[0:00] Particular to verse 24. Perhaps just to get the continuity, we'll read from verse 22 again.
[0:13] But you have come to Mount Zion, to the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God. You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly, to the church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven, you have come to God, the judge of all men, to the spirits of righteous men made perfect.
[0:36] You have come to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.
[0:48] And our subject this evening is Jesus the mediator and his sprinkled blood. Now, you know, whenever I read this passage, I always have at the back of my mind the feeling that it's strange, really, that Jesus and his sprinkled blood is mentioned last.
[1:11] Because I think it's the case that believers would instinctively, if they, as it were, had been writing the epistle to the Hebrews, would have put Jesus' name first.
[1:22] But the apostle to the Hebrews doesn't put it first, he puts it last. And I think, I wouldn't put it stronger than this, but I think, that the reason that the apostle to the Hebrews mentions Jesus the mediator and his sprinkled blood last, is that Jesus as mediator is central to spiritual joys and central to access to God.
[1:49] I think that's the first thing that I would suggest for your attention this evening, on the Saturday evening of a communion season. Jesus as mediator is central to all spiritual joys, and he is central to access to God.
[2:10] I think there are probably, in the context here, two reasons why we might suggest that's the case. First of all, it's through Jesus that we are introduced to Zion's God, and through Jesus that we are introduced to Zion's citizens, the body of the redeemed of the Lord Jesus Christ.
[2:31] And therefore, it's appropriate, if you like, that having been introduced to them, we are made to realise, by the fact that the mention is last of all to Jesus and his sprinkled blood, it's through him that we are introduced to the one who is God and the father of us all, and also to the fellow believers and the people, the body of the people of the Lord Jesus.
[2:55] The second reason, I think, that Jesus is mentioned last, is that he, of course, as it were, interposes between God and us. And he has done what is necessary, and he does what is necessary for us to gain admission to the advantages and to the blessings of Zion.
[3:17] And we always need to remember, don't we, that the people of the Lord Jesus are people, if you like, with a foot in two worlds. We live in this world, and we mustn't, of course, forget that we live in this world with its responsibilities, but we also enjoy the privileges of the people of God to being citizens in the heavenly Jerusalem, to Mount Zion that's mentioned here.
[3:43] And the Lord Jesus is the one who has gained a submission, if you like, to the joys and the spiritual privileges and the blessings.
[3:55] And there he is last, just to highlight that. I see one or two young people in the congregation. Can I just say a wee word to you at this point? That word mediator.
[4:07] I don't know, there's not a word which you would use every day, is it? We don't talk about people being mediators all that often. We have mediators in industrial relations, when people fall out with their employers, and sometimes they can go to a mediation service.
[4:20] And a mediation or a mediator is a person who comes between two people who aren't agreeing with each other. Who don't see eye to eye.
[4:30] Who may well, in fact, have fallen out with each other. There's something that stops them coming together. That's what a person who is a mediator... It's like, for example, if you've got a really good friend at school, perhaps, and for some reason or other, you've fallen out with them.
[4:47] And they just won't speak to you. And you might well go to another friend and say, Hey, look, you know, I just can't get so-and-so to talk to me. Do you think you could talk to them and say, I want to be friends with them again?
[4:58] Well, that person will be a mediator. One of the great things about the Lord Jesus is that he's a mediator between God the Father and people like you and me.
[5:11] Jesus is the person who comes between. He's, if you like, the go-between. He's the one who has made peace on behalf of all his people, everyone who trusts in him, as mediator between them and God the Father.
[5:28] A huge, hugely important person, if you can put it like that. And the Lord Jesus, of course, is more than a person. But that's who he is, and that's what the Apostle is talking about here.
[5:42] And the Apostle is saying, I think, or drawing our attention to the fact, that Jesus, the mediator, is the one who is central to every spiritual blessing, every spiritual joy, every spiritual privilege.
[5:56] And here he is at the end of this marvellous three or four verses, mentioned last, so as that our attention is drawn to just how important he is.
[6:08] Wherever there is grace, wherever there is mercy, wherever there is glory in the new covenant and in its promises, we gain them through Jesus Christ, who is the mediator of them all.
[6:23] He is the mediator and he's absolutely central. The Apostle also says, you've come to Jesus. I think we need to reflect for a moment on what it means to come to Jesus.
[6:39] Well, we all know that sin in all its various forms stops us from coming to God. It stops us in the sense of gaining acceptance with God.
[6:56] Remember what the Psalmist says, if we regard sin in our hearts, if we esteem sin in our hearts in some way or other, if there is some sin that we are particularly clinging to and won't let go, then the Lord won't hear us.
[7:10] It's as important as all that. So sin stops us from coming to God. All the good works that we can do, all the works of so-called obedience are insufficient.
[7:23] We can't come to God because of them, they're not enough. But Jesus as mediator, he's the one who gives us the means to escape from what the theologians call the covenant of works.
[7:40] The idea that you get to heaven by being good enough. You get to heaven by doing enough good and by trying to do enough good. Jesus is the one who enables us to escape from that and the impossibility of success.
[7:59] And you know it's remarkable, a number of people who have known the gospel from their very earliest days, the end of the day, that's how they think they're going to get to heaven.
[8:11] I've spoken to people, possibly you know people like this, I'm sure you do, who have been in church regularly, every day, for all their lives.
[8:25] And if you put them in a corner and you will say to them, are you confident about getting to heaven? And even though they know this is not true, this is not the way, they will say, well, try to keep the commandments.
[8:44] They might even say, well, I'm in church regularly on the Lord's Day and that's what they're trusting in. And if they're in that position, they're not trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ as mediator.
[9:01] And if there are any of you here by any chance who are thinking like that, then you're not trusting in the Lord Jesus as mediator either. And here's this epistle saying, you've got to trust in Jesus as mediator, he is the only way.
[9:18] So, the idea of faith, if you like, as presented to us here, is a coming to Christ as mediator. Recognizing him as mediator.
[9:32] Assenting to his role as mediator. Agreeing to that role as mediator. That's what the apostle is saying here. That's what faith, saving faith, is about.
[9:48] And people who come to the Lord's table, tomorrow God willing, are actually demonstrating what they're saying in their hearts. Yes, I accept the Lord Jesus Christ as my mediator.
[10:03] Now, can I say, I think there are three things that follow from that. First of all, it makes sense, it's wise, to see the Lord Jesus as our mediator continually in all our dealings with God.
[10:23] You know, we all say, for Jesus' sake, Amen at the end of our prayers. And how often do we think about why that's there? Well, it's there because Jesus is the mediator between us and God.
[10:44] Jesus is the mediator and we recognize that when we say, for Jesus' sake, Amen. May it be so. So, it makes sense always, not just occasionally, not just at communion times, to see the Lord Jesus, to have him before our eyes consciously, deliberately, to see him all the time as our mediator in all our dealings with the Lord.
[11:11] That's the first thing, I think. The second thing is to recognize that to reject this opportunity provided by God to see Jesus as mediator is to dispute God's wisdom and his grace in appointing Jesus as the mediator.
[11:34] I suppose you could say it's to dispute Christ's love and his power to perform the office. And that's something, surely, that none of the Lord's people would want to do.
[11:48] We must be very careful that by neglect, as it were, we reject having it as a vital element in our Christian lives of recognizing, identifying, and experiencing the mediation of the Lord Jesus Christ.
[12:05] And can I suggest as a third result of this, failure to grasp this truth, failure to implement this truth, may well have profound spiritual consequences in our lives.
[12:20] are there any of you here who are the Lord's people but perhaps are not finding the peace that you once knew? Are there any of you here who, while you believe confident that you have put your trust in the Lord Jesus, that you perhaps have never experienced much peace?
[12:46] can I suggest to you that possibly the reason is that you're not focusing sufficiently on the role of the Lord Jesus as mediator.
[12:59] Are you not finding perhaps your Christian life satisfying? You're feeling that there's something still missing, perhaps you once had it but now you feel you don't, perhaps once again you've never really had much satisfaction, you expected more and you haven't experienced it.
[13:18] But it may well be that you haven't been seeing the Lord Jesus sufficiently clearly in his role as mediator. Perhaps you feel that you're not really having much spiritual refreshment.
[13:34] It may be the same reason. Do bear in mind that when you sit at the Lord's table, God willing, tomorrow, the Lord Jesus did intend it.
[13:45] to be something which would refresh you spiritually. I think there's a way in which we should see particularly the wine as embodying the spiritual refreshment as opposed to the bread perhaps with connotations of nourishment and things like that.
[14:04] I don't want to push that too far but it's certainly the case that I think you can see for example the psalmist in other parts of scripture identifying wine as something which is refreshing. The Lord's supper is intended to strengthen us.
[14:17] It's intended to refresh us spiritually as we think of the mediatorial role of the Lord Jesus Christ and his overall atoning work. so please be sure that you're not in effect failing to see the Lord Jesus as mediator because it's important to see him.
[14:38] If you're going to rely on the Lord Jesus you've got to know why you're relying on him. What are you relying on him to do? Well you're relying on him of course and his saving work on the cross but the ongoing work is to continue to see him as mediator.
[14:53] He's the one who makes intercession for us. He's the one through whom we come to the Lord Jesus. And may I say at the end of the day if you can't see the Lord Jesus Christ as your mediator then it may well be the case that you're a stranger to the gospel because the gospel, the scripture presents the Lord Jesus as mediator.
[15:22] Jesus as mediator is central to spiritual joys and he's central to access to God. But then the writer to the Hebrews says that we've come to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant.
[15:36] He says and we've come to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel. Can I suggest that what the writer is saying is something like this.
[15:51] To be sprinkled with Christ's blood, blood is the passport to the heavenly city. To be sprinkled with Christ's blood is the passport to the heavenly city.
[16:05] The blood of Jesus completes this sequence of spiritual realities that we have from verse 22 onwards. It completes the sequence of spiritual realities that belong to the community of the new covenant God.
[16:20] Because it enables us to enter it. Well let's then think about, because I'm sure the young people perhaps especially, but we knew have all of us, think about what is this blood of sprinkling that the apostle to the Hebrews is writing about.
[16:38] Now can I suggest to you it goes back to what happened in the temple. And it particularly goes back to what happened in the temple on the great day of atonement. Now remember this was probably the greatest day in the whole year for the children of Israel, for the Jews.
[16:55] The day of atonement was the day when the high priest took some of the blood of the animal that had been sacrificed and he took it not just into the holy place in the temple, but he took it into the holy of holies.
[17:13] The place where the high priest went once a year only. And it was perhaps, I think you could probably say it was the highest spiritual point in the whole of the Jewish year, the whole of the religious year, shall we say, for the children of Israel.
[17:38] Remember the temple courts would be packed with people. Apparently at that particular moment, everybody in Jerusalem stood still. And the high priest took the blood into the holy of holies and he sprinkled it on the mercy seat, on the ark of the covenant.
[18:01] He sprinkled it all around. Now, it was an incredibly solemn moment God. Because when he did that, he was making atonement.
[18:14] He was making peace between God and all the children of Israel for their sins. And there was always the possibility, or so the Jews felt, that the Lord might not accept the blood and that their sins wouldn't be forgiven.
[18:40] And do you know they were so apprehensive about that, that they actually, sometime, not quite certain when, put little bells around the bottom of the high priest's robes.
[18:53] Do you know why the bells were there? It was so that the people in the temple could actually hear the high priest moving around the holy of holies.
[19:04] Because if they couldn't hear the bells, it would mean that the Lord had rejected the offering and had struck down the high priest. And apparently when the high priest, the work of sprinkling the blood having been done, came out from the great curtain again, a huge shout would go up from the people in the temple surrounds, first of all, and then all over the city of Jerusalem.
[19:32] Because it meant that for that year, the sins of the people, all of them had been forgiven. See why it was so important. And the apostle to the Hebrews is saying, you have come to the sprinkled blood, he says, that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel, we'll see what that means in a moment.
[19:51] But it means that this is the central point that we need to focus on. Just as the high priest did that, made atonement for the sins of the people, so too the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross, once for all, made atonement for all the sins of everyone who trusts him.
[20:11] the pains, sufferings, the humiliation, and the death of the Lord Jesus Christ, which he endured on behalf of sinful men and women and young people like you and like me, that was all so that our sins would be remitted, would be forgiven.
[20:39] that's what the apostle, I think, to the Hebrews is driving at here. The blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, the blood, the sprinkle blood, sorry, is identical with the Lord Jesus himself.
[20:54] And the voice, if you like, that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel, is identical with the voice of the Lord Jesus. That's what the apostle is driving at here.
[21:05] He's driving at something which is absolutely central to the spiritual experience of every single Christian.
[21:16] Every single person who trusts in the Lord Jesus, you must think about, you must focus on, that sprinkled blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.
[21:28] The blood that was shed by him on the cross and which spiritually is sprinkled on every one of his people. the blood of forgiveness of sins.
[21:42] Well, let's look a bit closer, I think, because we need to, at what the apostle says. He says, it's to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel. So, we've got to think about what does the blood speak of, or if you like, what does it do?
[21:59] Now, even the young people, you all remember about Cain and Abel, don't you? Remember, Abel offered a lamb as a sacrifice in accordance with God's command.
[22:12] And Cain was going to worship his way, and he took along some fruit and vegetables. And God was displeased. And Cain was displeased with the fact that God was displeased with him, and he went and killed Abel, remember?
[22:27] And it tells, and the scriptures say that God said that the blood of Abel, as it were, rose up and witnessed against what Cain had done. That's what the apostles refer it to, something which even the young people know about, I'm sure, from when you've been reading your Bibles, or perhaps at the Sunday school.
[22:45] So we need to think about what it was, what's the difference between Abel's blood and the blood of the Lord Jesus? Well, can I suggest that we should look at it this way? Abel's blood cried out for judgment, and it cried out for vengeance, for what Cain had done.
[23:03] But there's a huge contrast, it's the exact opposite in the case of the blood of the Lord Jesus, because Christ's blood cries out for mercy and pardon.
[23:16] Isn't it marvellous? Abel's blood cries out for judgment and vengeance, Christ's blood cries out for mercy and pardon. Let's look at what the apostle to the Hebrews says in other places about this, because there's several important references.
[23:34] Can I take you to Hebrews chapter 9 at verse 12 first of all? Speaking of the Lord Jesus, he did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves, but he entered the most holy place, the holy of holies, once for all by his own blood, having obtained eternal redemption.
[23:58] redemption. Instead of vengeance, as was the case in Abel's case, the blood of the Lord Jesus pleads eternal redemption. Are you and me?
[24:12] Verse 26 of chapter 9. Well, we'll, well, verse 26 will do. Then Christ would have had to suffer many times since the creation of the world, but now he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself.
[24:35] Instead of condemnation, the blood of Jesus speaks about the final putting away of sins. Next chapter, chapter 10, verse 22.
[24:49] We'll read from verse 19 just to get the sense. Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way open for us through the curtain, that is his body, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, here it comes, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience, and having our bodies washed in pure water.
[25:20] The blood of the Lord Jesus speaks about purging of evil consciences, doing away with a bad conscience. Remember, Cain had a bad conscience.
[25:33] The people of the Lord Jesus, in a fundamental sense, do not have bad consciences because of their sins, because they are aware that the Lord Jesus' death leads to the forgiveness, has led to the forgiveness of their sins.
[25:49] God, I go back a bit in chapter 10, chapter 10, verses 10 and 14. Read from verse 9, then he said, here I am, I have come to do your will.
[26:03] He sets aside the first to establish the second, and then verse 10, and by that will we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
[26:14] Then in verse 14, because by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy. The blood of the Lord Jesus is speaking about, speaks about the perfecting and sanctifying, the making holy of all to whom it is applied.
[26:37] Verse 19, chapter 10 as well. Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the most holy place, by the blood of Jesus, and so on.
[26:50] Acceptance instead of rejection is what the blood of the Lord Jesus speaks, and blessing instead of cursing.
[27:02] Isn't it marvellous? That's what the blood of the Lord Jesus shed for us and spiritually sprinkled upon us. That's what it means.
[27:14] John, of course, in 1 John, chapter 1, says that it's this blood alone which cleanses us from all sin. So that's why the blood of Abel is brought in to highlight the contrast and to highlight what the blood of Jesus does for his people.
[27:37] And it's the blood of sprinkling, therefore, that enables us lawfully, enables us justifiably to approach God, because we have been purified by it, by Christ's obedience to the death.
[27:58] That's what the blood of Jesus does. And you know what faith, therefore, is, what Christian faith is? Well, it's been traditionally defined as having three parts.
[28:12] Knowledge, assent, and trust. Faith involves knowing what the Lord Jesus has done. Faith involves assenting to it and saying, yes, indeed, that is the case, I recognize that.
[28:32] And thirdly, it involves trust. I'll rely on it. I'll rely on it. Then the Lord's people sit at his table.
[28:44] They're affirming, amongst other things as well, of course, they are affirming those three things. They know what the death of the Lord Jesus has done. They assent to it and they say, yes, I know it's true and I recognize it's true and I'll acknowledge it's true.
[29:03] They say, thirdly, I'm trusting. I'm trusting the Lord Jesus and his death. So, if you like, that's why I suggested that the sprinkled blood of Christ, the blood of sprinkling, is the passport to the heavenly city.
[29:24] To this precious, precious blood of Jesus, the citizens of the heavenly Jerusalem have come. and through faith in his atoning blood, the accusing voice of past wickedness is silenced forever as the blood of Jesus speaks peace to each citizen's heart.
[29:48] Is that what you experience? Is that what you know? Because if you have been sprinkled with the blood of Christ, that should be your possession. it does indeed belong to everyone who trusts the Lord Jesus.
[30:05] Third thing can I say, the sprinkled blood also speaks to our consciences. Perhaps this in particular. You know, you young people, and I say we were to the boys and girls at this point, do you know what your conscience is?
[30:21] I'm sure you've heard the word conscience. Well, the conscience is something which the Lord has put into us all. And it's a witness to what's right and what's wrong.
[30:37] You know, you can be put into a situation perhaps, and perhaps one of your friends is saying, let's do this or let's do that, and you can't quite put your finger on it, but you know it's wrong.
[30:51] You know there's something not right about it. Well, that's your conscience speaking. God has given us all consciences as a guide. And when you do something wrong, your conscience doesn't let you rest.
[31:05] It keeps troubling you. And that's the way it is with sin. The conscience of the sinner never lets him go, or her go.
[31:17] It always troubles them. Unless, the Apostle Paul tells us that you can do something to your conscience, which he calls searing it, or scarring it.
[31:29] And if you act against your conscience, and you act against your conscience again, and again, and again, eventually your conscience will stop telling you what's right and what's wrong.
[31:41] And then you're in big trouble, because you won't know. That little voice inside you telling you that it's wrong to do this or to do that.
[31:52] And then you're in real spiritual trouble. So it's very important what this passage tells us about the conscience. And the Apostle here is saying that the blood wipes out our guilt, and it makes us just, it makes God right in pardoning our sins, and it's because the truth has been sprinkled on our consciences.
[32:20] Because the blood, sorry, has been sprinkled on our consciences. What does that mean? Because that's quite complicated, and I'm sure the young people are saying they don't quite follow that. Well, what the Apostle is saying is that the blood of the Lord Jesus, spiritually speaking, sprinkled on our consciences, removes the sense of guilt.
[32:44] you know, isn't it the case you quite often, when people are converted, when they put their faith in the Lord Jesus, they say things like, the burden's been lifted off me.
[32:58] That was Bunyan's Pilgrim Pilgrim. Remember Bunyan's Pilgrim and the Pilgrim's Progress. Can I just say that to the young people? By the way, I don't know if you read the Pilgrim's Progress, but it's a really great book.
[33:13] It's probably a bit difficult these days to read it in the original version, but there's lots of shortened versions, and versions brought up today with ordinary everyday language. It's a great book. And Bunyan has this man who he calls Christian, and he's not a Christian to start with, but he starts to understand about sin.
[33:34] And Bunyan says he sort of staggers around with this great big burden on his back, bends him over double. And he's desperate to get rid of it.
[33:45] And the preacher of the gospel says to go to the cross of the Lord Jesus. And the sinner eventually gets to the cross, and he looks up at Jesus, and as he looks up in trust at the Lord Jesus on the cross, the burden rolls away, down the hill, never to be seen again.
[34:06] Well, when the blood of Jesus is sprinkled on our consciences, that's the way it is. That's why people think it's such a marvellous moment when they're converted. And they say things to you like, never heard the birds sing like I heard them last night when I was converted.
[34:24] Or they feel they're sort of almost on the way to heaven. All these sorts of things. That's what happens when our consciences are washed clean. It produces love to God.
[34:36] Instead of being wary about God and perhaps even hating him, suddenly the converted person finds themselves loving God, which they've never done before. The blood of the Lord Jesus sprinkled on their consciences does that and it enables sinners to worship him with acceptance and with delight.
[34:56] The person who knows that, knows what it is to draw near with boldness, to draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, people. Because they know that because Jesus' blood, the blood of Jesus, the mediator, has been sprinkled on them.
[35:14] And God has nothing against them anymore. So the voice of Jesus' blood invites us. And when it's sprinkled on our conscience, it constrains us.
[35:26] It makes it impossible for us not to draw near to him. Now if you know what that's about, and you've experienced that and you've seen the way in which you've got a whole different attitude to the Lord Jesus and you haven't yet made a profession of faith, well now's the time.
[35:46] There's no reason for holding back. If this is true of you, then draw near to him and draw near to him at his table tomorrow as he's asked.
[35:59] One last thing. One last thing is this. Let's realize that the heavenly city is here. And I think you know it's at communion time and it's at the Lord's table when the heavenly city comes closest to earth.
[36:22] Let's just look about it, think about it. Think about what the apostles said here. It strikes you, I think, certainly strikes me at any rate, that there's a sort of, you get an insight into what heaven is like, the kingdom of heaven.
[36:36] You see the state of the heavenly kingdom and the order in it. Everything is in its proper place, proper position. There's God the father at the head.
[36:50] He's the one who is the framer or if you like the architect of the heavenly city. He's the one who is his builder as well.
[37:01] He's the sovereign ruler of it. He's there at the head. And then there's the innumerable hundreds of thousands of angels there.
[37:13] Myriads of angels, I think, the authorised version puts it. And they minister to God and they minister to men in this society of God's people here on earth.
[37:24] I've got to talk about angels in the last few years, people who become interested in them. But that's what their function is, to minister to people, to the Lord's people, people like you and me.
[37:37] And there's the spirits, not the bodies yet, but the spirits of just men and women, people who've trusted in the Lord Jesus and they're at rest.
[37:49] And they're enjoying the reward of their obedience, obedience of faith. And there's the Lord Jesus, the only means of communication between God and his people who are still on earth.
[38:11] And he's the one who's going to usher us in to the life of heaven. And then there's us. They're not there yet.
[38:26] But you know, at the Lord's table, we come as close in this world as we can, I think, to the life of heaven.
[38:37] There's the Lord Jesus, our mediator, spiritually at the head of the table. Not the minister or the elders, but the Lord Jesus spiritually is at the head of his table.
[38:51] The angels are looking on. The angels look on at our worship, of course, the Apostle Paul tells us whenever we do worship. But there's the people of the Lord Jesus, those who are trusting him.
[39:07] Those who are recognizing him as their mediator. And at the Lord's table, we catch a wee glimpse, don't we, of what it's going to be like in heaven.
[39:23] It's just a glimpse. It's just the curtain being drawn aside a little bit. But it's there to be seen. It's there to be seen. The Lord's people there in fellowship with each other.
[39:39] Don't just think about yourselves and your own spiritual experience when you're sitting at the table tomorrow. Think about the others sitting beside you and around you and how they're the people of God.
[39:53] And can I say to you, young people, of any others who aren't going to be there, do you want to be in heaven? Do you want to be in heaven? Well, if you put your trust in the Lord Jesus and professional faith in him, you can be sitting there.
[40:11] If you are trusting in him, you should be sitting there and enjoying this little foretaste of what it's going to be like in glory above.
[40:22] So, here's this insight here in these verses. To the true and never fading glory. This is the city of the living God that the apostle speaks of here.
[40:37] None without faith can enter in. Do you believe in the Lord Jesus? Well, then your place is amongst his people. He's asked us to do this in remembrance of him.
[40:50] And I think he wants us to be there. Because it gives us a we insight into what it's going to be like. And we'll be encouraged by it.
[41:02] Have no doubt about it. May it then be so for all the Lord's people connected with us tomorrow. And may we have great blessing from himself.
[41:13] Let us pray. The Lord, our gracious God, we do indeed give thanks for the atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ which he made on the cross for our sins.
[41:25] We give thanks for that blood which is sprinkled on his people, on their consciences, reassuring them of their acceptability with God. And indeed, of the welcome that awaits them in Mount Zion itself in the heavenly Jerusalem.
[41:42] And we pray, O Lord, that as we remember the death of the Lord Jesus, be it your will in the coming day, that we might not just see these things and understand them, but that we might also experience them.
[41:57] And may it be the case, Lord, for all your people that they will be strengthened and that they will be built up. And we pray, Lord, that as others will just look on, they would be sorely awakened by a desire to be amongst the Lord's people and to be sharers in these privileges and in these blessings.
[42:18] Prepare us, O Lord, we would seek. May your Spirit be with us on the coming day especially as we draw near to the Lord Jesus in accordance with his commands and as we remember his death for us.
[42:34] May it be so. These things we ask in his name. Amen.