Good morning, brethren. Let's
turn in our Bibles to Exodus 30. Exodus 30. I prepared a message
to preach from Psalm 139. We've been going through that,
and I had a message prepared to preach from there, but I preached
from Exodus 30 yesterday in the Bible class for the preachers
in the Philippines, and I was blessed in studying it, preparing
it, and I'd like to preach it here this morning for you. Let's
look here at Exodus 30. You know the shadows and types
all in the Old Testament, all in the books of Moses. This is
a figure. Scripture calls it a figure for
the time then present, a shadow, a type, a picture of Christ. And we're gonna be looking here
at redemption money. This redemption money was silver,
and it was used to make the foundation of the tabernacle. Now, when
you think of the tabernacle, think of the church of God. The
church made up of those Christ has redeemed and called and assembled. And that's what the Old Testament
tabernacle pictures. It pictures the true church of
God, what Christ has accomplished, what he's working, has worked
and is working for his people. And so think of it in that way
and you'll see what I mean as we go. Verse 11, it says, and the Lord
spake unto Moses saying, When thou takest the sons of the children
of Israel after their number, when you count up the children
of Israel, this is how they will be numbered. He says, then shall
they give every man a ransom for his soul unto the Lord when
thou numbers them, that there be no plague among them, that
they not die when thou numbers them. This they shall give everyone
that passeth among them that are numbered half a shekel after
the shekel of the sanctuary. A shekel is 20 giraz, and half
shekel shall be the offering of the Lord. This is what the
Lord required. Everyone that passeth among them
that are numbered from 20 years old and above shall give an offering
unto the Lord. This was for the soldiers who
were going to war. That's who's being numbered here,
those that were going to war. When God calls us, we enter into
a spiritual warfare. And this is who was numbered. These are the 20 years old and
above. And he says, the rich shall not
give more, and the poor shall not give less than half a shekel. when they give an offering unto
the Lord to make an atonement for your souls. To make an atonement
for your souls. To be at one with God, this was
required. And thou shall take the atonement
money of the children of Israel and shall appoint it for the
service of the tabernacle of the congregation. They appointed
it. They made a few other things
with it, but they made the foundation of the tabernacle with this redemption
money. That's what they, silver, that
foundation was completely silver. Don't you know that was something
to say that it was a silver foundation made of this ransom money? And
he says, here's the reason, that it may be a memorial, a reminder,
constant reminder unto the children of Israel before the Lord, The
Lord's looking upon this too. The children of Israel are looking
upon it, and the Lord's looking upon it. To make an atonement
for your souls. Now this was a shadow, this was
a type, and it's picturing our Lord Jesus. And here's the point
I want us to get from this. Christ Jesus is the one foundation. He is the one foundation of his
church. He accomplished the redemption
by giving the ransom that holy justice required, and he has
made atonement to God for the souls of his people, and he is
our foundation. We're built upon the Lord Jesus,
the one foundation of his people. Now, I wanna show you three things
here. We're gonna see, first of all, that God numbers his
children this way, by Christ's redemption. That's how His people
are numbered. That's how they're counted, by
Christ having redeemed them, each one. Number two, God accepts
His children only in Christ Jesus, only through faith in the Lord
Jesus. They had to come with this one offering. And we have
to come one way, in the Lord Jesus Christ, trusting Him alone.
And thirdly, God's purpose in giving us the scriptures, his
purpose in giving us the gospel to preach week in and week out
was the same reason he gave this, required this ransom to be given
and made this foundation for them to continually see. Here's
the reason. So that we might constantly be
reminded a memorial for us. We're constantly being put in
remembrance. that our salvation is Christ alone. He is the Redeemer
who redeemed us and we have to come to God in him. This is to
keep us continually reminded of our Lord Jesus and who he
is and what he has done. Now let's look at these three
things. First of all, God numbers his
children this one way, by the redemption that Christ accomplished. That's how we're numbered and
counted by God as his people. He says here at verse 11, and
the Lord spake unto Moses saying, when thou takest the sum of the
children of Israel after their number, then shall they give
every man a ransom for his soul unto the Lord when thou numbers
them, that there be no plague among them when thou numbers
them. He keeps repeating it, when you
number them, when they're numbered. This is how they're gonna be
numbered. This is how they'll be numbered. A ransom is given
for their soul. This is how the Lord counted
a man that was fit to be in his army and to go into the battle,
into war. They were not actually ransoming
themselves. You understand that. They were
giving this off, but they weren't literally ransoming themselves.
They were remembering. God gave this so they would remember. out of Egypt. He brought them
out. And he did it through a Passover
lamb. He paid the price. God provided the Passover. So
that's what they're remembering. And verse 12, he said, that there
be no plague among them when thou numbers them, that they
not die. You remember when David numbered
them, he didn't give a ransom. He didn't give this ransom money.
And God slew 70,000 people in Israel because of it. We think
about David's sin with Bathsheba, and that was bad. It was bad.
But brethren, David was the cause that 70,000 men in Israel died
because he numbered them and didn't give this ransom money.
The only way we're going to be numbered by God and accepted
of God, and that's the issue. Man, you have sinned against
God. We have broken God's holy law. We've trespassed against
God. And the issue is, will God accept
us? The issue's not, do you accept
Jesus? That's what the world's doing.
He's gonna make his people willing to receive him. Giving you a
new heart, making you willing in the day of his power. But
the issue here is, how can we be accepted of holy God? How
can sinners like us be received by God who is holy? He can't
receive a sinner that's unrighteous. He can't receive a sinner who's
unholy. We have to be perfect to be accepted of God. And the
only way you're gonna find that is in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Accepted in the beloved, that's the only way. Now the Lord numbers
his people as those for whom Christ paid the ransom. God knows
his people, he chose his people, he gave them to Christ, but he
numbers his people as those who have been redeemed by the blood
of his dear son. You know, when the shepherds
would number the sheep, the way they numbered the sheep was the
staff. And they would, in the scriptures
it says they pass under the rod, that's them being numbered. As
they go under the rod, they numbered them as they went through and
counted them. That rod's the gospel, the preaching
of the gospel. And this is how God numbers his
people. He sends the rod of the gospel And he affectionately
calls us and brings us to submit, to behold how the Christ has
redeemed his people, purchased us, ransomed us by his own blood. And that's how we're counted.
That's how we're numbered and accepted of God, is through the
blood and righteousness of Christ, who made atonement with God for
his people. The Lord numbers us this one
way. Now, a ransom. Let's be simple. I want to be simple, For those
that might not know this, a ransom is a price that has to be paid
to deliver one from captivity. When we sinned, we came into
captivity. We came in captivity to the holy
law of God. Under the judgment of God, we
were in captivity. We could not free ourselves because
there was a ransom that had to be paid. That ransom that has
to be paid is eternal death because that's the only way God can remain
holy. Be holy is that the wages of
sin is death. The soul that sinneth, it must
die and shall die. God is just and he's holy and
that we shall die. All sinners shall die. That ransom
to redeem us out from under the curse and condemnation of the
law was blood, life. Life is in the blood. Without
the shedding of blood, there's no remission of sin. And so that
had to be a man, a man's sin, a man had to pay the ransom. And so Christ Jesus, the Son
of God, came down, the last Adam, and He willingly paid the ransom
that all His people owed. He paid that ransom. He poured
out His blood on Calvary's cross. He died the death that holy justice
demanded of His people. That's the only way we could
be redeemed. That's the only way we could be saved and God
be judged, is for Christ to pay that ransom price. That's what
he did. He ransomed his people. It's
pictured in how God delivered the children of Israel from Egypt.
He gave a Passover lamb. God provided that lamb. And that
lamb died in the place of all the firstborn in Egypt. And the
head of the house put the blood on the doorpost. The head of
the house, the head of God's house is Christ. He's the head.
And he not only laid down his life and paid the ransom to redeem
us and make us at one with God, make atonement for us, he also
comes then through the gospel and applies the blood through
the spirit of God, quickens us and gives us life and faith to
trust him. This is what the scripture says
of natural Israel, but this is so of all God's, of God's elect
Israel. This is what it said. What one
nation in the earth is like thy people Israel, whom God went
to redeem to be his own people? Now you think about that. The
nation, the political nation, Even in the picture, in the shadow
there, that's the only nation that the Lord saved and went
to to redeem, was that one nation. There was a lot of people. It's
amazing, really, that folks try to deny the doctrine of election
when you see things like this in the scripture, that of all
the nations around in the world at the time, one nation did God
go to redeem. That was Israel. Well, brethren,
of all the nations in this world now and throughout time, there's
one nation that God has come to redeem. That's the nation
in scripture called His holy nation, His people, the Israel
of God, the people He's made holy. And God went to redeem
Israel. The Son of God came down to redeem
His people. He came on purpose for a purpose
that was determined in the counsel of God from eternity. And that
purpose was to redeem a particular people God gave to him. That's
what he came for. And God counts those as his children
who Christ has ransomed. That's how we're numbered. Are
you under the blood? Are you under the blood? God
numbers us as those that Christ laid down his life for. Christ
knew who he was laying down his life for, He accomplished our
redemption. He paid the ransom price. He
comes to each one and calls us to trust him. And God knows them
that are his. Christ knows us. He bought us. He purchased us. He redeemed
us where he is. That's the picture here. That's
those that truly believe God. That's what they were remembering
every time they gave this ransom money. That the only way I'm
numbered and accepted of God is by the blood of Christ Jesus,
his dear son. Now let's look secondly here. Holy God only accepts those that
come to him through faith in his son. Only way. This is what God requires of
us. We have to come with this one
offering. We're not making the offering,
we're coming to God through the one who is the offering and who
has already made the offering. his son, Christ Jesus. Look here
at verse 12. The second part, he says, then
shall they give every man a ransom for his soul unto the Lord, when
thou numberst him. He said, verse 13, this they
shall give everyone. I'm trying to point out that
every man, everyone, there's no exceptions here. Nobody's
excluded. This is the one way we come.
Verse 14, everyone, that passeth among them that are numbered.
They shall give an offering to the Lord. Verse 15, the rich
shall not give more, the poor shall not give less than half
a shekel when they give an offering unto the Lord to make atonement
for your soul. This one offering that God will
receive, that he has received, is the one that he provided.
It's Christ Jesus the Lord. It's Christ the Lord. You know,
if anything that a man offers to God, God first gave it to
the man. We don't give anything to God
first. We give what God's first given to us. And preeminently,
we see that in the Lord Jesus. God gave his only begotten son.
He gave his own son for his people. Not for people that loved him,
not for people that merited anything from him, not for people that
were lovely people. He did it for God-hating, sinful
rebels like us. who had already trespassed against
him, who came forth from a mother's womb, trespassing against him,
who all our days sinned against God. He gave his only begotten
son. And our Lord Jesus came forth
and gave his life. And the only way that a sinner
is gonna be able to come to God and be accepted is Christ the
Lord. Christ said, I'm the way, he is the way. He's the truth,
he's the one gospel, the truth. And he's the life. He said, no
man cometh to the Father but by me. The only way is by Christ. Now, I said this and I'll say
it again. It says here to make a ransom for your soul, to make
atonement for your soul. They weren't actually doing that.
They were acknowledging that it had been done for them. And
when you believe on Christ, you know, We'll make a work out of
anything. A man will try to take some glory
any way he can. And men try to turn faith into
a work and say, well, our faith justified us. The only sense
in which faith justifies is it lays hold of the one who already
justified us. And we won't even lay hold of
him except God first give us the faith and he gives it to
us by grace. But the only way we're coming
to God and accepted is through faith in Christ. That's the only
way. Faith in Christ is confessing
that we are the sinner, that we didn't contribute, that we
didn't do anything. You know, the Pharisees rejected
John the Baptist, but those that went out, they were baptized
confessing their sins, declaring that what he preached was right
and it was the truth. How did they do that? By confessing
Christ, by being baptized, by acknowledging that their only
hope was Christ Jesus the Lord. That's what faith does. Faith
is, in Christ, is an acknowledgment that we can't save ourselves.
It's the antithesis of works. Faith is saying, no work I could
do would save me. No work I could do would ransom
me. It is Christ alone that justified
me. That's what faith is saying.
Faith is saying the works were done by the Lord Jesus, not by
me. That's what true faith is saying. When a self-made religious world
makes law and grace, and that's what all religions do all over
this world, and especially those that call themselves Christians,
they mix law and grace, they may say, speak of grace, but
they mean something totally different. They mean something that's not
grace. And when they mix law, mix man's
works with grace, they're trying to add to this work that's already
accomplished. It's already been done. Christ
is already paid. And when God said here, bring
the half shekel after the shekel of the sanctuary, that means
it had to be the exact weight and measure like when the shingle
of the sanctuary would be like a coin coming directly from the
mint you know it just been just been the molten silver just been
poured in it just been minted just been made and it was the
exact measure the exact weight that was required that's what's
declared in that it has to be the exact measure of righteousness,
the exact measure that equals true righteousness and true holiness. And God won't receive anything
less. And when men mix law and they mix with grace, and they
try to add something to it, and they try to say part of it is
by man, that's inequity. It's inequitable. It does not
equal the exact measure that God requires. It's iniquity. It doesn't measure up to the
righteousness that God requires to be accepted. To tell sinners
that they can indebt God to give them a greater reward than Christ,
that by doing good works, they'll get rewards greater than others,
that's just another form of self-righteous works. And it does not measure
up to the righteousness God requires. You and I can never, ever, ever
give God the righteousness he requires. The Pharisees, Paul
said, they're going about to establish their own righteousness,
and they have not submitted to the righteousness of God. That's what we have to have,
the righteousness of God. And the righteousness of God
is the Lord Jesus Christ. It is Him. We have to come through
faith in the Lord Jesus. He said in Micah 6.10, let's
look there just a minute, Micah 6.10. Now, I hope that you don't use
a false measure if you're in business and you're measuring
out something to a customer. I hope you don't use a false
measure so that you cheat the customer. And if you're buying,
they had two different kinds of weights in their bag. When
they were measuring for wheat and barley and different things
like that, if they were selling it, they had a weight so that
they'd come out ahead on selling it. If they're buying it, they
had a different way to use, so they'd come out ahead if they're
buying it. And this is what the literal thing was. But the spiritual
lesson is this, brethren. Anything we do, anything you
and me try to do to come to God by our works is a false measure,
and God won't receive it. Look what he says here, Micah
6.10. He said, are there yet treasures of wickedness in the
house of the wicked, and the scant measure that is abominable. Shall I count them pure with
the wicked balances and with a bag of deceitful weights?"
That's what he's saying. He's saying, if you're trying
to come to God by anything you do, that's a deceitful weight.
It will not measure up, will not measure up. I've used this
illustration. We've talked about it not long
ago. You know, men, you see Lady Justice and her eyes blindfolded. She's supposed to be blind to
any of the outward appearance. She's strictly just. She's got
that weight scale in her hand. And you got one side and the
other side. And men imagine that when God
says, we're going to stand before God and every man's going to
be judged according to that which he has done, whether good or
evil. And men think that means that
in the day of judgment, God is gonna stand there with the balance
and you're gonna put all your wicked works on one side and
all your good works on the other side and they hope the good outweighs
the bad. That's not what it means. He
means he's gonna take it. If you come to God outside of
Christ, this would be the picture of it. Every wicked work you
ever did will be on one side of the scale. And all the works
that you thought were good, that were going to count, that were
going to help you out, they're going to be on the same side
of the scale together. Because whatever we do, the best
we can do is filthy rags, the same as the worst we do. If we're
trying to come to God in anything we've done, and we will come
up wanting, because the righteousness God demands is Christ, and the
only way is through faith in him. God's justice demanded that. It demanded the exact, when you
look to the cross, you see the exact ransom that had to be paid. That's what we see on Calvary's
cross. It required a perfect man, who's perfectly holy and
perfectly righteous, be made sin. God wouldn't even, God's
so exact on this measurement of righteousness, he would not
even pour out judgment on his son until his son was made worthy
of that judgment. and he made him sin for us who
knew no sin. Then God justly poured out wrath
upon him, and when sin was found on his own son, he didn't spare
his own son. We're talking about just God.
And Christ, by paying that, completely, totally put away the sin of his
people, completely justified all his people. And now, brethren,
God's people love judgment and justice. We love it. That same
justice that required, the only way that we could be redeemed
was Christ's Son, that same justice, because justice has been satisfied
by Christ for all His people, the ransom has been paid in full
by Christ, and that same judgment says now that everybody Christ
died for must be given faith in Him, and they must be brought
home to glory, because justice is satisfied. That's the best
news. That, oh. The Son of Man came not to be
ministered to, but to minister and to give his life a ransom
for many. His life is the ransom. He's
the ransom. We weren't redeemed with corruptible
things as silver and gold, but with the precious blood of Jesus
Christ as a lamb without spot, without blemish. He that believeth
on the Son hath everlasting life. He won't see condemnation. because
Christ has justified him. All right, I pray the Lord will
make you come with the shekel, the pure shekel of the sanctuary
of the Lord Jesus. Now lastly, God's purpose in
this whole thing was he used this ransom money and they made
the foundation. And so that whole tabernacle
had this foundation of silver He said in verse 16, thou shalt
take the atonement money of the children of Israel and shall
appoint it for the service of the tabernacle of the congregation
that it may be a memorial unto the children of Israel before
the Lord to make atonement for your souls. So Exodus 38 tells
us this, that they took that silver and they made the foundation
of the tabernacle. Now, when they made that foundation,
I'd like to see somebody make something After this pattern
because it's it's up. The pattern is of God and it's
It was a great way to build this tabernacle. It was the foundation
was made out of these huge silver triangles and that fit together
and so they're like the way that in their sockets in the triangles
at different angles so that when they put the boards in there
to hold up the curtains of the tabernacle it all created a tension
against one another. And the harder anything blew
on that tabernacle, the storms blew on that tabernacle, and
the more stress it was put on there, the more solid it stood. Because it was like a tension
thing, you know, to where any pressure put on it just made
it that stronger. Brethren, the foundation is the
Lord Jesus Christ. He's the foundation. And the
purpose of God in preaching the gospel is just like it was right
here in this text, is to keep us in remembrance, is to keep
us remembering that our one redeemer, our one who's ransomed us and
whom we're accepted is the Lord Jesus Christ. Look at Isaiah
28, let's look there just a minute, Isaiah 28. Verse 16, thus saith the Lord
God, Isaiah 28, 16, thus saith the Lord God, behold, I lay in
Zion for a foundation, a stone, a tried stone, a precious cornerstone,
a highly valuable cornerstone, preeminently valuable, a sure
foundation. He that believeth shall not make
haste. In Christ, if you die in Christ,
he says there he's gonna lay judgment to the lion and righteousness
to the plummet, and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of
lives and the water shall overflow the hiding place. Christ already
bore that for his people. Judgment's been laid to the lion.
He's that tried stone. He's that precious cornerstone,
that sure foundation, and other foundation can no man lay than
that which is laid, which is Christ Jesus. There's no other
foundation. Now here's the practical teaching
here in this passage. When the priests went in to do
service in that tabernacle, there were things, works they did that
the Lord had given them to do in ministering to the Lord's
people before God. But everything they did in that
tabernacle, they did it on the footing of a silver finished
foundation that was already laid. Nothing they did in that tabernacle
added to that foundation. Nothing they did, they did nothing
to try to complete that foundation. That foundation was finished.
And anything the Lord gives you and me to do, I put an article
in the bulletin. First of all, it's of the same
spirit and it's by the same God so that he gets all the glory.
You only do anything good because the Lord worked it in you and
gave you the gift and the ministry to do it. He worked it in you.
But anything that you and me do, we do on the footing of Christ's
redemption already accomplished, the foundations already laid.
We don't add anything to what Christ has done. In fact, if
we do it truthfully and we do it with a motive that God will
receive, it's because We do it constrained by the love of Christ
who already laid that foundation and made us see he's already
made us complete. We do it because of what he's
done for us. That's the motive. So everything
we do, we do it on that foundation. Nobody can add to it. Here's
the second thing. That foundation, those sections,
they wait a talent, the scripture says. And according to what I've
read, a talent was 75 pounds. And there was 100 sections. That means that foundation of
that tabernacle weighed 7,500 pounds. And they moved that tabernacle
a lot. So every time they loaded up
that foundation to move it, they were reminded constantly of how
weighty their redemption was, how much it cost, and what a
burden it was to redeem. That's what we're constantly
being reminded of when we hear the gospel preached. Our Lord
Jesus bore the burden. He bore the weight of our sin
and the weight of the wrath and fury of divine justice on our
behalf. It was a costly, costly redemption. And he bore that weight for us,
brethren. always remember that, the weight
that he bore to redeem us from our sin. And here's another thing. Like I said, that wilderness
is called a waste howling wilderness. And every time the winds blew
and the storms came, the more the winds blew, the more firm
that foundation held that whole tabernacle in place to where
it could not be moved. Brethren, we're going through,
we're on a pilgrimage through this desert, waste, howling wilderness. But we are, we're on this foundation. We're settled on this foundation,
Christ Jesus, by the grace of God. And it doesn't matter how
strong the winds blow, it doesn't matter how bad the troubles are,
nothing is gonna move his people, separate us from this foundation,
from Christ Jesus, absolutely nothing. We're helpless, we're
sheep. Sheep are not fighters, we're
sheep. and we're facing wolves and great
enemies, but there's none of them that are going to harm us
whatsoever. In fact, God will use the fierceness
of our enemies and work it for our good. He will show us more
of Christ and more of how Christ is our savior and our security
and our keeper. He'll show you more of that using
men who we look at at first and think, oh, this is gonna destroy
me. And he'll use that to show you, no, you're safe and secure
by Christ the Lord. And I'll show you, there's a
really good picture of that in this text too. How did they have
those shekels? Where'd they get that silver
to give? The enemies in Egypt who had
been their slave masters, When they were leaving Egypt, God
put it in their heart to give them that silver. God used the
wicked hands to give them that silver. That's how they had it.
How do you have this redemption that Christ has accomplished?
God used the wicked hands of men who thought they were going
to break the bands of God asunder. He used those wicked hands to
put Christ on the cross and it worked for our salvation. They
did what God had determined before the foundation of the world.
And God will use every enemy and every stormy wind that blows
to teach you and me that we don't have any strength in ourselves,
that our sufficiency is the Lord, and He is the strength of His
people, and He shall not lose one of His people. That's what
He'll show us. Go with me to Isaiah 43. Look at verse one, we're talking
about redemption now. Isaiah 43, one, but now thus
saith the Lord that created thee, O Jacob, and he that formed thee,
O Israel, fear not, for I have redeemed thee. You know, that's
the reason we have not to fear, that's the only reason. It's
not because of any strength in us, it's this, the Lord said,
I have redeemed you. I've paid the price, I've justified
you, I've bought you, I've called thee by thy name, thou art mine. That's the reason not to fear
right there. When thou passest through the waters, you're gonna
go through them. He said, but I will be with thee.
And when you go through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee.
When thou walkest through the fire, thou shall not be burned,
neither shall the flame kindle upon thee, because I am the Lord
thy God, the Holy One of Israel, thy Savior. I gave Egypt for
thy ransom, Ethiopia and Saba for thee. Since thou was precious
in my sight, thou has been honorable, and I've loved thee, therefore
will I give men for thee and people for thy life. Fear not,
for I am with thee. I'll bring my people from the
north, south, east, and west, he said. I've created them for
my glory. I formed them, I made them. So,
believe on the Lord Jesus. That's my application in any
message I preach. I don't have any grand applications
like the world gives. Mine is this, believe on Christ. If you do that, everything else
will be all right. And I'll tell you, that's the answer. Any time,
in any situation, in any trouble, when we're fearful, when we're
cast down, when we've sinned, when we need to be corrected,
whatever it is that has caused the trouble, the remedy is this,
look to Christ. Look to Christ, believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ, and bear witness of him. Preach him, declare him
to others. This is what Paul told Timothy.
If you put the brethren in remembrance of these things, you'll be a
faithful minister. That's what he's left us here
for, is to declare him, be witnesses of him. And just like this was
a memorial for them, God says, you just keep putting them in
remembrance. Keep reminding them, keep reminding
them. of what I've done. And whatever good works he uses
you to perform, remember, you do it. We each do these things
by the same spirit of God. He does it. And we're doing whatever
we do on the footing of redemption, salvation, already accomplished. We're not doing anything to add
to anything Christ has done or to try to get anything from God
that he hadn't already given us in Christ. Do what you do
because you're constrained by the great love of Christ who
laid down his life and redeemed us, brethren. That's it. That's the only three things
I know to tell you. Believe on Christ, tell people about him,
and praise him and thank him for all these good works he worked
in you, and know that it's all on the foundation already laid.
Can't add to it. Let's go to him, brethren. Father,
thank you for this word. Lord, keep us remembering, continually
remembering what you've done for us. Keep us looking at Christ
and keep us being faithful witnesses of him. In the words we speak
to others and the actions of your people, make us faithful
witnesses, Lord. Thank you so much. Thank you
for redeeming our souls, for doing it all. Forgive us, Lord,
for our sin and our fear. our unbelief. Receive us in Christ. We beg of you for his sake. Amen.