Let's open tonight's service
with hymn number 42 in your Spiral Gospel Hymns hymn book, number
42. Let's all stand together. ? Let us praise the name of Jesus
? ? Prophet, priest and sovereign king ? ? To him reverent adoration
? ? Lord and homage to him bring ? ? Let us praise the name of
Jesus ? Jesus, God incarnate from above, came to save His
chosen people, sent by God in commandment. ? Let us praise
the name of Jesus ? ? Who upon Mount Calvary ? ? Shed his blood
and sealed our pardon ? ? Died for sin to set us free ? ? Let
us praise the name of Jesus ? Advocate and mediator, all our hopes on
Him depend. ? Let us praise the name of Jesus
? ? For he brought us to his home ? ? Come exalt his name
and worship ? ? May the Savior be exalted ? ? Let us praise
the name of Jesus ? Please be seated. Good evening. Let's open our Bibles together
to Leviticus chapter 16. Leviticus chapter 16. I want
to try to bring a message tonight from 1 Peter chapter 2 on Christ
our sin bearer. Christ our sin bearer. And there's no more clear and
beautiful picture type of Christ as our sin bearer in the Old
Testament than the scapegoat. And so we'll read from Leviticus
16 where the Lord gave the children of Israel this picture of Christ. Look at verse 7 in Leviticus
chapter 16. And he shall take, speaking of
Aaron, he shall take the two goats and present them before
the Lord at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation. And Aaron
shall cast lots upon the two goats, one lot for the Lord and
the other lot for the scapegoat. And Aaron shall bring the goat
upon which the Lord's lot fell and offer him for a sin offering. but the goat on which the lot
fell to be the scapegoat shall be presented alive before the
Lord to make an atonement with him and to let him go for a scapegoat
into the wilderness. And if you'll turn over to verse
20 in this same chapter, after the instructions are given as
to how to sacrifice the one goat as the sin offering, then the
Lord gives very specific instructions on what to do with the scapegoat.
And in verse 20, he says, and when he hath made an end of reconciling
the holy place and the tabernacle of the congregation and the altar,
he shall bring the live goat and Aaron shall lay both hands
on him upon the head of the live goat. and confess over him all
the iniquities of the children of Israel and all the transgressions
in all their sins, putting them upon the head of the goat and
shall send him away by the hand of a fit man into the wilderness. And that word wilderness is uninhabited
place. place where there is no habitation. And Aaron shall come into the
tabernacle of the congregation and shall put off the linen garment
which he put on when he went into the holy place and shall
leave them there." I don't see Bert. Bert was hoping
to be here tonight. He and Jennifer contacted hospice
yesterday. The doctors recommended not any
further treatments. And so I want us to pray for
Bert. I told, I was talking to Marvin Stoniker this morning
and I said, well, I told him about Bert. I said, if you need
to be encouraged, call Bert. And he wrote me back later and
said, yeah, I did. And I was greatly encouraged.
God has given him such dying grace. And so I would say the
same to you. If you need a word of encouragement,
sometimes you feel hesitant to call someone in Bert's place
not knowing what to say. Don't worry about that. If you
need to be encouraged, call Bert. He'll be a blessing to you. God
has been so faithful to give him such a good hope. Also, Henry Avila moved his mother
in with him six months ago from California. She's 91 years old
and he's been watching services with her. And she had a stroke
two days ago, another one this morning, and she's unresponsive
now at Princeton Hospital. And all of his sisters have come,
and they're waiting at the hospital now for his mother to pass. So let's just pray together. our gracious, merciful Heavenly
Father. We thank you and praise you,
Lord, for sending your dear son, our Lord and Savior, as our sin
offering, as our scapegoat, as the fit man who is able to take
away our sin, remove them from us as far as the east is from
the west, cover them with his precious blood. Lord, what hope
we have as sinners in knowing that we have a sin bearer, we
have a substitute that has satisfied all the demands of thy holy justice. Lord, we pray tonight that you
would send your spirit and power, that you would bless your word
to our hearts, that you would cause us to to find our hope
and our joy and our delight and all of our salvation in Christ. Lord, we thank you for the work
of grace that you are doing for our brother Bert and the good
hope that you've given him. And Lord, we pray for your continued
mercy and strength as he waits upon thee. We pray for Henry
and his sisters and ask, Lord, that you would give him wisdom
and grace to know what to say and what to do in this situation.
And pray, Lord, for your mercy in their time of need. We ask
it in Christ's name. Number 352 from your hardback
temple, 352. Let's all stand together again. Jesus, lover of my soul, let
me to thy While the tempest still is gone,
Hide me, O my Savior, hide. Till the storm of life is past,
Safe into the haven bright, O receive my soul at last. Other refuge have I none, Thanks
my helpless soul of need, Thee, God, leave me not alone, still
support and comfort me. All my trust on Thee is safe,
all my help from Thee I bring. ? Cover my defenseless head ? With
the shadow of thy name ? Thou, O Christ, art all I want ? More
than all in me I find ? Raise the calm and cheer the
faint ? Heal the sick Just and holy is thy name. I am all on righteousness. False and full of sin I am. Powerful of truth and truth. ? Plenteous grace with me is found
? ? Grace to cover all my sin ? ? Let the healing streams abound
? ? Make and keep me pure within ? ? Thou of life abound ? Please be seated. All right, let's open our Bibles together to 1
Peter chapter 2. We dealt with this verse very
briefly last Wednesday night and I could not leave it without
spending a little more time on verse 24. who his own self bear our sins
in his body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should
live under righteousness by whose stripes you were healed. For you were as sheep going astray,
but now are returned unto the shepherd and bishop of our souls. Peter is quoting from Isaiah
chapter 53, where the Lord tells us that all we, like sheep, have
gone astray, each unto his own way. But God has laid on him
the iniquity of us all. The Lord Jesus Christ as our
scapegoat bore the sins of his people in his body upon that
tree and put them away. He put them away by the sacrifice
of himself. What hope, what comfort that
God has separated our sins from us. And that the Lord Jesus Christ
went into that uninhabited place, the wilderness, as the scapegoat,
having the hands of his father placed on him and all the sins
of all of Israel transferred to him so that as our sin bearer,
he satisfied all the demands of God's justice and put away
our sins. This is a glorious hope and truth
that only sinners are in need of. God makes you to be a sinner. You know that you cannot atone
for your own sins. You cannot do anything to merit
God's favor. You must have someone who is
able to stand in your stead before a holy God and present himself
on your behalf. As all of your righteousness,
you must have someone who is, without sin himself, able to
bear your sins away and put them away from the very presence of
God. Now we've seen in this chapter
that Peter is admonishing the believer to live their lives
in this world in such a way as to honor the Lord. He's encouraging
us. And he's telling us that the
false accusations of the enemies of Christ, might they be silenced
by the pattern of life that is seen in the life of God's people. And he concludes that in verse
20, for he says, for what glory is it when you are buffeted for
your faults, that you take it patiently? But if when you do
well and suffer for it, you take it patiently, this is acceptable
with God. For even here unto were you called,
because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example. And we looked at that last Wednesday
night, how the Lord Jesus Christ is a perfect example and how
we look and seek to follow after him. But a sinner needs a lot
more than an example. A lot more than an example. Sin
requires more than an example. It requires expiation. It requires
a sacrifice that's made that God can look at and be satisfied
with. A sacrifice that actually puts
away sin. Sin demands more than sympathy. It demands satisfaction. Sin
demands more than service. It demands more than sacrifice.
It demands a suffering unto death. It demands the shedding of blood,
and not just any blood. It demands the precious, sinless
blood of the Lamb of God. This is what we're in need of.
And so, lest we get confused in reading our Lord's
encouragements as to how we are to follow Christ as our example,
the Holy Spirit directs Peter to conclude this chapter with
a reminder of what we really need in Christ is so much more
than an example, we need a sin bearer. In view of his death, God chose a people. Look what he says in verse 24,
who his own self bear our sins in his own body. You know, the death of Christ
on Calvary's cross is the reason for everything. The world has their theories
and the world is trying to understand life in light of these speculations. But we understand what the reason
for it all is. From eternity past to eternity
future, the reason for everything is the cross of Christ. The full
display of the attributes and glory of our God are on display
at Calvary's Cross. And so the Lord is reminding
us of that and that he's telling us that this sacrificial substitutionary
atonement of the death of Christ is the reason for everything. It is the reason for everything. The glorious attributes of our
God are displayed most clearly at Calvary's Cross. His holiness,
God's holiness, God's justice, God's holy nature and holy character
demanded that in order for him to be able to have fellowship
with his people, that justice had to be satisfied. And we see
that most clearly, most clearly at the cross when our Lord bear
in his body the sins of his people, his righteousness. God could
settle for nothing less and he demands nothing more. than the
righteous sacrifice that the Lord Jesus made of himself as
the sin bearer and substitute of sinners. We see that at the
cross. Here's what our Lord's saying.
Yes, these things that we have to deal with that he's already
dealt with in detail in this whole chapter are important,
but here's where it all comes together. the omniscience of God, the omnipotence
of God, the immutability of God. All of the glorious attributes
of his nature, all of his grace and all of his mercy and all
of his love come to their fullest display and their fullest fruition
at Calvary's Cross. So the Lord's telling us to look,
look to Christ and look what he's accomplished. when he bore
in his body upon that tree the sins of his people. He satisfied
God's justice. God was doing business with God
on Calvary's cross. God was demonstrating his glory
on Calvary's cross. I want you to turn with me to
Psalm 115. Gabriel, I want you to pay special
attention. Gabriel has asked me on a couple
of occasions to bring a message from Psalm 115. And I told him
tonight I was going to make a few comments about Psalm 115. He's been reading this passage
and wanted to hear some things about it. So, you know, the natural man just
sees everything in light of himself. Our nature is to be so self-absorbed
in thinking that it's all about us. The cross was about God. The cross was God doing business
with God and God demonstrating his grace and his glory. And
from eternity past to eternity future, All of the purpose for
everything is the glory of God. It's the glory of God. And that's
why I was telling us in Psalm 115 when he says, not unto us,
oh Lord, it's not about us, not about you, it's not about me,
it's about him. Not unto us, O Lord, not unto
us, but unto thy name. Unto thy name, thy glorious name,
give glory for thy mercy and for thy truth's sake. Wherefore
should the heathen say, where is now their God? The unbeliever
can't see God. He doesn't have any understanding
of who he is and what he's done. Only the sinner in need of a
sin bearer has any understanding of that. Our God is in the heavens,
look what he says, but our God is in the heavens. He hath done
whatsoever he hath pleased. Notice the tense of that. He hath done, it's done, everything
that's, whatever he pleases. Their idols are silver and gold,
the works of men's hands. They have mouths, but they speak
not. Eyes they have, but they see not. They have ears, but
they hear not. Noses have they, but they smell
not. They're just, they're idols. They're dead idols. Our God is
alive. They have hands, but they handle
not. Feet have they, but they walk
not. Neither speak they through their throat. They that make
them are like unto them. So is everyone that trusteth
in them. Oh, Israel, trust thou in the Lord. He is their help
and their shield. The Israel of God. This is what
Christ came to do. He came to bear our sins, our
sins. Not the sins of the whole world. He didn't bear the sins of the
whole world. Had he bore the sins of the whole world and died
for the sins of the whole world, then God would be unjust to send
anyone to hell. Anyone. Bearing the sins of the
whole world is nothing less than universal atonement. And that
cannot be. That cannot be. He bore our sins in his own self, in his own self. Christ in the covenant of grace
entered into a promise with his father as our surety and in his
own self as the lamb slain before the foundation of the world bore
our sins in his body. That was determined from eternity
past that this is the whole purpose for everything. God did not come up with a plan
B of salvation after the fall. You see, here's the glorious
truth, brethren. There was a Savior before there
was a sinner. There was a Savior before there was a sinner. Before
Adam was created, before anything was made, the Lord Jesus Christ
bore the sins of his people. He's called the Lamb, slain already
before time ever began. So in the covenant of grace,
that was our surety. He promised the father to put
away the sins of his people in his own self. He didn't have to come up with
a plan of salvation after the fall. He didn't come up with
plan C after the fall and man was cast out of paradise. You know, you listen to religious
people talk and they speak as if God's, you know, trying to
get something done that he's not able to accomplish because
of the resistance of man. And so God looks down from heaven
and he sees the wickedness of man and so he sends the flood
in order to be able to start over. Let's try this again. How
blasphemous is that? And then after the flood and
man begins to multiply, well, we're going to have to have a
plan C or D or whatever it is at this point. And so he calls
out Abraham and he calls out the nation of Israel, but they
don't follow the plan. They're not obedient. He has to bring Christ into the
world in order to be able to do what all the other things
weren't able to accomplish. This is so, so denying of our
God's glory. It's not the way it works. No,
the whole purpose of God from before creation, from before
the fall, was to glorify himself at Calvary's cross, was to place
the sins of his people in the body, on the tree, and satisfy
his justice by pouring out the full fury of his wrath. And that's what Peter's telling
us. That's what our Lord's saying. So you listen to men and you
know well now God's got a new plan and he's got the church
and the church is supposed to evangelize the world but they're
not doing a very good job of it either because most people
don't care. So, you know, God's going to,
he's going to, well, what he's going to do now, since the church
isn't being very successful, is he's going to, he's going
to rapture the church and then he's going to pour out a period
of, a period of wrath on the world and, and get everybody
so afraid of God that they'll, they'll, they'll come, they'll
come. You know, no, no, everything culminates at the cross. Everything
from eternity past all the way through to eternity future was
purposed for the glory of God in the demonstration of his grace
at Calvary's cross. And he did it by himself. In
the covenant of grace, he did it by himself. On the cross,
he did it by himself. No man could be with him. No
man could help him. The disciples were scattered.
The Father forsook him all by himself. Look at our text. Who
his own self bear our sins in his body. He had to work out
a perfect righteousness through a life of obedience before he
could go to the cross and bear our sins in his body. He had
to satisfy God's righteousness. He went to the cross by himself. The angels were restrained from
coming to deliver him. He said, I could have called
12 legions of angels and don't you know, they were ready to
come. But the purpose of God in salvation could not be accomplished
except that the Lord Jesus bear in his own body by himself, all
of our sins and put them away. He rose from the dead by himself,
conquering the grave, conquering death, defeating the devil. He
defeated him. He did it all by himself, through
his own self. We didn't participate in that.
We didn't make any contribution to that. The Lord Jesus Christ
accomplished that by himself and he ascended into glory by
himself. And yet in him, just like when
he went to the cross, he took with him the church, didn't he?
Men of Israel, men of Galilee, why stand you here gazing up
into heaven? This same Jesus, which is taken
up from you, is going to come again in like manner. And so
the Lord Jesus Christ is gonna come again by on his own, by
himself. Not another, not another. Word of God did not return Boyd. He accomplished the purpose for
which God sent him. He actually bore away the sins
of his people. and satisfied God's justice. Hebrews chapter seven, verse
27, the Lord Jesus Christ needeth not daily as those Old Testament
high priests to offer up sacrifices first for his own sins and then
the sins of the people for this he did once when he offered up
himself. This word bear in our text, when
the scripture says that the Lord Jesus Christ, his own self, bear
our sins, he bore them away. And it's the same word that's
used when the priest would bear up a sacrifice and offer it to
God. So Christ was once offered to
bear the sins of many. When Abraham is spoken of as
offering up his one son, Isaac, it says that he bore him up. He offered him up to the father. When the Lord speaks of us bearing
our sacrifices, he says the sacrifices of our lips, which is our praise
to him. for the work that he accomplished
at Calvary's Cross. Look back with me to 1 Peter
2 at verse 5. You also as lively stones are
built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood to offer up spiritual
sacrifices that are acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. So we
bear up spiritual sacrifices when we worship and thank God
for the accomplished work of the Lord Jesus Christ, having
bore our sins before the Father. Hebrews chapter 9 verse 14 says
the blood of Christ who through the eternal spirit offered himself
without spot to God. To God. The Lord Jesus Christ
when he went to the cross and bore our sins in his body was
not making an offering to us. He was offering himself to the
Father. to satisfy the requirements of
God's holy justice. And God saw the travail of his
soul and God said, I'm satisfied, I'm satisfied. He did this in his body. The incarnation of the Lord Jesus
Christ as the last Adam, Emmanuel, God with us, he had to be made
in the likeness of sinful flesh. He had to be made of a woman,
made after the law. And so the Lord Jesus Christ
comes into this world, his own self, given a body that he might,
in that body, bear the sins of his body, the church. He accomplished, as the last
Adam, what the first Adam couldn't do. Perfect obedience to the
Father. He saved his bride. The Lord tells us in Philippians
chapter 3 that being in the form of God thought it not robbery
to be equal with God but he made of himself. He made of himself
no reputation, and he took on the form of a servant and was
made in the likeness of men. And being found in the fashion
as a man, he humbled himself and was obedient unto death,
yea, even the death of the cross. Wherefore, God has highly exalted
him. and given him a name that is
above every name, that at the name of Jesus, every knee shall
bow. Here's our hope, brethren. The
Lord Jesus Christ was successful. He was successful at Calvary's
cross. He bore away all the sins of
all of his people on a tree. You see that? We go
back to our text, who his own self, bear our sins in his own
body. The body thou hast prepared for
me. God prepared him a body that
he could accomplish in his body what you and I can't accomplish
in our body. And the mass of iniquity that
belongs to all the people of God were placed on him and he
owned them as his own and suffered the shame and the sorrow and
the separation. There it is, it's the separation
from God. That's what our Lord bore. Going
into the very pits of hell in order to put away our sins. And
where did he do it? He did it on a tree. Trees are very significant in
the Bible, aren't they? And from the very beginning in
the garden, you have the tree of life, which is a picture of
Christ. And the tree of life that is
in the book of Revelation on both sides of the river, which
bears its fruit 12 months out of the year, and this leaf does
not wither. And Adam ate from that tree of
life and lived off of that tree of life. And then you have in
the garden as well, the tree of the knowledge of good and
evil, which was the forbidden tree. That was the tree that
Adam was not to eat of. And that's the tree that represents
man wanting to be like God. And we're still finding ourselves
eating from that tree. Oh, we need the tree of life. We need another tree we can eat
from. We find in the Bible the fig
tree first represented even in the garden when Adam took the
leaves of the fig tree and sowed for himself aprons to try to
cover his nakedness and hide his shame from God. It wasn't
sufficient. And we know that fig tree is
a picture of Israel. As the Lord speaks of grafting
into the tree. That olive tree and that big
tree, the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. But a lamb had
to be slain in the garden, didn't it? Blood had to be shed. That was the only sufficient
covering for the sins of Adam. And it's the only sufficient
covering for our sins. Man-made aprons will never be
sufficient. The scriptures speak of the trees of righteousness, which
is the plantings of the Lord and the New Testament church
being growing from a mustard seed and growing into a great
tree and the fowls of the air come and they've nested in that
tree. There's the picture. But all the significances of
the tree that are given to us in the scriptures, none of them compare to this
tree. this tree where our Lord cursed
the scripture says is everyone that hangeth upon a tree now
in the in the Old Testament a Deuteronomy the law the Lord said if a man
commits a heinous crime and he's put to death for that crime and
he's hung upon a tree then his body is to be taken down from
that tree before nightfall and he's being put into the grave.
It's a picture of Christ. Why would they take the body
of a man that they've killed already for a crime and hang
it on a tree? Well, men have done that over
the ages. Two reasons. There's an example
and a deterrent. So when the Lord Jesus Christ
placed upon the tree. Here's the real example, isn't
it? The example of God's glory and God's grace and putting away
our sins. This is the picture and the deterrent
for us to find our hope anywhere else other than Him. Other than
Him. who his own self, all by himself, bore in his body all of the sins
of all of God's people and carried them away like that scapegoat, took them out of sight, so that
now the Lord says that we are dead to sins. Dead to sins. Sin's been conquered. Sin's been
put away. It no longer has dominion. It's been cast into the depths
of the sea. It's been separated from us as
far as the East is from the West. It's been covered by the blood
of Christ. That's what our Lord's saying. The sin's been put away. It can't witness against you.
It can't be charged against you. It can't be used in a court of
law to condemn you. Why? Because you're dead to it.
You're dead to it. It's been put away. It was successfully
put away by the sacrifice of Christ. You see, we don't wallow.
We come before the Lord as sinners always in need of grace. But
in doing so, we remember that as he is, so are we in this world,
that we're holy and undefiled and unblameable in his sight. To be found in Christ is to be
without sin. That's what John said. Turn with me. I think we quoted
this verse Sunday. Turn with me to 1 John. Chapter 3, verse 8. He that commit a sin
is of the devil, for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For
this purpose the Son of God was manifested that he might destroy
the works of the devil. Did he destroy it? How did he
destroy it? He destroyed it by burying our
sins away. by putting them out of the way
so that we now are dead to sins. Look at verse 9. Whosoever therefore
is born of God does not commit sin for his seed remaineth in
him and he cannot sin because he's born of God. Here's what
our Lord is saying. What he did at Calvary's Cross
was so successful and so satisfactory and so so glorious that we now
are dead to sin. Reckon yourselves to be dead
indeed unto sin. How can it be so? Because you
are. You are, you're dead to it. It's been put away. It's what God says. He said,
well, that's not how I feel and that's not the experience I,
well, who are we going to believe? Who are we going to believe? God says that you might be dead
to sins. You know, we see three different
deaths taking place at Mount Calvary with our Lord between
those two thieves. One of those thieves died in
his sin. And one of those thieves died
to his sins because the one in the middle died for our sins. Because he died for our sins
and he put them away, we are dead to sin. Sin no longer has
dominion over us. Sin cannot charge us. Sin cannot bring any accusation
against God's people. And that sets us free, free from
condemnation, free from guilt. Ain't that the power of sin is
the law? That's what the scripture says.
The strength of sin is the law. The law's been satisfied. Christ
fulfilled the law. And now he's saying to us, let's
go back to our text, who his own self bear our sins in his
body on the tree that we being dead to sins. Not that we might
become dead to sins, but we being dead to sin. When he died, we
died. Paul said, I'm crucified with
Christ. I'm crucified with him. I'm not
yet apprehended that which has apprehended me, but this one
thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind. Oh,
that I might know him, the power of his resurrection, the fellowship
of his sufferings that when he suffered and died on Calvary's
cross, I fellowshiped in that suffering and my sin was actually
put away, put away. You see, to wallow in sin or
to feel like, you know, well, somehow I've got to drum up some
sorrow for sin only strengthens sin. The only thing that breaks
sin is what Christ did on the cross. It's the only thing that
breaks its power. And so you, because he bore our
sins in his body and he put them away by the sacrifice of himself,
Therefore, you being dead to sins should live under righteousness.
What is it to live under righteousness? Live in faith, live looking to
Christ. We don't live under the law,
we live under grace. You don't have to put a believer
onto the law in order to get them to curb their behavior.
They have the unction of the Holy Spirit to convict them of
their sin. They have a desire. They have
a hatred for their sin and a desire and a love for Christ. What do
we need to tell believers? We need to tell believers what
Christ has done. In the fulfillment of time, that
which was established in eternity past and carries all the way
through eternity future, he bore in our body, in his body, our
sins and he put them away so that we are now dead to sin.
It's the liberty that we have in Christ. For by his stripes, look how
Peter finishes this. And here he's quoting again,
this whole passage from Isaiah 53. For by his stripes, we, don't
miss that verb, might be, can be, should be, are, no, were,
were. By his stripes, we were healed. made perfect in Christ. We're healed. That's what he
successfully did. You're not talking about physical
healing here. We're instructed, and we do,
when we're sick or in need, we go before our Heavenly Father.
We know he has the ability to heal us, and we're thankful when
he does. But we also know that there's
going to come a day when he's not going to heal us. And we're
going to leave this world. Lazarus had to be sick again
and die. So in all the healings that we
see in the New Testament, the lepers that were cleansed and
the people that were given sight, there were never a partial healing.
It was a complete healing. But all those people physically
got sick again and died. But those healings were given
to us to describe what our Lord's saying here. By his stripes,
you were healed. Healed of what? Healed of the
leprosy of sin. The thing that doesn't just kill
the body, but would destroy the soul and separate it from God
for all eternity, you were healed of that. You were healed of that. That sin doesn't exist anymore. It's gone. God says I remember
it no more. Why? Because he's so completely
satisfied with the work that the Lord Jesus Christ accomplished.
You see, we're born into this world as spiritual lepers and all that God required. The
cleanse us was accomplished in the stripes that the Lord Jesus
Christ received at Calvary's cross. Everything, everything. People say, well, you know, if you just believe God, you know,
strong enough He'll, You'll be obligated to heal you. That's
not true. I don't obligate God to do anything. The Lord gives faith to rest
our hope and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ as the only one
who's able to bear away our sins, which he did in his body, upon
that tree when he was cursed, cursed by God's justice and whereby
he's satisfied by his atoning blood, everything
that God required for the salvation of his people. Our heavenly father, thank you
for your word. Thank you. for the living word,
the Lord Jesus Christ, who was completely successful in the
work of atonement accomplished at Calvary's tree. Thank you
for the hope. Lord, we know that Satan is a
roaring lion, seeketh whom he may devour, and that he's the
accuser of the brethren. And Lord, that our very conscience
is often often bothered by the sins that we see, might we have
the faith given to us by your spirit to look to Christ and
see what he accomplished in bearing our sins away by the sacrifice
of himself and find our joy and hope in his work of redemption. For it's in his name we ask it.
Amen. Number 217, let's stand together.
? Jesus, thy blood and thy righteousness
? ? Thy beauty bar, thy glorious dress ? ? As flaming pearls in
peace arrayed with joy ? ? Shall I lift up my head ? Behold, as
I stand in my great day, For who ought to my charge shall
lay? Holy of souls, through these
I am from sin, And mere from guilt and shame. the precious blood which at the
mercy seat of God forever doth for sinners paid, for me, even
for my soul, the shame were slithers more than sands
upon the ocean shore. Thou hast for all of ransom paid,
for all the