so Christ's shadow or the shadows of the Old Testament are Christ shaped he is God's beloved 00:13:22.799 --> 00:13:30.399 Son we recognize and we know that and he was only ever going to be the answer to our sin and our need 00:13:30.399 --> 00:13:36.080 so there was never going to be a do it yourself salvation it was always going to be 00:13:36.080 --> 00:13:46.240 from God you know we're told here that sacrifices and offerings you didn't desire in other words 00:13:46.240 --> 00:13:53.120 God recognized that that wasn't the final solution but when he sent his son and as he 00:13:54.000 --> 00:13:59.040 Holy Spirit descended on him he said this is my beloved Son in whom I am well I'm well pleased 00:13:59.040 --> 00:14:04.960 with him I'm well pleased with him because he knew that Christ was the ultimate answer and 00:14:04.960 --> 00:14:10.480 he is the Christ who we've been looking at over these last number of weeks is a flesh and blood 00:14:10.480 --> 00:14:15.920 savior this is God in the flesh but a body you prepare for me I'll say a little bit more about 00:14:15.920 --> 00:14:23.840 that in a minute that particular sentence but he took a body took flesh and blood because that 00:14:23.840 --> 00:14:34.960 was the only way that God's justice and love could be satisfied we needed a substitute 00:14:36.639 --> 00:14:41.519 a substitute that would work in our place who would die in our place see if 00:14:43.519 --> 00:14:47.440 people sometimes say well could God not just have created that innocent human being 00:14:47.440 --> 00:14:55.120 who would then go on to die for humanity if he created that innocent human being 00:14:55.120 --> 00:15:01.920 I still lots of other issues about it but if he created just one innocent human being to die then 00:15:01.920 --> 00:15:08.640 that innocent human being his death would only be sufficient for one guilty human being so it would 00:15:08.640 --> 00:15:15.840 be a life for a life it would it wouldn't be an adequate substitute for humanity and God needed 00:15:15.840 --> 00:15:23.519 to provide a substitute that was good enough not just to pay for one sin wracked body that was dying 00:15:24.320 --> 00:15:30.879 but for every single person who calls on him by faith and not only that but to destroy the very 00:15:30.879 --> 00:15:40.639 source of that evil in hell and to have the power to redeem the universe that was cursed by sin 00:15:40.639 --> 00:15:48.080 that no human being could do that but it needed to be someone who was an adequate substitute 00:15:48.080 --> 00:15:55.840 who was one who could be a substitute for humanity and he had to be there for human 00:15:56.480 --> 00:16:02.559 both God and the image of God both uncreated but who became flesh 00:16:02.559 --> 00:16:11.519 human relying on infinite strength of God the spirit but also experiencing weakness 00:16:11.519 --> 00:16:17.199 tiredness as we've seen over the last number of weeks grief joy food work play temptation 00:16:17.199 --> 00:16:26.239 questions about life questions life who lived a life of faith who had aches and pains and who 00:16:26.240 --> 00:16:35.840 bleeds who bleeds that his own blood the blood of his life is drained from him as the incarnate 00:16:35.840 --> 00:16:44.480 son of God whose body whose body can die I said that's why the incarnation is so important 00:16:44.480 --> 00:16:52.159 because God in heaven couldn't do that God is a spirit God can't die and he had to take on 00:16:52.159 --> 00:17:03.279 a reasonable body had to take on that human identity but he needed also to be God we needed God 00:17:03.279 --> 00:17:09.359 to save us because we can't redeem ourselves but he needed also to be human in order to die 00:17:10.480 --> 00:17:18.559 and and he needed to be human in order to be separated from his father in judgment 00:17:18.559 --> 00:17:32.159 in the mystery of that forsakenness on the cross where he experienced the full wrath of God 00:17:33.359 --> 00:17:41.039 for our sin and all the mystery that goes with that but it had to be he had to be someone 00:17:41.039 --> 00:17:49.359 who was adequate representative of humanity he had to be the second Adam he had to be human 00:17:49.359 --> 00:17:58.399 in order to die and he had to be God in order to be a sufficient savior for us he is all that 00:17:59.440 --> 00:18:08.639 makes us not animals ourselves which is why an animal could never be an adequate substitute for 00:18:08.640 --> 00:18:18.320 us he is an image bearer he's the creative self-conscious moral being knowing good and evil 00:18:18.320 --> 00:18:27.120 resisting temptation with reason and with choice the perfect substitute in verse five it says a 00:18:27.120 --> 00:18:32.720 body you prepared for me and it's interesting that word is the same word that's used for fixing 00:18:32.720 --> 00:18:40.000 and mending a net in other words it's like make something fit for purpose this is if God made 00:18:40.000 --> 00:18:46.240 molded Christ to be fit for purpose to be a redeemer nobody else could do it nothing else 00:18:46.240 --> 00:18:52.319 could be our savior and his humanity his flesh and blood what he experienced and the pain and 00:18:52.319 --> 00:18:58.480 the suffering and the grief and the loss it's all because he's doing it in our place and interestingly 00:18:58.480 --> 00:19:04.559 he is the one who does so the other aspect of Christ being the real thing is he he does so 00:19:05.120 --> 00:19:12.640 willingly really willingly it's great it says with burnt offerings and sin offerings you were not 00:19:13.200 --> 00:19:18.720 pleased then I said here I am it's written of me in the book in the scroll I have come to do your 00:19:18.720 --> 00:19:29.920 will my god he's a willing savior now interestingly verse the same verse half a verse five says a 00:19:29.920 --> 00:19:39.680 body you prepared for me now when you look back at Sam 40 which is taken from and which I'll hopefully 00:19:39.680 --> 00:19:46.880 try and sing at the end if you look up if you were you know a good scholar of scripture and you're 00:19:46.880 --> 00:19:51.520 reading your new testament and you see a reference to the old testament and they go that's from the 00:19:51.520 --> 00:19:59.040 Psalms I'll go back I know that Sam well and you go to that Sam and you look at that Sam and it says 00:20:02.000 --> 00:20:07.520 sacrifice and offerings you did not desire but my ears you've opened 00:20:09.120 --> 00:20:12.800 burnt offerings sufferings you do not require then I said here I am I've come 00:20:12.799 --> 00:20:19.279 but that's a very different translation my ears you've opened or a body you've prepared for me 00:20:19.279 --> 00:20:25.759 well what is it what's it to be is is this inaccurate is what's wrong here well this new 00:20:25.759 --> 00:20:31.759 testament quotation here is taken from the citugin which is the the Greek translation of the old 00:20:31.759 --> 00:20:38.399 testament Hebrew and they translated it a body now we regard that as I've been a good translation 00:20:38.400 --> 00:20:44.560 and it's interesting because you know if someone's got an ear they need to be a body they need to be 00:20:44.560 --> 00:20:52.000 flesh and blood and that's significant but I think there's an imagery here that is involved in the 00:20:52.000 --> 00:20:57.680 Hebrew interestingly the commentators think differently sometimes when they talk about 00:20:57.680 --> 00:21:04.720 my ears you've opened they mean simply that this was a human in David's case or in Christ's 00:21:04.720 --> 00:21:11.440 a human who was listening to God who was willing to obey God and serve God and that's very much 00:21:11.440 --> 00:21:17.839 the idea that we have here that a human who was trusting and obedient in God but in the 00:21:18.960 --> 00:21:29.120 in the Metrical Sam version 1650 version it says my ears now has bored which is also a very 00:21:29.119 --> 00:21:35.039 interesting translation and which takes us back to Exodus chapter 21 and I'm going to read that 00:21:35.039 --> 00:21:42.959 because it's I think it's also significant for the image that is given here of Jesus Exodus 21 00:21:42.959 --> 00:21:50.079 verses 5 and 6 it's talking about Hebrew servants and it says but if a servant declares I love my 00:21:50.079 --> 00:21:55.119 master and my wife and children and do not want to go free then this master must take him before 00:21:55.119 --> 00:22:00.719 the judges he shall take him to the door of the doorpost and pierce his ear with an awl then he 00:22:00.719 --> 00:22:09.119 will be his servant for life and there's that whole picture of Christ I believe being a really 00:22:09.119 --> 00:22:17.839 willing servant saying look I am willing to commit to this work I'm willing to empty myself of my 00:22:17.839 --> 00:22:25.599 divinity and I'm willing to be a servant and to obey Christ and to do your will the very one thing 00:22:25.599 --> 00:22:32.480 that humanity wasn't willing to do was to do the will of God Jesus is willing to do and he says you 00:22:32.480 --> 00:22:36.959 know it's written about me in the scroll and that's really just either referring to the five books of 00:22:36.959 --> 00:22:42.559 Moses are indeed the whole Old Testament is that everything in the Old Testament points towards 00:22:42.559 --> 00:22:51.359 this Christ who is willing absolutely willing to do this amazing thing and out envy of God we 00:22:51.359 --> 00:22:59.359 wanted to do to be gods and we wanted our will to be done in heaven but Jesus wants God's will 00:22:59.359 --> 00:23:06.480 to be done on earth and he is the innocent one who gives his life for the guilty and destroys 00:23:06.480 --> 00:23:14.559 the power of your death and my death and the grave and was raised to offer us life and to redeem this 00:23:14.559 --> 00:23:22.319 physical universe as our new home only God can give us that hope there's no way that humanity any 00:23:24.079 --> 00:23:30.559 one person even the very best of people could do that either for themselves and not even for 00:23:30.559 --> 00:23:38.559 themselves and definitely not for other people so there's got this amazing picture of a Christ 00:23:38.559 --> 00:23:45.039 who was to come the Old Testament is relentlessly pointing towards and give these lovely pictures 00:23:46.399 --> 00:23:56.000 and his prophetic voice is even heard in the Psalm 40 therefore how then as we close how 00:23:56.000 --> 00:24:02.240 should we live in the light of this great truth about one savior for all of humanity you know 00:24:02.240 --> 00:24:08.240 what does it mean for me and for you to live a Christian life that will provoke other people 00:24:08.799 --> 00:24:16.720 to ask about our faith and somehow to bring the relevance of a crucified savior from 2000 years 00:24:16.720 --> 00:24:27.759 ago into significance and relevance into their lives it can only come as we as it can only happen 00:24:27.759 --> 00:24:33.920 when we come and live in the shadow of Jesus ourselves so it's a sense Jesus is in the middle 00:24:33.920 --> 00:24:40.319 of everything the Old Testament his shadow is cast over all the Old Testament in its Christ 00:24:40.319 --> 00:24:48.079 shape but his shadow also is cast over everything since himself and we are to live if you excuse the 00:24:48.879 --> 00:24:55.839 paradoxical statement we are to live in the light of his shadow and all the time that's how we're to 00:24:55.839 --> 00:25:01.759 live that that's why we want to be patient and because it requires patience to do that and I'm 00:25:01.759 --> 00:25:07.039 sure it requires more patience than ever just now but as we do so I believe we'll have a renewed 00:25:07.039 --> 00:25:16.559 perspective you know that my salvation my life my Christianity my faith reaches into the very heart 00:25:16.559 --> 00:25:30.799 of God we were rescued by God it's his idea it's his commitment he broke in some mysterious way the 00:25:30.799 --> 00:25:45.200 the glory of the Trinity and faced and the Son faced the the horror of of his his father's back 00:25:45.919 --> 00:25:53.599 been turned for my salvation and for years and the author of love and of life 00:25:53.599 --> 00:26:02.719 did this it's no sidebar onto our lives it and its its reality should really seek from every 00:26:02.719 --> 00:26:10.000 core of of who we are it is who I am and I think I certainly often need to refocus that and I would 00:26:10.000 --> 00:26:15.759 encourage you to go and read this chapter again on your own just on your own and think about its 00:26:15.759 --> 00:26:21.599 relevance for you as a believer and if you're not a believer tonight I don't know if there's 00:26:21.599 --> 00:26:26.399 any who are not believers tonight but if you're not then you should really think hard about these 00:26:26.399 --> 00:26:33.519 words and this message which is unchanging and it's the only rescue there is a renewed perspective 00:26:33.519 --> 00:26:39.599 also let's be reminded of our renewed innocence that we have as Christians you know I'm not I'm 00:26:39.599 --> 00:26:46.480 not guilty anymore verse 17 and another lovely quote from Jeremiah from the Old Testament God says 00:26:46.480 --> 00:26:52.480 their lawless their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more and the price has been paid 00:26:52.480 --> 00:26:58.880 don't go around living as if you're a guilty sinner you're not and I'm not we're free we're 00:26:58.880 --> 00:27:04.559 at peace with God we were singing about the peace of God you know the dread the meaninglessness 00:27:05.279 --> 00:27:10.000 has gone because we're right with God through Christ and that means that we're going to see 00:27:10.000 --> 00:27:17.519 sin in a different light as well makes us different it makes us think differently it makes us think 00:27:17.519 --> 00:27:26.799 about the deceitfulness of sin differently and it reminds us when we're tempted to go back into 00:27:26.799 --> 00:27:35.680 the darkness that it's deceit and it's folly and because we're innocent and we're covered with the 00:27:35.680 --> 00:27:40.799 innocence of Jesus and we are free and we need to stop going around like we're useless 00:27:42.240 --> 00:27:47.759 miserable wretched hopeless sinners because we we're saved by grace and we're loved by God and 00:27:47.759 --> 00:27:52.480 with innocent and that renewed perspective and renewed innocence hopefully should also give us 00:27:52.480 --> 00:28:00.240 a renewed heart verse 16 then again from Jeremiah this is a covenant I will make with them after 00:28:00.240 --> 00:28:04.720 that time says the Lord I will put my law in their hearts I will write it on their minds 00:28:04.720 --> 00:28:11.920 so that we can say the same as Jesus said look you know here I am Lord here I am I mean when 00:28:11.920 --> 00:28:19.039 Adam first sinned in the garden and God said where are you where are you because he was hiding 00:28:19.680 --> 00:28:24.480 we've got to stop hiding because we don't need to anymore we rather we can say Lord here am I 00:28:25.360 --> 00:28:31.039 here am I saying me you've given me your law in my heart and there's a willingness 00:28:31.039 --> 00:28:38.799 that reflects the willingness of Jesus to die in our place and we've got a new motivation so 00:28:39.599 --> 00:28:46.159 we are willing and we become willing and we love God and we love other people we want to do his will 00:28:46.799 --> 00:28:54.639 not for legalistic reasons not because it's some kind of restrictive medicine that we need to take 00:28:54.640 --> 00:29:02.000 but because he is renewing our heart now I know that isn't always the case because it's still a 00:29:02.000 --> 00:29:08.480 battle isn't it we still deal with sin and we still want my will to be done in heaven rather 00:29:08.480 --> 00:29:13.440 than God's will to be done in our lives but let's battle against that and the only way we can do that 00:29:13.440 --> 00:29:19.120 is by going back again and again to Jesus and I think as we go back to Jesus then 00:29:19.119 --> 00:29:30.879 and rely on him and have a constant awareness of who we are in Christ and how we can share that 00:29:30.879 --> 00:29:39.519 with other people then I believe he will give us the opportunities to do so so that our lives impact 00:29:39.519 --> 00:29:50.639 the lost and I hope that's our motivation because when we know what we were and know what we are 00:29:50.639 --> 00:29:56.480 then we want that for everyone else and if Jesus on the cross of God the Son on the cross 00:29:57.039 --> 00:30:01.200 shedding his blood his flesh being ripped apart and his soul being 00:30:01.200 --> 00:30:13.279 just condemned to hell in our place if that doesn't motivate us nothing nothing will so we pray 00:30:13.840 --> 00:30:21.440 for that to be the case I mean oh pray briefly Father God we ask and pray that you would teach us 00:30:21.440 --> 00:30:28.319 your way and that you would help us to understand more and more the beauty of the gospel and the 00:30:28.319 --> 00:30:34.159 power of the the word of God the living word and the beautiful symmetry of it old and New Testament 00:30:34.159 --> 00:30:41.439 together and how it just so clearly points to this once for all sacrifice that really should 00:30:41.439 --> 00:30:47.439 transform our lives probably far more than it does forgive us for not seeing clearly forgive us for 00:30:47.439 --> 00:30:53.759 sidetracking side barring this truth forgive us for still wrestling with our will being done in 00:30:53.759 --> 00:31:00.799 heaven rather than yours on earth and we pray that we would just be willing and it would come from a 00:31:00.799 --> 00:31:06.480 generous heart because we've been given a generous heart from a generous heart of God and may it 00:31:06.480 --> 00:31:12.799 transform all we are or be near to us today be near to us tonight be near to those we love 00:31:13.519 --> 00:31:19.119 be near to those who are struggling and battling especially be near to those who are unbelieving 00:31:19.119 --> 00:31:24.719 that you would touch their hearts and that you would give us that place of usefulness in their 00:31:24.719 --> 00:31:31.679 lives to transform them and to bring them to know Jesus as their own savior we ask it in Jesus name 00:31:31.680 --> 00:31:50.160 amen