The Old vs. the New

Mark chapter two and Hebrews chapter eight. We'll continue our study this morning in the book of Mark. Here we go. Mark two and Hebrews eight. Off with the old and on with the new.

The cross of Jesus Christ and his resurrection from the grave is a pivotal or the pivotal moment. In all of human history. Everything in the Old Testament leads up to what? The coming sacrifice and resurrection of Jesus Christ. And then from the cross, we leave there and we head through the New Testament eventually to the eternal state at the end of Revelation.

Everything hinges upon what? All of that hinges upon Jesus Christ and his atoning sacrifice on Calvary for all of our sin. There is this seminal moment, this pivotal point where Christ fulfills the old law, the old covenant made between God and Israel. By his sinless life, and institutes and establishes the new covenant or New Testament we call it through the shedding of his blood on the cross of Calvary for the sins of mankind. And his resurrection from the dead.

This all hinges upon this one moment in time. As we read earlier, Jesus said, think not that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets. I am not come to destroy but to what? To fulfill. Jesus said to those who doubted him, he said, if you believe Moses and the prophets, you would believe in me because they wrote of me.

And as we go through the Old Testament, we're doing this on Wednesday nights. We will see that everything has to do with going forward to that point in time where God fulfills a promise made in Genesis three fifteen to send the seed of the woman to bruise or crush the head of the serpent Satan. Which he did when he died on the cross for sin and rose again from the dead. It is this moment in time, this life of Christ that we're going to look at today as we see one change over to the other. From the old covenant and God in Israel of the law to the new covenant of grace in Jesus Christ.

In Mark chapter two, let's read verses 18 through 22. And the disciples of John and of the Pharisees used to fast and they come and say unto him, why do the disciples of John and of the Pharisees fast but thy disciples fast not. Jesus said unto them, can the children of the bride chamber fast while the bridegroom is with them? As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast but the days will come when the bridegroom shall be taken away from them and then shall they fast in those days. No man also soweth a piece of new cloth on an old garment.

Else the new piece that filled it up taketh away from the old and the rent is made worse. No man putteth new wine into old bottles else the new wine doth burst the bottle and the wine is spilled and the bottles will be marred but new wine must be put in new bottles and we will stop there in Mark and then look if you would over to Hebrews chapter eight. Keep your finger in Mark because we're coming back there but this idea of the the the new cloth on the old garment and the new wine and the old wine bottles or wineskins applies to the old covenant versus the new covenant and that that which the writer of Hebrews speaks of here in verses six through 10. So, Hebrews chapter eight and verses six through 10. But now he that is Christ hath he obtained a more excellent ministry by how much also he is the mediator of a better covenant which is established upon better promises.

For if the first covenant or the old covenant had been faultless then should no place have been sought for the second. For finding fault with them that was with Israel, he say it, behold the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt. That was the old covenant. That was the mosaic covenant with God and Israel at Mount Sinai.

Because they continued not in my covenant and I regarded them not, say it the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, say it the Lord. I will put my laws into their mind and write them in their hearts and I will be to them a god and they shall be to me a people. Verse 13, in that he say it a new covenant, he hath made the first old. Now, that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away.

Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Dear heavenly father, we thank you Lord today for your word. Pray as we look into it. Lord, that you would give us enlightenment and understanding and I pray Lord that as it goes forth today, that the Holy Spirit would take your word and use it as the sword of the spirit to pierce our hearts to bring understanding and Lord to convict us of sin and challenge us in your service today and we pray Lord if there's one here that's never trusted Christ that today indeed would be their day of salvation. Lord, thank you for this opportunity Together here to worship you and to praise you and to preach your word today.

May you be honored and exalted in all that we say and do. In Jesus name, amen. You see that old cove between God and Israel made at Mount Sinai God said to Israel, if you will keep my laws and if you will not turn aside into idolatry, I will what? Bless you and I will keep you in the land. But he said, if you turn from my laws and you turn to idolatry, I will what?

Not bless you but curse you and I will take you out of the land that I gave you. Now, what happened? Did Israel stay true to God? Did they stay true in their allegiance? Did they keep his commandments and keep his laws or did they turn away from him to idolatry?

Well, they turned away from him to idolatry. Matter of fact, they turned from him to idolatry over and over and over and over again and they would God would bring judgement and and they would cry for mercy and God would show them mercy again and again and again and again when they would repent and turn from their wicked ways back to the Lord but it wasn't long. The next generation, what would happen? They do the very same thing and eventually, there came a point to where God said that's what. That's enough.

I told you. I'd leave you in this land forever if you if you kept my word, if you followed my commandments, if you didn't turn to other idols that you haven't and so, he punished them. He exiled them. He he brought in the Assyrians to take them away captive. He brought in the Babylonians.

They destroyed Jerusalem. They took the people captive. The Old Covenant failed. It didn't fail because of God. It failed because of human nature.

It failed because men are what? Men are sinners and incapable of keeping the law of God. Because the law cannot change by itself, the one, the heart. The old covenant did not succeed and that it didn't save souls. It condemned them.

It succeeded in the thing that God intended it to do which was to show man his need of a what? His need of a savior and a better covenant and that's what Jesus Christ is about and that's what the writer of Hebrews is talking about. Religious leaders of the Jews were not looking for a new covenant. They were trying to make everything fit into the old. An old covenant that was becoming obsolete.

As Christ fulfilled it and was about to initiate a new covenant by the shedding of his blood on the cross. They were trying to make everything fit into the old. The old covenant between God and Israel which they had failed. For the law was powerless to change the heart, only restrict and condemn it. The old ways of Judaism in which they had exchanged a reliving relationship with God for lifeless rituals and self righteous works.

Which only held them captive and gave them a false sense of security before God. The Jews of Jesus' day thought that because they were Jews and because they had the law and because they kept it in part, that they were worthy of heaven and the kingdom. They were wrong. The law should have told them differently that they weren't listening. Jesus came and told them differently but many sadly were not listening.

He had something better to offer. The old ways were passing away and giving place to the new. Like the discussion we had at men's bible study on Friday night, appreciate the men that came. They had completely lost sight of what was important and that is glory, glorifying, and serving who? God.

Instead, their religion had become all about pleasing and exalting who? Themselves which I'm afraid is what much of our religion is about Today in Christianity. Lost perspective on what was important. What they were here for. Instead, their desire to exalt and please themselves through religion.

It was all about their pleasure, all about their recognition, their power, their opinions, their reward. It was no longer about who? It was no longer about God. Their relationship with him Their service to him. They forgot that God is the creator and we, the creature, created for his glory and pleasure and not solely for our own.

Revelation four eleven. Thou art worthy, oh Lord, to receive glory, and honor, and power, for thou hast created all things and for thy pleasure. They are and were created. Why did God make you? He made you for his glory and pleasure.

He finds pleasure in his relationship with you. Now, isn't that? Now, think about that. Isn't that kind of special? God finds pleasure in his relationship.

With us. Relationship that was marred and broken by sin but that can be restored through faith in who Through faith in Christ and his shed blood on Calvary They had lost the sight of the big picture God's plan of redemption for fallen humanity and it made it solely about themselves. The Jews thought that God's plan was only for who? For Jews. But God's plan was never only for Jews.

Jews were a vehicle and a tool. Israel was. To bring about redemption not only for themselves but for all who come to Christ by faith. Genesis twelve three, God said to Abraham, he says, I will bless them that bless thee. I will curse him that curseth thee and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.

So, when God chose Abraham, he chose him not only for his own. Profit and benefit but he chose him that through him, he might benefit all the families of Earth and not just Abraham's descendants. How would God do that? Through Jesus Christ, the descendant of who? The descendant of Abraham and his humanity.

In Romans one sixteen, Paul writes, for I'm not ashamed of the gospel for it is the power of God unto salvation to what's the next word? Everyone that believe it. To the Jew first and also to the Greek, to the Jew first and also. In other words, everyone, to everyone that believe it. They had lost sight of that.

Jesus had come to lead them into a new covenant which God referred to in Jeremiah 31 in which he would write his words not on tables of stone but where? I heard it. On their hearts. Jeremiah thirty one thirty three. But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days saith the Lord.

I will put my law in their inward parts. I will write it in their hearts and I will be their God and they shall be my people. The writer of Hebrews quoted from this passage. In the passage we just read. See, God has something better than the old covenant.

The laws written on tables of stone that couldn't change the heart. Jesus Christ came into the world. He came to bring redemption and salvation By which through his shedding of blood on the cross, not the blood of bulls and goats He would make a way for us to be brought back together with God Saved and changed where In here forever. When we're saved, the Holy Spirit comes to live inside of our hearts and his laws are not just written here. Now, they're written Paul called it a mystery because the Old Covenant only gave us glimpses of it whereas the New Covenant or New Testament reveals it clearly and fully.

The righteousness of Christ for the unrighteousness of men. Via his sacrifice on the cross for us. The blood of Christ better than the blood of bulls and goats that cleanses us from all sin. The bride of Christ redeemed from every tongue, tribe, and nation. The way of Christ, the way of repentance and faith by by the grace of God.

And not by the works of the law. For by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified. Galatians two sixteen. The reward of Christ, a home prepared for all his children who are kept by his power. Through faith, in his shed blood, and eternal mercy.

And grace. That is the new covenant. That is the way of grace and salvation. Provided us through Jesus Christ, our savior on the cross. Christ did fulfill the old.

He fulfilled it in his sinless life. For he did keep the commandments. He fulfilled it and that he is the lamb of God. Pictured in the sacrifices of the Old Testament. Who died for the sins, not of Israel, but for the sins of the for the sins of the world.

If you remember from last week's lesson, Jesus and his disciples were partaking of a meal with Levi also called Matthew giving in Christ's honor and to which Matthew had invited his friends to meet his new master. Look if you would again back to Mark chapter two. Let's look at verse 15 through 17. 15 through 17 of Mark two. And it came to pass that as Jesus sat at meat in his house, many publicans and sinners sat also together with Jesus and his disciples for there were many and they followed him and when the scribes and Pharisees saw him eat with publicans and sinners, they said unto his disciples, how is it that he, Jesus, eateth and drinketh with publicans and sinners.

When Jesus heard it, he say it unto them, they that are whole have no need of a physician but they that are sick. I came not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance. As the Pharisees saw Jesus eating and drinking, associating with these riffraff of society They thought amongst themselves and they talked to one and they said, how can this be? Why does he do this? Doesn't he know?

He is defiling himself by just being with these people. But see that was the problem. They saw them as these people. They saw them as different from who? Themselves because they thought, hey, they're righteous and these people are what?

Sinners. Because they kept the law in part. And these people publicly did not and somehow, that made them better. In their mind, to which Christ responded, that he had come to call sinners to repent ance of salvation. Not self righteous Pharisees.

Who didn't think they needed a savior. As I explained in Wednesday night, only sinners can be saved. The self righteous are without hope. For our only hope is to recognize that we're sinners in need of a savior. And that is the world's only hope.

And that was the Pharisees. Only hope. Now, the disciples of John the Baptist were around at the same time and they were viewing what was going on as well. Now, John the Baptist was the forerunner of Christ. John the Baptist was given the privilege of of announcing Christ and his ministry as Messiah to the world through his baptism and through telling his disciples, behold the lamb of God who taketh away the sin of the world.

But John the Baptist knew his place. John the Baptist said, I'm not worthy to lace the sandals of the one who's coming after me, Jesus Christ. John the Baptist said, he must increase and I must decrease but there were some of his followers and students that clung to him and still followed him and he taught them. I am sure he taught them about Jesus Christ and how Jesus was the Messiah and so forth and so on. But these are referred to still as the disciples of John.

He had they had remained his students. The Pharisees also were there of course and they questioned Jesus as to why he and his disciples did not fast as they but rather seemed to be a merry lot. They were John the Baptist disciples were fasting. The Pharisees fasted once or twice a week but what were Jesus and his disciples doing? They were feasting.

They were celebrating and John's disciples and the Pharisees both got together on this one and they said, why is it that your disciples are celebrating and we're over here fasting. Why is it that there's such a merry lot? And they don't do things like what? Like we do things. Why is that?

Verses 18 through 20 again in Mark two, disciples of John and the Pharisees used to fast and they come and say unto him, why do the disciples of John and the Pharisees fast but thy disciples fast not. That is the question. John's disciples as their teacher was in prison, sincerely were in earnest over his plight and so naturally, they fasted and prayed for him. You see, while Jesus was ministering at this point in time and his disciples with him, John had been thrown in prison by Herod. And so John, their leader and their teacher, was in prison and would he ever be released from prison?

The answer to that is no. He would eventually be beheaded. And so they were in earnest over the plight of their leader of John and so naturally, out of concern, they prayed and they fasted. Fasting was commonly practiced as a matter of earnest prayer in desperate times and for very serious matters. In such cases, meals were sacrificed for sincere time in prayer.

To express a real earnest concern on the part of the petitioner. It would have seemed natural for John's disciples to be fasting because their mind, this was what? Desperate times and there was a very what? Serious matter. Examples in the Old Testament such as Daniel nine verse three.

Daniel said and I set my face under the Lord God to seek by prayer and supplications with fasting and sackcloth and ashes. In Nehemiah one four and it came to pass when I heard these words that I sat down and wept and mourn certain days and fasted and prayed before the God of heaven. Why were Nehemiah and Daniel fasting and praying? They were concerned about the plight of the Jews and they were concerned about the plight of Jerusalem and so they fasted and they prayed. They prayed with such earnestness that meals were missed.

Sacrifice for time in earnest prayer because there was something important. Book of Esther, Esther four sixteen, go gather together all the Jews. This is Esther speaking to Mordecai. That are present in Shushan, that's the capital of Persia and fast you for me and neither eat nor drink three days, neither day. I also and my maidens will fast likewise and so, will I go in unto the king which is not according to the law and if I perish, I perish.

Now, why did Esther ask for people to fast and pray? Because two reasons. One, the Persian king had passed a law that was going to result in the annihilation of all Jews, all the Israelites. Was that a reason to be in earnest? Yes, it was.

Was it desperate times? Yes, it was. So, Esther said, fast and fasting in the Old Testament included what? Praying for the Lord and so she said, fast, fast, and pray. She also was asking because things were desperate for her as well.

Not only were the Jews, she being one in trouble. But in order to try to remedy the situation, she was going to have to go before the king uninvited and to go before the king uninvited was to invite death and so she said, please, fast, pray for me. It is understandable therefore that John's disciples might fast while he's in prison but the Pharisees were another matter. The Pharisees fasted as a matter of routine and self righteousness. Hoping to impress God and others with their acts of self humiliation.

The Pharisees didn't fast at desperate times. They fasted twice a week. No matter what the times were. They fasted as a matter of routine. They fasted as a matter of ritual.

In Matthew chapter six, Jesus said, when they fasted, they dressed in such a way and they looked in such a way that when they went out in public, everybody would know that they were what? Fasting. And Jesus said, they have their reward. Was God impressed by the Pharisees habit of fasting in order to be seen by others? No, he was not impressed at all.

He said, they have whatever others see, whatever pat on the back they get, whatever pity they get, that's all they get because they're not getting anything from me. The Pharisees did not impress God with their ritualistic fasting. As some do today Sadly, neither group fully understood what Jesus had come to do which would change everything Nor the joy that he brought and would bring to those who know him. Particularly his disciples which were learning presently at his feet. So, in answer to their question, he gave an analogy.

He used an analogy of a wedding. Verse 19. Why do my disciples not fast like John's do? Why do my disciples not fast like the Pharisees do? He says in verse 19, can the children of the bride chamber fast while the bridegroom is with them?

As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast but the days will come when the bridegroom shall be taken away from them and then shall they fast in those days. He is the wedding of analogy of a wedding. Jesus compared himself to the bridegroom at the wedding feast and his disciples as members of the wedding party. Now, of all celebrations in Israel, Apart from the three religious festivals of Passover and Pentecost and Tabernacles, the greatest celebration in Israel was a wedding. They didn't celebrate for hours.

They celebrated for days. That's why in Cana Of Galilee, they ran out of wine to drink because they had been celebrating for days. They look forward to weddings. They really celebrated weddings. It was a time to lay aside the concern other concerns of life and celebrate.

This young couple who was about to begin a new life together. A wedding was a time for celebrating. It was a time for feasting. It was a time for rejoicing. Nobody came in funeral attire to a wedding feast.

Nobody wore a somber face. They made merry and celebrated the coming nu of the bride and the groom. So, Christ and his disciples had no reason to be somber. They had no reason to fast at present while who was with them? Jesus.

While Jesus was there, for Christ's disciples wasn't the time to fast, it was the time to what? It was the time to rejoice. To rejoice. For standing right beside me, his disciples thought. Is the son of who?

Is the son of God. Standing right beside them they could touch him and feel him was the Lord of life He taught them He he walked with them He helped and he assisted them during his three year ministry on earth It was not a time to fast It was a time to rejoice, to celebrate, and to enjoy. Sadly, others didn't recognize what his disciples knew. That Jesus's other name mentioned in Isaiah seven fourteen was Emmanuel. God with us.

Living side by side with them. Jesus says, now is not the time to be somber. Now is the time to rejoice However, the time would come as Christ pointed out when the bridegroom would be taken from them and then they would have reason to fast and pray. He said, the day is coming when they'll have a reason to fast and pray because the bridegroom will be what? Taken away.

He would be arrested. And he was. He would be crucified and he was. He would rise from the dead three days later but forty days later, he would ascend back up to the father in heaven and he would leave them. He would not leave them without a helper, without a comforter, and he sent the Holy Spirit.

Who lives inside of our heart today, who know him as savior. His disciples would suffer for his name's sake and his disciples would almost all be murdered. For the name of Jesus Christ. There would come a day for them to what? Fast and pray but that day was not this day.

This day was a time to celebrate Jesus said. There would be a time and there are times today Unfortunately, we do not often recognize those times I'm afraid sometimes rather than praying earnestly even maybe to the point of fasting We spend time worrying tearing up our gut that way Instead of praying and leaving it at the hands of who? Of Jesus Christ There are times today that call for praying earnestly and fasting I'm afraid sometimes we don't recognize that because we go to every answer but who? But Jesus or we fast as a matter of diet and ritual rather than earnest prayer. That was the mistake the Pharisees made.

It was a ritual It wasn't part of a relationship We sometimes miss the point as well Well, those crazy Pharisees and John's disciples didn't they know better Yeah, they missed the point, didn't they? Sometimes, we miss the point Christ would then go on to illus the confusion of his detractors further by use of two household practices Look if you would in verse 21 No man soweth a piece of new cloth on an old garment Else, the new piece that filled it up, taketh away from the old, and the rent is made worse. He is the analogy of a garment. They they didn't grasp that there was no need to fast right now because Jesus the son of God and the establisher of the new covenant was here to do something wonderful for them. They didn't recognize that they couldn't take the new and just stuff it into the what?

The old. They had to leave behind the old to receive what? The new Jesus Christ. See? The old garment that got a hole in it.

You would take another piece of cloth and you'd mend it and you'd patch it. Now, if the old, if the the new piece of cloth you use to mend the tear in the old cloth, had not yet shrunk, after you wash it a few times, what would happen? It would shrink and it would pull apart, would pull away and so the tear would not be mended for long but in the end, it would end up worse because you couldn't took new cloth and put it on an old garment. It wouldn't work. You had to take cloth that was already shrunk and put it on the old garment and then it would then it would work fine.

The Pharisees were trying to take Christ and fit him into their interpretation of the old covenant and it wasn't going to what? Wasn't going to work. He gave them another analogy. Verse 22. He said, no man puteth wine in the old bottles, else the new wine doth burst the bottles and the wine is spilled or spoiled and the bottles will be marred but new wine must be put in new bottles.

The word bottles there does not mean bottles as when what we think of bottles made out of glass. He's talking about wine skins. When I was in Israel I saw wine skins. And what they would do is they would put the grape juice in wine skins. And naturally over time the grape juice would begin to ferment.

And as the grape juice began to ferment it produced gases. And the gases would cause the wine skin to what? Expand and to stretch out. Now after a while it would reach its full expansion or elasticity. And when they used the the grape juice and the wine out of that one and they got more grape juice, could they put it in the old wine skin?

No. Because if they put it in the old wineskin it would begin to ferment and it would begin to produce gases and the gases would push out but the wineskin couldn't go any what? Further and so what would happen? It would burst. Your wine would be spoiled.

Here it is on the floor. Didn't work. Oops. That's what the Pharisees were trying to do with Jesus. They were trying to take the new and they were trying to fit it into the old.

Was it going to work? The answer is no. It wasn't going to work. Jesus fulfilled and ended the old covenant and ushered in the what? The new covenant through the shedding of his blood on the cross.

A covenant that wasn't just with the nation of Israel but was with all who would come to him by faith. For he shed his blood for the sins of the world. Thus, Christ point to the Pharisees that the old ways, both the old covenant based on the law between God and Israel which they had failed to keep and especially additional regulations of men hoisted upon the Jews by their religious leaders were not compatible with the new covenant that Jesus was initiating by his work. Therefore, the old had to be left behind to make way for the new. You know, in the book of Hebrews, going off just a little bit here.

I won't run too long. In the book of Hebrews, the writer of Hebrews is writing to a group of Hebrew Christians who are discouraged and frustrated and here's the reason. Some of their associates who had professed faith in Christ and had joined the church had now gone back into what? Judaism. They had gone back into the old religion and they were discouraged and frustrated and the writer of Hebrews wrote to them to encourage them and to make it clear.

There is, you have to make a what? Choice. You can't ride the fence. Either it's the old way or it's the what? It's the new way and now that the new way has come, the old way is vanishing away.

Said, you must accept Christ. The blooded bulls and goats will do you no good. At all. The Pharisees in particular were looking everything from the perspective of making it fit into their outdated beliefs and practices as prescribed by their interpretation and understanding of the law and they were thereby unable to see Christ. To see Christ for who he really was.

And celebrate in faith the fulfillment of the old. And the mediator of the new. They were stuck in their old traditions. They were stuck in their old ways and they could not see Jesus Christ. The mediator of the new covenant.

It's unfortunate and sad that there are many likewise today unwilling and unable to give up their beliefs in church traditions. And long held practices to simply in faith receive Christ as Lord and savior. Salvation is not about denominations or religions. It's about a person and that person is who? Jesus Christ and whether or not you have a relationship with him, through faith in his shed blood and and resurrection from the dead.

That's what it's all about. But how sad is it today that there are many people who can't see Christ for their own church. Traditions. And practices. And they are held hostage thereby.

Baptism cannot save you. The Lord's table cannot save you. They are memorials, reminders, what he's done for us. They are not rituals that bring salvation. The sacraments or works of the Catholic church cannot save you.

They only stand in your way of knowing the grace and mercy of Jesus Christ Received by faith in his name. Do not trust in the works of the church. Do not trust in the works of men. Do not trust in tradition. Trust in Jesus.

And in his word. Embrace the savior. The mediator of a new and better covenant. Whereby we can be received into the beloved, the family of God. Through faith in his name.

First Peter three eighteen, for Christ also hath once suffered for sins. The just for the unjust that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but quickened by the spirit. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life. Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the father but by me, John fourteen six.

That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in thine heart that God has raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. Saved. Period. Ephesians two eight and nine, for by grace are you saved through faith. That is faith in Jesus and that not of yourselves, it's the gift of God, not of works.

Lest any man should boast. Is there some belief, practice, or tradition which you just can't let go of? To receive the good news and be Christ? Would you let go of your self righteousness? And embrace Christ as a sinner in need of a savior.

And Christian, how about you? Is there some old way of the flesh which you just won't let go of to receive the full blessing and joy of Jesus Christ. What's standing in your way? First Peter one hundred fourteen and sixteen says, as obedient children not fashioning yourselves according to the former lust your ignorance but as he which hath called you as holy, so be you holy in all manner of conversations. Not fashioning yourselves according to the former lust before you were saved.

But following Jesus Christ. What he has given that is new. Ephesians four twenty two and twenty four, that you put off concerning the former conversation, the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful us and should be renewed in the spirit of your mind and that you put on the new man which is after God is created and righteousness is in true holiness. Christian today, watch standing in your way. What old thing are you clinging to?

That's keeping you from enjoying The freedom grace and power of God the victory that is in Christ Jesus Let's cast off the old and let's put on the name. Let's pray. Dear heavenly father, we thank you Lord for this day Lord there may be someone here today that doesn't understand Like there are many in our world today and as there are many in your day that could not turn from the old to see the new the way of Christ the way of grace and mercy and faith which you have to offer. I pray today that you'd open their eyes I pray that you'd help them to see that there is salvation in none other and that there's no other way and that their self righteousness isn't endearing them to God No, it's keeping them from receiving the eternal life that you only can give through Jesus I pray Lord if that be the case that you'd open their eyes and you convict their heart and as we sing this hymn of invitation they'd come and I, Lord, I pray for us who know you as savior, that if there's something between our soul and our savior, we deal with it today.

Lord, that we would receive your word, that we would receive with an open heart and mind. Your instruction your joy, we might embrace it in our lives. We might serve you with all of our heart. Lord that we might know thus the joy that is ours in Christ Jesus Lord, that we might celebrate it today and that Lord, as we do come across desperate times we would get down on our knees and pray that we would seek the face of our savior who though he isn't with us here in body today He sits at the right hand of the father interceding in our behalf Who's ready and willing to receive our prayers If we will come to him In Jesus name Amen.