Christ's Perfect Sacrifice Part 2

We return this evening to Hebrews chapter 10. Hebrews chapter 10.

This morning we began looking at this chapter once more, a little bit more closely than we have in the past.

We did so within the context of, again, reminding ourselves of the intent and purpose of this epistle to the

Hebrews. The fact that it is intended to function as an encouragement to Hebrew Christians who were being pressured to go back to the old ways.

And we worked through verse 18 this morning. This evening we'll look at verses 19 through 31 as the

Lord gives us direction. So Hebrews chapter 10 verses 19 through 31.

And before we look again to the Word of God, let us ask the Lord to bless our time. Our Father, now as we come before your

Word, we would ask that you would be pleased, as only you can, to make your Word to be alive in our hearts and our minds, that you would help us to lay aside those things which distract us.

Father, by your Spirit, write upon our hearts your truth. We pray in Christ's name. Amen.

It is an axiom of the New Testament that when a great divine truth has been proclaimed, the

New Testament writers will always take that truth and apply it to the

Christian life. There is nothing in the New Testament where we are given the indication that we are to simply dwell upon great theological truths without then recognizing that every great theological truth has an application to how we live our lives every day.

Indeed, when we think about the fact that the New Testament documents were written to a church that was primarily made up of slaves, servants, people who were not in the upper crust of society in that day, we recognize that the great passages that spoke, for example, in Philippians chapter 2, of the eternal relationship between the

Father and the Son, the Incarnation, Colossians chapter 1, Christ as the Creator of all things,

John chapter 1, the eternal Word. We look at all of these great passages, Romans chapters 8 and 9, and in every single instance, those great truths are then applied to the everyday life of servants, slaves, merchant people, government officials, whoever it might be.

And such is the case here in Hebrews chapter 10. This morning, we heard of the perfection of the work of Christ by one offering, not the repetitive sacrifices of the old covenant, but by one offering.

We have been sanctified. Those who are sanctified have been perfected forever.

What tremendous words here in Hebrews chapter 10. But then, right after we read in verse 18, now where there is forgiveness of these things, there is no longer any offering for sin.

After the demonstration that there is no offering for sin to be found in the old ways, you can't go back to the old priest, you can't go back to the old sacrifices, there is no more offering for sin because there has been one offering in the person of Jesus Christ.

Then, immediately upon that enunciation, we have tremendously practical words, both of a positive exhortation and very strong words of warning.

Let's listen to Hebrews chapter 10, beginning at verse 19. Since therefore, brethren, we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which

He inaugurated for us through the veil that is His flesh. And since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.

Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful.

And let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the day drawing near.

For if we go on sinning willfully, after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a certain terrifying expectation of judgment and the fury of a fire which will consume the adversaries.

Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses.

How much severer punishment do you think he will deserve who has trampled underfoot the

Son of God and has regarded as unclean the blood of the covenant by which He was sanctified and has insulted the

Spirit of Grace? For we know Him who said, Vengeance is mine, I will repay.

And again, the Lord will judge His people. It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living

God. Amen. Well, what are we to make of what we find here in Hebrews chapter 10?

Well, unfortunately, time is not our friend and ally in looking at such a passage as this.

But we can basically break the passage up into two sections. Verses 19 -25 seem to form one cohesive whole.

And then verses 26 -31, a section of strong warning.

First verses 19 -25, because of what has come before, since therefore verse 19, we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which

He inaugurated for us through the veil that is His flesh. And again, all of this, again, requires us to have that Old Testament context firmly in mind.

Many people who would read this who would not have that background would wonder, what do you mean that enter the holy place?

And why would we need to have confidence? And what is this veil that's being discussed? All these things going back to the context, the people to whom

He is speaking, they would fully understand. The fear and trepidation that was the part of the people when the high priest entered into the holy place.

They would understand that tradition which tells us that there was the bells that were attached to the high priest and the rope attached to his leg because they could not know if his sacrifice was going to be acceptable before God as he went through that veil.

And what a different situation now exists for the Christian people.

We now have confidence to enter the holy place. A place that was reserved, that veil which stood between the presence of God and the people, which only once a year a person could enter in there with blood that was not his own in sacrifice.

Now as we recall from the Gospel of Matthew, that veil has been torn from top to bottom.

The way has been opened into the holy place because Jesus has entered in. And when we are united with Him, His sacrifice avails for us so we can enter into the holy place only by the blood of another, by the blood of Jesus Christ.

He has inaugurated a new and living way to enter into the holy place.

And He has inaugurated it for us. For us.

He has opened the way that we can come into the very presence of the Father. And He has done so through His flesh, through the offering of His body.

Remember, we saw that this morning. The giving of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

And since we have this way, and since we have a great high priest over the house of God, we don't have the old high priest that would die and have to be replaced over and over again.

We have a great priest over the house of God. That was what was demonstrated in chapters 7 and 8 and 9, the perfection of His ministry, that He is the mediator of a better covenant, a new covenant.

All of this He's now sort of summarizing together here at the beginning of verses 19, 20, 21.

Since we have this great confidence, therefore, verse 22, let us draw near.

Let us draw near. Remember back in chapter 7. Who does Jesus Christ save the uttermost?

Those who draw near unto God by Him. And so the writer is saying, now that you see the perfection of the work of Christ, now that you understand that all these passages in the

Old Testament were mere pictures, they were mere pointers, now you've learned that He has come.

Now you know that Christ has offered that final sacrifice. Let us draw near. Come into God's presence with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith.

No questioning. And remember, again, the context, these are individuals that certainly would have heard over and over and over again what to us would be blasphemous things about Christ.

Certainly they had heard within their context individuals blaspheming the name of Christ and saying,

He's not what He claimed to be. He's a fraud. He was a false prophet.

I heard this about Him and I heard that they paid off the Roman soldiers and He didn't really rise from the dead.

And I've heard this story and that story and church history tells us that's exactly what was going on.

And that the encounter between Judaism and the young Christian church was as we see both in the pages of Scripture and in secular history not a very pleasant thing.

But the writer says, let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith.

Not questioning whatsoever what God has done in Jesus Christ. Having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.

And you might say, sprinkling and washing, what does all this have to do with what's being spoken of here?

Again, you go back into the Old Testament. You look at the washings and the purifications especially in Ezekiel the discussion of that new covenant where by the

Spirit there's this sprinkling and there's this washing. The very same background that we have in John chapter 3 when

Jesus talks about water and the Spirit. We go back to the Old Testament and we again see all these words they were promised beforehand.

And the writer says, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water we can come before God now in a perfect way.

Not in the small representative way in the Old Covenant, but now very much into His presence.

And then he says, let us hold fast. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering.

If you're here in the congregation the preacher is saying, you've made a confession.

You've confessed that Jesus Christ is the Messiah. That phrase, Jesus is the

Christ, the Messiah, the Anointed One. You've made that confession. That's why you've been put out of the synagogue.

That's why this pressure is being brought to bear against you. You've made that confession.

Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering. For He who promised is faithful.

Remember the words of Paul? Even when we are faithless,

He is faithful. When he writes the Corinthians, God is faithful by whom you were called.

The foundation for hope for the Christian is the faithfulness of God to His promises.

And so he exhorts all those within the sound of His voice, hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering.

There's no reason to waver. Don't you see the testimony of Scripture? Don't you see the ineffectiveness of the repetitious sacrifices?

Because Christ has opened the way through His flesh, His sacrifice, there is no reason for wavering.

For He who promised is faithful. He's not saying put your faith in yourself.

You will be faithful. You'll make it. No. He is exhorting us to faithfulness on the basis of the faithfulness of God.

For He who promised is faithful. As a result of that, when we look to God and His faithfulness, then there is a result in the relationship that we have between one another within the body.

And let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds. We don't have just this me and Jesus relationship.

It's not just me and my Bible out in the woods. God has put us together in a body.

And as such, even within the very same sentence as exhorting us to press on in our faithfulness,

He says let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds. Not forsaking our own assembling together as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another.

And all the more, as you see the day drawing near, you see as a body we are to encourage one another.

As a body, we are to give strength to one another. And so the preacher is saying to that gathered body of believers, press on, and as you press on you will discover that your faith is increased when you encourage others in their journey.

And is that not the case? Is that not what we discover as we grow in the

Lord? I know it's been my experience. You know, the world tends to think that faith can only be increased when we see miraculous things.

Turn on that channel, I never mention the number, but it's between 20 and 22, and you'll see all the time.

You'll see all the time people seeking after miracles. People seeking after miracles.

You want to see real miracles? You look in the fellowship of faith and you see

God faithfully conforming people to the image of Christ over time.

You see them growing in godliness. You see people facing adversity.

There's your miracles. And if you really want to see it, if you want to have eyes to see it, you see it in the people that are sitting right here.

You see it over the course of years. You see it over the course of decades.

Faithful service to Christ with spiritual eyes.

We can see that. With the eyes of the world, we will miss

God's work of conforming people to the image of His Son. Stimulate one another to love.

Do we give much thought to that? How can I stimulate my brothers and sisters to love and good deeds this week?

You might want to put that on our priority list somewhere. How can

I encourage my brothers and sisters all the more as you see the day drawing near?

How can we look at the society in which we live recognizing the pressures that it brings against us and then stimulate others to live in such a fashion as to honor

God? We know what the dangers are in our society. Us men should be encouraging our fellow men to purity of thought in light of our society.

We should be encouraging one another not to compromise in the workplace. We should be encouraging one another how to respond in the presence of constant filth and profanity.

Women should be encouraging one another and not to lose heart in the raising of our children and being godly women in the midst of a godless society.

Because see, when we're encouraging others in that way, guess what? We're encouraging ourselves. If our thoughts and minds are upon that kind of encouragement for others, then we're thinking about it for ourselves.

It is the exhortation of the Word of God that we are not to forsake our own assembling together.

Yeah, this is the passage. It's normally cited. We want to talk about how important it is to go to church.

But why is that? Why is that? I've said it before.

And I guess I have the best platform for saying it because I'm not normally the one standing here. But when you are here on Sunday morning,

Sunday night, Wednesday night, you have a ministry,

Pastor Fry. And don't you think for a second you don't.

Oh, anyone who stands behind this pulpit will tell you, oh, well, it doesn't matter who's out there.

Well, in the sense that it's a privilege to teach the Word of God, to lead the people of God in worship and prayer and to break the bread of life, yes, that's true.

But it's only a man that stands behind this pulpit. And I am encouraged when

I see the brethren out here. I'm encouraged by Brother Brick because he's been doing the same thing year in, year out since I got here.

I mean, I don't think anyone knows how to pass those offering plates the way that he does. And we just seem out of balance on Wednesday nights when

Brick isn't in his seat. And I'm awful glad that George Soto's sitting where he is because someone comes bull rushing, they ain't going to get past that man.

And I'm awful glad that Brother McKee's over here and he knows how to get the light on for the piano player this morning. And I'm so thankful for our piano players.

And I'm so thankful the folks have put together all the stuff in the back there, Mr. Pierce and Mr. Broyles and Mr. Smith who isn't feeling well this evening.

When I look out there and I see you folks and you're here regularly, and we all have our pews,

I mean, we're a little bit traditionalist on that. Let's face it, you all are sitting pretty much where you normally sit, aren't you?

The Ricketts are holding down their place and the Escobitos are over there and we just all sort of have our spots.

I mean, if someone sits down the Callahan's seat over there, they're in trouble. But it's so neat to be able to look out there and see all you folks on a regular basis.

And it is encouraging. It's encouraging to the one who brings the message. And hopefully you draw encouragement from one another that over the course of months and seasons and years and yes, even now, decades, there's that faithful attendance to the

Lord's ministry in His church. And here you have the command.

Do not forsake our own assembling together as is the habit of some.

Yeah, there are Lone Rangers. Let me tell you something. I've never seen a Lone Ranger that lasted.

I never saw a Lone Ranger that lasted. I never saw a Lone Ranger that grew. God has given us

His wisdom in His church. He brings us together so we might have balance.

We encourage one another. So there's the encouragement, but what about the tough verses?

Well, let's look at them. For if we go on sinning willfully, after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins.

Now, what I'm going to do is I'm going to read this for you in three different ways.

First, let's hear it how it's normally presented. And that is, there are many people who would turn to this passage and they would say, here is some of the clearest evidence that the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints or quote -unquote eternal security is simply untrue.

Let's look at it from that perspective first. For if we go on sinning willfully, after receiving the knowledge of the truth, that is, if Christians, people who are united with Christ, those who are the elect, go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a certain terrifying expectation of judgment, the fear of a fire which will consume the adversaries.

Any one who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy in a testimony of two or three witnesses. How much severe punishment do you think he will deserve who has trampled underfoot the

Son of God and has regarded as unclean the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified and has insulted the spirit of grace?

All of these, they would say, this can happen to a true Christian, that as a true believer, one who is united with Christ, who has been sanctified, set apart, made holy, that person can then go on sinning willfully, they've received the knowledge of the truth, that is, they not only understand that Jesus is the

Messiah, but they've accepted Him, they've been born again, regenerated, filled the Spirit of God, and yet despite all of that, they go on sinning willfully, they have in a high -handed way rejected

Christ, they trample underfoot the blood of the Son of God, and regard as unclean or common the blood of the covenant by which he has been sanctified, they insult the spirit of grace, and all they can expect is the vengeance of God coming upon them.

That's one reading of the text. The second reading of the text would be of those who would take the position of a covenantal view, a covenantal view that is being promoted in our day, that would basically say, well, the new covenant is made up both of those who are regenerate and unregenerate, elect and non -elect, the church and the new covenant are the exact same thing, and so within the new covenant you just have more regenerate people than you had in the old covenant.

And so they would look at that, and they would say, these are covenant breakers, these are those people who are in the new covenant but are not of the elect.

They are in the new covenant, they've received the sign and seal of baptism, they have been in some sense sanctified, verse 29, because they have been placed in the covenant by baptism, and yet they are covenant breakers, and they will receive the wrath of God as a result of that.

And they would argue that if we go on to verse 30 that this supports this because it says,

For we know him who said, Vengeance is mine, I will repay, and again the Lord will judge his people.

And they would say, see, that indicates that the new covenant is like the old covenant in that it's a mixed group.

It's a mixed group of people, the elect and the non -elect, and these are the non -elect covenant breakers.

Okay? That's the second way to look at the passage. Well, obviously

I don't believe either one of those. So what is the third way to look at this? Well, I would call it the contextual way.

That is, what is the book of Hebrews about? And what have we already established this morning in looking at Hebrews chapter 10, verses 1 through 18?

Because I believe that when we remember what the book of Hebrews is about, we remember the fact that these words are being spoken to the congregation, then we can understand why both the preceding two views are in error.

Let's look at it a little bit more closely. For if we go on sinning willfully, knowledgefully, deliberately, after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins.

Now, where have we heard that language before? Where have we heard the language of no sacrifice for sins?

What's the context here? We haven't left the book of Hebrews yet.

We are still in that book that is exhorting people to remain faithful and to not give in to the pressure to go back.

What the text is saying is, if you know, if you have heard the truth about Jesus Christ, if you know that there is one sacrifice, if you know that God has set

His sign and His seal upon His Son and He has testified to the truthfulness of the teachings of Jesus Christ by raising

Him from the dead, but you go on and you, knowing that, think you can continue on and you can continue going the way you've been going, you need to understand something.

You can go and you can buy all the bulls and all the lambs and sheep and oxen and goats and doves and you can bring the wheat offerings and the whey offerings and the sheave offerings and you can bring every offering

Moses ever thought of, there is no sacrifice for sin outside of Jesus Christ.

If you know that, if you are aware of that, and you sin against God by seeking a sacrifice outside of Jesus Christ, you need to realize something.

God doesn't go, well, there's one way for Christians and there's another way for Jews. It doesn't work that way.

There is no longer a sacrifice for sin, but a certain terrifying expectation of judgment and the fury of a fire which will consume the adversaries.

You are setting yourself up as an adversary against God.

You are calling God a liar when He raised Jesus from the dead.

And you see the writer goes on to explain this. Why would you call me an adversary?

I'm just following after God's law. No, you don't understand. Once you come to understand that Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of these things, you can't go back.

Because you see, if you could go back, then you would be saying that the sacrificial blood of Jesus Christ, that one offering,

His blood that He shed upon the tree, is, and look at this verse, look at verse 29, in the

New American Standards, translated as unclean, has regard as unclean, the blood of the covenant.

What does that mean? What does it mean to consider something unclean?

Well, interestingly enough, some of you may know that the term that is used for the

Greek language in which the New Testament was written is koine, koine.

And koine means common, common, not special.

There was a time when Christians thought that the New Testament was written in a kind of Greek that actually was a heavenly language that had been given by God and no one had ever seen it before, but we've discovered since then that's not true.

We've discovered a tremendous amount of literature written in this very language, and this was the common language of the day.

Koine, common. Well, that's the word that's found here. You see, the difference in Jewish thinking between clean and unclean was a clean animal was designated by God in such a way, an unclean animal was designated by God, one was special, one was common.

And you see, to regard as koine would be to regard as unclean or as common.

Not special, not unique, but a common thing. You see, what a person would be doing if they've heard the truth about Christ and they go, no,

I think I've made a mistake. I shouldn't be here. I need to go back.

What you're saying is the sacrifice of Christ is no greater than the sacrifice of bulls, goats, sheep.

You're saying God lied when He raised Him from the dead. There's no neutrality about this

Jesus. There's no neutrality about the sacrifice of Christ.

So why would you call me an adversary? Because verse 28 says, anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses.

The law of Moses was severe. Two or three witnesses. Well, look at the witnesses here.

How much severer punishment do you think he will deserve who has trampled underfoot the

Son of God? That's what you had to do to go back. You had to trample underfoot the

Son of God. Indeed, this may even be referring to the fact that there is extra -biblical evidence that to enter back into the synagogue you had to curse the name of Christ, spit upon His name, who has trampled underfoot the

Son of God, and has regarded as unclean the blood of the covenant by which He was sanctified, and has insulted the spirit of grace.

So there's three things. Trampling underfoot the Son of God, regarding as unclean this blood, and insulting the spirit of grace.

Two or three witnesses, law of Moses, die without mercy. How much severer punishment do you think he will deserve who has done these things?

Now you may be asking, wait a minute, it says, and has regarded as unclean the blood of the covenant by which

He was sanctified. Now, how can a person who's been sanctified by the blood of the covenant come under the wrath of God?

Didn't we already read in verse 10, by this will we have been sanctified through the offering, the body of Jesus Christ, once for all, and doesn't it then say in verse 14, for by one offering

He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified? How can that be?

Well, that's a question you might need to ask some of our friends who hold that position. Thankfully, I don't have to answer that question because you see there's a question in the text.

Who is it that is sanctified? The grammar of the original language, the he, can without question refer to one of two individuals.

Either this whole verse is talking just about the apostate, the one who has trampled underfoot the son of God.

As regard to the blood of the covenant unclean, insult to the spirit of grace. But you see, by which he was sanctified is a sub -clause.

And grammatically it can refer to the apostate, but that causes a tremendous problem in Hebrews chapter 10.

That creates what seems to be a direct contradiction between verses 14 and 29. Well grammatically, who else might it refer to?

The son of God. The son of God. Who has trampled underfoot the son of God and has regarded as unclean the blood of the covenant by which the son of God was sanctified, was set apart.

Did not Jesus in his high priestly prayer pray those very words that he had set himself apart?

See, this would have been almost a no -brainer for someone who recognizes that the high priest, the high priest himself had to be sanctified.

And that blood, his own that he brought into the holy place, set him apart.

He is the one who is referred to here. Not the individual who has been perfected in verse 14.

It's sad for me to recognize that those who try to use this to say, well, you can be in the new covenant and yet you can be lost.

You can be in the new covenant and yes, the new covenant says there are transgressions I will remember no more. And yes, it says they will all know me.

And yes, it says all that stuff. But that isn't yet. That's in the future.

My goodness, what argument do you have to offer? What argument do you have to offer to those

Jews who are being pressured to go back? Someday it will be better. Someday it will be good.

No. The great sin of this apostate is that he has trampled under the foot the

Son of God and he is regarded as no better than the blood of a bull or a goat.

The very blood by which the Son of God sanctified himself. He has insulted the

Spirit of grace. For we know him who said

Vengeance is mine I will repay. We've heard that before. Where was it? Well actually you go back to Deuteronomy chapter 32

Moses' farewell speech and the initial application was first to Israel's enemies and that included those who would arise up within the congregation.

And it's very interesting. The next phrase and again the Lord will judge his people.

In Deuteronomy chapter 32 that's translated he will vindicate his people.

How does he vindicate his people? Well how did he do so? With the people of Israel. He did so by bringing judgment against those who were not truly of Israel who did not have faith.

They perished in the wilderness. He vindicated his people. And he does so as well within the context of the church.

Some of us for some reason are troubled by that phrase of the Lord Jesus. He who endures to the end will be saved.

Maybe because we've heard it misused so often. As if our enduring saves us.

But it is a true statement. He who endures to the end will be saved. Well why does any one of us endure? Why does any one of us press on?

Because the faith that is ours is a divine gift of God. And he is glorifying himself and bringing about our perseverance.

God will vindicate his people. Sometimes that's a painful process because we see the tares being exposed.

We see those who go out into the world. I've experienced that just myself this week.

I just this afternoon had it confirmed to me an individual that once claimed to be very much within the pale of orthodoxy and truth acting as an enemy of the gospel in a matter of a short period of time.

God will vindicate his people. The Lord will not leave the matter undecided.

Judgment does come. But the only way to consistently read Hebrews chapter 10 is to read all of it and to not turn this passage into an argument against the perfection of the work of Christ that has been the crowning argument of the entire epistle.

You see these folks had seen some who'd gone back. They could look around the congregation and there's a place over here and that person's gone.

I saw them going into the synagogue. They put their head down. They wouldn't look at me.

They won't talk to me anymore. These words sober warnings.

But to those who know Christ we take these warnings seriously. We're not apathetic.

We don't just tune these things out. We go, Oh Lord. Oh Lord, I am dependent solely upon your grace.

Lift me up and keep me. When we hear these warnings we find out what's important to God.

It becomes important to us. Some people say, Well, if the elect can't fall away why have warnings at all?

My kids can't cease being my kids but they've heard a lot of warnings. And they learn by those warnings what's important to Mom and Dad.

Verse 29. Severe punishment indeed. But for the believer we think about this.

I don't want to trample underfoot the Son of God. I want to honor

Him. I want to glorify Him. And oh, when I think about the blood of the covenant, the blood by which

He was set apart and sanctified and demonstrated to be the Lamb of God, the High Priest, the

Spirit of Grace that is so patient in dealing with me, our hearts are drawn out.

We go, No, never Lord, not me. No, please. I want to honor

Him. I want to glorify Him. That's how the

Lord vindicates His people. That's how we respond to this message.

Verse 31. It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God. It is.

But remember, just before then, we had been encouraged, drawn here, full assurance of faith, consciences sprinkled, bodies washed with pure water.

That person, trusting only in Christ, longs to fall into the hands of the living

God who has redeemed us, saved us. Let us pray together.

Our Heavenly Father, we do thank You for Your Word. We thank You for its encouragements.

We thank You for its warnings. We take them seriously. We hear them,

Father, by Your Spirit. And we cry out, O God, thank

You for saving. Thank You for loving. Fathers, we consider these things help us indeed to stimulate one another to love and good deeds.

May we indeed take encouragement from one another, encouragement from the gathered body of believers.

We thank You for Your wisdom in giving us Your church. Father, as we go through our duties this week, would

You be pleased to often remind us the sacrifice of our Savior, what He gave so that we might have a new and living way directly into Your presence.

Let us never take it for granted. We thank You for loving us. We pray in Christ's name.