Let me read in Hebrews chapter 9 verses 15 through 22 and then we'll get started. For this reason he is the mediator of a new covenant so that since a death has taken place for the redemption of the transgressions that were committed under the first covenant, those who have been called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance.

For where a covenant is, there must of necessity be the death of the one who made it. For a covenant is valid only when men are dead, for it is never enforced while the one who made it lives. Therefore even the first covenant was not inaugurated without blood. For when every commandment had been spoken by Moses to all the people according to the law, he took the blood of the calves and the 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 which God commanded you." And in the same way he sprinkled both the tabernacle and all the vessels of the ministry with the blood.

And according to the law, one may almost say all things are cleansed with blood and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness. Let's pray. Heavenly Father we pray for your blessing and your grace over this time. May your word, Lord, be made clear that your sheep may hear and follow your son Jesus.

We pray, Father God, that you give us understanding. Help us, Lord, by your Spirit to give us a heart that is willing to be molded according to your word. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. You know, as you guys know, again, many things are going on right now and one of the biggest concerns that we have in the universal church is there's more and more division.

There are very strong opinions as to should the church gather, you know? Some are very concerned that we're gathering. Or should we go inside or should we stay outside? What is our opinion about the Black Lives Matter movement? What are some of the opinions that we - and there's very strong opinions on both sides.

And again, if we're not careful we can end up fighting for things that may not be essential and the church may be divided as a result of that. So we need to be careful, we guard our hearts. There are things that we can debate within the context of the church.

You don't have to have the exact same opinion about every single thing that happens, whether that's economically, politically, socially, whatever that may be. We can have our strong opinions but we need to make sure that what unites us continues to unite us. So you can be a Presbyterian, you can be a Baptist, you can have different views on certain doctrines but there are certain essential things that you cannot unite.

If we have a different doctrine on the core of what Christianity stands for, unity is not uniformity. As long as we love each other and we say we belong to one another, we're united. We are united by this doctrine. Christ was crucified for our sins and by his blood atonement we are saved.

And it is that doctrine, if there's any compromise, any different opinion, you are not a Christian. There is no unity. We can be united in politics, we can be united in philosophy, we can be united in everything else but if we differ on that doctrine, we are not united, no matter how much we think we are on the surface.

See, blood atonement of Christ, his death and resurrection is Christianity. That's what distinguishes us from the Jehovah Witnesses, that's what distinguishes us from the Mormons, that's what distinguishes us from any other, again, people who may call themselves Christians but according to the biblical doctrine they are not. The foundation of Christian faith is forgiveness acquired by blood sacrifice and it must be blood sacrifice.

If you remember, as soon as Adam and Eve fell, one of the first things that we see is the offering that was given by Cain and Abel and Cain brought sacrifice from his harvest and Abel gave sacrifice of the animals and he said one was acceptable, one was not.

It doesn't explain why one was acceptable, one was not but we know clearly that the Bible teaches that without the atonement, without the forgiveness of sins, there is no restoration of relationship. So again, it doesn't explain that in the book of Genesis but it is clearly explained later on in Scripture that without blood sacrifice there is no forgiveness.

In fact, this was a difficult thing that even the disciples had a hard time understanding. They knew that the animals needed to be sacrificed but when Jesus clearly stated repeatedly over and over again that He was going to be to the cross and He was going to be crucified, even the disciples did not understand why would you do that?

It wasn't until He was resurrected that they began to remember all that He said and then everything starts to click together. But the fact that Jesus would have to die for their sins, even for the disciples, even though it was embedded into their culture, could not comprehend why would the Messiah have to die for us.

In fact, Paul himself was one of those Jews who had a hard time understanding and yet after he met Christ, he realized that what he was persecuting was God Himself. Even though he thought he was persecuting to protect, you know, Judaism, he realized that he was in the wrong.

And in 1 Corinthians 1.23, he says, "We preach Christ crucified. To Jews it is a stumbling block." And he knows that better than anybody else because he was very stumbled. You know, it triggered him, it angered him to the point that he was willing to kill and persecute other Christians.

So he understands what it means. He says, "Jews are stumbled by this." And that's an understatement because the first persecutors of the gospel, of the death and atonement of Jesus Christ through His blood, were his fellow countrymen. They completely rejected it. And he said to the Gentiles, "It is foolishness." Now think about it.

If you weren't a Christian, and to say, you know, God loves you and He wants to forgive you of your sins, and He said you have to believe that He died for you. Now where else in your life do you see that being practiced? If you sin against me, I just suck it up and I just say, "Okay, you're forgiven.

I'm not going to hold it against you. I'm not going to carry out vengeance. I don't cut myself and shed my blood and say, 'Wait a second, let me forgive you.'" Right? So think about it from a non-Christian perspective. Why did – why was death mandated? Why was that the only way for God to forgive?

Why couldn't He have just said, "You're forgiven"? What is this drama about His death and shedding of blood and suffering for our sins? Why was that necessary? Now a non-Christian may ask that question, but sad to say, many Christians in the church have never asked that question. It's like, "Jesus Christ died for you." He did?

He loves you. And if you believe Him, you have eternal life. Okay, I believe that. Good. But then many Christians have never searched beyond that. Why did He have to die? And so there's a lot of Christians who don't understand the gospel. The core message of the cross, the very reason why we are here Sunday after Sunday.

Why was He crucified? Why did He have to be crucified for my sins? Why couldn't He forgive just like the way we forgive? What is this drama about His atonement? Now the text that we're looking at isn't going to comprehensively answer that question because that is peppered throughout all of Scripture.

And so we don't have time to go through every single point of why this is necessary. But He makes it very clear in verse 22, "According to the law, one may almost say all things are cleansed with the blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness." That was embedded into the Jewish culture.

In fact, it wasn't just embedded into Jewish culture. If you look at ancient cultures, for whatever the reason, they understood that a god needed to be appeased by blood. Now we don't understand it because we're so many years removed from that. But if you study most ancient cultures, there is some kind of blood sacrifice that needed to be given to appease whatever idol, whatever god that they worshipped.

How they understood that, we don't know. Now that's archaeologists, those are historians. But it was understood, it was clearly taught, it's specific to the nation of Israel. Without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness. You know that text that I just, I just quoted in verse 22, is a direct quote from Leviticus chapter 17, 11.

And it gives us a little bit of the background behind the atonement. "For the life of the flesh is in the blood. And I have given it to you on the altar to make atonement for your souls. For it is the blood by reason of the life that makes atonement." He says, "Because of man's robbing of God of the life that belonged to him." When we sinned, we basically robbed him of his glory that we are to give to him.

So he says, "Because you have taken life that belongs to him, the atonement for that is to offer up life." That's what he means here, life for life. And so, because the blood represents and is the life of the flesh, he says the only way that your guilt, your guilt and my guilt, can be washed away is for life for life.

That was embedded. Just like if somebody embezzled you $100,000, they can't just say, "Hey, I'm sorry." They have to pay you back, right? If they have the money, they have to pay you back. And so that is embedded. Again, we don't practice that in our culture, but that was embedded into the ancient cultures and specifically spelled out in the book of, to the nation of Israel.

Okay. Now before I lose any of you, okay, how important is this? How important is this? How important is it that not only do you hear this message, but you're able to articulate this? This is just as important as if you say you're a lawyer and you know the law.

This is just as important that if you're an accountant that you know the accounting, accounting laws, right? It is, it is foundational. Every Christian that does not understand the blood atonement should commit some portion of this week, next week, or the next few months, doing your best to do your, to answer some of the questions that, that I'm not going to be able to answer all of it today, right?

I'm just going to be looking at the text and what it says, the, the portions that it says, okay? Again, all of this to get you to pay attention, right? What is being said here is crucial. So what I'm going to do this morning is outline three things that he says is why Jesus had to die.

Three things, okay? I'm going to be covering two and the third one I'll, I'll come back to next week. Okay, first one. It says in verse 15 that Jesus died to redeem those under the old covenant. Okay, Jesus died to redeem those under the old covenant. Verse 15, for this reason he is the mediator of a new covenant so that since a death has taken place for the redemption of transgressions that were committed under the first covenant.

Let me stop right there, okay? First thing that he said, he said he had to die in order to redeem those and who are those people that he's referring to here? On the old covenant, right? He's first talking about those people in the old covenant. That, you know, is a common question that we get all the time.

How did the old Jews in the old testament and old covenant, how were they saved? Well, he answers that here, right? He says that he had to die for the sins of those that were committed in the old testament. So they were saved the same way that we are saved.

We're saved by the blood sacrifice for us in the past. The saints of the old testament were saved by the blood that was going to be spilled that was coming. Okay, he says redemption of the transgressions that were committed under the first covenant, those who have been called may receive the promise of eternal inheritance.

Now again, I want you to understand the history of Israel. Okay, this is why it's so important that when you read the Bible that you read it, you read it chronologically and consecutively because you're going to miss a whole point, a huge chunk of understanding the new testament if you don't know the history.

Now I'm not going to go through all of it, but if you remember before, as soon as Israel is delivered, God gives him the law, right? God gives him the law. He's preparing them. When you get into this land, you're going to have to obey this law. And he says, after he gives him this law, if you obey my commandments, all these blessings are going to come to you, right?

Do you remember that? That's written in Exodus, is repeated in the book of Deuteronomy. And he gives them the list of the blessing. And then he goes, but if you don't obey me, here are the curses that are coming to you. And the curses that he mentions in Exodus and Deuteronomy outnumber the blessings almost threefold.

It's almost like he knew, he knew what was coming. And he tells them, here's a blessing if you obey it. And here are the curses that's going to come upon you and upon the nation of Israel if you do not obey. Now if you've read the Old Testament, you know Israel's history.

Did they obey or did they disobey? They disobeyed, right? You all said that, but I couldn't see you because of the mask, right? They disobeyed. In fact, not only did they disobey, every generation, every period of Israel's history is about their disobedience and God's judgment coming upon them. Every generation.

In fact, if you look at the kingdom, when it splits from the north and the south, almost every king, almost every king, it says they did evil in the sight of God. And so when the prophets finally show up to reveal to the nation of Israel where they stand before God, if you, again, if you read the major prophets and the minor prophets, what is the primary theme of the prophets?

Judgment, right? Again I know you all said that. I can't see you, right? Judgment. So prophet after prophet after prophet after prophet, generation after generation after generation after generation. Israel's history is the curse of God that they are piling up from one generation to the next generation, from person to person, family to family, from tribe to tribe, from generation to generation.

That's why, you know, you start out well in the book of Genesis, right? And then Genesis kind of goes through God's promise of what He's going to do to the nation of Israel, and then they start slipping. As soon as they get formed, they start slipping. And the rest of Israel's history is about the curse that's being piled up.

It's being piled up. So by the time Malachi is finished, by the time Malachi is finished with the prophets before Jesus comes, if Israel has been paying attention, they would have been in tremendous despair. And that was the intention that God was trying to build in the nation of Israel.

That if they were afraid at the beginning of their history, imagine after hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of years of straying and disobeying God, even after He showed mercy after mercy after mercy, they would repeatedly, they would experience a brief moment of revival, and they would go right back to sitting over and over and over again.

But you know what's interesting is that when God gave the law to the nation of Israel, Israel's response, you could tell right from the beginning that they had no understanding of who they were. Exodus chapter 19, 7, 8, "Moses came and called the elders of the people and said before them all these words which the Lord had commanded him.

All the people answered together and said, 'All that the Lord has spoken, we will do.'" They were so confident. Again in Exodus 24, 3, "Then Moses came and recounted to the people all the words of the Lord and all the ordinances, and all the people answered with one voice and said, 'All the words which the Lord has spoken, we will do.'" Exodus chapter 24, verse 7, "Then he took the book of the covenant and read it in the hearing of the people, and they said, 'All that the Lord has spoken, we will do, and we will be obedient.'" They were arrogant from the get-go.

See by the time the law of Moses was given, do you remember what already happened? God already wiped out half of them because they couldn't wait. Where is Moses? They already built a calf to worship. They already saw the judgment of God. Their hearts were already hardened and yet when God gave them these things and said, "If you obey, you will be blessed.

If you don't obey, you will be cursed," and they were so confident in one voice and they said, "We will do it." Remember I mentioned, I think it was last week, repentance is not saying, "Lord, I made a mistake, give me a second chance and I'll do better." Repentance is acknowledging and recognizing that we cannot and surrendering.

See the nation of Israel, the law was given to them in order that they may recognize who they are so that they may cling to Christ when he comes. Instead, they saw the law as an avenue for righteousness. They thought that if they obeyed these righteous laws that they can somehow bridge the gap.

Maybe I might not get all the way, maybe he can help me in some way, but they thought that this was some sort of a race that they're going to be able to win. See, the law came to humble us and see the nation of Israel, even after all those sacrifice, hundreds and thousands and hundreds of thousands of sacrifice, at the end, they were more under a curse than they were at the beginning.

They were more under condemnation after decades and centuries of sacrifice than they were in the very beginning. See, false religion always gives false hope. And you look at that and we see that in Luke chapter 18, 10 through 14, when you see the Pharisees, two men went up into the temple to pray, one Pharisee and the other, a tax collector and the Pharisee stood and was praying this to himself, "God, I thank you that I am not like other people." You see where he felt righteousness?

He wasn't looking at God and saying, "Thank God I'm like you. Thank God that your laws are reflected in my heart." That's not how he prayed. He said, "Thank God I'm not like them. Thank God I'm better than those people. I didn't kill anybody. I didn't murder anybody. I'm not a thief.

I'm not a thief. I'm not a thief. I'm not a thief. I'm not a thief. I'm not a thief. I'm not a thief. I'm not a thief. I'm not a thief. I'm not a thief. I'm not a thief. I'm not a thief." So, I think that's the danger of false religion.

And so, in comparison, they felt like they were closer to God. "Thank God I'm not like those other people, swindlers, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week. I pay tithes of all that I get." Again, that's the danger of sometimes being at church.

Being at church without worshipping God in spirit and in truth gives you false sense of righteousness. Being at church and engaging in active Bible study gives a false sense that we are right with God. Because at least I go to Bible study. At least I'm not like them. At least I'm not robbing people.

At least I have some integrity. At least I pay my taxes. At least I'm good to my children. At least I didn't cheat on my wife. The tax collector, the sinner, standing some distance away was even unwilling to lift up his eyes to heaven, but was beating his breast saying, "God, be merciful to me, the sinner." See, this position, this humble position of the tax collector is exactly why the law came.

The whole purpose of the sacrifices, that wasn't going to cause them to be forgiven. There was no power in the sacrifice and the bloodshedding of the animals. Because if the blood of the animal was going to atone for the blood of the human being, it would not be a fair trade.

You can't sacrifice an animal and say that's equal to a human. The only way that you can, you can redeem what was lost by something equal or greater and the animal did not qualify. See, this is the position that every single one of us is to be brought to.

See, until we come to the point where we beat our chests, that's me. That tax collector is me. Yeah, I grew up in the church. Yeah, I memorize scripture. I actually am generous and I give. And I sacrifice. And I'm good to my neighbors. I'm a good father, I'm a good husband.

But woe to me. Because when I see who God is and when I see who I am, I'm no different than this tax collector. Have you ever been in debt to the point where you consider bankruptcy? Most of you guys are probably too young. And I hope that you don't experience that.

But when you feel the weight of debt that you cannot pay, I mean, especially if you're a father, you know, and you have small children. I remember, you know, years ago, you know, when our church was smaller and I couldn't. I mean, I tried everything and I'm, you know, I'm a proud person.

Like I, you know, I'll wash cars. I'll wash toilets. I'll do whatever I can, you know. So there's no excuse that I can't make money. But there was a period in life because of ministry, because of various things, I couldn't buy grocery for my family. And I remember telling Esther, "Hey, don't buy milk today because I don't have enough money in the bank account today." And there was a stretch of life during that period where it was just stressful.

Where you've felt the pressure of debt to the point where there's nothing you can do. And not only does it affect you, it affects your family and it affects your children. See, the law was given to us to bring us to that point. To recognize our desperateness. So all of that was to teach the nation of Israel that they needed the Savior.

And He said Jesus had to die for that reason. But all of that, all of those sacrifices simply pointed to the fact that they needed a real sacrifice. They needed real atonement. And Christ came to not only atone for the sins that were going to be committed, but for the sins that were committed in the Old Testament.

But here's the crazy thing, right? Here's the crazy thing. We know that God's love is great because He came down to get us, right? He walked among us, He was incarnate, He was humiliated. And He walked among us, among our filth, so He can save us. But here's the crazy thing.

Not only did He forgive us, in verse 15b it says, "Those who have been called may receive the promise of eternal inheritance." So the second reason why Jesus died is to give those redeemed their promise eternal inheritance. Again, I want, those of you who've read the Old Testament carefully, chronologically, right, just the fact that God didn't crush them should have been a cause of celebration.

They should have had the year of Jubilee every single year, every single day, right? If you recognize, like, we've broken God's law almost every single day that I existed, every single day. And so even though I gave sacrifice yesterday, I wake up this morning in need of another sacrifice.

And then I may have given everything that I have in sacrifice, and I go to sleep and wake up the next day and realize I need to give another sacrifice. And there wasn't enough sacrifices to be made, even the animal sacrifices to cover all of my sins. And all of this for us, for me, to recognize that the curse is being built up, the debt for my sins is being built up generation to generation to generation to generation.

And then Christ says, "I died so that your debt may be paid," right? That alone, right? If you had sentenced to jail for the rest of your life and somebody says, "You're free, your debt's been paid," that would be enough. Even if you didn't go to jail and you were homeless the rest of your life, at least you're free.

But God's love doesn't stop there. He said not only does He forgive us our debt, He says those who have been called may receive the promise of eternal inheritance. And then He describes why and how that happened. Verse 16, "For where a covenant is, there must be of necessity be the death of the one who made it." Okay?

So stop right there. This is the place where you really need to slow down and ask questions. Because the reason for the atonement that's described here is not something that you can just kind of skim through. Why did somebody need to die in order for the covenant to be effective?

You need to be asking these questions. That's why we do inductive Bible study, right? He says here, "For where a covenant is, there must of necessity be the death of the one who made it. For a covenant is valid only when men are dead." Does that make sense? Okay.

"For it is never in force while the one who made it lives." Do you understand that? Okay. I hope you say you didn't because I don't think you do. Because this requires a little bit of digging. Why would a covenant only be valid if the one who made it has to die?

Is it too early? Right? This is not something that you can just skim through. In fact, if you do inductive Bible study, you'll find that the word for covenant here is translated differently in different texts. In the NIV, ESV, it is translated "will." In some, in the NASB, it's translated "covenant." In some of the other translations, it will use some other word.

And the reason why there's different words used here is because the normal word for covenant used in the New Testament is "sun-theke." And that is used 99% of the time, that word is used, "sun-theke," whenever you see the word covenant. But here, the word that is used is "diatheke." So there's a lot of debate as to how we are to understand this word "diatheke." Why is "diatheke" used here in reference to covenant?

Right? Because the meaning behind this is a lot more specific. Because the word "sun-theke" has a reference to two parties coming together and making an agreement. That they would cut an animal, that they would walk through it, if either of you break this covenant, may this happen to you.

So the covenant is alive when the two people are alive, not dead. Does that make sense? In fact, the covenant gets broken if they die. But here it says the covenant is only useful if they're dead. Are you following? Because some of you are not. So if you're not, ask somebody, okay?

After the Bible study, because this is important. In order to understand this text, you need to follow what I'm saying, okay? Hopefully you are with me, okay? If not, it's recorded, okay? The word "sun-theke," okay, is not used here, but the word "diatheke." And the reason why that word is used is because that word is more in reference to a specific aspect of the covenant, more like a will.

A will is more of a unilateral decision. So if I was to write a will for my children, I don't make an agreement with my kids. When I die, you get this, right? So that covenant that I made will only be effective when I'm gone. Do you understand? Yes?

Okay, so you get it, okay. Alright, some of you guys who have bigger eyes, I can see. Others of you, I have no idea with your face expression, okay? So the point that he's trying to make is not only did he forgive sins by his death, he says by his death, he fulfilled the promise that he made to the nation of Israel.

The promise that he made to the nation of Israel, Genesis chapter 12, 1 to 3, "Now the Lord said to Abram, 'Go forth from your country and from your relatives and from your father's house to the land which I will show you. And I will make you a great nation and I will bless you and make your name great and you shall be a blessing and I will bless those who bless you and the one who curses you I will curse and in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.'" That was, was that a, was that a, was that a, like a covenant between Israel and God?

Or was that a unilateral covenant? Which is it? Yes. Hey, you're not obeying the law, you got to cover your mouth. It's a unilateral covenant, right? God is telling the nation of Israel, "I will do this." Now when he gave the Mosaic Law, he said, "If you do this, I will do this.

If you do this, I will do that." And so the word "suntheke" is more of a description of an agreement of two parties. But the covenant that God made to the nation of Israel is bigger than the covenant that he made with Moses. Does that make sense? So even though the nation of Israel broke the "suntheke," God is remaining faithful to "diateke." And because he made this unilateral covenant with the nation of Israel, he is remaining faithful to himself.

And so not only did he forgive them of their sins, by dying he fulfilled the promise that he makes. Think about that. Think about that. Think about how hard it is for us to forgive somebody who hurt us. Think about how difficult it is when you feel like somebody slandered you and hurt you, to not to retaliate, let alone to be forgiving, but to offer your son so that they may be elevated.

That's how the gospel is described. That that's what he did. See, he made that promise to the nation of Israel. There are a lot of people who think today that Israel is done. When the church showed up, God made a promise to the nation of Israel, but because of their sins, God moved on, and then now he focuses all his attention to the church.

That's not what the Bible teaches. And again, that's the distinction between infant baptism and believer's baptism. For those of you who are confused, and if it went over your head, again, you know, this is one of those things that requires some digging, right? God remains faithful to his promise to the nation of Israel.

He says in Romans 11, 1 through 2, "I say then, God has not rejected his people, has he? May it never be." This is in Romans. This is not in Old Testament. This is after his death and resurrection. He says, "May it never be. For I too am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham of the tribe of Benjamin.

God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew." Again, in Romans 11, verses 11 and 12, "I say then, they did not stumble so as to fall, did they? May it never be. But by their transgression, salvation has come to the Gentiles, so to make them jealous." Now if their transgression is riches for the world and their failure is riches for the Gentiles, how much more will their fulfillment be?

Again, you may not understand the impact of all of this because I surely did not when I was in seminary. You know, when I was studying all this, I just took it and I took the test and I got the answer right, but it took years where this really started sinking in, what this means.

Romans chapter 11, verse 26, "And so all Israel will be saved, just as it is written, the deliverer will come from Zion, he will remove ungodliness from Jacob. This is my covenant with them when I take away their sins." So Romans makes it very clear that God's not done with Israel, that he's going to keep his promise that he made to the nation of Israel, deatheke, that he's going to give them the inheritance that he promised, that even though for a period they experienced a hardening of their heart and now we're living in a period of the Gentiles, meaning the church, but when the fullness of Gentiles has come in, he says God will bring Israel back into the fold, that they're going to experience revival and he's going to fulfill the inheritance he promised to the nation of Israel.

So when we look at heaven, the picture of heaven that's described for us in Revelations chapter 7, and this is a picture of heaven that John sees, and I heard the number of those who are sealed, 144,000 sealed from every tribe of the sons of Israel, right? So he distinguishes, he doesn't just describe a universal church, he describes first the Israelites that he sees.

And then right behind them in Revelations chapter 7, 9 through 10, "After these things I looked and behold a great multitude which no one could count from every nation and all the tribes of the people and towns standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes and palm branches were in their hands and crying out with a loud voice saying, 'Salvation to our God who sits on the throne and to the Lamb.'" Who cares?

I hope you're not saying that because this is huge. The reason why this is huge, even after all these years, even after all their failures, even after all their rebellion, even after generations and decades and multitudes of God's faithfulness to the nation of Israel, they have hardened their heart against God and they have become a stumbling block to the gospel and God would have every right to have cut them off millenniums ago.

And yet because God made a promise, he says he will fulfill it. Now you know why that's so huge? You know why that's so important? Because what he does with the nation of Israel is what he does with us. All of that is a reflection of who he is, how he treats the nation of Israel because he made a diethike, because he committed in his own heart, and that's why he keeps saying over and over again, "For my glory." He says, "I will be faithful.

I will remain faithful to myself." And you know when he says that, he's saying the promise that he made, that he will fulfill. So if he said it, he will not change his mind. He will not be thwarted. Not by me and not by you. That's who he is.

And that's why he says in Hebrews 6, 17 to 20, "In the same way, God desiring men even more to show to the heirs of the promise the unchangeableness of his purpose interposed with an oath so that by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have taken refuge would have strong encouragement to take hold of the hope set before us, this hope we have as an anchor of the soul." This hope we have as an anchor for the soul.

A hope both sure and steadfast and one which enters within the veil where Jesus has entered as a forerunner for us having become a high priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek. Wow. Wow. God hasn't let go of his people yet. Think about, think about even after you became a Christian, the sins you've committed.

Think about the sins you committed before you came to church today. Think about the sin just this week. Now I know we all dressed up nicely, brushed our teeth, combed our hair, you know, we put our best foot forward, we grabbed our Bibles and we're sitting nicely, you know.

But you know, you know the sins in your heart. You know the bitterness that you walk with. You know the pornography that you wrestle with and you're trying so hard to overcome. You know the anger that you have, people that you can't forgive. These are all sins that are rebellion against God.

And he knew that the only hope that you and I have for these sins is the blood sacrifice of Jesus Christ. And as he is faithful to the nation of Israel, he is faithful to us. That's why we need to anchor in Christ. That's why we need to anchor in Christ.

Anchoring Christ doesn't mean I'm going to try harder. Anchoring Christ is not simply saying like I'm going to read my Bible more. Although that may be an application of that. Anchoring Christ is recognizing who he is. And the only hope that we have, especially now, especially now, where the world is running around, who do we trust?

Who do we believe? Where do we put our hope that the Christians don't get on that same boat? That our hope is anchored in Christ. He is the same yesterday, today, and forevermore. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, you are God beyond comprehension. Why do you care? Why do you care?

You know our rebellion. You know our hearts, how easily we drift, how easily we get entangled with the affairs of this world. Help us, Lord God, to be anchored in the confidence in Christ and the promises that he's given in the blood atonement, Lord God, that cleanses us from our sins, that gives us hope for eternity.

Help us, Lord, to take our eyes off of this temporary world, that we may be able to express our love and joy to you today, tomorrow, and forevermore. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.