In his sermon, Douglas Campbell delves into the necessity of bloodshed for the forgiveness of sins, as outlined in Hebrews 9:22. He explains the Old Testament's sacrificial system, where priests regularly offered animal sacrifices to atone for the sins of the people, highlighting that these sacrifices were a foreshadowing of the ultimate sacrifice made by Jesus Christ. Campbell emphasizes that the shedding of Christ's blood secures eternal redemption and purity of conscience, making Him the mediator of a new covenant. The sermon underscores the seriousness with which God views sin and the necessity of atonement through blood, ultimately pointing to the sufficiency of Christ's once-for-all sacrifice for salvation. The speaker calls for personal reflection on sin, urging listeners to trust in Christ's sacrifice rather than their own works, and to live a life that honors the gravity of His atonement.

Amen. If you would turn with me to Hebrews chapter 9. Hebrews chapter 9. Hebrews chapter 9. This morning I want to look specifically at verse 22, but I would like to read through Hebrews chapter 9.

The word of God tells us, now even the first covenant had regulations for worship and an earthly place of holiness. For a tent was prepared, the first section in which were the lampstand and the table and the bread of the presence is called the holy place. Behind the second curtain was a second section called the most holy place having the golden altar of incense and the Ark of the Covenant covered on all sides with gold, in which was a golden urn holding the manna and Aaron's staff that budded, and the tablets of the covenant. Above it were the cherubim of glory, overshadowing the mercy seat of those things we cannot now speak in detail. These preparations having thus been made, the priests go regularly into the first section performing their ritual duties, but into the second only the high priest goes.

And he but once a year, and not without taking blood, which he offers for himself and for the unintentional sins of the people. By this, the Holy Spirit indicates that the way into the holy places is not yet opened as long as the first section is still standing, which is symbolic for the present age. According to this arrangement, gifts and sacrifices are offered that cannot perfect the conscience of the worshiper, but deal only with food and drink and various washings, regulations for the body imposed until the time of reformation. But when Christ appeared as a high priest of good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent, not made with hands, that is not of this creation, He entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves, but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption. For if the blood of goats and for if the blood of goats and bulls and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer sanctify for the purification of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from the dead works to serve the living God.

Therefore, He is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, since a death has occurred that redeems them from transgressions committed under the first covenant. For where a will is involved, the death of the one who made it must be established. For a will takes effect only at death, since it is not enforced as long as the one who made it is alive. Therefore, not even the first covenant was inaugurated without blood. For when every commandment of the law had been declared by Moses to all the people, he took the blood of calves and goats with water and scarlet wool and hyssop and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people, saying, this is the blood of the covenant that God commanded for you.

And in the same way he sprinkled with the blood both the tent and all the vessels used in worship, indeed under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins. Thus it was necessary for the copies of the heavenly things to be purified with these rights, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. For Christ has entered not into holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf. Nor was it to offer himself repeatedly as the high priest enters the holy places every year with a blood not his own. For then he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world.

But as it is, he has appeared once for all, at the end of the ages, to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after comes the judgment. So Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin, but to save those who are eagerly waiting for Him. Let's pray. Father, we come to you this morning worshiping, worshiping Father as we have sung about your greatness, as we ponder the power of the cross, the power of your son's blood sacrificed for those who would trust in him.

As we ponder your son, Father, conquering sin once and for all for the sins of our past, for the sins of our present, Father, and even the sins of our future, it is conquered by your son willfully shedding his blood on our behalf. Father, this morning we pray that you would continue to draw us close to you, that you would give us understanding, Father, and as we go into your word father that we might not take lightly the sacrifice that was made for us father I pray this morning that you would hide your words in our hearts that we might not sin against you. Father, make it that our ambition today. But Father, if there are those who don't know you, if the blood isn't applied to their account, Father, today I pray would be the day of salvation that they would be made alive in Christ. For Father, there is not a soul in this room who can guarantee they have tomorrow.

Father, let today be the day of salvation. Let today be the day we're made alive in you. Let today be the day that we put you as the top love in our life, as the top priority in our life. For Father, you rightly deserve it. Father, draw us and change us today, we pray, in Jesus' name.

Amen. Amen. This morning, let me call your attention to Hebrews 9 verse 22. This verse, as we've read the context before and after, we are discussing covenants with God or the character of God and the character of us and how we cannot be made right with Him. And so, because of God's deep love for us, for His glory, He sent His Son to shed His blood on our behalf, to do what you and I cannot do, to pay the price that you and I cannot pay.

Look at Hebrews 9 22. It says, Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sin. Let me repeat that last part. Without the shedding of blood There is no forgiveness of sin. Let me repeat that last part without the shedding of blood.

There is no forgiveness of sin. Now if you are are new in your walk, or if you haven't studied the Bible much in your life, or if you haven't given it a prominent place in your life, this verse, and if you're young, this verse may come across as very confusing. Some of us, maybe for the young people, it may come across as a little bit gross. It gets talking about everything is purified with blood and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sin. So what does this mean?

And this morning I would challenge you young people, every young person in this room, as we go through the Word of God, as you listen to the preacher, I would challenge you to find three things that stand out to you. And maybe even write those three things down. And then afterwards, as you eat lunch today or spend time with your families, go to your parents and share that with them that they might help you to understand this better. This is a little bit more complicated, and I think you would be truly blessed if every Sunday you did that. But I would ask you especially this Sunday to listen closely and just find three things that you can point out.

So what does it mean by almost everything is purified with blood? We start to find the meaning in the Old Testament. We must, as Brother Greg did, as he read Genesis, we find this meaning throughout the Old Testament. And this reaffirms or reassures or reminds us that without the Old Testament, the New Testament, we're left seemingly almost lost. Now, that's not to say that someone can't come to a right relationship with God without the Old Testament, but as believers, as true believers in the one true God, I would encourage you to understand that the Old Testament and the New Testament are extremely great gifts to the church.

They are extremely great gifts to you and I. There should be, as you hear this message and as we come to understand it, that you should be left with no doubt whatsoever that the idea that the Old Testament should be unhitched from the New Testament and thrown out is preposterous and doesn't even make sense. So let's dig into the Old Testament a little bit and let's understand what does it mean that everything is purified with blood and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins. To start this understanding we must look to Leviticus chapter 17 verse 11. It says, For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it for you on the altar to make atonement for your souls.

For it is the blood that makes atonement by the life. Essentially it's this concept. Life is in the blood. If today you could come up here and you could drain all the blood out of me really quick, you will find that I will have an incredibly short message today. Why?

Because I won't be able to talk anymore. I will be dead very quickly. To go further, in the medical field, one of the most life threatening things that can happen to you is for somehow for you to cut yourself bad enough that your arteries are now shooting the blood out of you. You have but a very short time to live if that is not stopped. Why?

Because there is life in your blood. Without your blood, you quickly die. And that concept is understood in Scripture. That life is found in the blood. Without blood, you don't live.

So let me read it again. For the life of the flesh is in the blood. For you to live, you need blood. For your flesh to live, you need blood. Now let's go to Genesis 2, 16-17.

And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die. As we look at Scripture as a whole, we find through Scripture that God has a different agreement or understanding with man in different times. The time that we find ourselves in is what we would call a covenant, a covenant of grace. But that covenant of grace is not the same understanding that God, or that same agreement that God had with Adam. In fact, Adam didn't need, it was in a sense a covenant of grace, but Adam didn't need forgiveness.

At this point, Adam has not sinned against God. We could look rightly at this covenant or this agreement between Adam and God and say that this was more a covenant or an agreement of obedience. In essence, Adam, I created you, I gave you your life, I gave you this beautiful garden, I've given you perfection. And notice too that it's also a perfection of he doesn't have to fight the weeds, he doesn't have to fight thorns and thistles. God still, because work is good, he still gives Adam some work to do, but it's a joyous work.

It's an easy work. Life is very good. In essence, the only requirement that Adam had, it wasn't even a requirement of works. Adam didn't have to earn his place with God. He didn't have to earn favor with God.

Adam had favor with God because God created Adam, and he gave him everything that he could possibly need. He gave him the easy life. Sometimes you and I think if we could just win the lottery, we'll have the easy life, and we fantasize about it, and all of our needs will be met. And it's all a false sense of what a perfect life would be like. In fact, you only have to look to those who have come into lots of money and you realize very quickly they are not happy people.

But you and I desire, you and I desire this this easiness, you desire to be taken care of, because in that sense, in some sense, we desire God. It's within us to desire to live a life where we're taken care of and we have joy and all these things. And this agreement between Adam and God is that. God takes care of every need, takes care of everything. It's just Adam, I love you, I created you, I'm taking care of you.

You can do whatever you want, except just don't eat of this tree. So this is the agreement. It's just one of obedience. Adam, I've given you everything. Will you obey me?

We find the result of disobedience is that on that day, the day that you eat of the tree, you shall surely die." So think of this. In the present, Adam, everything's good. Everything's taken care of. Nothing to worry about. I will provide everything that you could possibly ever want or need, Even to the extent I will provide you a helper, a wife.

I don't want you to be lonely in the garden. God is pouring out His love and providence to Adam. But Adam, just like you and I, deep in our hearts, we can never have enough. And Adam looked at the tree in the garden, and he had to wonder, why can't I have that tree? Amen?

We're a lot like that. You all have kids that are a lot like that. You can give them a three-week vacation and when you come home, your kids are crying. They don't want this to end. You can take that in lots of directions.

That's why we look into the world and we see millionaires who have more money than they could ever spend. And yet they're never satisfied. They'll still rip off the poor man to get more. It's something that's within us. But with Adam it was different.

Adam didn't have a sin nature. He simply could have chosen, he wasn't a slave to sin. He simply could have chosen to not eat of this tree. And yet what do we find happen? The men always like to blame Eve and say it's her fault, but Adam was the man.

He should have been a man. He should have said, stop talking to the serpent, I'll talk to the serpent. We're not doing that, go away. And he should have pounded the serpent if he had to. Or at a minimum say, we're not talking to you anymore, we're talking to God and He's going to take care of this for us.

But that's not what Adam did. They did the very thing that God said, if you do this, you're going to die. If you disobey me, you are going to die. And in fact, we live still under this same agreement. In Romans 2 23, it says, for the wages of sin is death, But the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

The wages of every time you sin, every time that you tell a lie, every time that you take something that doesn't belong to you, every time that you disobey your parents, every time that you have a thought that is sinful. The Bible says you are guilty. The Bible says that that guilt in return requires your death. You have dis- you haven't just sinned against your neighbor by stealing, but you sinned against the God who said, Thou shall not steal. You haven't just sinned against your neighbor by lying to them, but primarily you sinned against the God who says, thou shall not lie.

And that same God says the wages of sin is death. He requires death for all who sin against Him, for all who disobey Him. He requires blood. It is required. If it's not required, God is not holy.

If He lets you slide, if He grades you on a curve, He is not holy. And then one must ask, well, if He grades on a curve, where is this curve at? And in our sinful flesh, it begins to ask, well, if God will put up with me for this much, how close can I get to this line without going over? And that's where we find many in America today, they are deceived by the idea that we can live a life as worldly as we can possibly live it, but somehow if we could just go to heaven at the end of it, if we could just, if God could just forget about all that, and for me to just claim that I'm not that bad of a guy, everything should be okay. And yet that is a great deception from the devil himself.

If you're in this deception that you can live however you want and somehow just add God to it just a little bit, you don't understand the covenants and the agreement. You don't understand God's character. He says the wages of sin, and that is every sin, all sin, no matter what it is, the wages, the payment is death. Yet you and I live in a day of grace. You and I live in a day where God shows great punishment or great, great patience.

God shows great patience to the sinner. He waits. He puts up with it. He tries to wait, and in light of, he would call each of you to come to Him in repentance and faith." I can't remember who the man was who said it, but it's a great quote anyway. He said, the wages of sin or sin itself would be less popular if the wages were due upon receipt.

If we were to die when we sin today, immediately we wouldn't be so thrilled about sin. It wouldn't be so easy for me to lie to my neighbor if I knew the next time I tell a lie, my blood is going to be poured out, and rightly so. James 1.15 says, then desire, when it has conceived, gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death. Church, sin brings forth death. Look at this verse death.

Look at this verse in James again. It says, look where sin starts. It starts with desire. It starts with meddling along the edges. It starts with...

It really starts in here. Nobody leaves their spouse because that day they woke up and said, you know what, I've had enough. I'm just moving on. Nobody dives into deep sin. Nobody enters into an affair because, you know, it was just, it just happened.

It was just a spur-of-the-moment thing. That doesn't happen. An affair begins here, and when this isn't controlled, when the desire begins to spark more and more and more, it begins to play out in action. And when it begins to play out in action, and it's not confronted, and it's not stopped, and if it's not understood that this sin isn't just against my spouse, but this sin is going to be against the holy God who has given me my spouse, who has given me everything that I have. If I play this sin out, I rightly deserve death.

And even more so, the sin begins here. Men, if you learn to control this, you don't have problems with adultery. You don't have problems with the computer, Which plays into this more, builds the desire more. If you can control sin here, it doesn't play out in your life. But look, desire when it's conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it's fully grown brings forth death.

John Owen the Puritan asked the question, do you mortify? Do you make it your daily work? Be always at it while lest you live. Cease not a day from this work. And this work is this, be killing sin or it will be killing you.

Hear me again, be killing sin or it will be killing you. In Genesis 3, 1 through 3, now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast in the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, did God actually say you shall not commit or you shall not eat of any tree in the garden and the woman said to the serpent we may not eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden we may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden but God said you shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that it's in the midst of the garden. Now look, it's more, let's stop just right there. It's more than just don't eat it.

It goes on and says, neither shall you touch it, lest you die. How about you this morning? Maybe you aren't going down the path of gross sin in your life, but are you touching it? Are you admiring it? Are you living that play out in your head?

He says don't even touch it. In other parts of the Bible it says, flee from sin. Run from it. John Owen again writes, he says, let no man pretend to fear sin that does not fear temptation also. These two are too closely united to be separated.

He does not truly hate the fruit who delights in the root." This morning, many in our culture, let's bring it to young people. Many people will say, well, when your young person turns 12 or 13 or 16 or whatever it is, they should be socializing with the other gender, and it's okay if they run around here or there. Do you know you essentially are putting them into a situation that they will get crushed? That's like for a young man to say that he should go on a date with a young woman. That's like saying, I'm going to put, Let me think of my illustration.

That's like saying you're going to put a child predator in charge of babysitting your children, right? And young men, I pray that they're pure, but you're putting them into a hopeless situation. How many of you men in here were young men? Young men don't have illegitimate children if they don't go on dates. They don't end up alone.

I know what you're thinking. Our culture says, what's wrong with you? You're just that old fuddy-duddy. Your kids are going to be abused, they're not going to find their spouse. And my response is, I thought God was in charge of that.

Why would my kids need to go run around with people their age, opposite genders, and be alone with them? If that's your reasoning for it, it's because you don't believe God's in charge of it. You're putting a chain smoker in charge of your fireworks stand. Amen? But you, maybe you're not a young man.

What is it that gives you the same thing? What is it in your life? What sin do you struggle with? Do you fight against it? Do you war against it?

Older men, if you have troubles with your computer, it's not worth having. If you can't control what you click on and where you go, get rid of it. Who here is going to stand before the Lord on Judgment Day and say, well, God, if I could have just had a computer. All this stuff is nonsense and yet our desire is continually aroused and says you need this you you need this cell phone you need my boy my boy the only one that works is Malachi so he's the only one that has a phone and he's not I will not let him have a phone that has the internet. Why?

Because I don't want a chain smoker watching my fireworks stand. I don't want him destroyed at what's going to happen, or what could happen. Do I think that he would actively try to seek that? I don't actively seek most of what sin I fall into. I can't tell you how serious this is.

The first thing that—and I'm almost halfway over even though I say it's the first thing. The first thing that I want you to understand today from this scripture, if blood is the reckoning for sin, if it's true that the wages of sin is death, the thing that we must understand is that God is serious about sin. He is serious. Man is not. Man shrugs it off.

Man says, well yeah, total little lie. Well yeah, it's just an ink pen. The bank has lots of ink pens. Right? We would all say that's not very serious, but God is serious about sin.

In Hebrews 10 and 11, it says, and every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices which can never take away sin. So before Christ in the Old Testament, God has revealed how serious sin is, and in fact it's so serious that he must have a special people called the priests whom in a way represent him, but in another way spend much time offering sacrifices. So the trade is this, I sin against God, there must be a payment. There must be. What's the payment for sin?

It's death. It's that which was proclaimed in Genesis. It's death. But in God's mercy, He allows us, He sets up a system that there still will be a payment of sin, but I will let you cover the sin and the death of animals and sacrifices. To find the magnitude of this, So often you and I, we think of the Old Testament, we think of the temple, and we tend to, our cultural thing is we pair it with other temples or other churches.

If you've been to whatever it would be, whether I've went through some of the cathedrals in Europe, and that's typically, at least in my mind, the imagery I get is, you know, candles and big buildings and amazing architecture. And, well, that can be true. That's not really the right image that we have of the Old Testament temple. See, the Old Testament temple is where sacrifices took place. And because the people were like you and I, sacrifices went on all day, every day.

A constant slaughtering of animals, a constant payment for my sin. All the time. I would have to believe that when you came to the temple, you would know you were getting closer because the ditches probably started to have a look of blood in them and the blood that was being poured out. This past week I had a few brothers here help me to sacrifice, not sacrifice, don't use that word. I am so glad I stopped myself.

Slaughter four pigs at our house and butcher them. And I've hunted for most of my life. I can still remember one of the first deer that I shot. I remember the feeling of I took an animal's life. It's not a fun feeling.

If anyone hunts so much that they no longer bothers them to kill an animal, it's a heart problem. And it seems in my mind the bigger the animal and the more hands-on, I, many of you know that my family, we raise rabbits and we don't primarily raise them to be pets. They are our food. And for much time, I would shoot the rabbits because I don't want them to suffer. But what I found is sometimes even that is not foolproof and sometimes they suffer.

And through talking with other people, we have a device now that will break their neck instantly, but I have to be the one that does it. It's not a bullet that does it, it's my muscles and my hands that are doing it. And even that, Even a rabbit, that feeling is there. I took a life. Young children, when you eat supper at night, It doesn't have to be because your family butchered it, but if you're eating a pork chop, there was a life taken that you might eat.

It puts a different perspective on how much do we waste? Do we make it count? But I'm sure every guy that was there, we all felt it. We all began to discuss it. Why?

Because we took a life. Now understand, man has a spirit, animals do not, but God gave them life. When God gives life, it's a serious thing to take it. Amen? But the priests that were in the temple, this is what they did from when they woke up to when they, to some, when they went to bed at night, at night, They took lives.

And at the end of the day, the reality has to come that says, God is so serious about sin that even the small lie to your parents, even the small number lie to the IRS on your papers, God requires life. It is serious. It's not small. This morning if you are here and you have sinned against the one true holy God, He requires payment. He requires blood.

He has given you life and in turn you have sinned against Him. You have disobeyed Him. But the second thing this morning that's vital for us to understand is there is perfect bloodshed available for you. In the Old Testament we understood that as the animals were sacrificed that they couldn't forgive sin But they they covered sin for a time that God's righteousness could be appeased and covered through the payment of Another through the payment of an animal look at Hebrews 10 1 Says For since the law has but a shadow of good things to come, instead of the true form of these realities, it can never by the same sacrifices that are continually offered every year make perfect those who draw near. One of the beautiful things about the Old Testament is it's a shadow of things to come.

They only understood as from a dimly lit mirror that Christ would come and reveal God's full glory. This sacrificial system of animals was a foreshadowing of the great thing that God was going to do for those who would trust in him. Look at Exodus 12, 1 through 13. Says the Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, this month shall be for you the beginning of months. It shall be the first month of the year for you.

Tell all the congregation of Israel that on the tenth day of this month every man shall take a lamb according to their father's houses and a lamb for a household. And if the household is too small for a lamb then he and his nearest neighbor shall take according to the number of persons according to what each can eat you shall make your account for the lamb your lamb shall be without blemish a male a year old you may take it from the sheep or from the goats and you shall keep it until the 14th day of this month when the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill their lambs at twilight. Then they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and the lintel of the houses in which they eat it. They shall eat the flesh that night and roast on the fire with unleavened bread and bitter herbs they shall eat it. Not any of it raw or boiled in water but roasted its head with its legs and its inner parts.

And you shall not let none of it remain until the morning. Anything that remains until the morning you shall burn. In this manner you shall eat it with your belt fastened, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand. And you shall eat it in haste. It is the Lord's Passover.

For I will pass through the land of Egypt that night, and I will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast, and on all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments. I am the Lord. The blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague will befall you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt." Even this brings glory to Christ. The Passover, as we read the story, and many of you know the story, the Passover is but a foreshadow of the blood that would be shed for you and I.

It is a foreshadow of Christ. And this morning you have to ask the question, if God is serious about sin and if today you deserve His wrath, you deserve judgment, You deserve your blood to be poured out. You deserve to die because you are in His presence. The question is, is the blood applied to you? Is the blood of Christ applied to your account?

Have you put your trust in Jesus Christ? I would make note before we continue on as we read the Passover, as we read this worshiping God, that it's not at the temple. It's not in groups of Israelites. It's actually in households. It's in families.

Is your family, has the blood of Christ been applied to your family? Are you worshiping Him at home? Does your family know Him? Worship isn't something we just do on Sunday morning as we gather together. Worship is something that should be done every day as families.

Sunday morning is just the gathering where we can gather with fellow redeemed families and love each other and encourage each other. But the Passover points to Christ. It points to the blood that would need to be shed if you and I are to be forgiven. Look at Matthew 26-28. It's the Lord's Supper.

It says, Now as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and after blessed it, broke it, and gave it to the disciples, and said, Take, eat, this is my body. And He drew a cup, and when He had given thanks, He had given it to them, saying, drink of it, all of you, for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. In Hebrews 10, 1 through 12, it says, For since the law has but a shadow of good things to come, instead of the true form of these realities, it can never by the same sacrifices that are continually offered every year make perfect those who draw near. Otherwise would they not have ceased to be offered? Since the worshippers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have any consciousness of sins.

But in these sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year, for it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. Consequently when Christ came into the world he said, sacrifices and offerings you have not desired, but a body have you prepared for me, and burnt offerings and sin offerings you have taken no pleasure. Then I said, Behold, I have come to do your will, O God, as it is written of me in the scroll of the book. When he had said above, you have neither desired nor taken pleasure in sacrifices and offerings and burnt offerings and sent offerings. These are offered according to the law.

Then he said, Behold, I have come to do your will. He does away with the first in order to establish the second. And by that we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once and for all. And every priest stands daily at his service offering repeatedly the same sacrifices which can never take away sins. But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God.

This morning, understand, Without Christ's shed blood, without Christ being crucified on the cross, without Christ taking the wrath of the Father upon Himself, you have no hope. You will stand in your sins. You will pay the just penalty. This morning understand God is serious about sin. When we looked at Christ upon the cross, when we look at the brutality of the blood being shed, the crown of thorns, the beating, and the wrath of the Father poured out upon him, it is him taking the punishment for sin in our place.

And who are we to continue on and do the things that Christ died for? Who are we to continue on in sin? Who are we to make light of sin? This morning, the offer is for you, whether you're young or old, shed your own blood, pay your own price, pay with eternity in hell. Pay with your eternal death.

Or repent and trust in Jesus Christ, who makes the sacrifice, who shed His blood, once and for all. This morning, if you are in Christ, if you have turned to Him and put your trust in Him, and if He has made you a new creation, Your past sins are paid for. Your sins today are paid for. Your sins tomorrow are paid for. But if they're paid for, flee them.

This is what Christ died for. I'll no longer be entertained by it. I'll no longer go down these roads. Sure, you and I, we will fight. We will fight the battle, but in the words of my brother, be killing sin or it will be killing you.

Amen? This morning if you are here and you are trusting in your own works, if you're trusting in anything apart from the blood of Jesus Christ, blood of Jesus Christ, God will get his payment. I would beg you, turn to Christ. Turn to him. I think it was Richard Baxter that told pastors that every time you preach, Preach as a dying man to dying people.

This morning that was in my head because none of us are guaranteed another day. None of us. Don't put off today till tomorrow. Don't put off in embracing God and accepting this propitiation or this payment, this appeasement of sin in Jesus Christ. It will either be His blood or yours.

Turn to Him today. Amen. Amen. Let's bow our heads. I'd like to read a Puritan prayer as we come to the Lord.

Let's pray. Blessed Lord Jesus, before thy cross I kneel and see the heinousness of my sin, my iniquity that caused thee to be made a curse, the evil that excites the severity of divine wrath. Show me the enormity of my guilt by the crown of thorns, by pierced hands and feet, by bruised body, the dying cries. The blood is the blood of incarnate God. It's worth infinite.

Its value beyond all thought. Infinite must be the evil and guilt that demands such a price. Sin is my malady, my monster, my foe, my viper, born in my birth, alive in my life, strong in my character, dominating my faculties, following me as a shadow, intermingling with my every thought, my chain that holds me captive in the empire of my soul. Sinners that I am, why should the sun give me light? The air supply breath, the earth bear my tread.

Its fruits nourish me, its creatures subserve my ends. Yet thy compassion yearns over me. Thy heart hastens to my rescue. Thy love endured my curse. Thy mercy bore my deserved stripes.

Let me walk humbly in the lowest depths of humiliation, bathed in my blood, tender of conscience, triumphing gloriously as an heir of salvation. Father, today we come to you, none of us deserving what you have provided. What you have provided. Father, draw us close that we might not continue to trample your name in public, to live like the world, to operate in such a way that's outside of your scripture. Father, draw us back, we pray.

Let us no longer make light of sin. Father, as we continue to hear of sicknesses outside of these walls today, Father, thankfully, Father, over and over we're reminded, even in scripture today, Father, we are reminded that you are the one in control of plagues. Father, let not our response be one of more sin, of trusting man more, but Father, of trusting you, of repenting. Repentance, Father, of your people is Father, of your people is what you desire. So Father, let that be our marching order.

God, draw us to you that we might live for you wholly and completely, that we might be sold out to you, Father, that we, as your Word says, that we might love you with all of our hearts, minds, soul, and strength. And then, Father, help us to love our neighbor as ourselves. Father, that's the whole summary of the law. And repentance, Father, and true repentance and faith will always include both of those things. So Father, let us draw near if we must that you might change our hearts.

God, if you have redeemed us, Father, let us not make light of sin. Let us be a living sacrifice for you, I pray in Jesus name. Amen.