Tonight I invite you to turn with me in your Bibles to the book of Hebrews, Hebrews chapter 9. We'll be reading there verses 11 through 28, and we will be considering this passage of Scripture in connection with the Belgic Confession, article 21, concerning the atonement of our Lord Jesus Christ on the cross. So we'll read first from Hebrews 9, verses 11 through 28, and then we'll read also Article 21 of the Belgic Confession. So Hebrews 9, for our scripture reading, page 1,281. 1,281 in your Bibles. Again, we'll begin reading at verse 11. So hear the holy word of our God. But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the 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 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 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 the 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 in force 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 rites, 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 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 that comes 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." And the sons are reading from God's Word tonight. And again, we're looking at this passage of Scripture in connection with Article 21 of the Belgic Confession concerning the atonement of Jesus Christ. So, Article 21, it's page 174 in your Forms and Prayers book. And it is there that we confess that we believe that Jesus Christ is a High Priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek, made such by an oath, and that He presented Himself in our name before His Father to appease His wrath with full satisfaction by offering Himself on the tree of the cross and pouring out His precious blood for the cleansing of our sins as the prophets had predicted. For it is written that the chastisement of our peace was placed on the Son of God, and that we are healed by His wounds. He was led to death as a lamb. He was numbered among sinners, and condemned as a criminal by Pontius Pilate, though Pilate had declared that he was innocent. So he paid back what he had not stolen, and he suffered the just for the unjust, in both his body and his soul, in such a way that when he sensed the horrible punishment required by our sins, his sweat became like big drops of blood falling on the ground. He cried, My God, my God, why have you abandoned me? and He endured all this for the forgiveness of our sins. Therefore, we rightly say with Paul that we know nothing but Jesus and Him crucified. We consider all things as dung for the excellence of the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. We find all comforts in His wounds and have no need to seek or invent any other means to reconcile ourselves with God than this one and only sacrifice once made which renders believers perfect forever. This is also why the angel of God called him Jesus, that is, Savior, because he would save his people from their sins." And the Sins are reading from the Confession here tonight. Well, congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ, When I was younger, I was always very curious about Judaism, particularly because I always wondered where they could go after having rejected Jesus. And also because of the simple fact that ever since Rome conquered and destroyed Jerusalem, they have not had a temple, nor priests, nor sacrifices. They have rejected Jesus and they have not had a temple nor sacrifices for nearly 2,000 years. And so what could Jews really do? Where could they go? How could they make sense of their faith because of those things? And as I get older, I discover that after the fall of Jerusalem, the Pharisees basically ruled the day. Ever since Rome was, or rather, Jerusalem was destroyed, the Pharisees basically took over. They were the only ones to survive that destruction of Jerusalem. But I was also surprised to find out that, as a result of all that took place since the year 70, that many Jews had forever given up hope of a Messiah. Or perhaps, more accurately, many Jews have argued that the Messiah was never truly one single person. Of course, it's not held by all Jews. There are certain other sections of Judaism that still believe a Messiah is yet to come, but there are many Jews who reject the idea of a single person who is the Messiah. And you might well be thinking as you hear that, how then can they make sense of the Old Testament? How can they make sense of God's promises of a Messiah if they deny that it's supposed to be one single person? What do they do with this Old Testament and these prophecies? Well, I was reminded of their answer as I was studying the Belgian Confession this past week, as one commentator quoted a lengthy section about Jewish teachings concerning the Day of Atonement. Now, the Day of Atonement, as you might recall, was that one day a year when the high priest would go into the Holy of Holies and pour out blood there for the sins of the nation. And you might say that as a result of the last happenings over the 2,000 years and the rejection of Jesus, that Day of Atonement has come to have new meaning for many Jews. This is what I read, or part of what I read there in this commentary. The name Yom Kippur means Day of Atonement, and that pretty much explains what the holiday is. It is a day set aside to afflict the soul. to atone for the sins of the past year. On Yom Kippur, the judgment entered into God's books is sealed. This day is, essentially, your last appeal, your last chance to change the judgment, to demonstrate your repentance and make amends. It is customary to wear white on the holiday which symbolizes purity and calls to mind the promise that our sins shall be made as white as snow. Now did you catch that congregation? How it was that their sins are atoned for. How it is that their sins are forgiven. And the answer is that they now believe it comes by afflicting their own souls. And so Yom Kippur for many Jews today is a day of complete fasting. No food, no drink whatsoever, where they spend most of the day in the synagogue singing, praising God, hearing His Word, or reading from the Old Testament, and as well, refraining from any other different activities. But it is, in principle, a day where they afflict their own souls to atone for their own sins. You see, having rejected Christ, many modern Jews believe atonement comes by punishing themselves. And I guess in one respect it makes sense, because what else are you to do when you reject the Messiah? What else are you to believe when you deny a Messiah who's crushed for our iniquities? You're left believing that you yourself have to make atonement. And why do I bring that up tonight? Why do I bring that up tonight? Because the Word of God gloriously teaches us that you do not have to make atonement for your own sins. And praise the Lord for that. Because He's given us His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ. And atonement is not found, therefore, in afflicting your own heart, afflicting your own soul, punishing yourself. But no, atonement is only found in the blood of Jesus Christ shed for us on the cross. Even as Hebrews tells us, there is no forgiveness of sins apart from the shedding of blood. And so we want to consider tonight the atonement of Jesus Christ for us, the atonement that he has made for our sins upon the cross. And to do so by considering, first of all, the cost of our atonement. Secondly, the benefit of this atonement in Jesus Christ. And third, the comfort to be found in his atonement. So the cost of our atonement, the benefit in our atonement, and the comfort of our atonement. The Belgic Confession, in there we confess that Jesus Christ is a high priest forever, after the order of Melchizedek, and that he presented himself in our name before his Father to appease his wrath with full satisfaction by offering himself on the tree of the cross and pouring out his precious blood for the cleansing of our sins, as the prophets had predicted. Now, leaving aside, in the interest of time, Christ being a high priest according to the order of Melchizedek, we want to focus instead on the cost Christ paid for the atoning of our sins. In Hebrews 9, verse 22, we're given a very, very clear principle that summarizes the entire testimony of the Old Testament. Without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sins. That is the message of the entire Old Testament. It's interesting or it's funny how true this is, but when many people read the Old Testament today, especially read the books of Moses, one of the first things almost everybody says after reading the Old Testament, reading especially those books of Moses, is just how bloody it is. It is so bloody. Blood here, blood there, blood everywhere. You're becoming a priest? Okay, well, let's kill some animal, let's put blood on you, let's pour blood out on the altar. The nation has sinned, let's kill another animal, let's pour out its blood, and let's put its blood upon the altar. Have you sinned personally? Well, bring forth an animal, we'll cut its throat, we'll pour out its blood, we'll put some blood on you perhaps, and we'll pour out blood upon the altar. Have you become unclean by a thousand different ways? Well, okay, let's kill another animal, let's get some blood, let's put some blood on you, let's wash you with this blood, and let's put blood out upon God's altar. There's just no getting away from it, is there? If you're one of those people who is very uncomfortable by the sight of blood, you could not survive in ancient Israel. There could not be such a person because blood was everywhere you turned. Whenever it came to God, whenever it came to your relationship with God, there was no getting away from blood. And if anyone stops and thinks about it for a moment, you can't miss the obvious conclusion. Sin can only be covered by the shedding of blood. Sin can only be forgiven by the shedding of blood. It is unmistakable. The moment you stop and you think about the Old Testament, it is obvious on every page. Sin can only be removed, covered up, taken away by the shedding of blood. That's true in the Old Testament, and it is just as true in the New Testament. The New Testament hasn't changed anything. The only change that has taken place is what has been offered up, because instead of the blood of bulls and goats, it is the blood of Jesus Christ Himself that is offered up for the atoning of our sins. Christ is both our priest and our sacrifice. As Hebrews 9 says in verses 11 and 12, but when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, 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. Our priest offered up His own blood. In thinking about that, there are a couple of related ideas that I'd like to focus upon here with you. that the shedding of Christ's blood was a matter of being punished on our behalf. Notice how the confession says that Christ presented Himself in our name. He presented Himself in our name before the Father. He came in our name before the Father to appease God's wrath for the cleansing of our sins. Or Hebrews 9 talks about Christ dying and suffering and how He did this to save And I draw our attention to these two ideas that it was a suffering and it was on our behalf because it underscores the enormous cost that He paid to atone for our sins. You know, it maybe is no surprise to you, but we do need to remember and we do need to meditate upon the fact that the cross needs to be understood as a form of punishment. It is the payment of a price. It is the satisfaction of God's wrath. It is the pouring out of God's justice. There are many people today who look at the cross and they see something different. They try to tell us that there at the cross we simply see God's love and how much God loves us and that message of love is to conquer your heart so that you know you're loved by God and you're good with God now. Or they say the message of the cross is simply about a faithful person, a faithful person like Jesus who's obedient and how we need to be obedient ourselves so that we may enjoy God's favor and grace. But you see, that is not how we're primarily to understand the cross. Yes, we see the obedience of Jesus Christ. Yes, we see the love of God as He punishes His Son, Jesus Christ. But the cross is first and foremost that punishment. It is a punishment poured out upon Jesus Christ. There is a price that's being paid. There is suffering that's being undergone. The wrath of God is being borne. God's justice is being poured out. You see, that's the whole reason why Paul can say in Romans 8 that there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. There is no condemnation because the cross was the great moment of the condemnation of our sins. There was the condemnation. And it came upon the head of Jesus Christ. His blood was shed upon the ground, not simply to show you the love of God, not simply to show you His obedience, but His blood was shed upon the ground because He was being crushed. He was being forsaken. He was receiving the penalty of God's wrath for our sins. And just look at article 21 as it refers to Isaiah 53, the chastisement of our peace placed on the Son of God, healed by His wounds, led to death, numbered among sinners, condemned as a criminal, paid back what He had not stolen, suffered just for unjust. And when he sensed the horrible punishment required by our sins, his sweat became like big drops of blood falling on the ground. Body and soul anguished as he experiences, as he feels, as he undergoes the incomprehensible wrath of God upon our sins. Jesus died not for Himself, not to make amends for Himself, but it was all about making amends for you and I. And I say this again because it underscores the cost. The cost of making atonement for our sins. Just think about it for a moment, brothers and sisters. This is what every last one of your sins demands and requires. Even the tiniest of your sins demands the blood of the eternal Son of God to be shed upon the ground in order that even this tiniest of sins might be covered up that it requires the eternal Son of God to take on our flesh, to be cursed upon a tree, to be forsaken by God, to experience that anguish and torment of body and soul, to cover up the least of our sins. Do you understand just how great the cost of atoning for your sins is? And you know, if we really understood that, If we really understood that, I think we would be much more vigilant against temptation. We would be much more serious in our battle against sin. We would be much more on guard against the temptations of the evil one. If we really understood the incomprehensible cost of making atonement even for one sin that it required the blood of the eternal Son of God in our place. Oh, we would be so much more careful not to give ourselves over to sin because of the terrible price that must be paid to cover it up. It requires someone else to die in our place. It requires someone else to pay back to God what we owe. It requires an innocent man to be condemned in our place. It requires the righteous one to be accounted unrighteous. It requires the eternal Son of God to take on our flesh and pour out His blood. That is how great and terrible the cost is to make atonement for your sins. That is humbling, isn't it, brothers and sisters? So very humbling. But yet while being humbled by this immeasurable cost that Christ had to pay, we nonetheless have every reason, every reason to break forth with unbounded joy because of the incomparable, incomprehensible benefit that is yet won for us as He pays, won for us in Christ as He pays this price. Article 21 puts it that we have the forgiveness of sins, and believers are rendered perfect forever. The forgiveness of sins. It's one of those statements that is so very simple even a child can understand it, and yet so very profound that even the oldest of saints can yet never plumb the depths of it. Hebrews 9 talks about Christ having put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. It talks about how Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many. And earlier there was this reference to purity, that everything was purified by blood. And I'd like to take a moment and focus on those three aspects, you might say, of the benefits of the blood of Jesus Christ. That there is this putting away of sin, there is this offering once for sin, and there is this purity from sin in Christ's blood. And to see there something of the depth and the breadth and the glory, this atonement we have in Jesus Christ. The first thing that Hebrews 9 mentions is the shedding of Christ's blood has put away sin. And as you think upon that, I trust the words of Psalm 103 quickly come to your minds, that God has removed our sins from us as far as the east is from the west. Or you have the prophet Micah who in chapter 7 declares or promises that God will have compassion on us and He will tread our iniquities underfoot and He will cast our sins into the depths of the sea. And then there is Isaiah 38 and how God has put all our sins behind His back. All those passages you see have in common this idea that in the atonement, in the salvation God would provide for His people, sin would be removed from us. That sin would be taken away from us and utterly taken away from us so that it no longer comes before the sight of God, no longer is seen or found in us. If you think of a record book, maybe of a spreadsheet, The entire list, the entire record of all our sins has been completely removed. Our record has been expunged. All the sins that we've committed, all the wickedness that has so filled our lives, has been utterly obliterated from the book of our life. When God looks at us in Jesus, He sees us as those who have been covered in His blood, and so God no longer sees our sin. Our sin is gone. Our sin is taken away. It has been washed away from us. And so, even as the Heidelberg Catechism will put it, it's as if we had never sinned. Can you imagine that? God sees us as those who, it's as if we had never sinned. As if sin is no matter of our record, no matter of our history, there is no sin to be found in us as if we had never been a sinner. The record, totally wiped clean. That's what it means, in part, to have atonement in Christ's blood. Sin has been put away from you. Sin has been removed from you and from your account. God no longer sees sin in you. He sees the blood of Jesus Christ. But then there's also added to it this point that Christ has offered Himself once and for all. Once and for all, Hebrews 10 will go on to say that Christ has by a single offering perfected for all time those who are being sanctified. And the idea here is that the sacrifice of Christ is good enough. It is powerful enough. It is valuable enough to deal with the entirety of our sins. And so you have, you might say, the scope of Christ's atonement in His one single offering. This sacrifice of Jesus on the cross, this atonement that He made on the cross, doesn't simply save you from the sins you committed before you were converted. It isn't as if, well, I came to faith in Jesus on June 9th, 2019, and so all my past sins have now been forgiven in Jesus Christ, but these future sins, well, now they're left to be dealt with in a different way afterward. No, not at all. It isn't as if the one sacrifice of Jesus Christ only saves us to this one point and now there's some other way of making atonement for our sins. But no, this one sacrifice of Jesus Christ is able to save you from all your sins. Even the sins you haven't committed yet. You, brothers and sisters, you well know that tomorrow you will be sinning all over again. Even tonight you leave here, you will go on and you will sin as you return to your homes. You will sin all the rest of your days that you live on this earth. Only death will put an end to your sinning. The glorious truth to lay hold of here tonight that is proclaimed in God's Word and that is expressed here in the Belgian Confession is this testimony that Christ's one sacrifice saves you from all your sins. His sacrifice is good enough for yesterday. It's good enough for today. It's good enough for tomorrow and to the end of your days. In the one sacrifice of Christ's blood on the cross, there is the atonement of all your sins. And so even as our confession reminds us we have no need to seek or invent any other means to reconcile ourselves with God than this one and only sacrifice. Sin has been definitively, completely, fully dealt with. Sin might continue to trouble us while we live in this world, but yet it has already, already been atoned for in the blood of Jesus Christ. And that's our confidence even as we go forward. because the blood of Jesus Christ extends forward, flows forward to cover our entire life. That's something of the beauty and the benefit of this atonement that Jesus Christ offers for us. It's an atonement that is for yesterday, today, and forever. But then as I mentioned, there's also this idea of purity. when it comes to our forgiveness, when it comes to our atonement. You see, the thing about sin isn't only that it makes us guilty, sin also defiles us. And children, perhaps you can kind of think of it like this. Your parents may tell you not to play in the mud. You know, it's been rainy, it's been wet, there's mud in the backyard, and your mom or your dad comes to you and says, now you may not play in the mud. but that mud is just too enticing to you, and so what do you do? You run out the back door, and within a few minutes, you're there in the mud, and you're stomping, and you're making mud pies, and everything else. And the reality is, not simply that you disobeyed your parents. You did disobey your parents when they told you not to play in the mud, but you've also made yourself dirty as you disobeyed your parents. And you see, that's the same thing when it comes to sin. Sin doesn't just make you guilty, sin makes you dirty. Sin makes you dirty in the eyes of God. It makes you gross, it makes you disgusting, it makes you ugly in the sight of God. Sin makes you and me dirty. But this is why Christ's atonement is, again, so precious and so wonderful, because as Christ's blood is poured out on you, you not only have your guilt taken away, you not only have your record of sins wiped clean, but you are also made pure in the blood of Jesus Christ. You are now made beautiful. You are made glorious. You are made clean. And this is where Isaiah 1 comes in, that we are made whiter than snow. You are made absolutely pure in Christ's blood. In Christ, you have no blemishes before the eyes of God. In Christ, there is no dirt yet clinging to you. There is no filth to be found in you, so that when God looks at you, God sees someone who truly is blameless. in the fullest meaning of that word. Blameless. Nothing to blame you for. Nothing that displeases Him. Nothing that God finds offensive. Nothing that is dissatisfying to your God. Instead, He looks at you in the blood of His Son, and He is completely pleased. And you are a radiant, beautiful son or daughter of the living God. Made absolutely pure. in the blood of Jesus Christ. And there is so much more that we could say about this atonement that Jesus made, the forgiveness of sins that we have in Him. But think on those things, brothers and sisters. Think on those things. Think about how your sins have been removed from you, taken away, put away in the blood of Jesus Christ. How all your sins, past and present and future, are completely atoned for. and how you do stand spotless in the eyes of God. These are glorious, glorious truths. And as you think on these things, it should be that your heart is drawn to find great comfort then in the shedding of Christ's blood. And that's where I'd like to end with you, the comfort that we have in this atonement. Hebrews 9 verse 14 talks about purifying our consciences, freeing our conscience, relieving our conscience, so that we're free to serve the living God. Where your consciences are now unburdened. You don't simply look to God and are overwhelmed with the sense of your own inadequacy, your own wickedness, your own guilt, your own shame, but now your conscience is free as you approach God because you know, you know the blood of Jesus Christ has made you clean. Relieving you so that you can now joyfully go forth to serve the living God. Verse 28 also talks about those who now eagerly await Christ's coming. You think of the day of judgment, you think of how all of humanity will be brought before the throne of Jesus Christ to be judged, and how because of the atoning blood of Jesus Christ, you eagerly look forward to that day. You look forward to the day you can see Christ there upon the throne. You look forward to the day that you're finally presented there because you know, you understand that all your sin has been dealt with, all your wickedness atoned for, nothing left on your account. You eagerly look forward to that day because you know you will experience the salvation of God. And so the Belgic Confession summarizes these things by saying, we find all comforts in His wounds and have no need to seek or invent any other means to reconcile ourselves to God. And I love the way that's put. We find all comforts in His wounds. Those wounds of Jesus we can all find very terrible because we know and we remember well the great pain and the great suffering that was inflicted on Christ by means of those wounds. We remember how his back was torn by whips. We remember how his head was pierced with a crown of thorns. We know how his face was bruised and bloodied because they hit him with their hands and their fists. We remember those nail holes in his hands and in his feet. We remember as well that hole in his side that was opened up by the spear after he had died. And although it may sound quite macabre, those wounds are to be very beautiful to us. Those wounds are to be very precious to us. And the reason is exactly because of what Isaiah 53 says. Isaiah 53 verse 5. In His wounds, with His wounds, we are healed. You see those wounds with the eyes of faith, and you know what those holes say. Those holes say forgiveness, mercy, grace, life. healing. You know, I think again of how so many people today believe the very same thing that many Jews do that I mentioned at the beginning of this sermon. That they think that we have to somehow atone for our own sins. You hear people talk about that sometimes, don't you? Or talk like that sometimes. I have to make amends. I have to punish myself. I have to inflict punishment on myself because I have to somehow make up for what I've done, for the wrongs that I have committed. I need to punish myself. I have to beat myself up. I have to torture myself. I have to do any great number of things to somehow make atonement for my sins. And brothers and sisters, what a miserable way to live. What an absolutely miserable way to live. How could you ever do enough? How could you ever punish yourself enough to make up for your sins? How could you as a sinner ever make up for your sinning? No matter how much you afflict yourself, no matter how much you may starve yourself, no matter how much you may deprive yourself of the pleasures of this world, how could you ever make up for any one of your sins? You know, there are even Roman Catholics who make a great example of that, because in their own great concern to make some kind of atonement for their sins, they do something which is called self-flagellation. You may wonder what that is, but you can see this still today. You often see it around the time where they, ironically enough, celebrate Christ's death on the cross. Many Christians, you find it, I think, especially in South America and other places, but you find these people who walk the streets and they whip themselves. They literally whip themselves as they walk the streets, and they pray as they whip themselves, and they do all kinds of other things. I mean, some of them even nearly die. They whip themselves so badly, yes, they're bleeding all over and they're having to be hospitalized. And why are they doing this? Because they believe they have to make atonement for their sins. Because they believe that they need to punish themselves in order to somehow make it up to God and be accepted by Him. We're sinners, we've done bad things, and so we have to punish ourselves so that we can make it right with God. But you see, this is the beauty again of the gospel and the message of Jesus Christ because he was bruised and he was whipped and he was beaten and he was hung on a cross for your atonement. There is nothing left for you or me to do. And what comfort for us then as we consider these things, even as we face perhaps our own consequences for sin. You know, we do at times experience consequences of our sins. God does bring upon us the consequences of our evil and our wickedness. But you see, we must be very careful to understand, brothers and sisters, that even when we experience the consequences of our sins, it is not in any sense to make atonement for our sins, or to make things right with God, because you cannot do that, and Jesus has done that. Even when you suffer those consequences, it's not about making things right with God, it is simply about experiencing the consequences and being about leading you to Jesus to understand that He, He makes atonement for your sins. It is never, our lives are never in any respect about trying to pay some kind of price to make God satisfied with us. because only Jesus can and does do that. We have to be so careful never to slip into that mentality, brothers and sisters, because we can easily do that. I'm in this place. I'm in this spot. I'm in this circumstance because I have sinned and I need to make it up to God. No. Never. Never. There is no redemptive value in your suffering. There is no atoning value in your suffering. There is nothing you can do. It is all in Jesus, and that's to be our comfort. so that even when we do suffer, we can say, I'm not being punished in order to make myself right with God. It isn't as if God is utterly wrathful and angry against me. No, because Christ is atoned for my sins and He is just as a loving Father bringing me these circumstances so that I might continue to be humble and repent and believe and trust in this Jesus. And so these wounds of Jesus Christ are to comfort us. They're to comfort us as fears of judgment creep over our hearts. These wounds of Jesus are to comfort us when questions of God's love may arise. These wounds are to comfort us when we feel overwhelmed by the guilt and the enormity of our sins. These wounds are to comfort us as we're worried about the future. or when earthly sicknesses consume us, or when friends forsake us, or the world hates us, or any temptation comes our way. These wounds, you see, of Jesus we are to flee to, to find all manner of comfort. In every trial, in every situation, these wounds of Jesus are to proclaim to our hearts that God's wrath is satisfied, the claims of God's justice have been dealt with, sin has been atoned for, and victory has been gained. The confession reminds us that once we understand that Christ is the perfect substitute who provides perfect satisfaction for us, we don't need to seek any other means or invent any other means of being reconciled to God. but we look simply, solely, and exclusively to Christ. You know, it's just funny in that way, then, that that is, again and again, exactly what we're drawn to do. We're so drawn to seek and to invent some other means of finding reconciliation with God. But the Word of God shows us that we can stop that. We can cease that. We can end our restless quest to find reconciliation with God because Christ has come and Christ went to the cross and there on the cross He made full and complete atonement for all our sins. You know, brothers and sisters, what that means? It means that we need to desperately understand three little words so very much, which in the Greek are only one word. But those three little words are very simply, it is finished. That's what this is all about. That's what this confession is all about proclaiming and pressing upon our hearts. It is finished. It is done. The work is complete. Atonement has been made. And so, as it has been, I think, wisely said many times, for every look at yourself, take ten looks at Christ. For every look at yourself where you see your sin and you see your wickedness, take ten looks at Jesus. because He is our High Priest and our sacrificial substitute. In Him we have the full atonement of our sins, and we are perfect forever. So may you give Christ the glory and find all manner of comfort and joy in Him. Amen. Let's pray. O Lord, our God, as we come before You tonight, We again are so grateful, we're so glad, thankful for the work of Jesus Christ and His death for us upon the cross. We pray, Lord, that we may continue to look to the wounds of Jesus Christ and understand that by those wounds we are healed. and that He experienced this suffering for us, for our transgressions, for our iniquities, for our sins, so that we may know, O Lord, that we truly have had sin put away from us. We have been made perfectly pure and clean in Your sight, and that blood avails for all our sins, past, present, and future. Father, give us great comfort, we pray, in the Lord Jesus Christ. And may we have great confidence then as well for the future to know that there is no condemnation, there is no need to fear the judgment, because we will certainly be recognized as those who have had their robes washed white in the blood of the Lamb. Thank you, Father, for this atonement that you have given us in your Son. Receive all our praise and thanksgiving, then, and help us to go forth in the confidence of Christ's work for us, that we may serve you joyfully and gladly all our days. Be with us in this new week. Keep us in your care. All these things we ask in Jesus' name. Amen.