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[0:00] Good morning. If y'all will, go ahead and turn with me to Hebrews chapter 9. I often feel like when I'm preaching in the winter or the spring or the summer, I don't really need to introduce myself because I feel like I've gotten to know everybody.

[0:18] But in the fall, when the influx of all the new college students, I feel like I should. So for those of y'all that don't know me, I'm Caleb Waters, a follower of Christ. I'm a husband. I'm a member of our church here, and I have been for about six years now.

[0:31] Now, my wife, Margaret, and I both teach in Forsyth, and we've kind of become some of the college students that never left. So that's us. But yeah, y'all are stuck with me this morning.

[0:43] And so we'll begin in Hebrews 9. We're going to be looking at the second half, verses 15 through 29. But before we get into that, just a little bit of context and a little bit of reminders from last week.

[0:58] So remember last week, Nathan preached on penal substitutionary atonement, right? Big words that are hard to say so that we remember them, right? But to put that in plain language, right? Christ took the punishment that was due our sin on the cross so that we don't have to bear it, right?

[1:14] He exhausted the wrath of God, which was due us. The old covenant was totally inadequate to save. We needed the perfect sacrifice of Christ. Christ, him taking our sins away from us, him giving us his righteousness.

[1:29] He who knew no sin became sin so that in him we could become the righteousness of God, right? Okay. So a lot about that. We learned that the old covenant is just totally insufficient. Think about the parallels of it, too, of the unknowing animals who didn't understand what was going on were just sacrificed there.

[1:45] But then our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, the Lord of the universe, fully God, fully man, totally understanding what was going on, totally understanding the plan of salvation, knowing that this was not a plan B.

[1:58] This was how God had planned to save his people even before the fall, right? This Savior, our Savior, fully understanding, fully knowing that plan of salvation, him dying willingly for our sins.

[2:12] The sins that we actively see ourselves doing, the sins that we may not realize until later, all those sins, him dying for those. But yet he still chose, still chose to come, still chose to be that perfect sacrifice, the Lamb of God who would take away the sins of the world for us.

[2:35] And those sins now being forgiven and our Lord being our constant mediator, constantly making intercession for us. He chose the Father that his blood was shed for us and he covers our sins so that we have forgiveness.

[2:49] So let's look at verses 11 through 14, just right before where our text is. I think that would be best for us to start there to get the full context of our passage here this morning.

[3:00] So I'd like to pick up in verse 11 of Hebrews chapter 9. It says, But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent, not made with hands, that is, not of this creation, he entered once for all into the holy places, not by the means of the blood of goats and calves, but by the means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption.

[3:22] For if the blood of goats and bulls and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer sanctify for the purification of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, which through the eternal spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God?

[3:41] So our Lord has shed his own blood on our behalf and has secured for us once and for all, right, like we've already mentioned, like Jordan mentioned, for all the forgiveness of sins and a clean conscience.

[3:54] His sacrifice truly secured an eternal redemption, not a temporary covering, an eternal redemption, and a redemption where we can truly live with a clean conscience.

[4:05] Something incredible. So from the sins that we mentioned earlier that we acknowledge, even while we're doing them, the ones we choose, even as we feel our spirit longing to go against them, to all the other sins, all of these are forgiven and they're remembered no more.

[4:23] And so it's in that context that we find ourselves this morning. And so let's pick up in verse 15 and go ahead and read our text. We'll be reading all the way to the end of the chapter. So pick it up in verse 15.

[4:34] It says, It says,

[6:04] So a few things to note out of this passage that I think just jump off the page immediately.

[6:22] Because there is blood mentioned everywhere in this passage. Everywhere. In fact, only two of these verses, if you look through it, do not either say the words blood or death.

[6:34] Only two of them. So there's lots of blood. Secondly, there's a lot of continued talk of what we've been talking about for a while now, right? The talk about the old covenant and the new covenant.

[6:44] Right? Last week, Nathan talked about how much better the new is than the old. Right? And we're going to see that a bit more again this morning. Okay? So with that in mind, lots of blood, lots of sin, lots of talk of Christ and covenants.

[6:58] Let me explain a bit of just how we're going to stretch our outline this morning. We're going to have four main sections. They're really simple. Firstly, will be our sin. So first, our sin.

[7:10] Secondly, I want to talk about our sin's effect. So our sin's effect. Thirdly, will be Christ's sacrifice. Christ's sacrifice.

[7:21] And lastly, it's hard to say, Christ's sacrifice's effect. So lastly, Christ's sacrifice's effect. So first, let's talk a bit about our sin.

[7:34] There's a lot of talk about transgressions here. Lots and lots. Lots of talk about things being purified by blood. Right? Lots of talk about no forgiveness of sins without the shedding of blood.

[7:46] We must remember at this point that this is a letter. Right? It would have likely been read in a much quicker form than just looking at a few verses once a week on a Sunday morning.

[7:56] Right? So this Hebrew church, likely a small crew who had been through lots of suffering, lots of persecution for the faith. Right? Are likely going to be much more familiar with the earlier content of the letter.

[8:08] Right? And much more familiar because of where they were at. Right? With the sacrificial system. And if we're honest with ourselves, probably a lot more familiar with the concept of sin in general than we are.

[8:19] Right? We've seen the concept of sin all throughout this letter. A place that we have seen it and we've referred back to again and again is Hebrews chapter 3. So if y'all will, flip back just a few pages to chapter 3.

[8:32] So I'd like to look at a passage we've referred to a lot here where it is in verses 12 through 15.

[8:52] Let's just look here for a second. So pick it up in verse 12. It says, Think deceitful.

[9:26] Right? Think sneaky. Think sinister. Think sneaking in when we don't realize it.

[9:42] Right? Sin is deceitful. Right? So we need to be careful lest we are tempted to fall away from the faith. Just like these Hebrews were being tempted here. Right? These Greek speaking Jews who the letter was written to.

[9:54] Right? Were so tempted because of their context even more. Right? As they were being actively challenged and persecuted for their faith. So the writer of Hebrews here is encouraging them to not fall back.

[10:06] Right? To stay. Keep strong in the faith. Make sure. Help each other. Right? To be sure that you're not led away. To not leave your faith. And it says constantly as long as it is called today.

[10:17] So always. Right? Encourage each other. Exhort one another. Right? To hold on to the faith. Now I'd wager to say that probably the vast majority of us here in this room.

[10:30] Right? Would call ourselves Christians. I think that's a pretty safe assumption. And I hope that the majority of us can say that we are found in Christ. We've been covered by his blood. We're counted as part of his beloved.

[10:44] But I think if we're honest with ourselves, all of us are at times tempted to take an easier route. Very often. Right? To run away from the faith. To think, oh, it would be much easier.

[10:56] Right? To run away from a situation when if we're going to follow Christ and do as he would have done, we would press into. To not press into a time when we should be around a brother or sister and simply hide away from ourselves.

[11:11] Or to act out in lust. Because we want something that the Lord has not granted us. Or to simply run away. Right? Simply be worried about everything that's going on around us.

[11:23] To fight anxiety. Constantly. Note that those are both sins of omission. Right? Things that we should be doing but we're not.

[11:34] Or sins of commission. Doing things that we shouldn't be doing. Right? They fall into one of those two categories. And both are dangerous. Right? Both are so dangerous to remove ourselves from things we should be doing.

[11:47] Or to actively participate in things we shouldn't be. And those are so dangerous. And they can ultimately lead us to fall away from the faith. Proving that we were never truly a part of it to begin with.

[11:58] But let's talk about sin a bit more in general. Rather than just from the believer's perspective. Think about the passage that we've been looking at with the kids in Alethea Way a lot.

[12:12] Ephesians 2. Go ahead and turn there. This is one of the most clear passages about that state I think. Ephesians 2. So Ephesians 2.

[12:28] And it might kill us. But we're going to end on verse 3 for right now. Alright. So verse 3. Or excuse me. Verse 1. We'll stop at verse 3.

[12:38] It says, And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked. Following the course of this world. Following the prince of the power of the air. The spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience.

[12:50] Among whom we all once lived in in the passions of our flesh. Carrying out the desires of the body and the mind. And were by nature children of wrath like the rest of mankind. Alright.

[13:00] We're going to stop there. So note a few things. First, the spiritual deadness. Right. It says, And we were dead. Unable to do anything spiritually good. Stuck in those trespasses and sins.

[13:12] Right. And we were following something. Right. It says that we were following the course of this world. Following the prince of the power of the air. Right. Satan. The spirit that is now at work. And all those that are stuck in that disobedience.

[13:25] Right. And then Paul says something where he reminds us that that's like everybody else. Right. Everybody is stuck in that. Right. All of us were children of wrath. Right. All of us were stuck in sin.

[13:36] Right. Just like everybody else. All following a spirit of disobedience. But what are we being disobedient of? What are we choosing to disobey?

[13:48] Well, remember the character of our Lord. Remember that the Lord has called us to be holy as he is holy. Remember the Jesus who reminded us in the Sermon on the Mount that if we're even angry in our heart.

[13:59] Right. We've committed murder. If we've looked at someone in lust, we've committed adultery. He calls us to love our enemies. Calls us to pray for those who persecute us. Just those four things right there.

[14:11] I think we could all say that, okay, we are guilty. Right. We are guilty of this sin. Probably takes all of us out at that point. Right. We probably even could say in the last week that we're all guilty of that.

[14:24] So, yeah, we've been disobedient to the Lord. We could go elsewhere. We could go to the Ten Commandments. We could go to all the lists of sins and the letters that Paul writes to all the churches. Right. Warning against them. Right. But I don't think we need to go any further.

[14:36] I think we've condemned ourselves already. Right. We're guilty. Now, think back to Exodus. Right. We've been referring back to it a lot throughout our study of Hebrews. And think about when the Lord had given Moses the law on the tablets.

[14:51] Then the golden calf happened. Right. The people decided to worship something that they had made rather than God. And when Moses saw it, he was so angry. Right. That he threw them down and he broke them.

[15:02] Right. Then after that, the Lord calls Moses to go up on top of the mountain. And he starts, you know, making the new ones. So the Lord tells Moses to make those new tablets.

[15:12] Right. He goes up to the mountain. And the first thing out of the Lord's mouth is this. This is Exodus 34, 6 and 7. If you want to write it down. It's the Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin.

[15:35] But who by no means clear the guilty. And he goes on to explain. The implications for all of that. But from those, I just want to highlight a few things. Note all the like early descriptions.

[15:47] Right. It says that he's merciful, gracious, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin.

[15:58] And the gears change a little bit. Right. But who will by no means clear the guilty. But who will by no means clear the guilty. So this first aspects, I think, are what we think of.

[16:12] Right. Right. In the American church culture at large, like we constantly are focused on God's love. Right. His forgiveness. His steadfast love for thousands. Right. And they really should be close on our minds.

[16:23] Right. But I think we so often forget. Maybe not all of us, but a lot of us. Can sometimes forget the idea of God's holiness, that he will by no means clear the guilty.

[16:36] The Lord himself, when talking to Moses, right, says it right here, that he will by no means clear the guilty. And that idea brings us to our next point. This is our sin's effect.

[16:48] Our sin's effect. So looking back in our passage in Hebrews 9. Sorry, I'm going to make y'all flip around a lot. But back in Hebrews 9. Note a few things here.

[17:02] Remember earlier that we said that there is blood everywhere throughout this passage. Everywhere. So look at verse 18, and then we'll read on for a while here. Picking up in verse 18, it says, Therefore, even the first covenant was not inaugurated without blood.

[17:19] For when every commandment of the law had been declared by Moses to all the people, he took the blood of calves and goats with water and scarlet wool and hyssop and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people, saying, This is the blood of the covenant that God commanded for you.

[17:35] And in the same way, he sprinkled with blood both the tent and all the vessels used in worship. Indeed, under the law, almost everything is purified with blood. And without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sins.

[17:48] All this talk about blood. And the old system, the blood of these calves and goats, was sprinkled on the book, right? All the people, the tent, all the different things used in worship, right?

[18:01] Everything was messy. Everything was covered in blood, right? It says in verse 22 that almost everything is purified with blood. The only offering that was not was when people couldn't afford the offering that did require blood.

[18:15] Right? So almost everything, right? And then in this very last verse that we read here, there's a very, very key phrase for understanding this morning. The last part of verse 22 says that without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sins.

[18:32] So without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sins. That's why there's all this blood, right? The old sacrificial system, it points to this, right? Constantly, like blood was flowing out of the temple, right?

[18:45] Remember what we've talked about in weeks before. The priests never sat down. They were constantly working on their shifts, making sacrifices. There was no break, right? And because of this, blood constantly, constantly flowed out of the temple.

[18:57] Those sacrifices were constantly being made because people were constantly sinning, right? Just as we are today. The sacrifices screamed out for justice, right?

[19:10] They screamed that there is no forgiveness of sins without the shedding of blood. I guess about six, seven years ago, I was a freshman at North Georgia.

[19:22] And I had made some friends on my hall. And there was this one guy. And he very much claimed to be an agnostic. But really what he meant by that was he didn't like Christians and he leaned towards Buddhism.

[19:35] And it was the first time I really tried to communicate Christianity to somebody who was very, very different in his outlook.

[19:46] And I tried to explain sin to him, but he did not get it. He didn't take his sin seriously at all. He saw them as little mistakes. And he had an attitude that he just didn't see what he was doing or what anybody else around him was doing as a big deal.

[20:01] He wondered why if we had a God so loving and so merciful like we always claimed, why wouldn't he just say, oh, yeah, you're forgiven. Like, we're good.

[20:12] You're fine. I think he was honestly really confused about why Christ's sacrifice was necessary. He wondered why God had to send his own son to die a death that we deserved.

[20:25] And he wondered why we deserve that death. Right. No concept of the sin. He thought it odd for God to have some strange fixation on someone having to die for what he often called the little mistakes.

[20:39] Right. That we call sin against the holy God. And I wish I'd done a better job explaining at this point. I don't think I'd made sure to have a reasonable defense as well as I should have.

[20:52] Let's think about it for a moment. The Lord's character came right out of his mouth right there when he was talking to Moses. Right. Says that he will by no means clear the guilty.

[21:04] And think about the standard he sets. Think about what we mentioned earlier from the Sermon on the Mount. Right. If we even have anger in our hearts towards someone or if we even look at someone with lustful intent, we are guilty.

[21:16] We all deserve death. Paul says it well when he quotes from some Psalms and some Proverbs and a part in Isaiah and Romans 3 when he says, None is righteous. No, not one.

[21:26] No one understands. No one seeks for God. All have turned aside. Together they have become worthless. No one does good. Not even one. Their throat is an open grave. They use their tongues to deceive.

[21:38] The venom of asp is under their lips. Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood and their paths are ruin and misery. In the way of peace they have not known.

[21:50] There is no fear of God before their eyes. We are all guilty. We are all guilty of sin in the eyes of the Lord. And without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sins.

[22:02] Our sin deserves death. Right. And God will by no means clear the guilty. But it also right before that, right, says he is forgiving and loving and full of steadfast love.

[22:16] And then we have this such great hope. Right. We have such great hope. It's scattered throughout the Old Testament and the New Testament alike. If you read the Psalms, there's such great hope in the Lord redeeming situations.

[22:28] Right. But blood must be shed in order to forgive sins. And I don't think any of us see these sacrificial systems still going on.

[22:41] But we have such great hope. And we all know what this hope is. But one spot I want to look before we talk so much about that hope is Psalm 130. It's a psalm just full of this hope that we have.

[22:54] And so turn with me there. Psalm 130. Psalm 130. Psalm 130. Psalm 130.

[23:13] I'd like to read the whole psalm. It says, Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord. O Lord, hear my voice. Let your ears be attentive to the voice of my pleas for mercy.

[23:26] If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? But with you there is forgiveness that you may be feared. I wait for the Lord. My soul waits. And in his word I hope.

[23:38] My soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen for the morning. More than watchmen for the morning. O Israel, hope in the Lord. For with the Lord there is steadfast love, and with him is plentiful redemption.

[23:49] And he will redeem Israel from all his iniquities. Check out that hope. Right? This crying to the Lord. This asking the Lord to hear the pleas for mercy.

[24:00] He says that if the Lord really, truly counted our iniquities, right? No one could stand. But he says there's forgiveness. He calls Israel to hope in the Lord.

[24:13] Look to his steadfast love. But how is that even possible when we're all sinful, all deserving this death? How? And the New Testament writers had this hope as well. And we begin to see that hope.

[24:24] Right? We're all hopeful. Right? I hope here this morning that we're all hopeful to not get wiped out by God's wrath. Otherwise there's no point in us being here. Right? But that leads us to what we all know and what we're all hoping and what our passage is talking about right here in Hebrews 9.

[24:40] And that's Christ's sacrifice. Christ's sacrifice. So we talked about last week that old covenant not being truly sufficient to forgive sins.

[24:52] Instead it was a shadow. It was pointing to something. Verse 12 that we looked at last week of chapter 9 says, He entered once for all into the holy places not by the means of the blood of goats and calves, but by the means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption.

[25:10] So Christ took up the needed sacrifice. Since ultimately the blood of bulls and goats could not forgive sins. Right? He shed his own blood. He took his own life.

[25:21] Gave it up freely for us. Thinking back to 2 Corinthians 5. Right? He who knew no sin became sin so that in him we could become the righteousness of God. Verse 15 here in our text says that Christ has become the mediator of a new covenant.

[25:36] Right? In fact, his death has redeemed them from the transgressions that occurred during the first covenant. Right? So not only were the future sins like those that we commit.

[25:46] Right? Forgiven. But check it out. It redeems those from before. Right? It retroactively applied to them. So those under the old covenant, as they expressed that faith in God, that he had a plan for redemption.

[25:59] Right? Are being forgiven and redeemed even through Christ's blood themselves. Right? And note that all of this has begun by Christ's death. Right?

[26:09] The writer of Hebrews is kind of reminding us of how wills work. Right? They're not activated until the after the death of the one who is the author. Right? So the first covenant, the old covenant, was not inaugurated without blood.

[26:22] And in the same way, just as our new covenant, right, was inaugurated, was started, right, with Christ's death. Right? We would have no inheritance without Christ's death because the will would not be put into effect.

[26:38] Right? So it started with Christ's death. Also note the other parallels here. Right? All the things that were sprinkled with blood in the old system, Christ's blood served as a sacrifice, a true sacrifice.

[26:50] Right? That takes not into account just all those things that were pictures. Right? But it's the real thing. Right? His sacrifice is, right, the Lamb of God that would take away the sins of the world.

[27:05] Right? He was what all of the old covenant sacrifices pointed to. Check out our passage. Let's look at verse 23. Verse 23. It said, Right?

[27:42] Right? Let's stop there for a second. Right? Notice the copies were purified with the sacrifice in the old covenant. But now Christ is not just doing that. He has entered heaven itself.

[27:53] Right? He's in the presence of God right there. Right? On our behalf. He's with the Father interceding for us. Remember Hebrews chapter 7 verse 25. Right? That we've referenced a lot.

[28:03] It says, Consequently, He is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through Him since He always lives to make intercession for them. Right? He's right there making intercession for us constantly.

[28:15] So Christ is not just a picture anymore. He's the real thing. Not just a copy of things that were intended to point to the things to come.

[28:25] But He is the thing that was coming and has come. Also notice that as we started to get into verse 25. Right? The high priests were constantly at work year after year to offer those sacrifices.

[28:38] Because they were just pictures. Just pictures. Right? They were just shadows. They were simply pointing. Right? But now that Christ has done the work. It's finished.

[28:49] He's the real thing. Right? And so it's done. Look at the second half of verse 26. Where it says, But as it is, He has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself.

[29:08] And the next passage continues on on that idea. So I'm not going to steal a bunch of Reese's stuff. But it is done. It is finished. The work once and for all. Put away sin.

[29:20] We got His righteousness and He took our sins away. God didn't just overlook sins. Right? Because it says He will by no means. Clear the guilty. Our sins will be punished.

[29:32] And for those of us in Christ, that should be in past sins. Right? Our sins were punished. They were punished in Christ. And so that work is done. We no longer carry around that guilt and that shame of our sins.

[29:45] And so often we try to pick it right back up. But our sins were punished in Christ. Because our Lord doesn't simply clear the guilty. Right? Our Lord Jesus took the wrath of God on Himself that was due our sins.

[30:01] He exhausted it. Right? He's... The Lord's not just saying, Oh, your sin's not that big of a deal. You're forgiven. Our sin is a big deal.

[30:12] Right? Our Lord and Savior bled and died for it. So Christ's sacrifice is so important. And yesterday as I was writing this part of this, I found it very difficult to talk about Christ's sacrifice without already jumping into a lot of the effects of Christ's sacrifice.

[30:33] And so I know we've hit a lot of that already. But lastly, I'd like to talk about some more of Christ's sacrifice's effects. Yes. So it would be impossible, I think, this morning for me to cover everything that Christ's sacrifice has earned us.

[30:50] We could write books upon books upon books about that. But notice in verse 15, it says, Therefore He is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance.

[31:06] Mediator of a new covenant, the new will. Right? The covenant that was inaugurated by His death, so that those of us who are called, those of us who have been bought by His precious blood, may receive the promised eternal inheritance.

[31:20] And this inheritance, right, looking through our text, is so precious. It includes so much. And our text was so clear to point out that all of it hinges upon Christ's death.

[31:32] Right? None of this is possible without the forgiveness of sins, which is not possible without the shedding of blood, which was Christ's blood shed on our behalf. And so that's the first thing I'd like to point out, is that we have the forgiveness of sins.

[31:49] Remember God's holiness, right? That sin must be punished. There's no way around that. And our sins were taken from us, punished in Christ, and they are remembered no more.

[32:03] We truly, truly, when the Lord sees us, He sees Christ. He sees our sins being covered by His blood. We are washed in and are clean. And because of that, because we have forgiveness of sins, secondly and similarly, we can have a clean conscience.

[32:22] Right? We can have a clean conscience. Because God does not hold our sins against us, we should not hold our sins against ourselves. So often we try to do that. We're so frustrated with ourselves at times about our sin, that we just hang on to it, and hang on to it, hang on to that guilt, hang on to that shame, that has been taken away.

[32:44] Right? It's not left. We should not dwell on it anymore, because our sins have been punished in Christ. Our debt was paid. Colossians 2 has a lot to say about that topic.

[32:57] Verses 13 and 14 there say, And you who are dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our trespasses by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands.

[33:14] This He set aside, He's taken away, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame by triumphing over them in Him.

[33:27] He has canceled that record of debt. Sure, if we were guilty, right, we were dead, we have done awful things, and so often still, we struggle to put off the flesh. But the Lord has taken away all the ammunition of the accuser.

[33:41] We have no need to stand in guilt and in shame, because the Lord has nailed that to the cross. Right? It's done. It's finished.

[33:52] Thirdly, that I'd like to mention is that just about killed me earlier to stop at verse 3 of Ephesians 2. So join back there. You all are getting your thumb and finger workout for the day.

[34:08] And what I'd like to point out here is that we can walk in newness of life. Right? Thanks to Christ's sacrifice. So, let's look at the first 10 instead of the first 3.

[34:23] It says, And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience, among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.

[34:43] But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ. By grace you have been saved, and raised us up with him, and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace and kindness towards us in Christ Jesus.

[35:06] For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing. It is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

[35:22] So the Lord has shown us such great love and mercy, even when we were dead in our sins, when we couldn't do anything good, when we had not and could not earn his favor. But we are shown such great kindness, something that is undeserved by our Lord.

[35:37] And then, look towards the end of this. We are given the ability to do good things now. Look at verse 10. It says that, For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

[35:53] So we were dead, not being able to do anything, but God has made us alive together with Christ, right? And now, we get to participate in the work that he is giving us. How great of a joy that should be to participate in the work of the Lord of the universe.

[36:09] Right? And he's given us that ability. And where we'll end today, I think this is one of the most precious. So, fourthly of the effects, because of Christ's sacrifice, we have reconciliation.

[36:24] So, because of his sacrifice, we have reconciliation. Right? Christ could have chosen just to forgive us and then leave us alone. Right? To not deal with us anymore, to not have a relationship with us.

[36:38] But he didn't. Looking back in Hebrews 9, our last verse here, says, So, Christ, having been offered once for the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin, but to save those who earnestly wait for him.

[36:59] So, our Lord is going to return and whether we are still here when he does or not, we will live eternally with him. We have become part of his family and for eternity, we will forever be with our Lord.

[37:12] So, despite our failings, despite our sin, when we were dead, when we could do nothing good, when we could do nothing else but sin, when we were headed for death. Right? Thinking about the song, our gracious Lord really did incline his ear.

[37:27] Right? And we found the fountain that is filled with his blood, that's thrown from his veins. Right? And we've truly been washed in it and are clean. So let's pray this morning.

[37:40]  Let's pray.