Turn to Hebrews chapter 10. I know this morning we've probably done a good amount of reading already, but I don't apologize for that. Normally. When I preach, if you've noticed, I'll usually split the chapters up into about four or five parts, and then at the beginning of each chapter, when we start a new chapter, we'll read the whole chapter before we do the overview. But today we'll do a quick overview, and then we're going to start with the first section of Hebrew chapter 10. So, we will read the whole chapter, which will be our third chapter this morning, but that's okay. But let's pray first. Dear Father, I pray that you would please work in our hearts, God. Please help us to understand your word. Please, God, help us to have a proper interpretation of what the original writer meant, Lord God, and that we would apply it to our lives. And it would be real in our hearts, in Jesus' name, Amen. replaces the old. The old covenant versus the new covenant. That's the theme that you see in Hebrews chapter 8, 9, and 10. Now 8 and 9 gave us more of a, if we can call it this, gave us more of an academic view of how that works. Now in chapter 10 what you'll see is it's more experiential. It's more how this directly affects the believer. How this relates to our lives and how it applies to our lives. You'll see more of that type of teaching in Hebrews 10 than you will in 8 and 9. With the same theme that the new covenant replaces the old and the new was the old was there to show that the coming of the new so let's start in verse one with that in mind the law having a shadow of good things to come and not the very image of things can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers there unto perfect for then would they not have ceased to be offered because that the worshipers once purged should have no more conscience of sins. But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance, again, made of sins every year. For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins. Wherefore, when he comes into the world, he said, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me. In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast no pleasure. Then said I, Lo, I come in the volume of the book it is written of me, to do thy will, O God. Above, when he said, Sacrifice and offering, and burnt offerings, and offerings for sin, thou wouldst not, neither had pleasure therein, which are offered by the law. Then said he, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. he takes away the first that he may establish the second. By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. And every priest standeth daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices which can never take away sins. But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down in the right hand of God. from henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool. For by the offering he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified, whereof the Holy Ghost also is a witness unto us. For after that he hath said before, This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord. I will put my laws into their heart, and in their minds will I write them. And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more. Now where remission of sin there is, there is no more offering for sin. Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us through the veil, that is to say, his flesh. And having an high priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart and full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering, for He is faithful and promised. and let us consider one another and provoke one another unto good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some is, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the day approaching. For if ye willfully For if we sin willfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful looking for of the judgment and fiery indignation which shall devour the adversaries. He that despised Moses' law without mercy under two He died without mercy under two or three witnesses. Of how much sore punishment suppose ye shall be thought worthy who hath trodden underfoot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and has done despite under the Spirit of grace. For we know him that he hath said, Vengeance belongeth to me. I will recompense, saith the Lord. And again, the Lord shall judge his people. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. But call to remembrance the former days in which he were illuminated. He endured a great fight of afflictions. Partly will she were made a gazing-stock, both by reproaches and afflictions, and partly will she become companions of them that were so used. For ye had compassion of me in my bonds, and took joyfully the spoiling of your goods, knowing in yourselves that ye have in heaven a better and enduring substance. Cast not away, therefore, your confidence, which hath great recompense of reward. For ye have need of patience, that after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise. For yet a little while, and he shall come, he will come, and he will not tarry. Now the just shall live by faith. But if any man draw back, my soul has no pleasure in him. But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition, but of them who believe to the saving of the soul." And as we start this precious chapter of Hebrews chapter 10, this chapter being so precious because in it we see the perfections of Jesus Christ's humanity. That's what you're going to see in this chapter, the perfections of Christ's humanity, and thus making Him the perfect sacrifice. Thus making Him the perfect sacrifice, and thus we partaking of His life, or we becoming Christ-like. That's the most glorious thing you'll see in this chapter, that we, sinful men, are being conformed into Christ's image. It's amazing, it's astounding if you really understand it. And I see five divisions in this chapter of how the old covenant is done away with because of the perfections of Jesus and his sacrifice and how that affects the believers. five divisions. You might not want to try to write them all down. I'm going to try to put it on a printout for everybody by next week. But the five divisions are number one versus one through nine. And we'll stick pretty closely to these as we go through this chapter. That's why I want to get it on the printout. If you can write it down now, that's okay. But if not, we'll go over it again. Number 1, verses 1-9, the perfections of Jesus Christ and Him being the once and for all sacrifice that has put an end to the old system. You'll see that's verses 1-9. Verses 10 through 20, we have six things that are applied to the believer by the perfect offering of Jesus Christ. The six things are they're sanctified, perfected forever, filled with the Holy Spirit, God's laws written on their heart, they have total forgiveness, and they have access to God the Father. You see those six things in those verses. Number three, verses 21 through 25, because of these realities, What should the believer do? What should the believer do? We'll see in verses 21 to 25, which are three things, draw near, provoke one another to good works, and not forsake the assembly. Verses 26 through 31 is section number four. And this is what happens to those who refuse to deal with their sin once their sin is made once they know their sin and they refuse to deal with it, what happens to them? Three things, number one, there's no sacrifice for their sin, they suffer God's fiery indignation, and they will have much more punishment. Then in the final part of this chapter, I see verses 32 through 39, in light of the perfect sacrifice of Christ, The believer is to patiently endure through three things. Through suffering, by waiting for the Lord's return, and by not looking back. So in these, we're going to split this chapter up into those five sections. And like I said, by next week I'll try to have that on a printout for you. Those five things and each of the points under each of the sub-points under each point. So in chapter 8 and 9 we are shown more of Jesus Christ by his perfect sacrifice has put an end to the old covenant. And now here in chapter 10 we are shown more how that reality affects the believer. This is what makes this chapter so glorious because in this chapter we realize and experience the great joy of knowing Christ as our perfect sacrifice. In other words, in the previous chapters we learned why the Lord Jesus and this new covenant, that foundation is in Him, has done away with the old covenant. And now, in this chapter, chapter 10, we see how these things are made a reality in the lives of the believers in a very practical and experiential way. It is one thing to have the academic knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ as our perfect sacrifice, but it is quite another thing to have that experience working in your heart and lived out in your life. It is quite another thing to have the experience of Christ in your heart, knowing your sins are forgiven because of what He has done, and knowing who He is, that He is our sacrifice, and He is the perfect sacrifice, as we've gone over in weeks past. So in 8 and 9, we've learned of how Christ is that eternal and perfect sacrifice, And now in chapter 10 the writer wants us to help to understand what we should do in light of that and how that should apply to the believer's life. And it's very exciting because ultimately we are being conformed into the image of Christ and we're going to see in verses 1 through 9 shortly, how Christ and His humanity was perfect, and now how we are conformed into that image. This is the point that the writer has been bringing us to in the last three chapters. He is bringing us to the reality of Jesus Christ in the believer's life. My friends, we are not learning these things for some higher knowledge, but we are learning them that Christ might be a reality in our lives, and that we might know Him, and be filled with His Word and His Spirit, and might be obedient to His Word. I'm not talking about this common phrase that people use, which is a biblical phrase, but I think it's been taken out of context where people say, I have my own personal Jesus. You know, I got my personal Jesus. Well, if your personal Jesus doesn't match up with the Bible, it's an idol. It's just what you've made up in your mind. If you have not learned through suffering to identify with Christ, then I don't know what Jesus you have. Because it's in different degrees with different people. I'm not saying everybody has to suffer to the same degree. But we know Christ clearly in the scriptures, and we'll see clearly through Hebrews 10. One way is through suffering. and other ways so I'm not talking about that type of thinking where people say I have my own personal Jesus and they're almost saying like leave me alone like no if your Jesus is not the Jesus of the Bible it is just another idol but praise the Lord we can know the real Jesus we can know the Jesus of the Bible and have him ruling and reigning in our hearts and lives and we're going to see that we're going to see that today and that brings us back to the first part of this chapter and I won't be long today but it brings us back to the first part of this chapter in verses 1 through 9 which sets the premise for the rest of the chapter. And that premise is that the perfections of Jesus Christ and Him being the once and for all sacrifice has put an end to the ceremonial law. That's what you'll see in verses 1 through 11. That Christ has put an end to the ceremonial law. And his sacrifice is the final sacrifice. Now if we start in the first four verses, if you look there in the first four verses, what is the writer doing? He's showing the insufficiency of the sacrifices in and of themselves. In the first four verses he's showing that not only are the old sacrifices insufficient because of Christ, They're insufficient in and of themselves they're insufficient for the forgiveness of sins. And that's what he does in the first four verses. He shows that they are only a shadow in verse number one. They're not the real thing, they're only a shadow of what's to come that makes them insufficient. Secondly, they are continual. He makes the argument, and we'll run quickly through these arguments, but he makes the argument that they're continual then why do they have to keep going? If the sins are forgiven through these sacrifices, then why do the sacrifices have to be continual? They had to be continual because they were only a shadow. They did not grant the forgiveness of sins. And thirdly, he makes the argument that it was only the blood of animals. It was the blood of bulls and goats. We cannot be forgiven through the blood of animals. for their blood is tainted. It's not able to forgive sins. The old system was insufficient in and of itself. It could never produce an atonement for sin. Yet why does the writer of Hebrews have to spend so much time convincing certain ones that this is true? even after they have some knowledge or even much knowledge of Christ. Why does the writer have to go through this so often in this book? Even though the people he's writing to have some knowledge or even much knowledge of Christ. It is for the same reason, and I believe this is how it applies to us. Listen, because we could say, well, none of us are going back to the sacrificial system, and we're not. I mean, we don't even know what it is, most of us. So, we're not going back to that, but there is a principle here that applies to us. I believe the reason he spends so much time in this book going over this, it is for the same reason we deal with the same thing today. How many people do we meet that have some knowledge or even much knowledge of Christ, but are still in their old system of works? Why does this happen? Because people do not understand the real issue at stake when we talk about heaven and hell. And what is the real issue? Look in verses 2, 3 and 4 and clearly you will see the real issue that so many miss. Obviously people today are not trying to go back to sacrificing animals So we differ in that principle. However, people today are missing the same point as those in the first century to whom this was written. Look, at the end of verse 1, what does it say? Excuse me, at the end of verse 2 it says, which is called Hebrews 10.2, at the end it says, Once purged should have had no more conscience of sins. Now look at the end of verse 3. Remembrance again made of sins every year. Now I'll go down to verse 4. It says, And it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins. What do we need? What do we need? We need our sins taken away. We need our sins taken away. And how can our sins be taken away? And I believe these first century, we differ in the sense that these first century Hebrews, I believe they did understand that. Because the Jews would understand that, that they needed their sins taken away. Because that's what the sacrificial system was for. And they saw that. But they thought that they could go back to that system, and through that system, they could have their sins forgiven. Today we stand in a little different position. Because people today, I'm sad to say, I talked to at least three of them yesterday, who claim to be Christian, and had no idea that their sins needed to be forgiven. I mean, that's how gospel ignorant people are. They don't even know why they're coming to Christ. They don't even know that they need their sins forgiven. They don't even know what sins are. They don't even know what forgiveness is. And somehow, they're Christians. And this is a tragic problem today. This is a tragic problem that people don't even know that they need their sins forgiven. At the end, The point is that so many slip back into their system of works because they don't see the real issue of the forgiveness of sins and how these sins are forgiven. Why was the old system not effective? It is that for the same reason that your good works are not acceptable to God. It is because they cannot grant you the forgiveness of sins. Because they are insufficient in and of themselves. Just as the sacrifices were insufficient in and of themselves. Your works are insufficient. They cannot grant you the forgiveness of sin. And that's what you need. If you're not in Christ, you need your sins forgiven. You have a debt with God that you cannot pay. And how will your sins be forgiven? By your good works? By going back to your system of good works? By staying in your system of good works? It will never be sufficient for your sins. For two reasons. First, in verse 1, because they cannot make you perfect. And secondly, in verse 2, they cannot purge your conscience. First, they cannot make you perfect. They cannot make you perfect. The standard is perfection. And the only things that are good are the things that are done in accordance with God's will. That's what we're going to see here in this chapter. We're going to see that Jesus Christ is perfect. Why? Because He did, He lived according to God's will. Do you know what right is? Do you want to know what right is? God's will is right. Your will is wrong. That's what right and wrong is. Am I living according to God's will in my life? What is God's will in my life? That's what is right. That's what is right. And what is wrong is my will, whatever it is. Good, bad, in between, indifferent, whatever it is. My will is wrong. God's will is right. It is right to live in God's will. And how can me, doing good words according to my own judgment, be doing the will of God? And how can that ever make me perfect? It cannot. It cannot. Secondly, they cannot purge your conscience. Your works may appease your corrupted conscience, but they cannot purge your conscience to make you ready to serve God, like we read in Hebrews 9.14. When the blood purges your conscience, what happens? You're ready to serve God. It makes you able to serve God. But when your conscience is only appeased, As so many are, it only produces self-righteousness and self-justification. But a purged conscience, through the blood of Jesus Christ, has no righteousness of its own, but has the righteousness of Christ. And a purged conscience never justifies sin, but it finds its justification in Jesus Christ. Which brings us to verse 5. Look at verse 5 in chapter 10. Wherefore, when he comes into the world, he saith, Sacrifice an offering thou wouldest not, but a body. How hast thou prepared for me? Wherefore is the first word you see in this verse. Or, because of the old system is insufficient. And the same is true of your works. Wherefore, or because of what was previously said, God is not satisfied with sacrifices and offerings. God is not satisfied with you going to church. Do you think it pleases God for you to go to church? I think if you're a believer, we're going to get into forsaking not the assembly. and you do it in humility to serve others, I would say yes. But do you think it pleases God for you to go to church, or it pleases God for you to do whatever you do, that you're thinking you're gaining God's favor to obtain heaven? It does not. It does not please God. Your sacrifices and offerings, like the sacrifices and offerings of old, do not please God. They do not please God. This is a direct quotation from Psalm chapter 40 verses 6 through 8. I would encourage you all, I was tempted to preach through that chapter this morning because that is a great chapter. I would really encourage you to read Psalm 40 today when you go home. But knowing where the Lord has brought us from, It's of such great importance. It's of such great importance. Well, let's go to Psalm 40. We'll read a couple verses there. Go to Psalm 40. You really can't read this portion without reading Psalm 40, at least a few verses there. This is where this comes from. Let's read the first eight verses. I waited patiently for the Lord, and He inclined unto me and heard my cry. He brought me up also out of a horrible pit and out of the Maori clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings. And He hath put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God. Many see it in fear and trust in the Lord. Blessed is the man that makes the Lord his trust and respects not the proud, nor has he turned to lies. You see that, not respecting the proud. Many, O Lord my God, are thy wondrous works which thou hast done, and thy thoughts which are toward us. They cannot be reckoned up in order unto thee. If I would declare and speak of them, they are more than can be numbered. Sacrifices and offerings Thou didst not desire. Mine ears hast Thou opened. Burnt offerings and sin hast Thou not required. Thence to Thine low I come in the volume of the book. It is written of me. I delight to do Thy will, O God. Yea, Thy law is within my heart." Knowing where the Lord has brought us from is of such great importance. It's of such great importance. Listen, in verse 2, what does he say? He says, He brought me up out of the miry clay, out of a horrible pit. In verse 17, at the end of this chapter, he says, I am poor and needy, yet the Lord thinks on me. The Lord thinks on him, why? Because he is poor and needy. It reminds me of Isaiah. Listen, because this is the key to this whole thing today. This is the key to the whole thing. It reminds me of Isaiah 66.2, which reads, For all those things that my hand made and all those things that have been, saith the Lord, listen to this, but to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit and trembles at my word. and trembled. God does not want sacrifices and offering. He wants a humble and contrite heart. That's what God is looking for. He's not impressed with your evangelism. He's not impressed with your church going. He's not impressed with my preaching. He's not impressed with how good you look or what you do. God is looking for a humble and contrite heart. And as we go through this chapter, you will see Jesus Christ has the perfect contrite and humble heart. In Matthew chapter 11 verse 29, Jesus said, That's 28, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, I will give you rest, for I am meek and lonely in heart. Jesus obeyed God and was perfect in his humanity because of his lowliness. Because he was lowly. Because he was righteous, yes, we'll get into that. Because he did not sin. But his sinlessness is seen in his meekness and his lowliness. And that is what God is looking for. God is not interested in how much a person can perform. He is looking for the humble in heart. For God resists the proud and gives grace to the humble. And James 4, 6. For it is in Him, in verse 3 of Psalm 40, that we read that He put the new song in our heart. It is His thoughts, in verse 5, that cannot be numbered, that are toward us. It is God, it is God who does the work in us. And He is looking for those who know their state without Him. Like the psalmist says in Psalm 40 that we just read, that I have nothing without Him. I heard a testimony recently of a TV star who is now making a profession of faith. I was discouraged when he said, and spent some time talking about this, how he wasn't that bad of a person before he got saved. That's disturbing to me because I'm a horrible, wretched, pathetic, sickening sinner. That's who I am and I can never forget that. And we should never forget that. And we know that that is what brings us, that's what leads us to Christ. That's what causes me to cling to Christ because I know the minute I turn from Him, what will happen? Sin will come up in my heart immediately and take advantage and take control if I am not humble and lowly in my heart, knowing my condition without God. And if our precious Lord was humble and meek and lowly, and He was sinless, how much more ought we to be lowly than considering our condition without God as being so horrible? At the same time, knowing that God has provided a way, God looks upon the lowly These who delight to do His will. And in these characteristics, we see the perfections of Christ. His body, if you go back to Hebrews chapter 10, let's go back there and look at those verses continuing in Hebrews 10 verse 5, continuing from there. One thing about this Bible is for some reason it's hard to turn through. But look in 10.5, that's where we left off. His body was prepared. A prepared body. And his body was prepared in perfect obedience. In verse 7 it says, in the volume of the book it is written of Christ, it is written of me. In the book of Psalms, David was speaking of Jesus Christ, the coming sacrifice, the perfect Lamb of God, the meek and the lowly one. He, being a man, was in perfect subjection to God's will. A man asked me last week, if Jesus is God, then how did he pray to God? If Jesus is God, then how is He obedient to God? And in my mind, the answer to that is so beautiful and so simple. It's that Jesus was a man. He was a man, and He was God. And in His humanity, He submitted to God. He loved God. He obeyed God perfectly. Do you want to know what the greatest hindrance in serving God is? It is pride, as we read in Psalm 40. It is thinking that I can do something that is profitable outside of God's will. It is to think that I can use my time for what I want, instead of for what God wants. It is to think that I can own anything, for I own nothing. It is not to be used for God's purpose, for it is His. It is pride. It is the pride of thinking that my rights or my things or my money or my time or even my life can be dispensed at my own will. My friends, we need not kid ourselves. God owns everything and we really have nothing unless we humble ourselves and delight to do His will. But oh, our Savior was the great forerunner, for He humbled Himself, even unto death, even the death of the cross. And this is what it means to be humble. It is to know and live in the humility of Jesus Christ. It is to know and to live in the humility of Christ. That's what it means to be humble. To know Him. To identify with His sufferings. To be obedient to what God's will is for my life. So many don't even know what God's will is. Many people don't know. I don't fully know what God's will is for my life. But I have a good idea. We're learning. We're learning what God's will is for our life. That's the most important thing. What am I doing? I'm not doing what God's will is for my life. I'm simply living according to my will and what I want, what makes me comfortable, what makes me happy, what I think is right, which is simply my will. But God's will is not our will. Just think of the one, our Lord Jesus, who is so righteous, yet so lovely. The one who is so holy, yet so meek. The one who is so powerful, but yet so gentle. The one who is the totality of truth, yet so gracious. the One who is God on earth, yet His only desire was to be obedient to His Father. The perfections of our Lord Jesus Christ are so glorious to gaze upon. and to marvel at the certainty of who He is and that He is the fulfillment of all the Old Testament shadows or the Old Covenant shadows. It is all written of Him. That's what He's saying in this chapter. All those things are written about Jesus Christ. They are written about Him. And as We close, I would like to read, let's read verses 7 through 9 in Hebrews 10. It says, Then said I, Lo, I come in the volume of the book it is written of me to do thy will, O God. Above, when he said, Sacrifice and offering, and burnt offerings, and offering for sin, thou wouldst not, neither hadst pleasure therein, which are offered by the law. Then said he, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He takes away the first, and he establishes the second. He establishes the second. Now, as we will see in the remaining part of this chapter, For the most part, as we behold the beauty of our Savior and marvel at the sacrifice He has made for us, we will start to take on the character of Jesus Christ. And the old system will become more and more useless. And Jesus Christ becomes more and more valuable. And then we can say with a trembling tongue, it is my desire, O God, to do your will. This is how Christ lived. His desire every day was to do the will of his Father. He humbled himself. And this is who God looks upon And it directly applies to us that we would humble ourselves. Pride so often restricts us. And pride can be so very subtle in our hearts. And we think we're not proud. But if we're living according to our will, and if our cheap desire today is not to do God's will, you have pride in your heart. You're proud. You think your will is more important than God's will. It's pride. If your chief desire today is not to do God's will, it's a form of pride, no matter how lowly you may appear. For Jesus came, and guess what? He did not seek His own will. He sought the will of His Father. And I pray today that we would look to Christ and see Him and live that same way. In 2 Corinthians, I'll close just by reading this verse. In 2 Corinthians chapter 3 verse 18, it says this, 3.18 says, But we all with an open face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord. You'll see later in this chapter when we get into sanctification and things of that nature, that we're being sanctified, which means we're being conformed into the image of Christ, if you're a believer. If you're a believer, you're being conformed into the image of Christ. What a glorious thing that as we behold the glorious perfections of our Savior, as we behold the beauty of who He is. Do you know what starts to happen? We start to take on His character through the power, through the Spirit of the Lord, through the Holy Spirit, and through beholding Christ and the beauties of who He is. We take on that same character. That is very humbling. Because when I think of the pride in my heart It's just the enmity against God that is in my heart. And to think that God, by His grace, would use us, would change us into the image of Christ, humble ourselves, and say, Lord, it is not my will, but my pleasure and my desire is to do your will. That is the greatest thing somebody could say. And it's what the Lord Jesus said, and it proves of his sinless nature that he was perfect in his submission to do God's will. To do God's will. We may come into a situation And we're so quick to say, well, I'm going to do this because it's the way I figured it out, or it's what's most comfortable for me, or it's what makes sense to me. How about, let's make a decision. What is God's will? What does Christ want me to do? What does He want me to do? And make a decision based on that. Yes, it may make me uncomfortable when I make that decision. It may cause me an inconvenience. It probably will. But look at the inconvenience it caused our Lord. It caused His family to hate Him. It caused His nation to hate Him. It caused Him to be crucified. My friends, when you make decisions because of His God's will, it will cost you something. Most definitely. But when you know Christ and His love and His lowliness and His meekness, you will say, God, it is my pleasure to do Your will. It is my desire, it is my chief desire to do Your will, God. And if it costs me everything, so be it. I want to do God's will. And that is what it means. to live in the power of the Spirit. That's what it means to be conformed to the image of Christ. It is to have our chief desire to do the will of God and have pride, have pride be taken out of our hearts. because it's in each one of our hearts and we'll naturally go along and we'll make decisions based on our own will unless we are looking to Christ and seeing Him and seeing the beauties of who He is and we're conformed into His image. And then we say, Lord, I no longer make decisions by what's best for me necessarily, but what is according to Your will. It is my desire and I pray that that would happen in each one of us. None of us have arrived And certainly we need much grace, but as we look to Christ and see his perfections in doing God's will, that same character will be formed in us. So let's pray. Dear Father in Heaven, we thank you that you sent your Son, Jesus. What a perfect example to us as a perfect human that you, Lord Jesus, being God, You were a man and you submitted perfectly to God. You submitted perfectly to dear Father. Your chief and only desire was to do the will of God and I pray please God help us. Help us God. We cry out to you. Our desires are so often for our own will and they can be so quickly drawn from this to that. Oh God deliver us. I pray that we would behold the beauties of Christ. And that through beholding the beauties of Christ, we would say, not my will, God, but your will be done. I pray, Lord, that would be each of our chief desires, God, for your purpose and your glory. In Jesus' name, amen.