The Book of Hebrews 9:15-22 The Mediator of a New Covenant

Good morning and a blessed new year to you. We started the electives here this morning. I understand the Axe elective met downstairs, and nobody seemed to object to the five-pound handout that Roger gave them, until it was time to haul it up the stairs. And then in the Colossians class, there was hardly a whimper when the pop quiz was given. So I think that went pretty well. The Bible survey class was great, except that Phil's a little ticked all the survey stakes in the floor.

So anyway, we'll get that figured out. Anyway, off to a good start. Now, in this passage here that Courtney read for us, we want to kind of get some perspective as we've been going through the book of Hebrews back in chapter 722. Jesus, it says, has become the guarantee of a better covenant. So it's not just described as new, it's also better than the old one. We have the perspective from chapter 8, verse 6. He, that is Jesus, is also the mediator of a better covenant, which has been enacted on better promises. You get the idea? It's better, right?

And here in this passage, where we began, Hebrews 9.15, He, Jesus, is again the mediator of a new covenant, And then finally, we'll see in chapter 12 when we get there, 1224, Jesus is the mediator of a new covenant. So this message is not only consistent, but it's also progressive as we go through the book. And so we're at 915 in this series here on the new covenant. We had this chart earlier on, and I've made an addition to it, and we'll make some other clarifications. The old covenant, which was the covenant that Moses initiated, was specifically given to Israel, and by the way, it was specifically given to Israel as they go into the land, the land of Israel.

They were given the law, and as we pointed out in the past, 613 individual ordinances, 365 of them, just like the number of days in the typical year, are things not to do, right? So if you don't do anything, you're off to a good start, right? Except, the problem was that the Jews were not empowered to carry that out. There was no personal empowerment. It was the Nike philosophy, just do it, right? Just do it.

It was also earthly. You do things here on earth, they're measured here on earth, and you're benefited here on earth. You are blessed, as Deuteronomy 28 puts it, here on earth, or cursed if you failed to do it. And one other point I've added since the previous time this little slide was in there, and that you're looking forward to the cross. You're looking forward to the cross. Everything that is done in the Old Covenant is looking forward to Christ's death on the cross, anticipating that. The next thing we see in there, here is the Old Covenant. It was revealed to Moses within a fairly short period of time after the Jews had gotten out of Egypt. It was revealed to Moses on top of the mountain. Moses alone could go there, none other. Anyone else who tried to get on the mountain would die.

And then once the law was revealed, it described everything that was to go on in the tabernacle. the tabernacle construction itself, the veils and dividing walls within and in front, all the things that were to go inside the tabernacle, and what the priests were to do out in front of the tabernacle and inside, and when and how that was to take place.

Now with us here in the church, there is grace, there is no covenant, we have been identified with Christ and is crucifixion, his death, his burial, his resurrection, his ascension, and his seating. The church, not under principle of law at all, but under principle of grace, and unlike the Israelites in the Old Testament, are empowered to live out what God desires that we live. It is heavenly blessings rather than earthly blessings. It is heavenly position rather than earthly position. For the Jews, it was in the land. For us in the church, it is in Christ.

Next, we're looking back at the cross. This is why the Last Supper was kind of the handoff from the Passovers. Imagine, about 1,400 Passovers had taken place, right? So here's all these Passovers that had taken place, and now the handoff from here on out, you're to do what we call the Lord's Table. Do this in remembrance of me, looking back to the cross. So here we are in the church, heavenly seated, right? Heavenly seated with Christ. If this makes you feel a little woozy, stand on your head, right? Okay. We are identified with Christ in His death, burial, resurrection, ascension, and seating.

The Jews in the Old Testament were not. Matter of fact, what the Bible says in Romans chapter 6, And in Galatians 3 is that we've been baptized, immersed into Christ. But 1 Corinthians 10 says that the Jews in the Old Testament were baptized into Moses. They were baptized into Moses. We're baptized into Christ. So it's an entirely different identification. They were baptized into Moses under the 613 laws. We're baptized into Christ with absolutely no law.

Entirely by grace. And now, this is future. The new covenant for Israel will be implemented. It will have some similarities, but some really big differences. The biggest one of all being that they will be empowered to know and live out the law. They won't need anybody giving them guidance, okay, let's work on memorizing the 613. They won't need that. They will know it and they will be empowered to live it out.

We in the church, every one of us who believe, is indwelt by the Holy Spirit and empowered by the Holy Spirit to live out the life of Christ. Those in this coming Millennial Kingdom who are Jews entering that kingdom will all be empowered by the Holy Spirit not to live out and live by the law excuse me by grace, but rather by law knowing the law every single one of them without coaching and Living those out all by the empowerment of the Holy Spirit the Holy Spirit in dwelling is in common between the current church period in this coming new covenant period and but to live out God's righteousness in two entirely different ways. Two entirely different ways. For us in the church, even one law contaminates grace. Even one law contaminates grace.

So, just to make it clear, the old covenant was in the past, grace with no covenant in the church now is present, And the new covenant that will be implemented with Israel in the coming millennial kingdom is future. The new covenant with Israel is going to be implemented when Christ returns with us to rule as King of Israel and King of Kings and Lord of Lords over the Gentile nations.

Here is what Abraham was promised in Genesis 15 will be the area of this coming millennial kingdom. And the division by tribe is in Ezekiel 48. And that's the division of that millennial kingdom, which could be in place, as we've said before, as soon as seven years from now, that could be implemented. What's amazing is this area covers what is now about eight different nations. And so this will be a radical change of the territory for Israel.

Now, looking at several different passages, including today's passage here, Jesus is, and this is pulling together truths from the references we read just earlier on the New Covenant, Jesus is the guarantee and the mediator of a new and better second covenant.

Jesus is the guarantee and mediator of the better and new second covenant. The first one, the one that's not better, is the covenant under Moses. It's the first one, it's not better, and it's old. Not just old in sequence, but old as in dilapidated and worn out.

So Jesus is the guarantee of the new covenant by what? He guarantees it by His death. His death on the cross, since the covenants are guaranteed by a sign or a gesture, are often a sacrifice. A sacrifice is done to guarantee and confirm each of the covenants.

You have, for example, when the covenant was made with Noah. God on his side says I'm going to offer a bow as a gesture, a rainbow as a gesture that I will never again flood the earth. Other things will happen and we will have various politicians but I'll never again flood the earth, right?

Okay, you have with Noah on the human side what happened Noah offered sacrifices to God as the human side gesture and in that sacrifice He actually took the animals and sacrificed them, killed them. That's the reason it's called a sacrifice. He didn't just bring up live animals and say, here they are.

He presented a sacrificial animal there for the eight of them that came off the ark. Then later on, not too much later on, in the book of Genesis, here is Abraham told to offer up his son Isaac And as he prepares to do so, he's told, stop. And God prepared, as Abraham had told Isaac, God had prepared a ram there caught in a thicket right nearby. And Abraham was told to use that one.

So this is the idea that the sacrifice is the guarantee. We've said in the past that a covenant has three things. One is the promise, the content of the promise. Two, an oath. An oath by a higher power, typically a deity, and in which case God swears by himself, because he can't appeal to any higher power. And the third is a gesture or sign, typically a sacrifice. So those three things in a covenant. So Christ is the guarantee by his death, That third thing, the sacrifice, He is Himself the sacrifice, but He's also the mediator of a new covenant that God made with Israel in His sacrifice of Himself.

And that sacrifice did put away sin, paid the debt load in full. When Jesus was on the cross, the Gospel of John records that towards the end of His time on the cross, He called out one word. In English, it will say several words. In the Greek, it's one word. In English, it is finished. But in the Greek, one word means it's all paid permanently. It's all paid permanently. It was an accounting term. So Jesus had paid the price by his death on the cross.

He also did something, as Hebrews makes several references to, cleanse the believer's conscience. You see, we had two issues in our relationship with God. On the human side, it's a matter of a conscience that's contaminated, and Christ's death on the cross deals with that on the human side. On God's side, God is then free to declare us righteous. That's justified. The definition of the word justified. In Hebrews, it's the believer's conscience, the human side aspect of it, that is dealt with here.

Here's then how Hebrews 9.15 reads, For this reason he is the mediator of a new covenant, so that since a death has taken place for the redemption of the transgressions that were committed under the first covenant, those who have been called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance. And we've got a question that comes up immediately in this verse, but actually it carries on throughout the rest of the passage. The King James has the word testament here six times in this passage. The New American Standard has it as covenant for those times, and the covenant is the correct translation here.

The word testament actually means a will. You ever hear of last will and testament? It's a will that becomes effective on the death of the one who makes the will. But none of this context has talked about wills, right? And even the King James uses the word testator there, more will terminology, and that's not correct. This word testament can also be something that serves as a sign or evidence of a specified fact of inter-quality, but the Greek word never meant that, okay?

So I, on the screen here, put a line through it. covenant, a sacred contract, is what fits the context here and what was intended by the original author. Now this word mediator which is used in this passage and in fact a few different times regarding the New Covenant, a mediator goes between two parties in order to foster an understanding and a relationship where the relationship is broken down. Not too long after I got here, I had to go back to Nevada where I'd done some work because the company I'd worked for had sued another engineering company. And so one of the attempts at trying to get this thing resolved was to go before a mediator. So here's two companies that are alienated from one another, and the mediator comes in and tries to make some connections and some understanding with both sides. So that's what Christ is doing. He's trying to make some connections and understanding between God and man.

The relationship between God and mankind had broken down and the problem was sin. Sin had gotten in the way and made a chasm between man and God. And that's what Christ is coming to deal with, that sin issue. That's the problem, the alienation between man and God.

So Christ, being both deity, fully God, and also fully man, is a very qualified, as a matter of fact, uniquely qualified mediator between God and man. Fully God and fully man. And also, in addition to which, having fully and finally dealt with the sin problem that once separated God and mankind completely and irreconcilably.

Including the Israelites. The Israelites had this problem just like anybody else. So Christ is a mediator, a go-between to seek resolution. A mediator, a go-between to seek resolution. In this case, between God and man. graphical illustration, kind of gets the picture across here. So here is Christ, then, with the cross, coming between God and man.

Now, we have this term eternal inheritance. Let's talk about that. Imagine the stark contrast here. At one time, the whole human race was alienated from God. The only outcome from that alienation, unless God was to intervene, because we couldn't do anything about it, was eternal death. We're all condemned, we're all eternally dead, separated from God, and that's it except but. But God.

By Christ's death on the cross, His burial, and His bodily resurrection, Christ is the mediator, the go-between, to bring about a reconciliation, who ends up adding to the deal an eternal inheritance. So here's the deal. Not only are we going to reconcile you two, right? Here's God and man. Not only are we going to reconcile you two, but you're going to amazingly benefit. And matter of fact, you're going to have a future benefit to look forward to as a result of this reconciliation. Are you happy about that? Oh, yeah. That's really good.

So now, This mediator ends up working up a deal for an eternal inheritance for all believing Jews, all believing Gentiles, and the church. And you don't get into the church unless you're believing, right? Jew and Gentiles, an ethnic distinction, only those who believe of the Jews and Gentiles are saved. The church, specifically from Acts 2 to the time of the rapture, is not an ethnic distinction. As a matter of fact, Jew and Gentile doesn't matter because we're all one in Christ. So by Christ's death and his burial and his bodily resurrection, this mediation is brought about.

In the new heavens and new earth, this present heavens and earth is going to go away. Peter writes that the elements will melt. John writes that it'll be like a scroll, it just rolls away. Gets rolled up and taken away. There will be a new heavens and new earth as soon as 1,007 years from now.

And that new heavens and earth will have saved Gentiles, that is an ethnic distinction, but only those who are saved. Save Jews, again an ethnic distinction, but only those who are saved, and we in the church will remain separate identities. They're identifiable in chapters 21 and 22 of Revelation. And there will be a different eternal inheritance for each group.

And you know what? Nobody's going to be disappointed. Nobody's going to say, you know, this is really cool, but those Jews have it better than we do. I'm ticked. See? There won't be any of that, right? Everyone will have a different inheritance But they'll be happy as can be with it forever. No more mourning or Sorrow or crying or pain not even any whimpering, right? So it'll be great Now let's take a look at Hebrews 9 16 and 17 we need to talk about this because one of the things you may have noticed is what I have on in your handout at the top for 16 and 17 is different from any of your translations.

Why would I do such a thing? Well, turns out, as I was looking at this, I don't know what the problem is with the translators, but they just went haywire with these two verses. And the King James is particularly off track, but the New American Standard is only slightly better. And here's something else that's interesting. There's a word that's there in the Greek text that they didn't even translate in any of the major translations. So it comes out quite differently.

It's certainly not the King James where it goes into the language of the will, and you've got a testament and a will and the death of the testator and all that. All of a sudden you've got you know here's here's Hebrews 9 17 for a covenant is valid only when men are dead never enforce while the one who makes it lives and wait a minute didn't Abraham you know receive a promise and act on that promise and so this is a little strange so looking at the original language and coming back and translating it consistently For where there is a covenant, a death is necessary to be brought or offered. And by the way, that's the Greek word that's not translated, to be brought or offered from the one covenanting, since a covenant upon dead ones, that is the sacrifice, is firm and established, since it never has strength when the covenant sacrifice lives. If you're going to have a covenant sacrifice, you're going to have to sacrifice the animal, or in the case of Christ, Christ. But there has to be a death of the sacrificial animal. You can't just present the sacrificial animal.

So imagine what it would be like. We just went through the Christmas season. Imagine what it would have been like if Christ had been born in Bethlehem, just as described there in the Gospels. Imagine if, in the midst of that, you had then the Magi come. And they come and they present their gifts and they go away and escape connection with Herod. And then Jesus is brought up in Nazareth and grows in wisdom and stature and his father teaches him about carpentry. And so he grows up in the way that the Bible describes.

And imagine if Jesus then, beginning his earthly ministry, goes to Galilee and invites the disciples to join him. And all that takes place, and he goes and gathers all of his disciples, all twelve of them, and walks with them and talks with them and does all kinds of things just like the Bible describes. And imagine, here's Jesus, and he walks upon water, and Peter says, hey, let me go out and do this too. And at first he does it, and then Jesus helps him out in that.

So that takes place just like the Bible describes. And then you have Jesus beating the 5,000, just like the Bible describes, and the 4,000 as well. And it happened just like the Bible describes. And then here's Jesus at the last supper. He's having a last supper with them, a Passover, right? And so he has that. And after he has the last supper, he's praying. He says, OK, Father, this was kind of cool, but take me home now. I'm done. How's that going to work? Is that going to help us any? Not really, right? What's the matter?

If he's the Lamb of God, what does it mean has to happen? He must be sacrificed. That's what verses 16 and 17 are saying. He must be sacrificed. A sacrifice must be killed for it to be a valid sacrifice. That's the point of verses 16 and 17. You can't just say, here's a lamb. You can't just say, here's a ram. You can't just say, here's Jesus and present him. There must be a sacrifice. Gotta. Have to have it. Without a death, it's not a sacrifice.

The Messiah who would come to reign and to rule on earth as the king of israel and the king of kings and lord of lords over the gentile nations is also the confirming sacrifice for the new covenant that's what this verse is talking about christ gave his life for multiple purposes including being the confirming sacrifice for the new covenant that's what this verse is telling us So here's verse 18, therefore even the first covenant was not inaugurated without blood.

The first covenant, the old covenant under Moses. The old covenant under Moses was not only one that said you're going to have these sacrifices every year for all the different things. You're going to have a Passover every year to lead off the seven sacrificial and feast days under the law of Moses.

But it wasn't just those that are described annually, it was actually inaugurated with blood. So the old obsolete first covenant was inaugurated with blood. What do we mean by that? The old obsolete first covenant, the law covenant given to Moses, was not inaugurated without blood. Let's take the double negatives out. It means it was inaugurated with blood, to make it clear. The double negative says that the old one was inaugurated with blood.

So here's Hebrews 9, 18 through 20. Therefore, even the first covenant was not inaugurated without blood, for when every commandment had been spoken by Moses to all the people according to the law, he took the blood of the calves and the 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 which God commanded you." So notice it wasn't just we're going to have this sacrifice and keep doing this every year. He's going to start off by reading these laws and then sprinkling the people and the book and everything with blood. That initiates and inaugurates the law.

So he first went to the mountain, and after going there for a little bit, he came down. And so when Moses had been up on Mount Sinai, while the Israelites had been down and away from the mountain, because you want to stay away from that mountain, because if you get on it, and you want to accept Moses, you're going to die.

Right? So when Moses came down, he read the law to the people, but sprinkled blood on them as well. Woo! Yes. Sprinkled blood on them as well. So here he is, he's reading the law, So far. He's got more to receive, but what he's got already, he reads to them, and he's going to inaugurate that with sprinkling blood all over them in the book. Amazing.

So he goes back up on Mount Sinai. Exodus 24 then tells us Moses went back up on Mount Sinai, was up there for a total of 40 days and 40 nights. receiving all the law and the stone tablets too. And so what he first came down with was just a down payment. Now he's got all the law and the stone tablets up there for 40 days and 40 nights. Imagine being up there for over a month. People are wondering, what on earth is going on?

The law called for blood sacrifices in addition to being inaugurated with the blood. And then verse 21, in the same way he sprinkled both the tabernacle and all the vessels of the ministry with blood. The tent and everything inside it, blood. So the blood was sprinkled in and about the tabernacle, too.

In Leviticus chapters 8 and 9, we read that when the tabernacle and all the articles in it were ready for service, remember, he comes down from the mountain, here's the law, you then have to build all the things that go into making the tabernacle. The Ark of the Covenant and the candelabra, all these things have to be built, and when they're all ready, he doesn't say, okay, Aaron, go to work. He says, wait a minute, we have to inaugurate this with what? Blood. So Moses sprinkled the tabernacle and all the articles in it with blood to inaugurate their use before Aaron and anybody could do anything with it. So they get out to the tabernacle, everything's ready to go. What does Moses do? to all the parts of the tabernacle, everything that's there, everything that's inside, including all the partitions and everything, to the candelabra, to the bread that is put out there, the sacred bread, to the altar of incense, to the Ark of the Covenant, everything that's inside, everything that's outside. And what does he do? He comes and hits it with blood.

Old man Moses sprinkled blood, B-L-O-O-D. With a blood sprinkle here and a blood sprinkle there, here a blood sprinkle, there a blood sprinkle, everywhere a sprinkle, sprinkle! Old man Moses sprinkled blood, B-L-O-O-D. Now, I said that so you could not forget it, right? Now, and Moses also sprinkled Aaron. and his sons with blood as well. So here's Aaron.

Hey, that's good, he's putting the blood all over everything, and all of a sudden, whoop! He gets it too. He and his sons, who are the priests, all get sprinkled with blood. All of them. Everything gets sprinkled with blood. Nothing. And that's what this is about to tell us next. Nothing gets started without blood. That's the law. According to the law, one may almost say, and we'll talk about almost, all things are cleansed with blood and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.

Hebrews 9.22. So let's talk about almost all. Blood was used to purify everything according to the old obsolete first covenant except for those things that were purified by other means.

And we specifically have three. One was water, Leviticus 16, 21 and 28. Water was sometimes used to purify things. And I imagine sometimes they were really glad to have water to purify things. Next, flour. Interestingly enough, for the very poorest Israelites who couldn't afford a blood sacrifice, they said, OK, we'll let you use flour.

And so that's in Leviticus 5. There is also a purification by fire in the book of Numbers, chapter 31. So we have those three exceptions, and that's why he could say almost all. These are the three exceptions. So almost all things were purified by blood. It's a correct statement.

Leviticus 17.11 asks the question, why blood? Moses put it this way, for the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you on the altar to make atonement for your souls, for it is the blood by reason of the life that makes atonement. The life is in the blood. That's the reason why. If you want to know whether the life is in the blood, take the blood out of anything. Except turnips.

Hebrews 9.22, without the shedding of blood, there is no payment for nor forgiveness of sins. That's the idea. Without shedding of blood, there is no payment for nor forgiveness of sins. That's what was wrong with what Cain tried to offer. No blood. That's not acceptable.

Now, we are, amazingly, the recipients of the grace of God, and we will sing songs about that. We will sing songs like Amazing Grace, and we'll be astounded by it. But what some people can lose track of is this. While that grace is amazing, and it's infinite, as a matter of fact, we'll be going on into eternity learning about God's grace.

It's Ephesians 2.7. It was not the result of grace between the Father and the Son that day when Christ was crucified. No grace.

That's right. God's absolute holiness, God's absolute righteousness, and God's absolute justice had to be satisfied. No exceptions at all. No exceptions. And so All of our sins, every single one, no exceptions, all the sins of all mankind were placed on Christ, and God the Father judged all those sins upon Christ, every single one, that day. There was no grace between the Father and the Son.

God's holiness and righteousness and justice had to be satisfied completely in order for God to extend amazing grace to you and to me. So all of our sins, no exceptions, were placed on Christ. God judged those sins upon Christ entirely, absolutely, completely, and totally forever.

So that you and I could be shown grace that's so amazing that it lasts forever. and we'll be learning about it forever. The song with the verse, when we've been there 10,000 years, and you can take some multiple of that if it helps, there's no less days to sing God's praise than when we first begun. God's grace is infinite. We will be shown it.

Ephesians 2.7, we'll be shown God's grace on into eternity. We will be gasping in awe at God's grace. But it didn't happen because there was grace between the Father and the Son that day. The absolute holiness, justice, and righteousness of God the Father demanded full and total payment for every single sin for all time, no exceptions at all.

When the Apostle Paul was meeting with the elders from Ephesus for the last time. That's described in Acts chapter 20. It is the longest discourse to Christians in the whole book of Acts. And we won't read it all because there's way too much in there, but to the point that we're looking at here, he's talking to these elders and he's giving them a challenge regarding the church that they're responsible for. And he's going to see them for the last time and they're gripped by this. I think we have to get the sense of the drama of the moment.

He says, be on guard. And by the way, when you say be on guard, this was in the Roman Empire. Be on guard, you take seriously. What would happen if a Roman soldier failed guard duty? It was death penalty. If he fell asleep, you know what they did? They torched his clothes, lit him on fire.

So when he says be on guard, he's not necessarily giving him a threat, but he's saying take it seriously. He's doing it in the context of the Roman Empire. Be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock, so here the church is pictured as a flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers to shepherd, notice the verb, to shepherd the church of God which he purchased with what? With his own blood. So to us, it's free. It's grace given. But for him, it was expensive. It was expensive for him so that it could be free for us.

He purchased us, the flock, the church, with his own blood. So the charge given to elders is, this isn't your church. No. These elders, yeah, you're the shepherd. And by the way, he just uses the verb here, not the title. of any kind. Shepherd the church of God which he purchased. It's his. You're given a stewardship responsibility, right? He purchased it, how? With his own blood, which is very expensive. Unbelievably expensive. But he said, I'll do it. For the joy set before him, he endured the cross. Paul departed from those Ephesian elders, but a few years later, what did he do? He writes to them from his house arrest in Rome. And he starts off his letter after getting done saying, Hi, I'm Paul.

He says, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before him. In love He predestined us to adoption of His Son through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us and the Beloved. In Him we have redemption through His blood."

The blood was pricey. Redemption was not something where you just kind of made an even trade and everybody did a freebie. The purchase of redemption, man, you're going to pay a price. And the price of his blood, that's an expensive price. Very costly.

We have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches, and by the way, he could have said according to the rich single of his grace. No. And did you substitute the word wealths? Think of someone who's wealthy. What they would do in writing in the kind of Hebrew figure of speech is they put plurals on something so that there was this immense magnitude. Wealths of grace. Great wealths of grace is what's communicated there. According to his great wealths of grace which he lavished on us.

Expensive for him. And he said, here I've paid the whole price. Here, it's all free. To you. Grace to you. because I paid a very exacting price, because I love you and for the joy set before me. His grace, the riches of His grace, the wealth of His grace, the mounting magnitude of His grace, for you and for me, by His blood, He paid the price for you and for me. Let's thank Him for His amazing grace. Lord, we do thank you for the way you've shown your most astounding, amazing grace where with the wealth, the stacking magnitude of great wealth of grace, you have in fact purchased us, having paid yourself an exacting price, having been that sacrifice for us. We thank you, Lord, for doing that. And we know that because of it, we will spend eternity fellowshiping with you and learning more and more and more on into eternity. about your amazing grace. We thank you in Jesus' name. Amen.