Our reading today from God's word is in the book of Hebrews chapter 10. And we will be going through verse 10 to verse 22. Verse 10 to verse 22, chapter 10 of Hebrews. So let's listen to the words of the living Christ. whose mercy seat is full of light. By that will, we are being sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. And every priest stands ministering daily and offering repeatedly the same sacrifices which can never take away sins. But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God. From that time, waiting till his enemies are made his footstool. For by one offering, he has perfected forever those who are being sanctified. But the Holy Spirit also witnesses to us, for after he had said before, this is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord. I will put my laws in their hearts and in their minds. I will write them. Then he adds, their sins and their lawless deeds, I will remember no more. Nowhere there is remission of these, there is no longer an offering for sin. Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, which he consecrated for us through the veil, that is, his flesh. And having a high priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Amen. You may be seated. Let's pray together. Our Father, we pray now to you as we go into this precious time of the preaching of your word, and this is the word that you have written. It's not a something made up by man, but it is the word from you written down by those whom you would choose to write. And so as we open up and have heard it read, and now we are about to have it preached, We pray that you would peel back all of the layers so that we may be able to absorb the truth of your word and have a better understanding of it, better than we had before we ever read that passage. We pray, O Lord, knowing that Jesus Christ Sacrifice for our sins once for all time. For when the kindness of You, O God, appeared, You forgave us, not based on our own righteousness, but based upon His righteousness. So we praise you for it, O Lord, and ask that as we draw near to you, may it be to hear and to understand your word today. In Jesus' name, amen. The title of the sermon this morning, The Sanctifying Power of Worship. We've come thus far in the book of Hebrews, and it builds, doesn't it? It builds in the higher and higher and higher level to show forth Jesus Christ, superior in every way. The New Covenant, superior in every way. the worship superior also in every way. And as we consider the verses that are opened here, we seek to clarify and open up and to apply, but only God can really do that in your mind and mine, your heart and mine. And so as we approach this portion of scripture, may we recognize that it is God who is speaking through this, the pages of Holy Writ. Oh, and may we bow the internal part of our being before it. I would like for us to consider, if I may back up to verse 5 just briefly, and consider God the Son came from heaven to reconcile. You see the idea of the Lord Christ coming several times, three times to be exact, and verse 5 to begin with says, therefore when he came into the world, sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but a body you have prepared for me. He came into the world to take on, understand this is God the Son, God the Eternal Son, God who's called the Word in John 1. The one in the beginning, that is, that creation who was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God, the same was in the beginning with God. And everything that was made, nothing was made apart from him. This God, the Eternal Son, came to take on a body. You find in Philippians 2 the description of, although he existed in form, God, He took on or added to himself also the form of man, but it goes on to say the form of a servant. And it gets specific for the suffering of death, even as death on a cross. He took on a body born of a virgin, the Virgin Mary. A human nature yet without sin, a human body, even a human soul without an identity apart from the Son. Fully man and fully God, He came into this world to take on a body. But in verse 7 it says again, it says, Behold, I have come, and in the volume of the book it is written of me to do your will, O God. He came, willingly, condescending, taking on flesh, humbling himself and submitting unto the will of the Father, to fulfill the words on the book written of Him. From Genesis through Malachi, the road of Jesus Christ. It says in 2 Corinthians 3, it says that those who read Moses at that time, and today you could say, it says there they have a veil over their eyes so they do not see Jesus Christ. Now Jesus, after his resurrection, as we pointed out with his disciples on the road to Emmaus, remember, he took the Psalms, the writings, and the prophets, and he preached about himself. It says in 1 Peter 1 that the Spirit of Christ was in the prophets, declaring about Him. He came to fulfill the Father's will in the book. But there's another thing. In verse 9, it goes on to say, Behold, I have come to do your will, O God. And he takes away the first that he might establish the second. The third thing he came to do, yes for a body, yes to fulfill the word, but it was also that he might remove the scaffolding that he had built to bring us or lead us to Jesus Christ that the Old Testament was in the law. and show us the reality that comes forth in the New Covenant. He takes away the first that he might establish, the second, the New Covenant, called the Everlasting Covenant in the last chapter of this book. He came to fulfill it. He came into this world to fulfill and to establish. Well, beloved, in 13, there's another coming it describes. In verse 13, it says, from that time waiting until his enemies had made a footstool for his feet. We know this quotation from Psalm 110. We saw it back in chapter 1 where it says, when that occurs, he will fold up the heavens like a garment. We recognize that from Isaiah and from Roman Revelation 6, the second coming and a new creation. We know it from the previous chapter, chapter 9, verse 28. So Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many. To those who eagerly wait for him, he will appear a second time apart from sin for salvation. He's coming again. I've heard people that are completely indifferent to eschatology. Oh, this should not be. This was the hope. of all those who have gone before, and it is ours as well." And so, this is what it says. His enemies made a footstool for his feet. That shouldn't surprise us. Remember, that was a promise in the garden. In Genesis 3.15, you have there that God said that the seed of the woman would crush the head of the serpent. In the process, his heel would be bruised, but still, the serpent would be conquered. Colossians 2.15 says, at the cross, when Jesus came, at the cross, he disarmed the principalities and powers, put them to an open shame, and triumphed over them, in it the cross. Oh, it's wondrous. It says in 1 Corinthians 15, it says, the last enemy that shall be destroyed is death itself. That's in verses 25 and 6 of that chapter. And in 1 Corinthians 15, 54, there is where it says, now it is accomplished when he comes again at the second coming, death will be no more. Be the resurrection of the saints under everlasting glory and then the resurrection and the condemnation of the lost. Read John 5, 28 and 9. It's simple. Revelation 20, verse 10, though, says something else. It says, at that time, the dragon, the serpent of old, the devil, who deceives the nations, shall be taken and cast into the lake of fire, where he and his angels and the antichrist and the false prophet shall be tormented forever and ever. Conclusion. Christ came that he might make certain that would be the case. Oh, it was certain, don't misunderstand, but he sealed it with his own blood and with his own resurrection from the dead. And so there God showed forth his covenant confirmed in the sun. Furthermore, God the Son came from heaven to reconcile. Remember on the Day of Atonement, that was essentially, yes, it was a covering of sin, Yom Kippur covering. It was also the substitutionary atonement. It was a representative of a high priest. But fundamentally, you had God who's holy and sinners here, and there was a curtain in between. And here the sinners are reconciled unto a holy God through the sacrifice. That's why Hebrews 6, 19, and 20 we saw Jesus Christ is the anchor within the veil for us. That's why we have hope, it says. Well, five things I'd like you to note, beginning in verse 10 and going through the verses that follow. It says in him, we are sanctified to salvation in the cross of Christ. Remember we saw that in 10 and 14 last time. I wanted to share this following up on it. We have been sanctified at that cross, and we are therefore, because of it, being sanctified in our lives, more and more conformed to the image of Christ. Now, five things. First of all, if we have been sanctified and we are being sanctified that means we are sacred and precious in his sight costly the price beloved was the blood of God the son poured out for us secondly It means this union with Jesus Christ as we are joined to Him, remember, identified with Him by the Spirit through faith, so identified that there's also the idea of relationship. Relationship. A relationship with Him, but also a relationship with each other. You and I are each a part of His body. And with God, our Father. The spirit of adoption crying out, Abba, Father. And thirdly, we are immersed into the Holy Spirit. In this new covenant, the Holy Spirit, he is the one who's doing this. Within and fourthly, we belong, we participate in the heavenly sphere. And that's what we're seeing described here in verses 19 and following. Because by the Spirit in Christ, we are hereby connected to the holy, the holy of holies in the heavenly places by the Spirit. And fifthly, finally, We're set apart unto God from sin and the curse and condemnation from the world and its sphere of darkness and bondage unto God as those redeemed set free by the blood of Christ. And so He came into the world. We have been sanctified, and finally, in this section, it is done once for all. Now, the wording that's used here in the original language, it has an extra word that's put in there. Hapax means, you know, once, or at once. It has epapox, which is an intensified preposition put on the front, and that is once for all. In other words, it's definitive. It means, in other words, not once for every person. It means for all time, not to be repeated. I'll show you. Look at me at verse 10. It says, by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. Now look at verse 12. By this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, he sat down at the right hand of God. Once for all, forever, verse 14. For by one offering he has perfected forever those who are being sanctified." Forever, and then verse 18. Now where there is remission of these, there is no longer an offering for sin. Four times it makes the point that the one sacrifice that Christ wrought is all-sufficient for all the redeemed of all time, and, it makes the point, never to be repeated. So, get it? It's unique. No more to be done. Unique. Furthermore, it's supreme in quality. Once, for all those who would be redeemed throughout all the ages, the quality to redeem them all, us all. And thirdly, it happened one time in history with eternal consequences, eternal power, and eternal application. And then fourthly, and this is important, don't miss this one, to repeat the sacrifice is to deny the sufficiency of Jesus Christ. We'll see this driven home later on in this chapter, but also in chapter six. The idea of trampling underfoot the blood of God and counting the blood whereby he was sanctified an unholy thing. And so it's not to be repeated. It is tantamount to apostasy. You know what apostasy is like, right? Well, put it in secular terms, high treason. And so when we think of Jesus Christ, who's in danger of doing this? Well, we can name a few that have to be so wary of this. I have followed in various news outworks on the internet, look at reading stuff, see what's going on. And seeing about the hoopla, a lot of people were just thrilled the fact that there was the red heifer, actually five. They could be sacrificed in Jerusalem. And so they could sacrifice the red heifers, and they could rebuild the temple, and they could reinstitute sacrifices. And they've already got the priests ready, and all the implements ready, and all the stuff that would be necessary in the temple itself almost. And so here they could reinstitute the sacrifices. And the Jews that were there were thrilled about it. But even I hear some Christians saying, it's wonderful they're gonna re-sacrifice. Compare to what we just read in four different places in this one context of how we really should consider these things. Another group would, of course, be Roman Catholicism. In Roman Catholicism, some of you are familiar with the idea of the Eucharist, it's called frequently, or we would say the Lord's Supper. And you're probably familiar with it being the believing in transubstantiation. That is to say that it's a true body and blood and soul of Jesus Christ under the elements of bread and wine. Let me read to you the Council of Trent Session 13, Canon 1. If anyone denies that in the sacrament of the Most Holy Eucharist are contained truly, really, and substantially the body and blood together with the soul and divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ, and consequently the whole Christ, but saith that he's only therein as a sign or a figure of virtue, listen, let him be anathema. So you see, beloved, it's not a small thing for those, you say, well, you know, our Roman Catholic brothers and sisters. Wait a minute. What did we just read? What does it say in Hebrews? You can't straddle that line. You see what I'm saying? And by the way, I'm not cherry picking. I could read out of the modern catechism in Rome, it says, what's clear about this is that the center of the whole Catholic liturgy is the Eucharist. And it says it is the incarnation continuing in space and time. And so as you consider these matters, you say, in Judaism, he must be. No, it's wrong. It's a re-institution of that which was done away. It's that once for all sacrifice that Jesus has done. You cannot repeat it. It's done for all eternity. But what about evangelicalism? Of those, not all, but some in their zeal in considering an eschatological temple. would go to a text that would talk about the sacrifices as atonement for sin, or for forgiveness of sin, for satisfaction of sin, and a priesthood that would continue, and all of the things that the book of Hebrews says is wrong. You say, well, they might have good intentions. Well, intentions are not the point here. It is, it's wrong. Some may not know it. They may know just the generalities and not know the specifics. you be a good brother or sister and go alongside and tell them. No, no. You see what's at stake? It's not a small thing. It's not an opinion thing. It's clearly stated in the book of Hebrews. Well, I hasten to my second point. The heavenly revelation and reconciliation, God's way. God's way. As we've gone through this, we've seen everything to do with the sacrifices that were done. We see that, for example, that it says in verse 11, every priest ministers daily, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. Think of the frustration of that. It can never take away sins, and so daily, constantly, on and on, generation after generation, offering sacrifice after sacrifice, but it can never take away sin. We see that in the Old Covenant, and this is to summarize three, four things together. and that is we seen here in the book of Hebrews as in the old covenant these types in the shadows, these sacrifices, these altars, the temple itself, the veil that's between, the high priest that does it on the day of atonement, the regular priest offerings, etc. that in all of these things they have a purpose. God put them there so essentially for a reason and that reason is first of all to see God's will. What do I mean by that? It was to God's will that we should understand the way to Him, for sinners to come to Him, and the need to have reconciliation, the need to have a mediator between us and God. How God is holy and we are sinful, you see, all of that is extraordinarily clear, made so clear in the law in those sacrifices. So they had their purpose, don't misunderstand. It was according to the will of God, so it shows God's will. This is the way to be approached in worship. But secondly, it was God's purpose. And that purpose was to illustrate and to teach how Jesus Christ would fulfill all that, you see. as it says in Galatians 324, that the law was a schoolmaster to lead us to Christ, a tutor to lead us ultimately to Jesus Christ. It shows us God's will and how we are to be reconciled. It shows, furthermore, God's purpose and how Jesus Christ would fulfill that. But thirdly, it shows God's plan. God's plan all along was for the New Covenant. In other words, that was the goal. That was the place where we'd be led to. The Old Covenant had built-in obsolescence. It was satisfactory for the time until Christ came. But once Christ has come, you see, He is the one who inaugurated the fulfillment of everything having to do with the New Covenant, to replace the Old Covenant. And so we see in the cross of Jesus Christ, in the active obedience of Christ, in the suffering of Christ, in the death of Jesus Christ, and in the empty tomb of Jesus Christ, and ultimately his exaltation to the right hand of the Father as mediator and on our behalf, we see in Jesus Christ the finality and the fullness of forgiveness. Notice what we saw there in the New Covenant. Oh, what glorious verse it is. In verse 17 he adds, their sins and their lawless deeds I'll remember no more. One of my sister's favorite verses was taken out of the Old Testament. It says, he has placed our sins as far as the east is from the west. That's the idea. God's plan, the finality and the fullness of the forgiveness. But furthermore, the believer's interest in it, how we would be not just outwardly forgiven legally and covenantally, but how he would write his law upon our hearts and upon our minds, the inner transformation. And ultimately, as we shall see in the next verse, God's presence. God's, excuse me, next point, God's presence. His presence with His church. When I talked about Jesus Christ, our anchor within the veil, that means into the very presence of beyond the veil, right in the veil. So God's unveiled glory in the Holy of Holies that was seen there in the above the Ark of the Covenant. He is our way into that unveiled glory of the Father. We are in union with Christ, we're united to Christ. If I may, let me go back to Ephesians for a moment, if you don't mind, and look at chapter 2. In Ephesians chapter 2, verse 6. You know all of it, it talks about how we are dead in trespasses and sins, in all the depravity of our heart and our mind and our behavior and our nature even. And it says, but God who's rich in mercy because of the great love with which he loved us, even while you were dead, he's made you alive for by grace you're saved. And then in verse six, it goes on to say this, and has raised us up together and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. That's called a pregnant pause. That means you let it soak in and hear what it just said. In Christ, we are seated in the heavenly places. In Him, that is to say, in identity with Jesus Christ. In an extraordinary way, covenantally, in identity by representation, by substitution, and by our joining to Him in an extraordinary way that all the body of Christ is joined with Christ at the right hand of the Father in effect. Look at chapter 3 of Ephesians, if you would. Look at verses 15 through 17. Let me start with 14. For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Listen, from whom the whole family in heaven and on earth is named, that he would grant you according to the riches of his glory to be strengthened with might through the Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, that you being rooted and grounded in love may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height to know the love of Christ, which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. And so as you look at all of this taking place, you see, it is us identified with Jesus Christ, but not just you and me individually. It is all of those, all of the redeemed, of all time, the whole family of God, united to, legally, covenantally, and even vitally to Jesus Christ. It's extraordinary the way it describes it. And so as we return here to our text, there's so much that we could draw from in the rest of the New Testament where it talks about the Holy Spirit. Where is the temple? Remember, we're talking about a temple that was in Jerusalem. We're talking now in the temple that's in the heavenly places. But where, if that temple's destroyed, where is the temple of God on earth? Some of you are pointing. Some of you get real emphatic if I don't notice. Me! Because you're overjoyed about it, and that's true, but that's only partially right. His temple is in all those who are His, together. In 1 Corinthians chapter 3, verses 16 and 17, you all know the things I point out at times, how you say, in the Greek, and say, here he goes, in the Greek. But it's only because in the English you can't see it. In 1 Corinthians 3.16, it uses pronouns. Everybody knows what a pronoun is, right? Some of the adults roll their eyes at me at times. They say, I don't remember what a pronoun is. And I say, that's all right. I understand. Just go with me and I'll try to explain it. Instead of saying John or David or Lelden or whatever, you say he, right? Or him, depending on the subject. And so that's a pronoun. Well here in 316 and 317 of 1 Corinthians it says this, do you not know that you, now is that plural or singular, you? Well, you don't know. That's why I'm bringing up the Greek, unless you're from the deep south or something where you say y'all, okay? Then you see, it is accurate in some cases. But this is a plural you, a plural you. And so it says, do you not know that you, plural, are the temple of God and that the spirit of God dwells in you, plural, again? And so in verse 17, it says, if anyone defiles or destroys the temple of God, God will destroy him. For the temple of God is holy, which temple you, plural, are. So in other words, he's speaking about a local church at Corinth. And he's talking about people of the church. You, together, plural, corporately, you are the temple of God. Do you know what the temple was again? We've been going through it in the book of Hebrews. It's extraordinary. How many people never would come anywhere near the Holy Place? Never mind Holy of Holies, the Holy Place outside the Holy of Holies, right? Just beyond the altar in the Bratislava. When you had, you know, the table of showbread, you had the menorah, you had the altar of incense, all of that was in the Holy Place. How many, except priests, would ever go near there? Nobody. Weren't allowed. This says I'll read another that you know. 1 Corinthians, there are already six, 17, no I'll start with 18 I guess. 1 Corinthians 6, I'll start with 19. Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God and you are not your own? You were bought at a price, therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's. The word that's used, there are two words that are used for temple. One word for temple means that big building, the building that was the place where everyone would go into, but it's interesting, the word that's used for the sanctuary. That would be the holy of holies, or at the very least, the holy place. That's the place that says, you and I have become. You are, now by the way it's a singular, the Holy Spirit abides within you, and you are the temple of the Holy Spirit. And so putting it together, you and I individually are the temple of the Holy Spirit, the sanctuary of the Holy Spirit. Corporately we form the temple of the Holy Spirit. In other words, we need to look at it as a reality, not as a fiction. not as a possibility, not as a potentiality. All of those forming the body of Christ, we are indwelt by God the Holy Spirit. And by the way, sealed into the day of redemption. He's not going to leave. And so you put this together, you see, beloved, it brings us to our part where it says here that The heavenly revelation and reconciliation is done God's way. He's the one who determines how he's approached. He's the one who determines how he's worshipped, we do. And this is the way. He would form us to be a temple and in Christ be at his right hand represented and therefore in the following verses 19 and following that we are somehow connected in him to the heavenly places themselves. Before we go, may I read another couple verses out of another book. Colossians chapter 1. It's an important text. I think it would help us clarify some things before we jump into the next verses. It's extraordinary the first chapter of Colossians talking about the pre-existence of Christ, of the Christ being the agent of creation of things visible and invisible. And here talking, as we look at this together, Colossians chapter 1, verse 26 and 27, listen. He says, the mystery which has been hidden from ages, from generations, but now has been revealed to his saints. To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of his mysteries among the Gentiles, which is, Christ in you, the hope of glory. It's mind boggling, I tell you. There is the mystery hidden from ages past has now been revealed. Christ in you and in me, the hope of glory. So we've seen God the Son come, came from heaven to reconcile. Secondly, we saw the heavenly revelation and reconciliation is God's way. And thirdly, worship in God's heavenly presence. Let me introduce this part just by saying this, first of all. I've already said it, but I want to drive it home. That was a long time ago, and you've probably forgotten, or maybe. Worship is about, to, for, and determined by God. I remember listening. Yes, I did. I sometimes force myself to listen to different things, just to see what is being said out there. And Joel Osteen's wife supposedly was preaching. And what she said was, boldly and loudly and everyone applauded, worship isn't about God, it's about us. Some of you look shocked. You should be. You see they have it exactly upside down. You say, now wait a minute, we draw great benefit from worship. Absolutely. God does transform us and change us and work in us and draw us nearer to himself and convict us and work to encourage us and to equip us on every good work and all of these things. I couldn't agree more. But you see, the primary reason we worship is to glorify him. Not for us. That's the way the Scriptures put it. And furthermore, it is to be done, as we see here in verse 22, it says, Let us draw near with a true heart, in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure waters. Let us draw near with a true heart. Some translations may have sincere. Some of you are familiar with the practice that was done in the ancient times when this was written. They had a lot of pots made out of clay. And they would be for sale in the market and use them for all kinds of things, right? And many of them were beautiful. They would paint them, you see. And some of those without scruples, without ethics, would take those that were flawed somehow in the baking or preparing or have a crack in them or something like that. And they would melt wax into the crack and then paint over it. Sincere comes from the word san without sere, wax. A sincere person, a true person, no wax covering it. It's interesting as you look at Jesus talking to the Pharisees in Matthew chapter 15. Maybe you remember this. I forget the verses. You can look it up. 8 and 9, somewhere in there. He said, beware that you're not like those that Isaiah spoke of. He said, this people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. You see, beloved, that's not a true heart. He says we come to Him with a true heart. Jesus, as He spoke to the woman at the well, and He says, God is spirit, and those who worship God must worship Him in spirit and in truth. And so as we think of drawing nigh unto Him, it is with heart and mind filled with and for His glory. If we do this, by the way, you'll find our needs are met so much farther beyond what we expected, what we would like to find, because we seek Him first. You know, I love One man summarized what sanctification is like, and he says, you know, really you could say that about worship too. It's really simple. Thy will be done. Thy will be done. Isn't that in the Lord's Prayer? Our Father who art in heaven, how does it begin by the way? Hallowed, holy, sanctified be thy name. thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. There is a starting place for worship. But thirdly, let's ask, what is worship? Allow me to give a brief definition of my own making. So if you say, would you please tell me where you got that? I didn't get it from anywhere but the Bible, I think, and what I believe worship is as a starter. So allow me to read it to you. I wrote it down or I'd have never gotten all the pieces put together. Worship is absolute humility and reverence shown and expressed before God, the Holy Trinity. We express honor, thanksgiving, praise, love, devotion, and fullness of faith through Jesus Christ our Mediator, by the Holy Spirit, coming to our Heavenly Father with a true heart and a focused mind upon the Holy Sovereign in wonder and complete submission, desiring and delighting in the God of grace and covenant redemption. If you were to look at the basis of worship, it is first of all, God is creator. We sang that first hymn that we sang, number 115, All Creatures of our God and King. And you say, well, some of those, I'm not sure what it's getting at. What it's getting at is general revelation, that all of creation bears witness to and glorifies and sings praises to in its own way, the creator. The problem is that the godless, it says in Romans 1 25, they've ended up worshiping and serving the creation rather than the creator. But remember, from the beginning, God is where he set aside, you know, one day out of seven as holy unto the Lord. That was in the garden before the fall. And so it is that we should glorify and commune with and worship him as creator. Somehow that's gotten lost in the mix. You read through your scriptures and you'll find, so many times, maker of heaven and earth, or the one who abides in unapproachable light, or the one who laid out the beams in the heaven, and he rides upon the wings of the wind, and he makes the clouds his chariot, or the one he describes who laid out the Pleiades in Orion's belt. This is the God that we exalt, the one who is transcendent, who is infinite, and we, the finite, come to this infinite God by His grace in Christ, by the Holy Spirit, and bow down at His footstool in worship. Creator, but O Beloved, as Covenant Redeemer. There's the basis, and that's what it's getting at. The basis is Jesus Christ and his person and work. God, the father and his grace in his purposes and plans, God, the Holy Spirit, effectually bringing these things to be in our lives. It is God, the Holy Trinity. And so when we think then of worship, it is a blessed and holy exercise for those who are the redeemed. It is gratitude for His great grace. What do you have? What do I have that we have not received? And so as we look at the following verses, and sadly our time is done, that is the very theme we shall develop. But let us not leave from this place without seeing that in the new covenant reality The wonder of the New Covenant is that God is the one who brings us within the veil. And goes beyond that, God is the one who makes us His temple. And that worship is not something that's done once in a while, but our life is to be one of worship. As an illustration of that, all of you know Romans 12, verses 1 and 2. Thursday we're in Romans and we are in, just dealt with that part. And if you look at the language that's used there, you know how it goes, right? I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies, that is sacrifice language, present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable or rational service. Service. The word that's translated there is service. is the word Latreia. You know how it's most frequently translated? Worship. In other words, even everything that we do in our lives, whether by word or deed in our bodies, is to be, as it were, an act of worship, an offering of spiritual sacrifices, 1 Peter 2 would describe it, unto our Lord. Well, if that's the case, how much more are the stated times of worship? where we gather together as the redeemed, His covenant redeemed, those in Jesus Christ, those indwelt by the Spirit, draw nigh unto our Father in worship. Beloved, may that be a blessed exercise that we should rejoice in. May it be something that nothing can replace. May it not look like we're doing God a favor. And may it never be thought of as a spectator sport. I love, I saw a book title someplace, never read the book sadly, but saw the title, I liked it. It says, worship is a verb. It's what we do. May we honor Him. Beloved, you know this is an aside what happens and will develop later when we worship. When we see God as He is all the more clearly. His Spirit penetrating through the totality of our being, crushing us, humbling us. You remember what God says in His Word about how He deals with the humble and the contrite. He talks about the high and lofty places is where he sits. And he dwells with a humble and contrite spirit. God resists the proud, but he gives grace to the humble. Beloved, may we be worshipers, not just here, not just Lord's Day, but every day. May we leave a legacy to our children, our families. May they be worshipers and lovers of this true God, full of faith and devotion to Him. May that be an inheritance they get because of God through us. May God bless. May God be glorified. May God grant his grace for it all in Jesus name. Amen. Let's bow in prayer. Our righteous father, we realize that if every time we get a glimpse into heaven, we see you upon your throne. with our Lord Christ, our Mediator, High Priest and King at your right hand, ever living to make intercession for us, His body. The Spirit, God the Holy Spirit indwelling us, the Spirit of adoption crying out, Abba, Father. The Spirit of holiness at work in us, convicting, but also pointing us to Jesus Christ, whose blood cleanses us from all sin. In the new covenant, which you promised, Father, goes beyond merely the power to cleanse the flesh, but to cleanse the conscience as well. We, who are far off, have been brought near by the blood of Christ. May you pierce our hearts. Pierce them with a burning desire to draw nigh unto you more and more as we see the heavenly places surrounding the throne who cry out worthy to receive all glory and honor, riches and power, both now and forevermore. of those, Father, who cry out ceaselessly near the throne, the cherubim, holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. May we be like Isaiah who saw you high and lifted up, your train filling the temple and the holy, holy, holy cry of the seraphim. May we too be convicted of sin as you, Father, lay your purifying touch upon our lips. And may you, Father, equip us that we might all the more glorify you. May we be they who learn not just to say, but to mean it in the depth of our being without wax. Not my will, but thy will be done. Unto you be our glory. and honor and praises, both now and forevermore in Christ Jesus, we pray. For it is in His name we pray it. Amen. Now receive the benediction of the Lord. Unto him who is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us. Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.