Live with Lon-God's Plan of Salvation - Part 3: The Blood Covering

Well hello everybody and welcome to Live With Lon. A couple weeks ago I played a version of It Is Well With My Soul acapella by this singing group and so many people loved it that I thought I should play it again. So here you go, It Is Well With My Soul and I hope you enjoy it. When peace like a river attendeth my way When sorrows like sea billows roll Whatever my life, thou hast taught me to say It is well, it is well with my soul It is well, it is well with my soul It is well, it is well with my soul Though Satan should barf, though trials should come Let his blessed assurance control Let Christ have regard and my helplessness stay And I'll shed his own blood for my soul It is well, it is well with my soul My Lord hates the day when my faith shall be signed The clouds be rolling as the storm The trump shall resound and the Lord shall descend Even so, it is well with my soul With my soul, it is well, it is well with my soul It is well, it is well with my soul It is well, it is well, it is well with my soul Wow, what a sweet hymn and what a sweet rendition of that great hymn. And so we're going to talk about something today, the blood covering of the Lord Jesus Christ that makes it well with our soul. And we're going to delve in and I hope pull, exposit some great truth out of the word of God That will make it even better with your soul as a result of your having been in the word of God today, you and me together.

So let's begin by praying. And let's take a moment to say, Lord, maybe it hasn't been so well with my soul this past week. Maybe I've been angry or been feeling bitter at someone or something.

Or maybe I've been afraid and I've taken my eyes off of you and put them on the wind and the waves around me. And I've started to fret and worry. Lord, whatever it is, help us come today and lay those things at your feet and let you make it well with our soul.

Let's pray. Lord, you know how easy it is for us to be like Peter, who while he was walking on the water on the Sea of Galilee, everything was great. As long as he had his eyes on you and then he got distracted and he took his eyes off of you and immediately the Bible says he began to sink. And when you rescued him, you said to him, Peter, oh, why did you doubt you were doing great? Why did you take your eyes off me? And, you know, Lord, the answer is because we're all human.

And it's something we so easily do with all the commotion and the distraction around us, the news reports and everything that's going on. Lord Jesus, forgive us this week for all of us, I'm sure, have taken our eyes off of you at some point during the week and put them on things around us which bring us down and cause us to sink emotionally, spiritually in every way. So, Jesus, restore our focus today on the living risen Christ who said, which one of you, Luke Chapter 12, by worrying can add a single cubit to your height.

If you can't even do this simple thing, you said, Lord, then why do you fret about everything? Lord, help us to take that to heart and to trust you and keep our eyes on you as our one and only provision for our lives, for the lives of the people we love, for our well-being, for our defense against others who would do mean and cruel things to us if they could. Lord Jesus, you be our focus. And now as we get ready to open the word of God, Lord Jesus, I pray that you would rebuke the enemy from this taping, that Lord, you would give him no access. By the blood of Jesus, we resist him and we claim your word.

It is written, resist the devil and all of his evil beings and they will flee from you. So it gives us great joy to pray back to you today your promises, knowing that this gives great happiness to your heart, to hear your promises prayed back to you from your children. So, God, as I seek to exposit the word today, fill me with your spirit, illuminate the hearts and the spirits of people listening and increase how well it is with our soul because of the truth of your word today. And we pray this in Jesus name. And everybody said, Amen.

All right. Now, we are going through the Gospels, but we're in a little tiny mini series growing out of the life of John the Baptist, where we talk about we're talking about God's plan of salvation. And a couple of weeks ago, we talked about how God is part of the plan of salvation, created two races, a second race, a race with a federal head, not Adam, but the Lord Jesus Christ. And when we come to Christ, part of the plan of salvation is God transfers us from the race of Adam to the race of Christ.

First Corinthians 15. And then we talked about substitutionary atonement, how God allows us to atone for our sins through the death of an innocent substitute, the Lord Jesus Christ being the ultimate substitutionary lamb. This is why John the Baptist said, Behold, the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Today, we want to talk about this comment that John made that the lamb of God takes away the sin of the world and what that really means and how that really works in the plan of salvation. And it all centers around not substitutionary atonement that that is an important component of the plan of salvation.

But another important component of the plan of salvation, the blood covering provided for us by the Lord Jesus Christ's blood shed on the cross. Now, I want you to put your thinking caps on because I'm going to lead us in a in a trip through the scripture where we're going to see this wonderful principle played out for us in the word of God. Now, Romans Chapter four.

I want you to look at that. Romans Chapter four, verse five says this. And of course, we're using the New King James Bible. So the translation. Here's what Romans four, verse five says.

Look with me. But to him, meaning the man or woman who does not work for their salvation, but believes on him who justifies the ungodly God, of course, look, his faith is accounted for righteousness, is credited to him as righteousness. Now, watch just as David also describes the blessedness of the man to whom God imputes. This word means to credit to someone's account to whom God credits righteousness to their account apart from works. Now, this is salvation by faith.

Now watch. And then he quotes the Old Testament. Paul does Psalm 32. Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven and whose sins are covered. That is, they are not visible to the holiness of God.

They are covered over from the wrath of God. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord shall not impute or credit to his or her account sin. Now, this quote, of course, from Psalm 32. Blessed is he, verse one, whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.

Blessed is the man to whom the Lord does not impute charge to his or her account iniquity. This word in Hebrew, the word here used in Psalm 32, verse one, is covered, is the word kassa. Kassa in Hebrew means to be hidden or to hide something. But this is not the active voice.

I hid something. This is the passive voice. The passive participle is used here.

Something is covered. And in Hebrew, a tiny little Hebrew lesson, the kal passive participle, which is what this is, is similar to the perfect passive participle in Greek. And both of them represent an existing state of being, a permanent state of being that has come upon someone and is never going to change. So let me illustrate it by saying that this same form, this kal passive participle, is used for the word blessed, baruch, the same same word from the word barak, to bless. So if it were active, I bless you. If it's passive, you are blessed. You are in a blessed condition. And this is what's used in the Bible again and again.

Blessed are you, O Lord our God. This is baruch atad anoi. Some of us have heard the word baruch means someone who's in a blessed state and it's used of God throughout the Old Testament.

God is in a blessed state that is permanent, that is existing and will never change. Also, this same form, the kal passive participle, is used for the word in the Bible written. It is written. Remember when Jesus quoted the scripture to Satan three times in Matthew chapter four, he said it is written, it is written, it is written. This is the word katav in Hebrew, which means to write in the active.

But in the passive voice, it is written. It means something that is permanently written, something that is unchangeably written. And of course, that's exactly what the scripture is. The scripture is written and it's never going to change. My word will never pass away, Jesus said. Heaven and earth may pass away, but not my word.

Why? For it is written and meaning it is in a permanent state of existence and nothing is ever going to change it. Not the blessedness of God, not the writtenness of God's word. And in the same way, nothing is ever going to change the fact that our sin is in a covered state, a permanent, eternal, covered state in the sight of Almighty God.

You understand what I'm saying here? OK, now, in the New Testament, in Romans chapter four, when Paul quotes Psalm 32, he uses the verb, the Greek verb epicalupto. It's the only time this word ever appears in the New Testament, epicalupto, which means to cover, epi means upon or over, to cover over. Blessed is the man whose sins are covered over, maintaining the very same emphasis that the Hebrew in Psalm 32 has. So there is a blessedness about a believer whose sin is covered over for all of eternity. It is an eternal, permanent state in which we exist, where our sin is covered over in the sight of a holy God. And God does not impute. God does not add to our account sin because our sin is hidden from his sight, covered over from his sight, his judicial holy sight. OK, now, Paul uses that in Romans chapter four to describe a man who saved, to describe a person who knows Christ, to describe a person who's born again and goes on to talk about Abraham and how he was in this blessed state.

But not just Abraham. Every one of us who knows Christ is in this blessed state of having our sin permanently covered over from the holiness and the judgment of Almighty God. The question is, what covers us so that the holiness and righteousness of God doesn't see our sin?

What is it that covers us? Is it our good works? Is it our religious activity? Is it our trying to be a good person? Is it us are doing the best that we can?

No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, none of those things. It is the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ shed on the cross that covers us in the sight of Almighty God. And let me show you that out of the Old Testament. We have a beautiful picture of this being covered over by the blood in the Feast of Passover, which since we're in April here, the Feast of Passover, in fact, is still going on this week. And in the Feast of Passover, let me read you in case perhaps you're not familiar with the most important part of that festival. The fact that when the tenth plague that Moses announced to Pharaoh was carried out the death of every first born male in Egypt from the Pharaoh, even to the animals, the first born of the Hebrews were spared.

And let me show you why. Let's go. Here we go to Exodus Chapter 12.

Follow with me. God tells the Hebrews that on the 10th of this month, the month of Nisan, every man shall take for himself a lamb, according to the house of his father, a lamb for a household. Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year.

Notice without blemish. Now you shall keep that lamb until the 14th day of the same month. You say, well, why? Why do they keep it for four days? Well, to use a very contemporary word, they quarantined that animal for four days to make sure that if there was a blemish that wasn't initially visible, that it had time to show up because only a blemish less lamb was acceptable. Now, after that quarantine period, look after the 14th day arrived, then the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill their lamb at twilight and they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two side doorposts of the house and on the lintel, the top of the house where they eat it. I should point out that the two sides and the top form a cross.

We'll just make that observation. Now, later in the chapter, here's what God says. For I will pass through the land of Egypt on that night and I will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast, and against all the gods of Egypt, I will execute judgment. I am the Lord. However, look, the blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you are.

Now watch. And when I see the blood and you in that house hiding behind the blood of that lamb, I will pass over. There's the name of the feast.

I will pass over you. And the plague shall not be on you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt. So here we have the blood of the lamb put on the door of this house, these Hebrews homes. And God says, when I see the blood on your door and I see you hiding inside behind that blood, I will pass over you and not execute judgment against you. I should point out that if any Jewish person was outside of a home that had the blood on the door, they lost their firstborn. And because it didn't have anything to do with whether they were Jewish or not, it had nothing to do with nationality. It had nothing to do with creed or religion or birth. It was all about the blood. Not when I see you're Jewish, not when I see that you were born from Abraham's seed.

None of that has anything to do with this. It's when I see the blood and you hiding behind the blood of that lamb that I will pass over you. And I will point out if there were any Egyptians, and I'm not sure whether there were or not, but I think there might have been a few who joined the Hebrews and hid behind the blood that night.

Their sons were spared because it had nothing to do with them being Egyptian or Hebrew. It had to do with the blood covering on that door. Now, we understand that and it was meant to be a picture of the ministry of the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, who would be the ultimate Passover lamb. We talked about that last week, the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. He would be the ultimate Passover lamb. But folks, listen, his blood would also be the ultimate blood covering. Listen, 1 Corinthians, chapter 5, verse 7, for indeed, Paul writes, Christ, look at this, our Passover was sacrificed for us.

What does that mean? Oh, my friends, it means that Jesus is the real Passover lamb and that his blood is the real protective blood and that hiding behind his blood is the true eternal protection from the judgment of God. The feast of Passover was only a picture. It was only meant to be a painting for us to see the principle of hiding behind the blood of the Passover lamb. But the reality was the lamb of God, the Messiah who died on the cross, who shed his blood to be the ultimate blood covering. And when we hide behind that blood, his blood, God says the very same thing when I see the blood of the Messiah and you hiding behind the blood of the Messiah as you're only covering for sin in a sight of a holy God, as your only payment for sin in the sight of a holy God, as your only protection from the judgment of God. When I see that, God says, I will pass over you in judgment. Wow. Wow, wow, wow, wow, wow.

My gosh, do you see that, my friends? And so there is several ways that we can describe salvation as God has laid it out in the plan of salvation. We can describe it as changing races from being in Adam to being in Christ and therefore inheriting all the good that our federal head of our race, the Lord Jesus Christ, did for us. We can also describe it as being atoned, our sin being atoned for by a substitute, the lamb of God who took away the sin of the world. And God accepts the death of that substitute as atonement for us. We don't have to make our own atonement.

He made it. But now do you see there's a third way we can describe the plan of salvation? Now we can describe it as when you come to Christ, when I come to Christ, we give up every other covering, every other protection that we have ever hoped for to protect us from the judgment of a holy God. And we instead come inside that house that has blood on the door. We get behind the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ and we hide behind his blood. And God agrees he will not see our sin through the blood of Christ. It is opaque. And as a result, he will pass over us in judgment. Just like Superman couldn't see through lead. God has agreed that he will not in judgment and in holiness see through the blood of Christ regarding those of us who hide behind it.

Unbelievable. Now, some of us, I think, don't understand perhaps what an amazing thing this is, because the judgment of a holy God against sinners is beyond our comprehension. Someone compared it once to dripping a drop of water on a red hot electric burner, and the minute that drop of water hits that burner, it vaporizes.

It just like that. Friends, the holiness of God is like a red hot burner when it comes to sin. And when sin hits that burner, it vaporizes. That is how massive and how overwhelming is the judgment of a holy God against sin. Isn't it wonderful that our sin will never hit that burner? Because between the two is the blood of Jesus that makes our sin covered, Psalm 32, covered over, hidden from that red hot burner of God's judgment for all of eternity.

It's a permanent state in which we exist. We are covered by the blood of Jesus. Now, this is why the blood of Jesus is the most precious commodity in the universe.

Gold, platinum, I don't know, whatever you want, diamonds. These things are like grains of salt in terms of commodities compared to the blood of Christ. The blood of Christ is the most precious commodity the universe has ever known when it comes to covering our sin. Listen to what the Bible says, the Bible is full of references to the blood of Christ and these preachers who refuse to preach the blood of Christ. I don't know what they're preaching because in the Bible there's nothing else to preach when it comes to the protection that God has provided for us from his own holy judgment. You know, and there are preachers who when we preach the blood of Christ, they call this the gospel of gore.

You know, they talk about us being prehistoric by talking about blood and all of this stuff. I'm sorry if they don't like it, but you can't take the blood of Jesus out of the New Testament. You can't take the blood of Jesus out of the Old Testament and you can't take the blood of Jesus out of the plan of salvation without ruining and canceling the whole thing. So we preach, I preach the blood of Jesus because that is central. It's at the core of God's plan of salvation for you and me and listen to what the Bible says.

Follow along these verses. First John 1 7, the blood of Jesus Christ, his son cleanses us from all sin. Romans Chapter five, verse nine, much more than having now been justified.

This word is a courtroom word means having been pronounced not guilty. Look how by his blood we shall be saved from God's wrath against sin through him. But how were we justified by his blood? How were we cleansed by his blood? Ephesians 1 7 in him, we have redemption for our sins. How look through his blood, the forgiveness of sins.

How do we get that? Through his blood, according to the riches of God's grace. Colossians Chapter one, verse 20. And by him, Jesus, God decided to reconcile all things to himself, whether it's things on earth or things in heaven.

How did he do it? He made peace. God did through, look, the blood of his cross. So through the blood, Christ reconciled the world to himself, redeemed us, gave us forgiveness of sins, pronounced us not guilty, cleansed us from sin. Romans 3 25. God set forth Jesus as a propitiation. Look by his blood and we access this through faith. Now, what is a propitiation?

Look here for a second. A propitiation means an offering or a gift that appeases the anger of another person. You know, one of the famous appeasements in history is when the Western powers tried to appease Hitler by giving him Czechoslovakia, by giving him, you know, part of Austria, trying to appease him and make him happy so that he wouldn't start a war. That's what a propitiation is. It's a gift or something we present to someone to mollify their anger, so to get rid of their hostility towards us. And this is what the Bible says, that Jesus is a mollification. Jesus is a propitiation. Jesus is something that is what God honors to satisfy his wrath and appease his wrath against our sin. And how did Jesus function as that appeasement?

And he did it by his blood. First Peter chapter one, verse 18, knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things like silver or gold. Friends, don't show up at the pearly gates with silver and gold to try to buy your way in.

It won't work. You were not redeemed from corruptible things like silver or gold from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your father's watch. But you were redeemed by the precious blood of Christ as a lamb without blemish or spot. Praise God. And here, last one, Revelation chapter seven.

Look at this. He's talking to John now, the writer. And he said, then one of the elders answered, saying to me, to John, who are these arrayed in white robes and where do they come from? John is seeing people in heaven now. And I said, sir, you know, I don't know. And he said, these are the ones who come out of the great tribulation here on earth and who washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the lamb, the Lord Jesus.

Friends, look here. Look here for a second before we go back. Blood doesn't make things white. You take a bucket of blood and take a white towel or a white sheet and dip it in that blood.

It will not stay white. You take a green sheet and put it in that blood and it will not turn white. Blood doesn't turn things white here on this earth. But this is not ordinary blood and this is not earthly blood. This is supernatural blood. This is extraordinary blood. This is heavenly blood. This is the blood of the Messiah. And when you dip your eye, dip my dirty, filthy, sinful robes into the blood of the Messiah.

They come out sparkling white. Wow. Now look. And he goes on and say to say, therefore, these people who have done this are before the throne of God and serve him day and night in his temple. This is in heaven. And he who sits on the throne, God will dwell among them and they shall neither hunger anymore. See if this doesn't sound like Revelation 22 in describing heaven. They shall not hunger anymore nor thirst anymore.

The sun shall not strike them nor any heat. For the lamb who is in the midst of the throne will shepherd them and lead them to living foundations of water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes. This is Revelation 21 and 22 talking about our state in heaven. These people are in heaven.

And let me tell you how they got there. They got there by washing their robes in the blood of the lamb. And those filthy, sinful robes came out white, came out white. I love what Robert Murray McShane, the great Scottish preacher, said. Here's what he said. He said all of this company that we've just been reading about of people, not one stands there in any other way than having washed their robes in the blood of the lamb.

You will find not one person in heaven who gets there any other way. Indeed. And then he said, the robe of a blood washed sinner is far whiter than that of any angel. Now, why would he say that? That's an interesting comment. The robe of a blood washed sinner is whiter than an angel who never sinned.

Why did he say that? Listen, he says the angels have on creature righteousness. They were created righteousness from the beginning. The redeemed us, we who have come by way of Christ, have on the righteousness of God. And the righteousness of Christ is a million times more lovely than that of the highest angel.

Sweet, sweet, sweet. So can we summarize? When it comes to God's plan of salvation, there are a number of ways that we can describe it, explain it. Number one, we can explain it as switching races from being in the race of Adam to the race of Christ. Number two, we can explain it as our sins being atoned for because a substitute, the Lord Jesus on the cross, paid for them and we didn't have to pay for. And third, we can describe our salvation as being covered by the blood of Jesus in an internal permanent state, just like blessed is God forever and written is the word of God forever. So covered, our sins being covered, is an eternal state forever for those of us who are redeemed in Christ, who have taken our place of hiding behind the blood of Christ from the wrath of God. Oh, my gosh, friends, redeemed how I love to proclaim it, redeemed by the blood of the Lamb, redeemed by his infinite mercy, his child and forever I am, redeemed by the blood of the Lamb. No one gets redeemed any other way, but it's open to everybody. It's free for the taking. Jesus said, oh, let everyone who wants come to the water. It's free if we're willing to humble ourselves. You say that's the key equation.

Yeah, it is. Because when we humble ourselves and take up residence behind the blood of Jesus, we are admitting that there is nothing we can do to save ourselves and that we are poor, helpless, lost, condemned in the sight of God's holiness, sinners. And only hope we've got is the blood covering of Christ. Well, you've got to humble yourself to do that. And that's not something we good human beings are great at. But friend, if you're ready, God's ready.

Give up everything else you ever trusted and take up residence behind the blood of Jesus. Now, that's as far as we want to go in our passage for today. Next week, Lord willing, we're going to go on and look at another way in which the plan of salvation can be explained. But we'll get to that next week.

But I hope this is helping you. We're taking a look at the plan of salvation from the north, from the east, from the south and from the west. And from each direction, we can explain it and see it in a slightly different emphasis. But they all go into the plan of salvation. No wonder Paul said how unbelievable is God's riches and his wisdom and his mercy.

Who else could create something as absolutely fabulous as the plan of salvation that the Bible offers us? But we're going to go there next week. But today it's time for us to all ask our most important question. So are we ready?

Yes, we are. And and my granddaughter, Ava, told me last week she shouted it out loud. My other granddaughter, her sister said, I shouted it in my head, Papa. OK, that's all right, Gracie, you can shout it in your head, but I'd like all of us to shout it out loud. Here we go.

Come on, you know, one, two, three. So what? Yeah, baby. How sweet it is.

Jackie Gleason used to say that all the time. And how sweet it is. You say, Lon, this is wonderful. Man, wow. Unbelievable.

Stop hitting that thing because you're shaking the screen. I'm sorry. This is live. You get what you get. You say this is wonderful. I tell you.

But Monday morning, practical. You know, got it for you. Got it for you.

All right. Here we go. I want you to turn with me to Hebrews Chapter 10. And if you read the book of Hebrews and you should read the book of Hebrews. It's an incredible book. You'll find the blood of Jesus everywhere in that book because it is like I said, it's at the core of our plan of salvation. But I want you to read beginning in Chapter 10 with me and look at this now. And here I'm not going to use the King James version because I don't like the translation as much. It's the same text, but I think the RSV, the Revised Standard Version, it does a better job of translating it into English in this one case. So this is from the RSV.

So just watch the screen. Ready? Here it is. Hebrews 10, verse 19. Therefore, therefore what? Therefore, since the blood of Christ covers us and therefore we've got since we've got this kind of eternal covering. Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the sanctuary by the blood of Jesus.

Now, stop, stop, stop. Two weeks ago, we talked about the fact that there is a tabernacle in heaven. Go back and listen. If you didn't listen to that one, that that's the message on substitution atonement. And we said there's a sanctuary in heaven, the one on earth at the temple and then the first the tabernacle. We're just a copy of the one in heaven. We don't understand that.

But this is what it's talking about. We have confidence to enter right into this heavenly sanctuary where God himself dwells. OK. And how do we get in there?

Let's go back to the verse. We get in there by your good works. No, no, no. We get in there by your singing in the choir. No, no, no, no, no. We get in there by your keeping the ten.

No, no, no, no, no. We have confidence to enter the sanctuary by the blood of Jesus. We are covered with the blood of Jesus.

That's how we're safe to walk into God's presence by the new and living way. Which he opened for us through the curtain. What curtain? Well, there was a curtain in the earthly tabernacle between the holy place and the holy of holies. And the day Jesus died on the cross there with that curtain was split, indicating we could go right into the presence of God.

That's what this is talking about. He opened the curtain for us into the very presence of God. Since we have a great priest over the house of God, here's the so what? Let us draw near with a heart, a true heart, in full assurance of faith. What the Bible is saying here is because of our blood covering in the Lord Jesus, because the curtain between the holy place and the holy of holies in heaven has been open for us to go into the presence of God. By the blood of Jesus, the covering that we have over us, we have confidence, the Bible says.

Confidence that allows us to draw near to God with a true heart in full assurance of faith. We don't have to tiptoe in there trepidatiously. Well, we don't have to worry that the shoe's going to fall on us from up above the boots coming down on us. We don't have to worry that God's going to throw us out or judge us. No, no, no. We come in full assurance of faith that covered by the blood of Jesus.

We have the confidence to come right up to the living God of the universe safely, safely. You know, when I was in college, I went to University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill. Tar Heels.

Yeah, baby. You know, I'm Tar Heel born and Tar Heel bred. And when I die, I'll be Tar Heel dead.

Well, even more important, I'll be covered by the blood dead of Jesus. But anyway, and when I was a freshman there in Chapel Hill and even a sophomore, I was a chemistry major. And there was this girl in my chemistry classes because she was a chemistry major, too. So every chemistry class I had, she was in it. And baby, she was beautiful. Oh, my gosh. I mean, this girl was like, whew, stunning. I don't know. You know, sometimes you just see somebody and you go, oh, baby.

And they just appeal to you. I would see her and and I would just melt them to just like a big old lump of putty. I mean, I just couldn't do it.

I would stay in there and I would want to talk to her. I just couldn't. I couldn't. I just like I had no confidence whatsoever to approach her. She was so beautiful that I just I don't know. She was so intimidating.

I couldn't do it. Sometimes you girls don't understand how intimidating you are to us guys. You go intimidating? What are you talking about? You guys understand what I'm talking about? And I never did ask her out.

You believe that? For two years, I was in her classes at her labs. And then I never I never could get up the confidence to ask her out. Friends, when we don't have confidence how we're going to be received by somebody, I was worried she was going to just look at me and just go, are you kidding? You know, go out with you.

Are you kidding? And embarrass me and reject me and make me feel like a stupid fool. So that's why I didn't take the risk. Listen, if we don't have the confidence how somebody is going to receive us, we're not going to approach him. We're going to shrink back and be scared or we're not going to take the risk. Hey, baby, what did this verse just say that we just read in Hebrews? It says, let me repeat it. Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence, look at that, to enter the sanctuary where God is with a true heart, in full assurance of faith, we can draw near to God and not be afraid. And where do we get that confidence? Look at the verse. It says we get it by the blood of Jesus and the new and living way that he opened for us.

This is by his blood, folks, because we are covered by the blood. God says, I want you to have confidence and approach me. I don't want you to shrink back from me in your prayer life. I don't want you to shrink back from me and in being willing to ask me for anything that you need.

You have not because you ask not. James Chapter four. I want you to come boldly to the throne of grace.

Hebrews Chapter four. So that you may receive grace and mercy in the time of need. I want you to boldly approach me not in arrogance, but in confidence that you are covered by the blood of Jesus. And you are my child and you are safe and you are protected and that I will receive you with open arms.

And there is no danger here. I will not reject you. I will not embarrass you. I will not judge you. I will not take wrath on you. No, you are safe because you are behind the blood of the Messiah. Wow.

My gosh. Friends, confidence, confidence to approach the living God. We get it when we know that we are covered by the blood, covered by the blood. So don't you dare be afraid to approach to God and ask him whatever you need and pour your heart out to him and never be afraid of him. Because when you're covered by the blood of Jesus, you are safe. You are safe even in the presence of the all holy God of the universe. You are safe forevermore. May that change the way we react to the living God of the universe.

Let's pray. Heavenly Father, many people here understand what I said about this young lady and just not being able to get up to confidence to draw near to her. Lord Jesus, I'm so glad we don't have that problem with the living God who's far more intimidating than this girl. But Lord Jesus, even as sinners, we can approach you in all of your holiness without a fear, without a trepidation, without the slightest concern that you will reject us or hurt us because we are covered by the blood of Jesus. And so, God, may we approach you not with arrogance, but with confidence as your children covered by the blood of the Messiah. All precious is the flow that washes me white as snow.

No other fount I know, nothing but the blood of Jesus. Amen and amen. Well, thanks again for being with us. Lord bless you. And I'll close with my prayer that was prayed by Aaron over the people of Israel. May the Lord bless you and keep you this week. May the Lord cause his face to shine on you this week and may he be gracious to you.

May the Lord turn his face to you and not his back this week. And may he give you peace. My peace I give you, Jesus said. John 14, 27.

Not like the world gives. My peace I give you. Give us such peace, Lord, this week. In Jesus name. Amen. God bless you. See you next week.