Let's begin by standing and singing,
298, God leads us along. 298. In shady green pastures so rich
and so sweet, God leads His dear children along. Where the water's cool flow bathes
the weary one's feet, God leads His dear children along. Some through the waters, some
through the flood. Some through the fire, but all
through the blood. Some through great sorrow, God
gives us all. In the night season, and all
the day long. Sometimes on a mountain where
the sun shines so bright, God leaves his dear children alone. Sometimes in a valley in darkest
of night, God leaves his dear children alone. Some through the waters, some
through the flood Some through the fire, but all through the
blood Some through great sorrow, but God gives us all In the night
season and all the day long Sorrows befall us and Satan oppose, God
leaves his dear children alone. Through grace we can conquer,
defeat all our foes, God leaves his dear children alone. Some through the waters, some
through the flood. Some through the fire, but all
through the blood. Some through great sorrow, God
gives us all. In the night season and all the
day long. Away from the fire and away from
the clay, God leads His dear children along. Away amid glory, eternity's day,
God leads His dear children along. Some through the waters, some
through the flood. Some through the fire, but all
through the blood. Some through great sorrow, but
God gives a song. In the night season and all the
day long. If you would turn to 256, it
is well with my soul. 256. When peace like a river And sorrows like sea billows
roll. Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught
me to say, It is well, it is well with my soul. It is well. ? With my soul ? It is well, it
is well ? With my soul ? Though Satan should buffet ? Though
trials should come ? Let this blessed assurance control It is well with my soul. I sing of the bliss of this glorious
dawn. I sing not in part, but in whole. is nailed to the cross, and I
bear it no more. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord,
O my soul. It is well with my soul. Well, it is well with my soul. When, Lord, haste the day when
my face shall be sighed, the clouds be rolled back as a scroll,
the trumps shall resound, and the Lord shall descend, even
so It is well with my soul. It is well with my soul. It is well, it is well with my
soul. Good morning. I'm going to be
reading out of Ephesians chapter 1, starting with verse 1. Ephesians
chapter 1. Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ,
by the will of God, to the saints which are at Ephesus, and to
the faithful in Christ Jesus. Grace be to you and peace from
God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed be the
God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with
all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. According as
he hath chosen us in him, before the foundation of the world,
that we should be holy and without blame before him in love, having
predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to
himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the
praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted
in the beloved. in whom we have redemption through
his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches
of his grace, wherein he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom
and prudence or understanding, having made known unto us the
mystery of his will, according to the good pleasure which he
hath purposed in himself. And the will of God is that we
might believe on Him whom He has sent, on His Son. That in
the dispensation of the fullness of times, He might gather together
in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and
which are on earth, even in Him, in Christ. In whom also we have
obtained an inheritance being predestinated according to the
purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his
own will, that we should be to the praise of his glory who first
trusted in Christ. In whom ye also trusted after
that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation,
in whom also after that ye believed you were sealed with that Holy
Spirit of promise. I'll stop there. Lord, we come before you and
ask for your blessing on our time this morning. We ask that
you'd give us ears to hear, hearts to understand. We ask that you'd
be with Eric as he preaches to us your gospel. We ask that you'd open our eyes
and give us thankful hearts for all that You have given to us
unworthily. We ask that You'd go with us
into the future. Bless us and give us Your Spirit
and grow us in the love of one another and the knowledge of
our Lord Jesus Christ. We ask this with the forgiveness
of our sins in His name. Amen. Good morning. All right, let's
turn to Mark 15, and we'll pick up in verse 39. We'll be looking
down to the end of the chapter. This is the death of Christ. And many men before me have said
what I'm about to say. I agree with it that the most
important event in history was the death of Christ. It accomplished
the salvation of sinners. When he died as the sinner's
substitute. It means he died in their place. I was looking at that word redeemed. We were redeemed by Christ's
blood. In the passage our brother read,
redeemed by his blood, that means it's the purchase price. The
price of our redemption was our death. We were to die. And Christ said, I'll pay that.
He paid that price. Dying in our place as our substitute. He bore our death and he paid
the price with his own blood. And so Christ in his death made
satisfaction to God for our sins. We're told in Hebrews 10 14 that
by one offering he hath forever perfected them that are sanctified. And he perfected us forever. All right, now this Jesus, this
Jesus, Jesus of Nazareth was sent of God as the fit sacrifice,
the fit substitute to reconcile God and man. God being perfect
and holy, man being nothing but a vile, dead, filthy sinner,
unable to work the works of God. And Christ reconciled these two
parties, God and men, that we might have peace with God our
Creator in the Lord Jesus Christ so that He Himself is the Mediator
of the New Testament. He ministers and reveals to us
the New Testament that we are saved by grace, not by works,
not by any works of righteousness which we have done but by His
grace, written in His blood, is this New Testament. Paul,
when speaking to Timothy, said, there is one God and one mediator
between God and men, the man, Christ Jesus, who gave himself
a ransom for all. Who are these all? Well, they'll
be testified in due time. We preach the gospel, and the
Spirit will reveal. He'll testify them that are his
because he'll reveal faith in them whereby they'll confess
what they believe. They'll confess the Lord Jesus
Christ. It'll be revealed. Where unto, he said, I am ordained
a preacher, and so am I. I'm not ordained an apostle like
him, but I'm ordained a preacher, and what do I preach? Well, we've
been made witnesses of these things, the things concerning
Christ. the things concerning the judgment of God against man
and his sin. God's going to punish sinners
for their sin, but He's revealed to us salvation in His Son, His
Son who put away the sin of His people. All who flee to Christ
shall find forgiveness of their sins, and they shall never be
ashamed who hope in Christ. You that hope in your goodness,
you that hope in your works, You shall be ashamed, but you
that believe and hope in Christ shall never, ever be ashamed. So the good news of Christ is
that His death wrought for us our justification, and His resurrection
unto life reveals in us what we are in Christ, that we live
in Him. He is even now our very sanctification. because he accomplished salvation
once and for all for all his people who will be testified
in the due time of our God, in the time of his love for us.
It'll be testified that we are his. All right, so our Lord has
made his church, assembled his people, gathered them together
to be a witness to other like sinners. of what God has accomplished
for his people in the Lord Jesus Christ. We are witnesses of these
things. And so being a witness now of
Christ's death and resurrection, I would say that's pretty important
for us to know and to believe that Christ really did die on
the cross. And I bring that point up because
there were some that did not believe that he really died.
Or that his disciples stole away the body of Christ. But he really did die. And that means that when he rose
again, which we also testify and bear witness to, that his
resurrection was indeed by the power of God. That God testifies
to you and me that that man, Jesus of Nazareth, really, truly
is the Son of God, the Christ, sent of God for this very purpose,
to put away our sins, which we are thankful for that have received
this forgiveness in us by the revelation of God, because we
know, wow, I could never do it. I could never save myself. So we're made thankful for it.
Now, we have an example here that this was indeed made known
to the people in the days of the apostles. in Acts 4, Acts
chapter 4, verses 10 and 11. This is when the apostles were
going into the temple, and there was a man who was there every
single day. He was lame on his feet, so he
didn't get there himself, but he was carried there by his friends
every day to beg alms, to receive money, to have bread. So he wasn't
just a pure burden on his family, but that others would share in
this burden. And so one day Peter looked upon
him and he healed him in the name of Jesus Christ. And that
man's ankle bones and feet were healed and strengthened immediately
so that he was able to stand. And he went leaping for joy and
praising God. And all the people going into
the temple saw this. And Peter said, be it known unto
you in verse 10, be it known unto you all, and to all the
people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth,
whom ye crucified, whom God raised from the dead." See, that's an
important piece of information. He really died, and God raised
him from the dead. "...even by him that this man
stand here before you whole." This is why that man is healed.
It's by Jesus Christ. This is the stone which was set
at naught of you builders. We're to know that he died and
was raised again, being the declared Son of God, the Christ, who puts
away the sin of his people, so that we who reject him and want
nothing to do with him know that, wait a minute now, you're rejecting
the very capstone, the most precious one whom God sent. to save his
people. Are you sure you want to reject
him? Are you sure you want nothing to do with him? Because that
right there is your salvation. And you're just throwing it away.
You want nothing to do with it. But that's the only hope of salvation
for sinners. And so this is the stone which
was set at naught of you builders, you righteous ones, you legalists,
which has become the head of the corner. Alright, so this
morning we're just going to look at the details concerning our
Savior's death. And so that we might know that
this Jesus of Nazareth who was condemned by men to die and hung
on a tree and died being crucified under the wrath of Almighty God
and was laid in the earth, that he really did die. And that when
he was raised, he was raised three days later by the power
and the glory of God. All right, so we're gonna see
that the witnesses that God gives us to testify that yes, indeed,
he did die. He did die, and when he was raised,
he was raised by the power of God. Our title is Witnesses to
Christ's Death. Witnesses to Christ's Death. And we'll have about five little
divisions. Little divisions, the first one
being probably the shortest. Jesus really did die. And then
we'll look at these witnesses. Now, our Lord gives us several
witnesses of his death, right? And that we're to understand
and know that Christ died according to the scriptures. He died according
to what God said, how he would die and why he was put to death.
That it was according to the scriptures. He himself gave up
his own ghost willingly laying down his life for his people. You and me that are sinners and
have no confidence in the flesh but have heard that he is salvation. And so first Corinthians 15 For
I delivered unto you, Paul said, first of all, that which I also
received. We receive this, how that Christ
died for our sins according to the scriptures. That is, he died
under the wrath of God. in our place who are his people
he died as our substitute bearing the wrath of God and that's where
he died to put away the sins of his people and then was buried
in the earth. All right now here's the first
witness that we have the centurion the centurion that was there.
Alright so here's this Roman centurion and as far as we know
he has no lot or inheritance in Christ so he profits nothing
by Christ really being dead or alive and we're told in Mark
15 verse 39 When the centurion, which stood over against him,
saw that he so cried out and gave up the ghost, he said, truly,
this man was the Son of God." Now, a centurion was the head
of a band of soldiers. He was the head of a band of
soldiers and likely he was the centurion that was over the band
of soldiers that had mocked Christ and beat Christ and spit upon
Christ and falsely worshiped him to mock him and to make his
death more bitter. And the job of this centurion
was to guard those being crucified. And he was there at the crucifixion
to guard those being crucified in the sense that no one was
to come and give them help or to take them down and rescue
them at all, right? He was there, positioned there
to make sure that the condemnation executed by the state was fulfilled
according to the law. And so that's why he was there. And Matthew adds, I'll read it
in Matthew 27 verse 54, It says, now when the centurion and they
that were with him, his band of soldiers with him, watching
Jesus, right, that's what their job was. They were watching Jesus
to make sure he died according to the law. They saw the earthquake
and those things that were done, right, the darkness that came
upon the earth for three hours. the breaking open of graves and
there were saints that came about and they feared greatly saying
truly this was the Son of God. They saw these works and they
saw this was indeed the Son of God and these were the mighty
works which God brought to attend the death of Christ. Now we're told that Joseph of
Arimathea went and begged for the body of Christ. And so Pilate,
he said, Christ is dead. And Pilate was amazed that he
was dead already. So what did he do? He didn't
take Joseph's word for it. He called his man, the centurion. He said to the centurion, can
you tell me, is Jesus, the one they call the King of the Jews,
is he dead? And so it says, Mark 15, verse 44 and 45, Pilate marveled if he were already
dead, and calling unto him the centurion, he asked him whether
he had been any while dead. And when he knew it of the centurion,
he gave the body to Joseph." So take note of that, when he
knew it of the centurion, because the centurion was an excellent
witness. This man's life usually depended on how well he fulfilled
the law of the Romans. If he was found to be a liar
and one who circumvented, he wouldn't have been a centurion,
and if he was, he would have been found out and put to death.
So they didn't take their responsibilities lightly. And so here's a centurion
standing directly opposite to Christ who sees him breathe his
last breath and give up his ghost willingly. Willingly. At the time when he determined
it was over, saying it is finished, it was finished and Christ died.
That was it, he gave up the ghost. And so then that was enough when
he came around to break the legs of those being crucified, they
noticed this one's already dead. This one they call the King of
the Jews is already dead. Well, let's make sure. So they
took a spear and shoved it up under his rib to make sure that
he really was dead. And it pierced his lung and probably
his heart and out from there flowed water and blood. So they
knew, I mean, these were soldiers, they saw death, they knew what
a dead man looked like and that wound certainly made sure that
he was dead. And so they never broke his legs,
which was also according to the scriptures, not a bone of him
shall be broken, right? And so this centurion, knew for
certain that he was indeed dead, and he told that to Pilate. And
that's when Pilate knew it of a surety. Pilate knew that he
was dead. And so, let me just pause here
to say to you that do not yet believe Christ, think about this
centurion. this man saw the things that
he saw, confessed that he was the son of God. And that tells
us just because we're religious, just because we have a religious
fear or religious respect of these things, that's not salvation. It doesn't matter if you're afraid
of dying or afraid of going to hell, that's not salvation. Salvation is found in Jesus Christ
alone. Are you a sinner? Are you a sinner
who cannot save him or herself? If you have no hope, if God has
brought you to see that you're nothing and cannot please Him
by your works, look to the Savior because that's why He was sent,
to save His people from their sins. Christ and Christ alone
is the only hope for sinners. confess your sin to him, call
upon him, beg him for mercy and forgiveness. That's why he died
for his people. And so by the Spirit, the Spirit
teaches us and turns us from trusting our dead religious works
or being confident in our fear, right? Thinking that our fear
or respect of religion is what saves us. No it isn't. Christ
in Christ alone saves His people. By His death our sins are purged
and by His resurrection we live. And that's a revelation, a new
birth by the Spirit of Christ whereby we'll rest in Him. Do
you have any hope of salvation in Christ? Then believe Him.
Rest in Him. Confess Him and be baptized for
the remission of your sins by Jesus Christ. Alright, so there's
one witness, the centurion. Then we see the women. The women
were also witnesses. We're told of these women that
these were faithful women. They were faithful. They were
with Christ the whole time. At the beginning of His ministry
and they continue there standing before Him afar off and watching
their Lord be crucified. It says in Mark 15 verse 40,
there were also women looking on afar off. This is where John
was the only male disciple who came back, the only one who must
have come back and noticed the women and joined up with them.
And they were standing afar off among whom was Mary Magdalene
and Mary, the mother of James the less and of Joseph, that
would have been Christ's mother according to the flesh as well,
and Salome. right, who was his aunt, I guess,
the mother of some of his cousins. And when the men who were disciples,
or rather, what happened was they're standing there and you
think, well, where are the others? Where are all the others? All
the men, you know, who were strong in themselves and mighty men
who said, we'll die with you, Lord. They all ran away like
cowards. But here's these women, faithful
disciples. who did what they could. They
couldn't do much, but they did what they could. They remained
faithful to the Lord right up to the end, right? These were
those, verse 41, who also, when he was in Galilee, followed him
and ministered unto him and many other women which came up with
him unto Jerusalem. So they did what they could. And that's a good testimony for
us, right? Especially if we're timid, or
afraid or don't feel ourselves to be very strong or mighty or
have any gifts really to speak of. These women who didn't have
anything, they were faithful. They were faithful and they came
and stood with their Lord in his dying hour. And they believed
and followed him to the very end and they served the Lord
as best they could. And we see in that that truly
those that are forgiven much, they love much, right? They risked
their lives, and they went there, and to behold, their hope lay
down his life on the cross. And so these women, they knew
he died, right? When he was taken down off the
cross, they went with those that took Christ, and they knew that
he died. Had he been any hope of life,
they would have taken him immediately to one of their homes and did
all they could to nurse him back to life. But he was laid in the
tomb. He was dead, all right? Then
we see Joseph, and Joseph proves to be a secret disciple, right?
We'd never even heard of Joseph before this time. We didn't know
who he was, and after this time, we never even hear of him afterwards,
right? But Joseph is a rich man of Arimathea. He was a member of the Sanhedrin.
right, which was the religious council. They're the ones who
decided what things went on in Israel. They kept, you know,
the peace and the law, and they kept that as the rule. But we're
told of this man, one detail, that he waited for the kingdom
of God. That's in verse 43. He waited
for the kingdom of God. And that means he was waiting
for the first coming of Christ in the same way that you and
I wait for and long for the return of Christ. He would look at the
times and the things that were going on and wonder, is this
it? Is this really the Christ? I believe it is. I think this
is the Christ in the same way that we look at things and wonder,
Lord, is this it? Are these the trumpets that are
announcing your return? Is this it? We're always looking
for the return of our Lord and Savior. And so this man waited
for his coming. But we see now that this man
was a secret disciple. We never heard of him before
this time, and we never hear of him after. But one thing we
do know is that he was raised up in this hour for this very
hour and purpose. God raised him up for this very
purpose. And again, that's an encouragement
to you and I. who feel like we don't have anything
to give. And yet the Lord raised him up.
He's no special man that we can tell except that there he was,
right where he needed to be in the time that he needed to be
there. Again, where was everyone else
that had been with him all that time? They were nowhere to be
found, but here's this man with boldness. He was actually able
to get an audience with Pilate. There's probably few people that
could get an audience with Pilate. But here the Lord had his man
who was able to go into Pilate and speak to him. It says verse
42 and 43. And now when the even was come,
because it was the preparation, that is the day before the Sabbath,
Joseph of Arimathea, an honorable counselor, which also waited
for the kingdom of God, came and went in boldly unto Pilate
and craved the body of Jesus. And so here we see the faithful
service of some unknown man, a man that we didn't even know
much about, and yet he was used by the Lord to actually fulfill
one of the scriptures, one of the prophecies concerning Christ.
Because everything written in the scripture must be fulfilled
by Christ that was written of him. And Joseph of Arimathea,
this unknown guy, was used by the Lord for that purpose. What
I'm referring to is Isaiah 53 9, which says of Christ that
he made his grave with the wicked and with the rich in his death,
right? And so he was laid to rest in
this rich man's sepulcher, his grave, which he purchased and
had dug out of a rock for his own body, but instead, He used
it for Christ and he laid Christ there in his grave. And so Joseph, one of the other
things is that Joseph knew for sure that this man was dead.
Why would you lay a living person in a cold, dead stone? That's not gonna help them heal
or get better. So he knew for sure that he was dead. And so
in Joseph's part, we actually see that there's many disciples
that the Lord has, even those that we don't yet know. That's
an encouragement, right, that there's many disciples. And didn't
he say that to Elijah? I reserve for myself 7,000 that
have not bowed the knee to Baal. So that's an encouragement that
even though we don't always see, or when we look at others, we
might judge them to not be disciples, but the Lord knows his, and he'll
raise them up in the hour at the appointed time to fulfill
his work. And, you know, we would never
have seen them like that, but you think about it, you know,
we might judge Joseph, or yeah, Joseph, but it was the disciples
that we saw that were glad to be associated with Christ when
he was doing miracles, right, when he was popular, when he
was accepted by the people and celebrated and making bread and
healing people and calming storms and raising the dead, then the
disciples were seen with him and we didn't see Joseph then,
but here we see Joseph when all hope seemed to be lost, when
he had died there hanging on the tree in his last moments.
And that's when we see his disciple. I mean, if you think about it,
Amazing that when everything seemed to be over, he revealed
and exposed the very fact that he does love Christ and that
he is his hope of salvation. And so there he goes, seeking,
begging for the body, a bloody, beaten, spit upon body of a dead
man that he might have him and lay him, a man who could do nothing
for him as far as he could tell in the flesh. and to put him
in his grave, to lay him in that which was reserved for him as
a rich and wealthy man. He gave it to Christ. So that's
pretty amazing, to see this servant, who we didn't even know about,
serve Christ to the very end, as far as he could tell. And
so I think, in some sense, we actually have a lot in common
with Joseph. see or know Christ in the days
of his flesh when he was walking on the earth doing these miracles.
But like Joseph, we identify with him now in his death and
his resurrection. We look to him now, trusting
and believing him, though we haven't seen him in action in
the flesh, we see him in spirit, by faith in what he's done for
us. And so my prayer is that we be
found faithful in the hour of our calling, though we don't
seem to do much, in the hour when it's needed, that we would
be found faithful. And though this day in which
we live seems to be fraught with darkness, our confidence is that
in that hour that we're called, we'll be found faithful, serving
our Lord unto the very end. Matthew 10.22 says, but he that
endureth to the end shall be saved. And it's by his grace
and glory and power that we shall be raised up in that hour to
give glory to our God and Savior. All right, to those that are
in front of us. All right, now let's wrap this
up looking at the message of our Savior's death. After his
death, we're told in verse 46, and Joseph bought fine linen
and took him down and wrapped him in the linen. And we're told
in one of the other gospels that Nicodemus brought the spices
for embalming his body. He brought them for the purpose
of Christ's burial. And they laid him in a sepulcher,
which was hewn out of a rock and rolled a stone into the door
of the sepulcher. Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother
of Joseph beheld where he was laid. So they followed all the
way to the end to see where he was laid so that they could come
back after the Sabbath was over. And so there really is no question
that Christ died. He really did die. And if there
was any hope of his resuscitation or revival, they would have done
what they could to bring him back. But this message of our
Savior's death, it declares to us, the good news is it declares
that we are now justified. He died in the place of his people. He put away our sins by the death
of himself. His blood shed purges us of the
stain of sin. You that hope in him have no
more stain of sin. There's no more punishment for
you or I to bear. It's over. It's finished. The
works are done. in Him as the Spirit revealed
this to you? Do you believe that He did die
to put away sins, that He is the promised Christ sent of God
for this very purpose? Or are you yet trusting in the
strength of your own works and your own goodness? Are you confident
in that? Are you sure you want to stand
before Holy God in your works or as the Spirit revealed to
you, the righteousness of Christ. Because like Christ was wrapped
in a white, clean linen garment, that's the righteousness that
He wraps His people in, so that He covers our nakedness with
all our filthy, incomplete, weak little works. He covers us with
His righteousness, so that we stand before holy God, perfect,
spotless, without blame, faultless. before Holy God in the person
and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Look to Him and believe on Him
because in that day the wicked are going to stand before Him
in their filthy works and they'll see their nakedness. It'll be
plain to all including themselves in the light of the glory of
God in the face of Jesus Christ who's sitting on the throne judging
all people. But we that come before Him in
His righteousness have no fear because it's His righteousness.
Of course He'll accept it. It's His perfect righteousness
and holiness. And so because of that, we who
hope in Christ have no fear of death. Our Savior went before
us as the leading shepherd. He laid down His life and went
into the grave and we see and know through the revelation of
God that He was raised again for our justification and our
sanctification and our life is hid in Jesus Christ even now. And because he went there, we
have no fear. There's no terror for death,
right? It's like we saw recently in
the Psalms. It's but a porch. Death is but
a porch that we pass through to enter on into the home of
Christ our Savior, where we'll enter into everlasting habitations. Those in Christ into his everlasting
habitation. Those in their own works into
a cruel and awful and dark and place of wrath forever and ever. But you who hope in Christ have
nothing to fear. I'll close with reading Isaiah
26. Isaiah 26 and we'll look at just
at verses 20 and 21. We'll probably look at this next
week Again, but it's just such a beautiful picture of our Lord
and Savior and His people hidden in Him. He says, Isaiah 26, verse
20, He says, Come, My people, enter
thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee. Hide thyself,
as it were, for a little moment, until the indignation be overpassed."
We have no fear when we enter that grave, because we entered
into Christ. When He went to the cross, we
were in Him. He was bearing us in His body.
We were closed about with His body, and His perfect righteousness,
and His holiness, and His sanctification, so that when the wrath of God
fell upon us, it fell upon Him. He paid that price. He died our
debt. 4, verse 21, behold, the Lord cometh out of his place
to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity. The earth also shall disclose
her blood and shall no more cover her slain. So the wrath of God
is promised against all unrighteousness and sins and wickedness that
men and women commit in their bodies here on the earth. And
He promised to judge it and He shall judge it. But you who hope
in Christ are delivered and have no fear of that judgment. There
won't be any wrath for you because Christ bore that wrath and He
bore our judgment in our place. So I pray the Lord would Bless
that and comfort your heart, sinner. And you that are sinners,
flee to Christ. Look to Him, flee to Him. He
is the salvation that God has provided for His people. All
right, let's pray. Our gracious Lord, we thank You,
Father, for the salvation You've provided in Your Son, Jesus Christ. Help us, Lord, ever look to our
Lord and Savior, that we would be found in His righteousness
and not our own. Lord, we pray for your people,
that you would comfort the sick and heal them, that you would
comfort those that are troubled in mind and troubled in spirit
and wrestling hard with sin and fears and doubts. Lord, that
you would comfort your people, that you would shine the warmth
of your light upon them and reveal to them the precious righteousness
of Jesus Christ, bought for us with His own blood. We pray this
in Christ's name, our Lord and Savior. Amen. Let's stand and sing 175, standing
on the promises. 175. Standing on the promises of Christ
my King, through eternal ages let his praises ring. Glory in the highest I will shout
and sing, standing on the promises of God. Standing, standing, standing
on the promises of God, my Savior. Standing, standing, I'm standing
on the promises of God. Standing on the promises that
cannot fail, When the howling storms of doubt and fear assail,
By the living Word of God I shall prevail, Standing on the promises
of God. Standing, standing, standing
on the promises of God my Savior. Standing, standing, standing
on the promises of God. Standing on the promises of Christ
the Lord, Bound to Him eternally by love's strong cord, Overcoming
daily with the Spirit's sword, Standing on the promises of God. Standing, standing, standing
on the promises of God my Savior. Standing, standing, I'm standing
on the promises of God. Standing on the promises I cannot
fall, listening every moment to the Spirit's call. Resting in my Savior as my all
in all, standing on the promises of God. Standing, standing, standing
on the promises of God, my Savior. Standing, standing, standing
on the promises of God. Thank you.