That's so good, thank you. Oh,
to give him all the honor. Well, let's go to the book of
Exodus again this morning. Exodus, and we'll go to chapter
25. Exodus, chapter 25. And we'll ask the Lord to bless
His Word. Our Father, it is so good of
You to gather us together today for worship. We would do as David encouraged
the children of Israel. That is to honor and glorify,
worship the Lord our God. Let us bow the head and bend
the knees of our heart before You. Let us remember that God
is in the heavens and we're on earth. We'll let our words be
few. Lord, we ask that you'd open
up our ears and close our mouths that we might hear what God has
to say today. Lord, unless you speak through
your word by means of your servant, nothing of any everlasting value
is going to come of this service. Oh, how we need you. we would,
Lord, fall prostrate before you and say, Lord, help us. Lord, show us mercy. Oh God,
be gracious to each of us. We thank you for your dear, only
begotten Son and for that blood that He shed. And there is indeed,
there was and is and ever shall be power in that blood of the
Lord Jesus. In fact, it is of such might
and power that it will go on cleansing us from all of our
sins. We rejoice, Lord, in You. and in this great salvation that
speak to each of us. May we be ready hearers of the Word of
God, but not hearers only, but hearers and doers of the Word. And we know this is the will
of Him that sent Christ that everyone which seeth the Son
and believeth on Him should have everlasting life. Lord, grant
unto all of us today that we would look to the Lord Jesus,
the only Savior, and we will find in Him salvation and acceptance
and forgiveness and righteousness. Oh God, may it be so. We ask
for Jesus' sake. Amen. Exodus chapter 25 is where I'm
going to begin this morning. But I want to read you a couple
of verses before I actually get into my message. And of course,
this kind of lays the foundation for the message. The first reference
is in the book of 2 Chronicles. And that passage I read to begin
with is what David said to all of the congregation of Israel,
let's bless the Lord, let's bless the Lord. And he set an example
for them as the king of the nation. He blessed God. He honored God. He exalted God. He adored God. And then He said, now let's all
of us bless the name of God. In the previous chapter, God
told David, as I mentioned a little bit ago, He said, you can't build
the temple. As for your son, he'll build
the temple of God. And indeed, David died, slept
with his fathers, went home to glory, and God brought to the
head, or to the kingdom of Israel, his chosen servant, Solomon. And under the reign of Solomon,
then the temple of God was built. And in building that temple,
this is what Solomon had to say. Chapter 6, verse 18. You don't
have to look it up if you don't want to. 2 Chronicles 6, verse
18. Solomon asked, but will God in
very deed dwell with men on earth? Will God in very deed Will he
who inhabits eternity, will he dwell on earth with men? And then he said, behold, heaven
and the heaven of heavens, they can't contain thee. How much
less this house, which I have built. And then, a little further in
the Old Testament in the book of Isaiah, God had something
to say Himself. He said in the very last chapter
of Isaiah, Isaiah 66 and verse 1, Thus saith the Lord. He said,
The heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool. And then He asked, Where is the
house? that ye build unto me. And he says, where is the place
of my rest? Is there anywhere on earth that
God will dwell? God dwells in heaven. God dwells
in eternity. God's everywhere. He can't be
confined to one location and yet After Israel had been rescued
from Egyptian bondage, God led them out to the Mount of Sinai. And He took His servant Moses
up into the mountain. And this is what God had to say. Now remember, God said, where
is that house you're going to build me? Why, the heaven of
heavens can't contain me. And yet, this is what God told
Moses here in chapter 25, verses 8 and 9 of Exodus. God said, let them make Me a
sanctuary that I may dwell among them. He's already asked, or He will
ask in Isaiah 66, where is the house that you're going to build
me that I dwell there? And yet God says, here, make
me a sanctuary. I'll dwell among them. He says
in this verse 9, According to all that I show thee, after the
pattern of the tabernacle, and the pattern of all the instruments
thereof, even so shall ye make it. God said, I'm going to dwell
with you. Now we know this tabernacle is
a beautiful picture of our Lord Jesus. In whom God dwelt. But God not only dwelt in him,
He is God. Scripture says in John chapter
1, "...and the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us." No,
one house can't hold God. But one man did. All of the fullness of the Godhead
dwelt in one man. There's the eternal God. There's
the everlasting Father. There's the only Savior of sinners. There's the Creator. There's
the One who spake and it was done. There's the one who said,
lights be! And the lights came on throughout
the universe. He said, the heaven of heavens
can't contain me. But I'll dwell with you in the
body of a man. And that man is Jesus Christ
of Nazareth. Not only dwelt in Him, That man
is God. He's God. This is what aggravated
the Jews so much because he said in John chapter 10, I and my
Father are one. We're together. We're in union.
We're equal. Equal in power, equal in authority,
equal in our reign, equal in our government, equal in our
purpose, equal in all that we do. We're one. We're one. He had just told them about His
sheep will hear His voice. He said, I know them. They'll
follow Me. I'm giving them eternal life.
And I am the Father One on this. My sheep have eternal life. I know them. Therefore, they'll
follow Me. And this is the one who walked
on the earth. And this is the one who must
save us. That one who would rescue us
from our miserable condition. He must be God of very God. Please understand that. Not like
God. Not having power sort of like
God. Not one who envied God, but one
who is very much, totally, eternally God in the flesh. He's the only
one who can help us. Listen, He's the only one who
can help you. I can't help you. Oh, I can tell
you the truth and I intend to do that. But I can't save you. I can't rescue you. Years ago,
there was a very famous preacher and they said, what is your goal
in life? He said, to get a lot of people
saved. Well, let me tell you something.
Every soul he has saved is still lost. And nobody can save but
God. God. That's why the Savior's
name is Jesus. Thou shalt save your people from
their sins. He said, after he spiritually
healed Zacchaeus, he said, for the Son of Man has come to seek
and to do what? Save them that are lost. This is our Lord Jesus. This
is God. He's got to be God. He's got
to be God. That's why we read in 2 Corinthians
5, God was in Christ, reconciling the world of sinners unto Himself. The world of His elect. The world
of His people. A people scattered throughout
the world, north, south, east, and west. God was in Christ Jesus
reconciling the world unto Himself. He's got to be God. But wait.
Wait. He's got to be man. Yes, He's
got to be God to know the purpose of God. He's got to be God to
satisfy God. He's got to be God to deal with
God. You can't deal with God. I can't
deal with God. If you told me you've got to
deal with God on your own, I wouldn't even know how to begin. And even
if I had some kind of idea, I couldn't do it. The only one who can deal
with God's got to be equal with God, got to be the same as God.
He's got to be God Himself. But that's not sufficient totally
because He's got to be man also to save us. Now He's always been
God. He is eternal. He's the one who
brought everything into existence. He is the everlasting Word of
God. But He's got to be man. He's
got to be like us. Because it was a man who got
us in this mess. It's a man who... failed. It's
a man who represented us and as a result of his disobedience,
all mankind became lost. So there's got to be a man who
will honor God, who will worship God, who will obey God. There's got to be a perfect man.
There's not a just man upon the earth that doeth good and sinneth
not. Even justified people, people who are forgiven, people who
stand in the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ, we just
keep on sinning. You know that, don't you? We're
all contaminated. There's got to be a perfect man.
Somebody who did no sin and knew no sin. Somebody in whose mouth
there was no guile. Somebody from the very entrance
of his beginning of his life and his entrance into this world.
Somebody who would honor God with every breath, every word,
every thought. His motive only to glorify the
Lord, the Father. Such a man is the Lord Jesus
Christ. He had to be man to suffer. God
can't suffer. God can't bleed. God's a spirit. Y'all could get blood out of
a spirit. But God got blood out of a man.
The man in Christ Jesus. And so we read there in John
1.14, the word was made flesh and dwelt. He tabernacled among
us. God tabernacled among us. God said, you can't build a house
to hold me, but I'm going to dwell in a man. God, Christ, The man, all we
need is that God-man, Christ Jesus. And this tabernacle in the wilderness
is a wonderful object lesson concerning our Savior. It's one
of the richest studies in all of the Bible. and we're only
kind of hitting the high spots. I'll have another couple of messages
probably. I won't go into great detail,
but it's worthy of an exhaustive study. Because everything, every
pin, every cord, everything about this tabernacle pictured our
Lord Jesus, either His person, some aspect of His work, or the
result of His work. Everything is about Christ Jesus
here. And that's not surprising, because
the whole Bible is about Him. So it's no shock that everything
about the tabernacle is about Him. Now, this tabernacle, it's
full of gospel truth. Let me give you three things
real quick, and then as an introduction, then I'll get into the real body
of the message. Here's the title. The tabernacle. Tabernacle. Planned and finished. God planned it, and then it was
finished. Okay? That's the title of the
message. First of all, this tabernacle was a revelation of the sinfulness
of man. You say, why do you start there,
preacher? Because I want you to see what
we are. I want you to see how God must stay a distance away
from us. When you look at this tabernacle,
the average Israelite, see if we had lived back then, we'd
have been Jews, and if we weren't Levites or sons of Aaron, we
couldn't even go in there. Oh, we could look through the
gate. Boy, that's some kind of tent in there, isn't it? How
big is that tent? Well, 15 feet wide and 45 feet
long. I sure would like to see it.
Wouldn't you like to see it? But we never will. Because you
and me and all the rest of us, we can't go in there. Why can't
we go in there? That's God's dwelling place.
That's God's dwelling place. How come I can't go in? Because
I'm a sinful man. And all the way around the perimeter
of the tabernacle, I told you, 75 feet wide, 150 feet long,
all the way around the seven and a half feet white linen fence. And it may as well have had signs
all the way around, keep out, keep out, violators will be executed. You can't go in. Why can't I
go in? I'm a sinful man. That's what
all of this barring the entrance of the Israelites from the tabernacle,
it says to them, you're sinful people. You need a sacrifice. You need a Savior. Preacher,
how come I can't come right into the presence of God? Because
you're not fit to. That's why. You're unholy. You're unjust. You're unrighteous. You're sinful. God's a consuming
fire. If you could get into His presence,
you'd be obliterated. That'd be the end of you because
of who God is. The tabernacle was a revelation
of the sinfulness of man. And I'll tell you something else,
number two. of the holiness of God. That's something most people
don't know anything about. Oh, how often we're reminded
in this tabernacle in the wilderness of the divine holiness of the
Lord. That tabernacle proper, the actual
tent, only 15 feet wide and 45 feet long. That first section
divided into A room 30 feet long and of course 15 feet wide. We
couldn't go in there either. Oh, I know it's some glorious
things in there. The tapestry above. The table
of showbread. The golden candlestick over here. And there's the altar of incense.
Magnificent! Magnificent! But we can't go
in there. We can't go in. Well, what does all that say?
All that immaculate, the immaculate room of the holy place. What
does that say? God is holy? God is holy? That first room is called the
holy place. And then there's a thick veil
in that back room where was the Ark of the Covenant with the
mercy seat on top. That's the holiest of holies.
Holy. Holy. That's the word God keeps
in front of our minds when we look inside the tabernacle. Holiness. Man is sinful. God is holy. They can't come together. You
can't come to God and God can't come to us. Not God who's spirit. There's such a vast difference.
There's such a distance between us and God. And you're a fool
to think that by keeping some laws or some traditions or walking
an aisle or going into the baptistry, you're a fool if you think those
things will get you in good standing before a holy God. They can't
do that. Something's got to be done about
the sin. God said, your sins have separated
you from Me. I can't come to you and you can't
come to Me. If I come to you, I'll have to
consume you. And if you come to Me, I'll have
to consume you. The holy place. And only one
man can go into the holy of holies and that's Aaron. He's a high
priest. And none of those men could even
labor inside the tabernacle, not the priesthood and not the
high priest. Well, first of all, back out
there at the brazen altar, they've got to bring a sacrifice to God.
And then they've got to stop at the brazen labor and wash
their hands and wash their feet. And on the Day of Atonement,
oh, the holy Day of Atonement, Leviticus chapter 16 is where
you can read about this. Aaron takes a bullock and a ram,
and he offers the bullock for his own sins. That's Israel's high priest.
But you see, our high priest, Christ Jesus, He has no sins. He doesn't offer a sacrifice
for His sins. He doesn't have any. He offers
a sacrifice for ours. But Aaron, he goes in. Aaron,
he wears a linen turban, not a fish hat like the Pope wears. That's not what Aaron wore, that
fish hat. That goes back a long ways into
the history of the Philistines and their god Dagon, who was
the fish god. And that fish god had on its
head like a fish mouth opened up. You fishermen know what that
looks like. That's kind of the way it was,
went up like that. And that's what the Pope wears when he's
meeting with his cardinals and stuff. That's not what Aaron
wore. Aaron wore white turban, wound
round and round, but it had a solid gold plate on the front. Guess
what it said? Holiness to the Lord. Holiness
to the Lord. The Lord kept this, his own characteristic, His attribute,
the essence of His being. I think that's better. More than
saying His holiness is an attribute or a characteristic, this is
the essence of God's being. Holiness. Holiness. And that's what Aaron wore. Holiness
to the Lord. In fact, that was called that
gold board or slab that went across his turban. It's called
the Holy Crown. That's what was on his turban. And as the other priests and
the Israelites gathered around and they watched Aaron enter
into the tabernacle, they see that holiness to the Lord. You see, holiness That's something
we can't even attain to. I know there's a denomination
called the Holiness Church. And I hear people talking about
they live holy lives. And then they'll start talking
about, well, you know, the women keep their dresses down to the
floor nearly, and they wear their hair in a bun, and they don't
do this, and they don't do that. Well, what's that? Oh, it's holy
living! I would suggest to you we really don't know hardly anything
about holiness. I'll tell you who's holy. God's
holy. And in the light of His immaculate
holiness, we see how rotten we are. Isaiah heard the seraphim
singing, holy, holy, holy is the Lord God, Lord God Almighty. And he said, woe is me! I'm a
man of unclean lips and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean
lips. God's holy. The tabernacle was a revelation
of the sinfulness of man It was a revelation of the holiness
of God. I'll tell you how holy God is,
give you some indication of it. Down at the bottom of Aaron's
high priestly garment was a bell and a pomegranate, right? A bell and a pomegranate. And
the Jews say that he had a rope around one of his feet. And when
Aaron or one who succeeded him, any high priest, if he went into
the Holy of Holies, he could only go in there one day a year.
That's the Day of Atonement I was talking about. And then he must
not go in without blood and without incense. That speaks of the intercessory
work of the Lord Jesus. That's what incense means, burning
of incense. The blood speaks of sacrifice.
And if he goes in there without the blood of a sacrifice, God
kill him. Don't hear the bells ringing
any longer. Uh-oh. Uh-oh. What's happened? He's dead. You cannot approach a holy God
without the blood of the covenant. Without the blood of the Lord
Jesus. We say there's power in the blood. How much power? Well, power to
satisfy a holy God when Christ died. Power to put away all the
sins of His people. Power to make us righteous. The
power to make us to be accepted in the blood is power in the
blood of Christ. Which brings me to this. The
tabernacle is a revelation of the sinfulness of man. It's a
revelation of the holiness of God. It's a revelation of the
necessity of sacrifice to put away sins and to have a mediator. got to have a sacrifice. And
as you study the tabernacle, and you can read from, read Exodus
from chapter 25 all the way through to the end of the book, with
the exception of chapters 32 and 33. With the exception of
those two chapters, you're going to be reading about the tabernacle
or the priesthood that God appointed to labor in there. But what you'll
continually see is the blood. The blood. God will say to them,
the life of the flesh is in the blood. That's where life's in. Life's in the blood of the Lord
Jesus. There's no life anywhere else.
No life in anything you do. I'll tell you what the tabernacle
says. It says, without a sacrifice,
you're a goner. That's what the tabernacle says.
I mean, there's Aaron. He's the high priest. He goes
in on the Day of Atonement. Well, surely he can go right
on back there in the presence of God. No, he can't either.
No, he can't. He's got to have a bullock. A
bull, a young bull. Perfect. Perfect animal. No blemishes,
no spots. Because that bullock is picturing
the Lord Jesus. And Aaron has got to stick a
knife in the throat of that bullock and slit that throat. I tell
you, the brazen altar was a gory, gruesome, horrible place to stick
around and watch what's going on. Blood everywhere. Everywhere. Two places where
blood was just The gore of it. To see so much blood. If you've
got sensitive stomachs seeing blood, well you wouldn't want
to look at the brazen altar. There's blood everywhere. And
one more place, but you can't see that. That's at the mercy
seat. Yeah. Aaron's got to go in there
and the first thing he's got to do is take the blood of that
bullock that he killed for himself. He's got to sprinkle that mercy
seat seven times and sprinkle the ground in front of the mercy
seat. And then go back out and kill
a ram. And that blood's got to be shed.
Catches it in a basin. And it's got to go back into
the Holy of Holies. And it's got to sprinkle the
mercy seed again. Seven times. And seven times
on the ground. Boy, what a bloody, bloody mercy
seed that was. What does this say to us? What
message is this? Without the shedding of blood,
There is no remission of sin. You got that, don't you? Surely
you can see that. Without the shedding of blood,
there's no remission of sin. That's the only remedy. The only
remedy for us is Christ crucified. Is there any wonder that this
is the delightful theme and message of the church of the Lord Jesus
Christ? The message of the Bible? It's the Savior's sacrifice.
And you know, right there at that brazen altar, morning and
evening sacrifices were offered, all the other sacrifices, rams,
bullocks, rams, turtle doves, pigeons, that's where they'd
be killed, blood caught in a basin, the carcass put up on the fire,
that fire which was kindled by the very presence of God. that
great shekinah glory, the fire that came out from the Holy of
Holies to illuminate all the camp of Israel. You read in Leviticus
chapter 9, that fire came out and there was a carcass up on
top of the brazen altar with wood underneath it and that fire
of God ignited that wood and God said, don't ever put it out.
That's what He said. Don't ever extinguish that fire. Never. There were men who fed
that fire with the select wood all through the night. You've
got to keep that fire going. Don't you let that fire go out.
You say, well, what about when Israel broke camp and moved on? They put that fire in a firebox. They carried it with them. Because
God ignited that flame. God said, don't you let that
fire go out. You can read about it. Let's
turn. Look at Leviticus chapter 6.
Let me just make good on this. Look at Leviticus chapter 6. Leviticus chapter 6. Look at verse 8. Leviticus chapter 6. It's the
third book of the Bible. Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus. Chapter
6 verse 8. And the Lord spake unto Moses,
saying, Command Aaron and his son, saying, This is the law
of the burnt offering. It is the burnt offering because
of the burning upon the altar all night unto the morning, and
the fire of the altar, it shall be burning in it. Look down in
verse 12. And the fire upon the altar shall
be burning in it. It shall not be put out. And
the priest shall burn wood on it every morning, and lay the
burnt offering in order upon it, and he shall burn thereon
the fat of the peace offerings, verse 13. The fire shall never
be burning upon the altar. It shall never go out. It shall
never go out. What does that symbolize? Well,
the fire symbolizes judgment. That fire symbolizes the justice
of God, the vengeance of God against sin. You put that animal,
that carcass up on top of the brazen altar, up on top of the
wood, which was already ignited, and that animal would be just
burnt to ashes. Burnt to ashes. The fire just
keeps on burning the wood, burning the wood, never extinguished. That picture is the judgment
of God, the justice of God. Do you know what the scripture
says about hell? That's a subject I've heard people say. He's a
real hellfire, brimstone preacher. I don't want to be known as a
hell-firing brimstone preacher. I want to be known as a Christ-crucified
preacher. But we do have to be honest with
people. You know what? The fires of hell
will never be extinguished because it'll never be satisfied. And the reason God said, don't
let that fire go out, is because all of these sacrifices, all
of them together, could never satisfy God. Hebrews chapter
10, the blood of bulls and goats can't put away sin, can't put
away one sin. So the fire's got to be kept
burning. That fire pictures the judgment
of God, the wrath of God, the vengeance of God. And that wrath
and judgment and vengeance fell on our Savior when He died upon
the cross of Calvary. Not for His own sins, but those
imputed to Him. The sins of His people, all of
them. And God's wrath, the fire of
His vengeance as it were, took hold of the Savior and exacted
from Him all the payment due for our sins. The very wrath
of God poured into Him, fire as it were, until there wasn't
any fire left. He had paid for our sins. There
is therefore now no condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus. Now let me show you this. I'll
let you go. Go back here to Exodus 25 again. Here we have in verses eight
and nine, here we have God's command to build the tabernacle. There are only two accounts given
of the tabernacle, the building of the tabernacle, in all the
Bible, a thorough reading of the building of the tabernacle.
The first one is in chapters 25 through 31 of Exodus, where
we find the Lord giving Moses all the blueprints, all the plans,
for the tabernacle. Everything was to be built, to
be put together and erected according to the purpose of God. Purpose
first. That's the first thing God did.
God gave him all the pattern, gave him all the blueprints for
everything. And really, that's what chapters
25 through 31 are all about. Here are the blueprints for everything.
Priesthood, the whole nine yards about the tabernacle. how at
home it was to be made, everything. First of all, then, the tabernacle
was purposed or planned. The second account of the building
of the tabernacle covers chapters 34 through 40. And we could call
that section, plan becomes reality, or the finishing of the work.
The purpose of God. Turn to Exodus chapter 40. Turn to the last chapter of the
book of Exodus. Here's the second account. This
is the account of the actual building of the tabernacle. Chapters
34 through 40. And look at verse 33. Very significant. Last chapter, verse 33. We're
right down toward the end of the book. And he, Moses, reared
up the court round about the tabernacle and the altar and
set up the hanging of the court gate. So Moses finished the work. Now it's built. The first section,
chapters 25 through 31, the tabernacle is purposed The second section
there from chapter 35 through, or chapter 34 through 40, it's
built and finished. We say, well, what about those
two chapters in between? So glad you asked. Chapters 32
and 33. That's the fall of Israel. That's idolatry. That's the idolatry
of Israel. So here's what you got. Here's
the purpose of God to have the tabernacle built, then the fall
of Israel into idolatry, and then the finishing of the tabernacle.
You see a picture there? Our salvation was purposed by
God in old eternity. And in His mind it was already
done. That had to come to reality for
us. But God purposed the Savior.
He purposed the people to save. He chose the people unto salvation,
ordained who'd be the shepherd of the sheep, the Savior of the
lost, Christ the Lord. It was all purpose, all planned
out before the world began. But then something happened.
When God created everything, then man fell. He became an idolater, just like
Israel did. He was fallen into sin, and all
of us were affected. But then, the Savior came. And you see those words, so Moses
finished the work. Most of you know exactly what
I'm going to say next from John chapter 19 verse 30, Christ the
Lord when he died upon the cross of Calvary. What'd he say? It
is finished. It's finished. It's ended. It's ended. What's ended? Well, when it's said of Moses,
he finished the work, the tabernacle, it's all built, it's ready to
go in. Okay, we're going to start worshiping
God at the tabernacle now. It's finished. It's finished. Then there's the fall of Israel.
Or the fall of Israel preceded that. So you've got plan, fall,
finished. Our Lord Jesus, He's the Lamb
slain before the foundation of the world. God had it all planned
out. I really rather use the word
purpose because we make plans, but our plans don't come to fruition
a lot of times. But everything God intends to
do is done just exactly the way He purposed it, which is everything,
after all. He purposed our salvation. And
something happened in the garden, man fell. Not to worry, didn't
take God off guard. God sent His Son, made of a woman, made under the
law to redeem them that were under the law. Christ came. He finished the work the Father
gave Him to do. And it's finished. What's finished? Salvation's finished. What's
finished? All the promises of God concerning
Messiah and the Old Testament finished. What's finished? Righteousness is finished. What's
finished? The removal of sin is finished.
What's finished? Everything, everything God demanded
for the salvation of His people, it's finished. We say, yeah,
but we hadn't believed yet. Everything necessary for our
salvation was finished by Christ the Lord. Our faith doesn't put
sin away in the least. Our faith doesn't add to righteousness. Oh, is our faith necessary? Yeah. But it's not added to that which
Christ did. It's upon the basis of His work
that has been finished that God gives us the gift of faith. So
there it is, the tabernacle. God planned it. Israel failed. Then it was finished. Back in
eternity, God purposed salvation. We fell in Adam. Christ came
and he restored that which he took not away. I tell you, the
tabernacle is a beautiful object lesson. It could just go on and
on and on. dealing with this. Well, I hope
God will bless those words to help you and help me too. Let's pray. Lord, it's been good
to gather in your house to worship today. We call it your house.
It's where you meet with your people and it's where your people
meet with you through Christ, the only mediator. We do rejoice
in Your goodness and Your mercy to us through the blessed Redeemer. And we do thank You that the
blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanses us. It goes on
cleansing us from all sin. And we're grateful that You purposed
salvation. The sinfulness of man came after
Your purpose finished after your purpose was ordained, the fall
of man then happened, and then Christ came in fulfillment of
your eternal covenant promise. He came to put away sin by the
sacrifice of Himself, and He ever lives to make intercession
for us. We're thankful. Lord, give us
faith to believe the Savior, to rest in Him, to see the glory
of God in the face of the Savior. In his name I pray with thanksgiving. Amen.