Thank you. Let's go back to the
book of Exodus this morning and we'll go to that portion that
was read to us earlier, Exodus chapter 24. Actually, I'm going to be making a few are speaking a few words on the
entire chapter. But I'm gonna take my main text,
that's in verse eight. Let me read it to you. Moses
took the, he took the blood of the sacrifices. And then Moses,
he sprinkled the blood on the people. He's already sprinkled
half the blood on the altar. Now, the rest of the blood he
sprinkles on these people, that is these people who are going
up into the mountain with him. And as he did so, he said this,
he said, behold, the blood of the covenant, which the Lord
hath made with you, and that was concerning all the words
that God spoke earlier in his words to Moses concerning the
law. Here's my subject this morning.
Behold the blood of the covenant. Let's ask God to bless. Lord,
all that we would worship this morning, Spirit of God, would you enable
us to shut out all things that have nothing to do with this
worship service? May our minds, our understanding,
our thoughts, and indeed our very hearts be focused on the
Lord Jesus, our Savior, And may we, by faith, behold the blood
of the covenant. Oh God, on yourself, do good
for us poor sinners, would you? We're a group of mercy beggars. We ask you to meet our needs
through the Lord Jesus Christ, and I ask these things in his
name, amen. Now, back in, we've already studied
back in chapter 20, God has given, spoken to Moses the law that
is what's commonly called the Ten Commandments. And then in
the next three chapters, 21, 22, 23, then he gave various
laws or statutes that have to do with the civil, things, relationships
with one another, that sort of thing. So we have the law of
God, the civil law, and then also we have the ceremonial law
that God gave to Israel. That brings us to chapter 24. This is a very vital chapter. Now, I will tell you this, when
we get to the next chapter, chapter 25, and all the way through Exodus
chapter 31, God gives to Moses instructions that have to do
with the tabernacle in the wilderness. That's where they're gonna meet
God. That's where God's gonna meet with them. That's where
the sacrifices are going to be offered unto God. Up until this
point, going all the way back to the book of Genesis, in Genesis
chapter 4, men made their own altars. And even here in this
portion of Scripture, Ron read to us that Moses made an altar
upon which these sacrifices were offered to God. But after Exodus
chapter 31, after the tabernacle is built, then the offerings
will only be offered to God at the brazen altar. that is there
at the tabernacle, which is a picture, of course, of our Lord Jesus.
So, from Exodus chapter 25 all the way through 31, all of that
has to do with the tabernacle. But before God gives the written,
or before he gives instructions regarding the tabernacle, he's
going to put his law on tables of stone. He's gonna give that
to Moses because you see back in Exodus chapter 20, he spoke
those laws. Now he's going to write those
laws with, it'd be written with the finger of God in stone. But
Moses is instructed by God to go up into the mountain. He doesn't
go all the way up into the mountain. In fact, he offers the sacrifices
at the very base of the mountain. He's instructed to take several
men with him. These men will be witnesses of
the wonders of God's very presence. Because as Ron read to us, they
saw God. And God permitted that. Now you
think of that. These men, these gifted men,
they were gifted in the fact that God revealed His presence
to them. They actually, they saw God and
they weren't destroyed. Now, there's no question but
what, this is our Lord Jesus in pre-incarnate form, because
God says, no man can look on me and live. And yet these men,
when they get to the mountain, they go with Moses. Moses is
the mediator. Moses is the man who pictures
our Lord Jesus. When they get to the mountain,
The Lord reveals Himself to these men in some kind of form, and
I would suppose in a body like a man would have, and they saw
the face of God. The Lord revealed Himself to
these men, and there they stood with God, And then they felt
so comfortable in God's presence that you read to us, they ate
and drank. They fellowshiped with the Lord. Now, before the tabernacle can
be built, and specifically the Ark of the Covenant, which is
late in chapter 25, the building or the making of the Ark of Covenant
will be set forth. But there's no need for the Ark
of the Covenant until there are the two tables of the law, right? So you understand that. And those,
the tables of God's law that he wrote in stone, they're gonna
be put in the Ark of the Covenant because the Ark of the Covenant
is a picture of our Lord Jesus. In the Savior, in the Son of
God, God's law is safe. God's law is preserved. You and
I are lawbreakers. We break God's law all the time.
We're sinful people. But our Lord Jesus, he left heaven's
glory and he came into this world and he honored God's love. He
made it honorable. When Moses led by the word of
God, when he actually will take these tables of stone and put
them in the Ark of the Covenant, they're there to be preserved. Our Lord Jesus is the one who
preserved the law of God. The law of God's preserved in
him. He kept God's law. His life was a life of beauty,
a life of perfection, a life of honoring God, every facet
of his life. And then he had to go to the
cross of Calvary to pay for our transgressions against that law. That's the reason we say so often
that the death of our Lord Jesus, it's a legal death. It's a penal
death. It's to satisfy God. And so we come to chapter 24. And God's going to, toward the
end of the chapter, he'll receive Moses up into his presence, and
then Moses will bring the Ten Commandments back down with him
written in stone. Now let me set forth several
things to you this morning. Here's the first thing. And you
need to learn this if you don't know it already. There is no
access to God by personal obedience. Now you mark that down. There
is no access to God by personal obedience. Look at verses one
and two. And he, who's the speaker? God is. So, chapter 24, verse
1, in God said to Moses, he says, come up unto the Lord, thou and
Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, who are those, who's Nadab and Abihu,
sons of Israel. And these were like the governors
of Israel, men of high rank, men of a good rank. This is important. Worship ye afar off. Amen. Now, right from the get-go in
chapter 24, we may stand that we can on a legal
basis. Now, what do I mean by legal
basis? Well, we mean we cannot cut to
be no matter no footing or foundation by which you can come to God,
Jesus, and Him crucified. That's the only footing. That's
the only foundation. And if you come on any other
basis, God... We read in the book of Ecclesiastes
chapter seven, that doeth good and sinneth not. You see, the
law of God forbids it. Here's what the law of God says
in 2221, it shall be perfect to be accepted. You remember
earlier when, in fact, turn back to Exodus chapter 19. Just before God gave the Ten
Commandments, before He spoke the law of God, The Israelites
were so fearful of the presence of God that they stayed away
from Him. In fact, God said, you can't
come near. Look what He says. Look what's
said in chapter 19, verse 12. God says to Moses, And then Moses
says to the people, thou shalt make bounds or set bounds unto
the people around about saying, take heed to yourselves that
you go not up into the mount, don't even touch the border of
it, for if you touch the border of the mountain, you'll be put
to death. He says in verse 13, there shall
not a man touch it, but he shall surely be stoned or shot through
like with an arrow or a dart. Whether it be beast or man, it
shall not live. Even if it's an animal, if he
touches that mountain, he's going to die. Well, how are they gonna
worship God? Far off. That's what the Lord says here
in Exodus chapter 24. You worship God up far off. Understand this. You search through
all of the laws of God. And I know there are a lot of
people, certainly not in this congregation, I would not think
this would be the case, but by nature there are many, many people
who think in order to be make myself presentable to God, I've
got to live by His laws the best that I can do. I gotta do good
for God to accept me. God doesn't demand the best that
you can do. God demands the best He can do. He demands perfection. God demands
righteousness. Otherwise, you can't come near
to Him. And let me show you the difference
between the law and the gospel. It's really quite simple. The
law of God says, Worship ye afar off. The gospel says, Come nigh,
come near. The gospel says, Come unto me,
all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I'll give you rest.
That's the words of the gospel. Come to me. The law of God says,
Worship ye afar off. What? You can't even come into
the presence of God. If you even touch the mountain
where He dwells, God says, I'll kill you. There is no foundation for you
to stand upon do to your own works. If you're in any way depending
upon anything you've ever done, Bible reading, prayers, offerings,
attendance, doing good, if you're depending upon anything to get
you in good favor with God, if you take a stand, If you dare
to draw near to God on the basis of something you've thought,
something you've spoken, something you've done, God will not receive
you. You'll be cast away. I hope you
understand that. in Matthew chapter 7, and we'll
not turn there, but there were some people who they professed
all the good things that they had done. They said, we prophesied
in your name, we cast out devils in your name, in your name we've
done many wonderful works. This is all the things we've
done. And on the basis of all that we have done, Lord, please
accept us. And the Savior says, Get away
from me. He says depart from me. Ye workers
of iniquity. Everything they did that they
thought were righteous acts, good acts, God says it's all
iniquity. Here's what I wish people understood
this. Everything done for God, outside
of the Lord Jesus Christ is just iniquity upon iniquity, regardless
of what it is. And I'll say this, even for the
people of God, our worship this morning, our singing, we began
by reading the word of God. We've been led in prayer and
I've prayed. But all of the things that we
do, all of the things that we think that pertain to God, they
are polluted with our own sinful nature. So even the good that
we desire to do, Paul says in Romans 7, we can't do. Well then
how does God have anything to do with us? We offer to God our
prayer, our worship, our offerings, bid what it may, but we offer
them through the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the only basis, my friend,
upon which to come to God. That's the only sure footing.
That's the only foundation. Everything else is just sinking
sand. I know you understand that. You
must take your stand upon the solid rock of Christ Jesus and
him crucified. The law says, worship afar off. The gospel says, come nigh. I'll
give you a New Testament illustration. In fact, in a way, of course,
it's based on the Old Testament in the tabernacle, then later
in the temple, there was a veil It was a thick veil that stood
between the holy place and the holy of holies. And the holy
of holies, that's where the Ark of the Covenant was. And it had
a lid, the mercy seat of pure gold. And there, that indicated,
that figured or pictured the very presence of God. And behind
that thick veil, no man was allowed to go, except one man, the high
priest, and that man could only go in there one time a year,
on the Day of Atonement, and then not without blood. But nobody
else could go in there. Because in there in the Holy
of Holies, over the Ark of the Covenant, a bright light came
out, the very Shekinah glory of God. That's where God dwelt,
as though that were his throne. You can't go in there. And there
that veil hung. And it pictured, in some ways,
the law of God. Because that veil said, keep
out. Worship afar off. You can't come
into the presence of God. You're not fit to, you're not
worthy to. Stay out upon the penalty of
death if you try to enter in. But our Lord Jesus, he took all
of the iniquities of his people and he took them with him to
the cross of Calvary. And there he died under the wrath
of God. He endured all of the hell that
all of his people would ever have to endure. And when he died,
oh, something happened in the temple. That big, thick veil. Teams of oxen pulling in opposite
directions, they say, couldn't tear that curtain apart. but
that veil rent from the very top all the way to the bottom. It just, just like that. That's
what his death did. It pictured the way to God now
is open. Come on, sinner. You can come
into the presence of God. In fact, we read in Hebrews chapter
4, come boldly to the throne of grace. Come with confidence. The veil's not up there. The
veil has been rent. It pictured the law of God. It
also pictured our Lord's own body. His flesh, it's been rent. He's been crucified. He suffered,
bled, and died, and the way to God now is open. It's open. Isn't that good news? It's open.
The law of God said, worship ye afar off. Don't come near. Don't even touch this mountain.
I'll kill you. But the gospel says, come nigh. Come nigh by the blood of the
covenant. Look with me in the book of Hebrews.
Let me show you something over here. Hebrews chapter seven. Hebrews chapter 7. And verse Hebrews 7, 19. Hebrews chapter 7, verse 19. For the law made nothing perfect. It didn't bring anything to perfection. It didn't accomplish righteousness. It didn't accomplish salvation.
It made nothing perfect. And if you run to the law of
God, like so many people do, thinking, I can find perfection
there. I can find safety there. I can find acceptance with God
there. Here's what you'll discover in
the end. The law of God can make nothing
perfect. It can't make you complete. It
can't give you what you need. You need forgiveness and you
need righteousness. The law of God can't do that. Oh, what a blessed word that
word but is. But the bringing in of a better
hope did. It didn't just make it possible. It did. It did make us perfect. You see, in the death of the
Lord Jesus, sinners are made perfect. and we are complete
in Him. Look back at Hebrews chapter
7, look at verses 18 and 19. Chapter 7, 18, and then I'll
read 19 again. For there is verily a disannulling
of the commandment, going before the weakness and the unprofitableness
thereof. The law was weak. It cannot profit
you anything. We read in Romans chapter eight
that the law was weak. It was weak. Well, no, the law
of God is good. It demands perfection and that's
altogether right. It's altogether good. But here's the thing, it can't
make us perfect. And so as far as we're concerned,
it's not going to profit us anything. You go ahead, try to live by
the Ten Commandments. Here's what the verse is saying.
It won't profit you anything. We look at things, profit and
loss. You're going to lose if you go
to the law. The only way you're ever gonna profit is run to that
one who fulfilled God's law, even our Lord Jesus Christ. It is fully accomplished in the
Lord Jesus. And so I read again, verse 19,
for the law made nothing perfect. It brought nothing to perfection. But the bringing in of a better
hope did. I like that, it did. The death of Christ, it did.
He said it's finished. Now watch this, and I'll read
this last verse. By the which we draw nigh to
God. Isn't that good news? We draw nigh to God. through
our Lord Jesus. We have a good hope through grace
in Him. We have a confident expectation
of future good based upon what God says in His Word. I'll tell you the law the Word
of God says by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified
in God's sight and preach as we As we continue to do about
this the natural man keeps thinking I can do something to merit God's
favor surely if if I do good I can't be perfect, I understand
that, but surely if God sees I'm making a good effort at it,
then He'll make up what's lacking. If you attempt to please God
and draw near to God on the basis of something you think, speak,
or do, you'll wind up perishing. Just being honest with you. being
honest with you. Go back to our text. Now here's
the second thing I want to show you. Here's the second thing. There's no access to God except
through a mediator. Look at verse two. God says,
and Moses alone shall come near the Lord. But they shall not
come nigh." There he emphasizes it again, these other men. Well,
these are fine men, respectable men, 70 elders of Israel, governors
of Israel, highly thought of by all the congregation of Israel.
And of course, there's Aaron. He's going to be made the high
priest and his son's Nadab in a bayou. But the Lord says, they
can't come up with you, Moses. You see, toward the end of this
chapter, he's going to go right up into the mountain with the
Lord. And the only other one who's going up there with him
is Joshua. Because both Moses and Joshua
prefigured our Lord Jesus. Moses, with the law of God, honoring
the law of God by putting it in the Ark of the Covenant, that's
our Lord Jesus. And Joshua is Jehovah who saves. It takes both of those men to
prefigure our Lord Jesus. But only those two are going
to go up in the mountain. And Moses specifically is the
mediator of this covenant. Our Lord Jesus honored God's
law and he paid the penalty for us breaking the law of God. Moses alone. If you would come to God, you
come by Jesus Christ alone. That's not complicated. and leave
everything behind, all your baggage, the baggage of your self-righteousness,
your works, just cast those aside. That's what the apostle Paul
did, and he tells us, said in Philippians chapter three, he
says, all those things that I did for God, thinking I was earning
merits and favors from God, he said, I count it all lost, it's
all dung, that's what he said. You know what dung is. That's your best deeds. He said, I don't rely on those
anymore. He was by nature and by position of Pharisee in Israel. And now he says this, it's all
done, all that I did, all my prayers, all my fasting, all
my tithing, all my attendance, all my praying, all my studying,
it's just, it was all done, it counted for nothing. You say that? All that counts with God is Jesus
Christ living, dying, buried, risen, ascended. He's all that
counts with God. And if He's not your all in all,
He's nothing to you at all. That's the only sure foundation. Moses alone shall come near the
Lord." That's what he says. And then it says in verse 3,
Moses came and told the people all the words of the Lord and
all the judgment. The words of the Lord, that's
the Ten Commandments. The judgments of the Lord, that's
from chapters 21, 22, and 23. The statutes that he gave to
them, those are civil laws and ceremonial laws. All the words
and the people answered, all the words which the Lord had
said, will we do? So here's the third thing. Here's
a foolish, a foolish promise. A very foolish promise. You can't obey the laws of God.
That's an impossibility. And yet they said, we will. We
will. All the words which the Lord
had said we will do. And Moses wrote all the words,
look at verse four, and rose up early in the morning and he
built an altar. Now, he and these other men are
gonna go and fellowship with God. But there can be no fellowship
with God except, first of all, there's an altar and then blood
sacrifices. Right? We know that. Look what
he says here. He built an altar under the hill
and 12 pillars according to the 12 tribes of Israel. In other
words, these offerings, these burnt offerings are for a specific
people. They're not for all the nations
of the earth. They have nothing to do with
it. These offerings are for a specific people, the 12 tribes of Israel,
they and they alone. You see, redemption is always
for a specific people. Redemption is never general. Redemption is never for everybody
in the whole world. Those 12 pillars represent the
12 tribes of Israel. The offerings will be for their
benefit, which pictures the death of our Lord Jesus. All right,
now, they were foolish people to enter into this covenant,
but they did, which brings us now to the altar and the sacrifices. Now, it says here that Moses
rose up early in the morning. He built an altar. He's already
received instructions as to how to build an altar. Do you remember?
We studied that. Go back in chapter 20. God's
already told him about the altar. Now, here's how you build an
altar. If you're going to worship God, you've got to have an altar. Chapter 20 of Exodus, verse 24. An altar of earth shalt thou
make unto me, and shalt sacrifice thereon thy burnt offerings,
thy peace offerings. The burnt offering, understand,
that was altogether for God. Fire just consumed it. There
was nothing left over, just ashes. The burnt offerings were for
God, because that pictured the substitutionary sacrifice of
our Lord Jesus. And by peace offerings. Now,
peace offering, some of it was offered to God, but it was offered
to God upon the basis of the burnt offering having been offered,
whereby we have peace with God. Now, a portion of the peace offering
was offered to God and a portion of it was eaten by the people. And then he says, of thy sheep
and thine oxen, in all places where I record my name, I will
come unto thee and I will bless thee. And he says, if thou wilt
make me an altar of stone, don't build it of hewn stone. Don't take out a chisel and polish
it up and knock the rough edges off and make it nice and shiny
and glossy, make it beautiful. No, just plain old rocks. He says, if you lift up your
tool upon it, you've polluted it. Don't try to make religion
beautiful. This is a problem with so many
churches today. They try to make religion attractive. Stained glass windows, beautiful
religious emblems on there, angels and things. When we got our first
vaccination. We, it was at one of the churches
downtown. And when we had got the vaccination,
Nancy and I had, we went into the, they said, well, you can
sit anywhere you want to. So we went and sat kind of just
at the back of the auditorium, which they would have called
the sanctuary. And there's a stained glass window with a shepherd.
I think it was sheep. And one lady said, I bet you
that's just beautiful in the morning. When they have Sunday
morning worship service, I bet it just sends chills down your
spine. Men like that. But here's the
problem. They've added their tool to worship. Adding beauty. That's why people have statues,
crosses, robes. Preachers wear clerical collars,
put on a fancy robe. The Lord says, you gonna worship
me? Don't you try to shine it up.
You polluted it. You offer to me a sacrifice just
on ordinary rocks. Just pile them up, put your animal
up there, put the wood up there, and then get the fire going,
then put the animal up there and burn it. But don't you try
to make it beautiful, because that's your effort involved. Just the sacrifice. So God told
him how to make the altar and then he told him about the sacrifices. Understand this, Christ is our
altar. We have an altar. This is not
an altar down here. We don't have an altar. We don't
have an altar in this building. There is no altar on earth. Our
altar is Christ and he's in glory. and everything our sacrifices
of thanksgiving and praise unto God are offered to him through
Christ Jesus our altar." Well, watch this. Here's the
importance of the balloon. Verse 5, he said, young men of
the children of Israel. We don't know who these are.
Some suggest the firstborn of the tribe of Levi. But they offered
the burnt offerings and sacrificed peace offerings of oxen unto
the Lord. And Moses took half the blood
and put it in basins, and half of the blood he sprinkled on
the altar, because the altar is a place of death. So he sprinkled
half of the blood on the altar. Look at verse 7. He took the
book of the covenant and read in the audience of the people,
and they said all that the Lord hath said will we do and be obedient. And then Moses took the blood,
he sprinkled it on the people. And he said, Behold the blood
of the covenant which the Lord hath made with you concerning
all these words. Half of the blood goes on the
altar. That's death. That presents the
death of an innocent victim. It's consumed on the altar. The
other half of the blood, it's sprinkled on the people, and
that which was death on the altar is life to the people. And I'm
telling you, because Christ died for our sins according to the
scriptures, that means life for everybody he died for. Life for
us. Ah, here's the importance of
the blood. God says, he said back in Exodus chapter 12, when
I see the blood, I'll pass over you. Ah, the blood. Moses took the
blood. He sprinkled it on the people.
Have you been washed in the blood of the Lamb? We'd love to sing
songs like that. Have you been cleansed from your
sins in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ? There is a fountain
filled with blood. drawn from Immanuel's veins,
and sinners who plunge beneath that blood lose all their guilty
stains. Moses said, Behold the blood
of the covenant. That's what I say to you. Behold
the blood of the covenant, not behold your works, not behold
your religion, not behold the church, not behold the preacher,
not behold some priest, but behold the blood of the covenant. Because
it's the blood, the blood that causes remission of sins. We draw near to God through the
blood. Behold the blood of the covenant. Our Lord Jesus even
said that when he initiated the Lord's Supper. He said, this
is my blood of the New Testament, which is shed for many. What can wash away my sin? Nothing
but the blood of Jesus. Behold the blood of the covenant.
And so we get to verse nine. And it says, then went up Moses
and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and 70 of the elders of Israel, and
they saw the God of Israel. Now watch the order. There first
of all had to be the altar and the sacrifice, then they see
God. Then they go worship God. Can't
worship God without the death of an innocent victim. You can't
draw near to God without the blood. They saw the God of Israel,
and there was under his feet, as it were, a pavework of a sapphire
stone, as it were, the body of heaven in its clarity or clearness. They saw the Lord standing, as
it were, on bricks of blue, blue like the color of the sky. The
Lord was there standing, standing, watching over his people, guarding
his people. And look at verse 11. And upon
the nobles of the children of Israel, God did not lay his hand. Do you see that? They entered
into the presence of God and God didn't lay a hand against
them. He said back in chapter 19, if you touch the mountain,
if an animal touches a mountain, I'll kill it. But now, now, the
sacrifice has been offered in accordance with the will of God,
picturing the death of our Lord Jesus Christ. And now the Lord
reveals Himself to them. They see Him face to face. They
dwell in His presence, and God did not lift a hand against them. In fact, notice this. Upon the
nobles of the children of Israel, He laid not His hand. Also they
saw God, and then they did eat and drink. A fellowship with
the Lord. The only way you can have fellowship
with the Lord is by the blood of the covenant. Amen. Get that,
you got the gist of the message. Get that, you got the gist of
the gospel. Well, I'll give you this. Look at verse 12. And the Lord
said to Moses, come up to me and to the mount and be there. Just you. I'll give you the tables
of stone and a law and commandments which I have written that thou
mayest teach them. And Moses rose up and also his
minister Joshua, who's a picture of our Lord Jesus as well. And
Moses went up into the Mount of God and he said unto the elders,
you tarry here for us until we come again. They couldn't go.
And behold, Aaron and her are with you. If any man have any
matters to do, let him come unto them. And Moses went up into
the mountain, a cloud covered the mountain. The glory of the
Lord abode upon Mount Sinai. The cloud covered it six days,
and the seventh day he called unto Moses out of the midst of
the cloud. And the sight of the glory of
the Lord was like the devouring fire on the top of the mountain,
the eyes of the children of Israel. In other words, here's all of
Israel down here in the valley. And they've seen Moses go up,
and Moses goes up, and it's like he's enveloped in a cloud. He's in the presence of God.
And it's like he's walked into a devouring fire, but the fire
didn't devour him. And Moses went up, verse 18,
in the midst of the cloud, and gat him up into the mount. And
Moses was in the mount forty days and nights. Only through
the blood of the covenant can you abide in the presence of
God. See, everybody's gonna make an
appearance before the Lord someday, but only those who've been washed
in the blood of the covenant can see God and stay there. We stay there. We're gonna stand
in his presence. This evening, if you have an
opportunity to read the book of Revelation chapter four, I
wanna talk to you tonight about what John saw in heaven. And
John has been there in the presence of the glory of God for nearly
2,000 years. And some of the saints of God
a whole lot longer than that. But they dwell there. And it's only upon this basis,
the blood of the covenant, the everlasting covenant of grace.
Let's pray. We thank you, Father, for the
blood of the covenant. Give us faith that we may behold
the blood of the covenant. We read that without the shedding
of blood, there is no remission of sins. We read so often of the blood
of the Lord Jesus Christ. His was a bloody sacrifice. And Father, whenever we read
of His blood, we think of His death. The death of an innocent
victim in the stead of the guilty. And we read that by His stripes,
we're healed. May none of us be so foolish
as to try to come to You upon the footing, the basis, the foundation
of our works, our deeds, our merits. May we draw near to you through
the blood of the Son of God, to whom be glory forever and
ever. Amen. Oh.