For The Lord Is A Great God And A Great King Above All gods: This Is The Blood Of The Testament Which God Hath Joined Unto You - Part 1764

"Know ye that the Lord, He is our God: it is He that hath made us ..." (Psalms 100:3)

"But I trusted in Thee, O Lord, I said, "Thou art my God!" (Psalm 31:14)

"Thou art My Father, My God, and the Rock of My salvation ... I will make Him My firstborn, higher than the kings of the earth!" (Psalms 89:26-27)

"But Thou, Lord, art Most High evermore!" (Psalms 92:8)

"For the Lord is a great God and a great King above all gods ..." (Psalms 95:3)

"Forever, O Lord, Thy Word is settled in heaven ..." (Psalms 119:89)

"God is the Lord; which hath shewed us light ... Thou art my God and I will praise Thee: Thou art my God, I will exalt Thee ..." (Psalms 118:27)

All these scriptures pointing to the new covenant which was yet to come -- "for if that first [covenant] had been faultless, then should no place have been sought for the second." (Hebrews 8:7) For this reason, the Lord said He would make a covenant with them AFTER those days -- a time when the Lord will put His laws into our hearts,"and in their minds will I write them; and their sins and iniquities will I remember no more." (Hebrews 10:16-17)

The mystery that was hid from the beginning of the world, wherein, the dayspring from on high visited His people. After the kindness and love of God our Saviour -- this same Jesus who is both Lord and Christ. (Titus 3:4-7; Matthew 1:21-23; Isaiah 9:6; I Timothy 3:16; Revelation 1:8,11; Acts 2:36-38)

"For by one offering He hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified ..." (Hebrews 10:14)

"By grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves -- it is the gift of God. Not of works, lest any man should boast ... for we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them." (Ephesians 2:8-10; II Timothy 1:9; Romans 4:4-5, 16; John 1:10-13; Romans 11:6; Romans 3:23-27; Isaiah 19:25)

But our salvation did not just occur by happenstance. Salvation came when God decided to reconcile both the Jews and the Gentiles unto God in one body by the cross; having slain the enmity thereby, and came and preached peace to you which were afar off and to them that were nigh ... for through Him we both have access by One Spirit unto the Father. (Ephesians 2:13-18)

In Christ Jesus, those of us who were far off can now be made nigh by the blood of Christ. What does Hebrews say?

"Now where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin, having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, which He hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, His flesh; and having an high priest over the house of God; let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering: (for He is faithful that promised;) and let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works

The Holy Ghost this signifying, that the way into the holiest was not yet made manifest while as the first tabernacle was yet standing: which was a figure for the time then present, in which were offered both gifts and sacrifices that could not make him that did the service perfect, as pertaining to the conscience; which stood only in meats and drinks and diverse washings and carnal ordinances, imposed on them until the time of reformation.

But Christ being come an high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building; neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by His own blood He entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us.

For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies to the purifying of the flesh; how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit, offered Himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?

And for this cause He is the mediator of the new testament, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance. For where a testament [is], there must also of necessity be the death of the testator. For a testament is of force after men are dead: otherwise, it is of no strength at all while the testator lives.

Whereupon neither the first [testament] was dedicated without blood. For when Moses had spoken every precept to all the people according to the law, he took blood of calves and of goats, with water, and scarlet wool, and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book, and all the people, saying, "This is the blood of the testament which God hath enjoined unto you. Moreover, he sprinkled with blood both the tabernacle, and all the vessels of the ministry. And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission.

It was therefore necessary that the patterns of things in the heavens should be purified with these; but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us; nor yet that He should offer Himself often, as the high priest enters into the holy place every year with blood of others: for then must He often have suffered since the foundation of the world: but now once in the end of the world hath He appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself.

And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment; so Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for Him shall He appear the second time without sin unto salvation. For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect. For then would they not have ceased to be offered? because that the worshipers once purged should have had no more conscience of sin. But in those [sacrifices there is] a remembrance again of sins every year.

For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins, wherefore when He comes into the world, He saith, "Sacrifice and offering Thou would not but a body hast Thou prepared Me. In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin Thou hast had no pleasure. Then said I, "Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of Me) to do Thy will, O God. He takes away the first, that He may establish the second. By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all ..." (Hebrews 10:1-10)

Indeed, by the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ, His precious blood shed on a cross for you and I, once and for all. Stand in the offering plate.