Again, Exodus chapter 12. Let's ask God's blessings upon
the message. Our great God and Father, Lord,
we bow before you and ask that you would show mercy upon us
as we gather this morning. Surely, Lord, as you have brought
us together, it is for the purpose of worshiping. We desire to honor and exalt
our God. We want to lift you up. And as
we lift you up, we want to put us down. And Lord, we long to
exalt the Lord Jesus Christ, that one who is the Lamb of God. May all of us be focused in upon
this blessed Savior. Lord, give us attention to serious
things. We're so mindful of so much that is unnecessary and
unimportant, but surely this is most important. to meet together,
to read the Word of God, to speak to you, and then to ask you to speak
to us through the Word that is going to be set forth. We wait for you, and we ask with
humility and with acknowledgement of our sinfulness Lord, show
us mercy for Christ's sake. These things we ask in his name. Amen. God has now brought nine very
difficult, very devastating things upon the Egyptians one more stroke of justice is left. So far, God has sent
nine plagues upon these who are the enemies of God's people. These who actually despise God
himself. These who bow down toward the
East, as they see that every morning, see that sun rising
in the sky, the Egyptians worshiping that God they called Ra. And now God has been demonstrating
his might to all the Egyptians and to all of the Israelites
also. And as of yet, Pharaoh has not
released them from their bondage, from their captivity. Oh, he
has come up with several little schemes. Well, I'll let you go,
but I'll keep your kids, I'll keep your children. No, that
won't work, Moses said. Well, I'll let you folks go,
but I'll keep your cattle, I'll keep your sheep. And Moses said,
that's not going to work either because God has ordained every
hoof should be delivered. In other words, there would be
nothing of Israel left in Egyptian bondage. There is now one more act of
vengeance by God on a godless king and on a rebellious people. And it is interesting as we go
through this that the Lord has himself, he has hardened the
heart of Pharaoh. God hardened his heart. That's
the first time his heart has been hardened by the Lord. And
he did that so that all of these things would be brought to pass
and then ultimately he would save the people of Israel by
the blood of the Passover lamb. You must understand it wasn't
that God ordained these other things hoping that one of them
would work. God doesn't hope anything, God
purposes. but rather God was demonstrating
all through these various plagues that He's already sent that He's
God, that He rules over all, that He rules over nature, that
nothing has any power over Him. And of course, Pharaoh and all
of his princes and all of those who are under his authority,
they had no ability to stop those plagues that God sent. It wasn't
that the Lord was unable to use those things to liberate his
people, but rather the Lord is making everything ready for this
last plague. It is the death of the firstborn,
and God is now going to demonstrate his gospel. You see, everything
God ever does always, always has the exaltation of the Lord
Jesus Christ as its focus. And so everything is working
up to this. It isn't that, okay, finally
He'll have them kill the Passover lamb as a last resort. No, that's
not it at all. This is what God has purposed
right from the beginning. And this is why he began by hardening
Pharaoh's heart. And he did that. Now we need
to understand who the God of the Bible is. He has the right
to either harden your heart or he can soften your heart. He
said through the inspired pen of the apostle Paul in Romans
chapter nine, Paul said, therefore, hath he mercy on whom he will
have mercy and whom he will he hardeneth. And you need to understand,
and I need to understand, and would to God that this world
would understand that our God has all authority and all dominion,
not only in creation and not only in divine providence, but
in salvation. And He can soften you and make
you to where you're willing to receive His Word, His Gospel,
or He can harden you. Like he hardened Pharaoh's heart.
You see, he softened the people of Israel, who's a picture of
the church. He softened the heart of Moses. There is no heart too hard but
what God can't soften it. But what God can't really extricate
or take away from a man, that hard heart, and give him a heart
of flesh. Or God can give you a hard heart. He can just harden your heart
to where you'll never believe His gospel. You see, the Lord
has said here, in fact, look at chapter 11, verse 7. God made
a difference. God made a difference. Look at
verse 7 of chapter 11. but against any of the children
of Israel shall not a dog move his tongue against man or beast
that ye may know, that ye may know that the Lord, the Lord
doth put a difference between the Egyptians and Israel. God
has put down a line of separation. He has marked out one people
for mercy and another people for judgment. This is the God
of absolute sovereignty. This is the God of dominion.
This is the God who may save you or he may damn you. The issues
of life and death are not in your hands, they're not in my
hands, they're in the hands of God. And he may be pleased to
teach you the gospel, to show you how he satisfies
his justice through the substitutionary sacrifice of the Lord Jesus.
He may be pleased to show you that this lamb, This Passover
lamb that Ron read to us about, it's a picture of our Lord Jesus,
the Lamb of God. John the Baptist said, Behold
the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world. Peter said,
You were redeemed with that lamb, the blood of the Lamb of God.
He may be pleased to soften you, to make you tender toward this
message of grace, this message of redemption, this message of
substitution, this message of satisfaction, or he might just
leave you in your wickedness and in your sinfulness. It is
up to the Lord. Look again at chapter 11, this
time verse one, Chapter 11, verse one, and the Lord said unto Moses,
yet one more plague, one more plague upon Pharaoh, one more, one more devastating blow, one
more heavy judgment upon Pharaoh and upon Egypt. Let me ask you
something. as you reflect back on your life. And I'm really speaking, I wanna
direct my words now to those of you who are in unbelief. You
haven't believed on the Lord Jesus Christ. You've not seen
the beauties of who he is and that which he did upon the cross
of Calvary. And you're yet an unbeliever.
Let me say to you, as you think back upon your life, Hasn't God
sent you warnings through the years? Hasn't God sent you difficulties
and maybe very close calls or very serious sicknesses or diseases? And you thought then about, well,
boy, is there judgment out there? But all of these things that
He has sent to you thus far, they haven't caused you to turn
to the Lord Jesus Christ. It may have temporarily troubled
you. Know this. Know this. If you aren't brought by almighty
grace to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, there is coming
one more judgment, and that's the judgment. One more plague. Think about this with Pharaoh
and the Egyptians. All of those things, those nine
plagues, devastating things that God had sent, and none of them,
none of them stirred them to seek God's face. You see, learn
this also. Although these earthly troubles
are very bitter, and they can be awful to us physically, The
only work that will do the job of causing us to turn to the
Lord Jesus Christ is a work of grace within the heart. That is what is necessary. The Lord put a difference between
the Egyptians and Israel. And God, before he made the world,
he put a difference between all men and all women who will ever
live. There are those who are referred
to as vessels of wrath fitted to destruction. Such a one was
Pharaoh. God had him fitted to destruction. In fact, earlier in the book,
the Lord told Moses, you tell Pharaoh this, for this same purpose
I raised you up that I might show my power in you. I want you to understand, and
I want to understand this even better, that which is going to
happen to me is absolutely in God's hands. God makes the difference. And
we've got to get away from this idea that's being perpetrated
by religious phonies today that you make the difference. No,
you don't make the difference. God makes the difference. That's
what it says here. God had put a difference. God
has made a difference. There are those who are righteous
and there are those who are wicked. There are those who are his people,
there are those who are not his people. There are those who are
Israelites and there are those who are Egyptians. God made the
difference. Now, I don't know what God's
gonna do with you. I have no idea what God in his
sovereign purpose has designated, appointed for you. Whatever it
is, it is going to come to pass. But I'll tell you what, if I
were you, I'd do what I do. And that is, seek the Lord while
He may be found and call upon Him while He's near. Let's go to Him and ask for mercy. Let's go to Him and ask for grace.
Lord, I'm a sinner. Lord, I'm ungodly. Lord, I'm
a wretch. And I know I'm in Your hands
to do with me as You see fit. You can save me or you can damn
me. You can give me life or you can
leave me dead forever. Oh God, show me mercy for Christ's
sake. Don't you think it'd make good
sense to do that? Lord, it's up to you, it's not
up to me. Lord, I'm not the one who makes
the difference. You make the difference, so I
flee to you through Christ Jesus. I cast myself upon your mercy. Oh, God, save me for Christ's
sake. Oh, that God would enable us
to have that kind of attitude, because I'm gonna tell you something.
You have that kind of attitude, you're not gonna perish. You're
not gonna perish. Here are two groups of people. the saved and the lost, the righteous
and the wicked. Well, Ron read to us from chapter
12. I wanna reread you a verse here
out of chapter 12 and then take this title from my text. And
it is verse 14, Exodus chapter 12 and verse 14. And this is a message, a title,
Memorial Day. Memorial Day, chapter 12 and
verse 14. And this day shall be unto you
for a memorial, for a memorial, and ye shall keep it. a feast
to the Lord throughout your generations. You shall keep it a feast by
an ordinance forever. Let's focus on this subject,
Memorial Day. What is Memorial Day? Well, it's
a day to be remembered always. It's a day ever to be thought
about. Memorial Day is a red letter
day. Memorial Day is a day to be recorded
in history as a very unusual and glorious day. And this day
for Israel, Passover, that would go down in their history and
in fact it still remains a part of them. Every year they still
celebrate Passover. But what I want you to see is
that this Passover of Israel pictures the substitutionary
sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. And that is memorial day when
he died upon the cross of Calvary for the sins of all of his people. Now this was their memorial day.
It was a day when the lamb died. It was a day when God received
what God demanded, blood, blood. It was a day for the death of
the firstborn, either a firstborn person in a family or the death
of the firstborn male lamb. It was a day when the blood was
shed and caught in a bowl. It was a day when a bunch of
hyssop was taken. That was a plant that grew. They
dipped it in blood, the father did, and went outside and marked
over top of the door the lentil and on both sides. Memorial Day
was a day when God passed over the firstborn of Israel. Memorial
Day was the day of Israel's liberation from Egyptian captivity. Memorial
Day was the day of their release. Memorial Day was the day when
Pharaoh, the legal authority, he was the legal authority. It
was the day when he not only said, you're now free to go,
but he said, go away, leave, leave. Now, what are we to take
away from this? Are we to just read this as a
history, part of the history of Israel? Sure is a fascinating
story, isn't it? It has much in it that seems
quite interesting and it's very informative about this segment
of the past. For Israel, is that all we're
to take away from this? This is something that happened
3,000 years ago. And maybe some people would say,
what could this possibly have to do with us today? Well, here's what I want us to
take away from this. This teaches us about the gospel
of our Lord Jesus. That's what I want us to take
away from this. In fact, whenever you read the
Old Testament, if you can't focus in upon the Lord Jesus Christ
and his substitutionary atonement, then you've not benefited from
the Old Testament scriptures. We're always looking for him.
So I'll start off, I'll just ask you two or three questions
as we have time. What is Memorial Day all about? Well, go to the New Testament,
and I think the best, the very best commentary, you know, preachers
read commentaries, and that's beneficial. I certainly am not,
offer no criticism about reading commentaries, but the very best
commentary on the Word of God is the Word of God. It's amazing how reading the
word of God will shed light on those commentaries. So we need
to focus in upon the word of God. I look at 1 Corinthians
chapter five in verse seven. Here's what Paul says, purge
out there for the old leaven. This is a sinful person in the
congregation. 1 Corinthians chapter five. Verse seven, maybe I gave the
wrong reference, I don't know. 1 Corinthians chapter five, verse
seven. Purge out therefore the old leaven,
that you may be a new lump as you are unleavened. Now here's
what I want you to get. For even Christ, our Passover,
is sacrificed for us. Now, that's the very best commentary
on what's going on over here in Exodus chapter 12. Christ,
our Passover is sacrificed for us. This is a blessed story of
redemption. It's a blessed story of deliverance
from captivity through the death of a lamb. And it's a blessed
story to us about deliverance from our sinful condition, deliverance
from the penalty of God's law, by the death of God's Passover
lamb, the Lord Jesus Christ. That's Memorial Day. What day
do we remember? We remember the day he died. When we take the Lord's Supper,
and of course, due to this virus, we're unable to... do some of
the things that we enjoy doing, and one of them is partaking
of the Lord's Supper. But when we do that, it's really
remembering our Lord's death until he comes again. When our
Lord instituted that, he gathered with his disciples on that Passover
night. Some people call it, well, it
was the last supper. That wasn't his last supper.
Why you wanna call that his last supper? Well, you remember the
last supper, don't you? It wasn't his last supper. He
died, was buried, rose again, went back with his disciples,
said, got anything to eat? It wasn't his last supper. It
was the institution of the Lord's Supper. The Lord's Supper. And that was to commemorate his
death as the Lamb of God who died in the stead of all of his
people. That's our memorial day. That's
the day that goes down on record. That's the day that all of eternity
past pointed to and all of eternity future points back to that day
when Jesus Christ gave his life a ransom for his people. That's
Passover day. That's memorial day. That's a
day ever recorded in the history of God. It's what he determined
before the foundation of the world. This is a true memorial
day. The day when the Lamb of God
died. You see, he was the Lamb provided in predestination. Predestination. Revelation 13
verse eight says he's the Lamb who was slaughtered or slain
from the foundation of the world. This is not a new thing. During
the funeral lunch, I'm perspiring, sorry. I'm going
to take this jacket off, with or without your permission. But
anyway, during the funeral lunch, I had an opportunity to go around
and talk with some of the family members, as I usually do. In course of conversation with
one of the men, he was telling me that he had, and this man
is not from the Ashland area, he's not from Boyd County, but
he was telling me he listened to a preacher who said that the
death of Jesus Christ upon the cross of Calvary was God's plan
B. God's plan B. And I said, I've heard that before.
This goes back to really dispensationalism. That God gave his law. for men to live by and be saved
by, but men broke that. Men weren't interested in that.
And so finally God tried this and that and something else.
And he even sent his son into this world to set up a kingdom
in Israel, in Jerusalem, but they wouldn't have that. So as
a last resort, God killed his son. That's just not true that
it's a last resort or that it's plan B. This is what God always
intended to do. This is what He purposed before
the world began. That's the reason it says there,
Revelation 13, eight, he's the lamb slain before the foundation
of the world. God has always looked to Jesus
Christ dying in the stead of his people, satisfying divine
justice by that sacrifice, by that offering of himself, and
then being raised again because of our justification. God's always
looked to that. Christ's the lamb who is provided
in predestination. You see, before God's Israel,
that's us, the church. Before God's Israel was taken
captive by law and justice, that is before we sinned, the Lord
had already made provision for our rescue and salvation. The
death of the Lord Jesus was not a knee-jerk reaction by God to
what men wouldn't let him do. No, this is what God has always
purposed, the death of the Lamb, the death of the Lamb. That's
what's always been necessary. That's what God ordained. This is the Lamb portrayed throughout
the Bible. Why? I'm fairly certain, I wouldn't
stake my life and my salvation on it, but I'm fairly certain
there at the end of Genesis chapter three, when God killed animals
and then he robed our parents, I think they're lambs that he
killed. I think that's what he, I think
he killed lambs. And I know in the very next chapter,
Abel, he killed a lamb. This is portrayed all the way
through the Old Testament. And every morning on Israel's
altar, the burnt offering, the brazen altar, a lamb was killed. First thing in the morning and
last thing in the evening, another lamb was killed. Over and over
and over and over again. Thousands and thousands of lambs
died on Jewish altars. And all of them portrayed one
lamb, the lamb, the lamb of God. This is the lamb who was promised,
predestinated, portrayed, promised by Abraham. He said to his son,
he said, the Lord will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering. This is the lamb who was prophesied,
Isaiah chapter 53. Led as a sheep to the slaughter. Led as a lamb to the slaughter,
as a sheep before her shearers is done, so he opened not his
mouth. And that's the very passage of scripture. You remember in
the book of Acts chapter eight when the Ethiopian eunuch was,
he was riding through the desert going back to Ethiopia and the
Lord had Philip who's preaching in Samaria and having tremendous
meetings and many were being converted and the Lord said,
I want you to go out here and preach to one man. You mean the
Lord would have him lead so many to go to one? Yes, because how
shall they hear without a preacher? He's one of God's elect. He's
one of the one Christ redeemed. He's got to find out who the
Lamb is. So Philip is transported by the
spirit of God. I don't know how, but he got
him out there. The Lord will get his servants
wherever he wants them to be. Whatever he has to do, he'll
move heaven and earth to get his servants where he wants them
to be to preach the gospel. Philip goes out there in the
desert, and he's jogging along beside this wagon, and the wagon
stops, and he sees this eunuch, and he says, what are you doing,
man? He says, I'm reading. He says, what are you reading? He said,
I'm reading out of the Old Testament, reading out of the prophecy of
Isaiah. Well, what are you reading? He
was led as a lamp to the slaughter, as a sheep before his shearers
is done, so he opened not his mouth. And the eunuch said, say,
Can you tell me who that man's talking about? Is he talking
about himself or is he talking about some other man, some other
man? Well, Philip preached to him
some other man, because the scripture says he preached unto him Jesus,
Jesus. This is God's land. Oh, he's
prophesied throughout the Old Testament. He's predestinated,
he's portrayed, he's promised, he prophesied. And then John
the Baptist came along and he proclaimed him. He pointed him
out. Who is he? Who is this lamb? John's preaching to his disciples
and he sees the figure of a man walking down by the Jordan River.
And John points to him and he says, behold, behold, there he
is. That's God's lamb right there.
That's God's lamb. Behold the lamb of God that taketh
away the sin of the world. Well, of course, the lamb was
persecuted. He was persecuted. and then they put him to death
upon the cross of Calvary. But he died that God might be
just and justify the ungodly. And then this lamb will be praised
in heaven. That's what Susanna sang out
of Revelation chapter five, worthy is the lamb that was slain. You
see the day Christ died was Memorial Day. When the blood of the Lamb
of God was shed for sinners. That day a real man, died on
a real cross, he died a real death, he died for real sinners,
that God's real justice might be magnified, satisfied, and
manifested so that God would really save all in whose stead
the Lamb died. You know, to go back to this
story in Exodus chapter 12, what would you think if a father killed
a lamb, caught the blood in the basin, took a bunch of hyssop,
went outside, marked over the door, marked both side posts,
didn't put it on threshold now. You don't trample underneath
the blood of Christ. He'll walk on his blood. It's
just both sides and the top. He goes back in and tells his
son, now, the firstborn son, you don't have anything to worry
about, because I did exactly what God told me to do. Now,
what would you think if when God went through, not the destroying
angel, I know people say, well, the angel went through. Well,
God said, when I see the blood, I'll pass it off to you. That
seems to be pretty clear to me. God's coming through. God's coming
through Egypt. He says, when I see the blood,
I'll pass over you. But what would you think if at
midnight, there was a blood curdling cry come out of that blood marked
house because the firstborn child had died? What would you think
of that? That'd be awful, wouldn't it?
That'd mean God was a liar. You see, that's how serious this
general atonement is. That Jesus died for everybody. He shed his blood for everybody. He paid everybody's sin debt.
But now it's up to you. Now listen, whosever debt of
sin the Lord Jesus Christ paid, they are debt free. Whose ever
sins have been remitted, they are remitted. Whose ever sins
have been forgiven, they are forgiven. An old brother top
lady said, twice payment God will not demand. First at my
bleeding, sure at his hand, and then again at mine. His death, that's Memorial Day
right there. That's the day to be remembered.
That's when all of heaven was satisfied. That's when God's
justice was honored. That's when the integrity of
God's law was upheld when Christ died. The soul that sinneth shall
die in steps are substitute. He says, take me, kill me instead
and let these go. The father, fathers of all those
firstborn children in Israel, they put the blood, they killed
the lamb, shed the blood, took the hyssop, put it, having caught
the blood in a basin, took that hyssop, put it in there, went
outside, and boy, I tell you, if it'd been my firstborn, I'd
put extra coating on there, wouldn't you? But it wasn't necessary,
because all God said was, when I see the blood, I'll pass over
you. I want to make sure he sees it, so I'm going to put two coats
on. I'm going to put it on heavy, and I'm not going to be delicate
with it. I'm not going to use painter's tape, make sure it
doesn't get anywhere else. I'm going to put it on there,
because God said, God said, when I see the blood, the blood, the
blood, not when he sees your church membership, not when he
sees your good works, Not when he sees your holy living, not
when he sees your godliness, not when he sees your good deeds,
not when he sees your living by the golden rule. It's the
blood that makes atonement for the soul. B-L-O-O-D. That was the difference between
the living and the dead. Right there. Boy, that is the
bottom line. It was the difference between
who lived and who died, the blood, the blood. When was Memorial Day? When our
Lord Jesus Christ died. God dealt with him in wrath and
injustice when he bore my sins in his own body on the tree.
He didn't bear my sins when he was in the cradle, when he was
in the feed stall, trough, in the manger. He didn't bear my
sins when he was 12 years old, when he was in the temple. He
didn't bear my sins when he was doing those miracles that he
did, but there hanging on the cross of Calvary, God put a weight
on him. Oh, oh, how heavy was that weight. No wonder he said in the garden,
my soul is sorrowful even unto death. I'm about to bear a weight. The weight of that which I hate.
The weight of that which is against me. Sin, sin is opposed to God. I'm about to bear it. and he
bore it on the cross of Calvary. God put that weight on him, but
he was up to the task. He was up to the task and he
bore it. He bore it for a chosen race
and he bore it away. And he gave up the ghost and
went in that grave. And when he come out three days
later, He didn't have any sin, and I got news for you, we don't
either. All of those in whose stead He
died, we don't have any sin. The only reason God Almighty
accepts you and me is the blood, the blood. You see, this was the day when
legal authority was satisfied. In many ways, and I was thinking
about, I've given quite a bit of thought to this, in many ways,
Pharaoh represents the devil, and the Egyptians represent the
world. But in another way, Pharaoh represents
legal authority, that is, law. And when the lamb died, Pharaoh, who represented the
law, he didn't just say, well, now, if you want to go free,
go, it's up to you though. This is the way the so-called
gospel of today is preached. That the lamb has died and now
God says, now, if you want to be free, you can be free, but
it's up to you. It's up to you. You can accept
God's forgiveness if you want to. You can accept His salvation
if you want to. But it's all up to you. You know
what? When the death of the firstborn
happened, Pharaoh not only said, go, he said, get out! I don't want you here anymore.
That's what the law of God said. The law of God says, go! I'm
finished with you. I'm done with you. Why does the
law say that? Because God's law got what God's
law demanded, D-E-A-T-H, death. That's what God's law demands,
death. Your death or the death of a
glorious substitute, the Lord Jesus. I tell you, this is a
gospel story, isn't it? That's what this is, it's a gospel
story. Now, I can go through, and I may mention tonight about
the qualifications for each lamb that was to die, but we don't
wanna focus on a four-legged animal. and I read some messages and
I got on the internet and I started looking and I just shut it off
and said, these guys, they're focusing too much on the animal. It's not the animal that we need
to focus on, but it's the Savior we need to focus on. And sometimes
it's just best to shut them books and lay them aside and just look
and see what God says. And you know what God does throughout
this book? He magnifies the Lamb of God,
Christ the Lord. Well, had this Memorial Day come
into being, That's the second question. Now we know what the
Memorial Day is. Well, as far as Israel, how'd
this Memorial Day come into being? Well, I could go back and review
for you the history when God said to Abraham, I'm gonna give
you a people and they're gonna go in bondage 400 years. And
I can tell you how they wound up in Egypt, by Joseph getting
there, and then Joseph, he called for his family to come in. And
you remember right there, those of you who are familiar with
that story, in Genesis chapter 50, when Joseph, of course, he
had revealed himself to his brothers a little bit earlier, but then
their daddy, Jacob, died. And the brothers were worried
that Joseph would now take vengeance out on them, as afraid of him. And he said, he said, listen,
don't worry about it. I'm where God would have me to
be in order to do something. Do you remember his words? To
save much people alive. You remember him saying that? You know how big the nation of
Israel was then? It wasn't much people then. 70
people is all it was. That's right. I don't think that's
the salvation God's talking about. You get over here to Exodus chapter
12. Hey, there are gonna be 600,000 foot soldiers of Israel. And
that don't count the elderly. That doesn't count the women.
That don't count the children. We're talking about hundreds
and hundreds of thousands. This happened to save much people
alive. And I'm telling you what, when
God's lamb died, he died for much people that did be made
alive. That's what happened. That's
what happened here. And much people were made alive
when Christ died. If you're a believer today, if
you've been quickened by the Spirit of God, regenerated by
the Spirit of God, and brought to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ,
you're alive unto God. And I can tell you why. Because
that lamb died. That lamb, the Lamb of God died,
took your sins away. How do you know He took them
away? Empty tomb. empty tomb, His exaltation, and the giving of the Holy Spirit.
Those things prove the Lamb did the job on Memorial Day. Memorial Day. Well, may God bless
His Word. We'll go back to this story this
evening, and I'm going to kind of look at it from another direction.
It is lots here, and you've heard a bunch of sermons. Well, I hope
it wasn't just sermons, messages to you from Exodus 12. I'm going
to show you something else tonight. I think it'll be a blessing to
you. I hope this was. And I hope it
was honoring to God. I believe it was. Well, let's
pray. Lord, it is with thanksgiving
that we bow before you, so grateful for the Lord Jesus, our Savior,
God and King, your Lamb. The Lamb you ordained to be sacrificed
from before the foundation of the world. The Lamb who laid
down his life. Peter said, we're redeemed by
the blood of that Lamb. That Lamb who is now receiving
all praises from the saints of God in glory. that lamb to whom
every knee shall bow, and some in the day of judgment, the wicked
will cry to the rocks and the hills to hide them from the face
of the lamb, the judge for that ultimate plague that is yet to
come. But there's others saved by your
grace, brought to believe the Lord Jesus Christ, Lord, we look
forward to the day when, without sinning hearts, we shall lift
up His praise, glorify Him, the Lamb of God who died in our stead,
and whoever lives to make intercession for us. So bless Your Word for
our good, and Lord, for Your glory. For Jesus' sake, amen. so