Alright, let's look at Jeremiah
chapter 26. This is the halfway point in
the book of Jeremiah, 52 chapters. I haven't been in any hurry to
get through it because I hope, as I have, that you've gleaned
from it too. And the message of God's grace
amidst the message of God's wrath. We've seen a lot preached concerning
God's wrath against sin in the book of Jeremiah. He was probably,
more than any other prophet, what the world would call a prophet
of doom. We studied that earlier when
we talked about how the self-righteous, unbelieving religious leaders
would flippantly call him the burden of the Lord. What burden
do you have for us? Well, tonight is no different,
but as I always remind us when we go through passages of scripture
like this, that ultimately this is a message of mercy. It's a
message of Christ. It's a message of hope, therefore,
and salvation. Because in preaching the wrath
of God, the judgment of God against sin upon anyone who stands before
God without Christ, all we are simply trying to do is expose
the disease of death and sin that man has. In order, in hopes
and prayers, it is our prayer that he might seek the cure.
And there is only one cure. And we are going to talk about
that tonight. Now back over in chapter 25, I preached last time
on on who will drink the cup of God's wrath. Tonight's message
is very similar to that. The title is in the form of a
question. It's taken from verse 11 of chapter
26. There's a line there where the
prophets and the priests, the false prophets and the false
priests of Jerusalem and Judah accused Jeremiah before the courts
and say this man is worthy to die. So I entitled the message
in the form of this question tonight. Who is worthy to die? Who is worthy to die? Who deserves
it? That's what that's all about.
This man deserves death, they said. Well, who does deserve
death? Here in this chapter, we have
a parallel of Jeremiah's message way back in chapter 7, which
he preached in the gate of the temple during the time of King
Jehoiakim. Some believe that in the book
of Jeremiah that it's just jumping back and forth, repeating the
same messages because of emphasis. That may be so. Others believe
that this is repeated. That same message that he preached
back in chapter 7 is repeated here by him during the reign
of Zedekiah. But you know what? I thought
about this. Why go in all that? It really doesn't matter. The
message is the same, isn't it? Either way, the timing is not
the issue. And if you see it repeated in
God's Word, God has a reason for it. He wants to drill it
into our minds, doesn't He? Make a good emphasis. But either
way, the timing is not the issue because the problem in Jerusalem,
the problem in Judah is the same throughout. Sin, unbelief, idolatry,
disobedience, stubbornness, self-righteousness, and we could go on and on. What
a description of all of us by nature. Isn't that right? Ruined
by the fall in Adam by nature. Born in trespasses and sins,
dead in trespasses and sin. And the message is the same.
Repent and follow the ways of the Lord. You read it in Matthew
3, John the Baptist preached the same thing. He told the Pharisees
when they came out in curiosity to see him baptized, he looked
at them and he called them a generation of poisonous snakes, a generation
of vipers. And he said, bring forth fruits,
meat for repentance. You need to come to repentance.
Your mind needs to be changed and that comes from a change
of heart. Your mind is not going to be changed until your heart
is changed. The mind is part of the heart. So that's what
this is all about. Now let's look at the first verses
here, chapter 26. The first thing Jeremiah does
here is he preaches the destruction of Jerusalem and the destruction
of the temple. And what you have to understand,
we're going to see this as we parallel this when we look at
Jeremiah as a type of Christ, that that was considered by the
priests and the prophets of Jerusalem to be blasphemy. That was blasphemy
to them. Look at verse 1. It says, In
the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim, the son of Josiah,
king of Judah, came this word from the Lord, saying, and this
is God's word now, you see. This is not man's word. He says,
thus saith the Lord, stand in the court of the Lord's house,
that's the temple, and speak unto all the cities of Judah.
This message would go out to all the cities of Judah. This
is how prominent this is. So in other words, this is no
subtle hidden message. This is no Bible code here. that
if you're smart enough and study the Hebrew well enough, you can
figure it out by putting together the vowel points or whatever.
This is open, this is public, this is published, and it's above
board for everybody to hear. And he says, which come to worship
in the Lord's house. Now that's significant. He's
talking to people who have it in their heart to worship in
the Lord's house. Now whether it's an evil heart
of unbelief or a regenerate heart, a circumcised heart, is another
matter. But they have it in their heart to worship. They're coming
to the Lord's house, they're coming to the temple. And so
Jeremiah's standing up at the gate of the temple, the court
of the temple, and he says, look here, he says, speak unto all
them, all the words that I command thee to speak unto them, diminish
not a word." Don't you change a word, Jeremiah. Reminds me
of what the Lord told John, the apostle, as he closed out the
book of Revelation. Don't take away from it, don't
add to it. Anybody does, his name is not
in the Lamb's book of life. You see, as preachers of the
Gospel, We don't have the luxury. We don't have the right to withhold
or add any of our ideas and opinions. All we are to preach is God's
Word. Well, look at verse 3. Now, He
says, If so be they will hearken. Now, if Judah and Jerusalem,
if they'll hearken, if they'll hear. Now, that hearken there
means to heed. It means to obey. And it's shown
in this next line, And turn every man from his evil way. Now wait
a minute, Jeremiah. Evil way, we're coming to worship.
Now we may not agree with you on your doctrine, but we're coming
to worship. No, it's an evil way. What's
the evil way? Any way but the way of God's
grace in Christ is an evil way to God. Any way of worship, any
way of service, any way of charity, Any way of salvation that is
not totally wrapped up 100% and founded upon 100% Christ and
Him crucified in God's sight is an evil way. It's a way of
self-righteousness. It's a way of unbelief. It's
a way that denies every attribute of God's glory. That's right. Why is that, preacher? Because
God's glory is wrapped up in the person and work of Christ.
You come any other way, you're denying His glory. Not just one
part of it, but every attribute of it. Mercy, justice, you can
go right on. Love? You may say God's loving,
but His love is in Christ. Outside of Christ, there's no
love from God. There's just wrath. It's an evil
way. It's the broad way that leads
to destruction. It's the way that seems right unto a man,
but the way thereof leads to death. And it may be a religious way,
like Cain. It may be an immoral way, like
Sodom. But my friend, without Christ,
it's an evil way. I don't care what it looks like
on the outside. That's the judgment of God. And he says, if so they
will hearken and turn every man from his evil way that I may
repent me. That's God speaking through Jeremiah
of the evil, talking about the wrath, the destruction, the terror. It's not sin. God's not the author
of sin. God cannot sin. He said, the
evil which I purpose to do unto them because of the evil of their
doings. What he's talking about is recompensing
there. Just like we read back there
in Jeremiah 25 and verse 14. He said, I'll recompense them
according to their deeds, according to the works of their hands.
And that's not evil on God's part, but I'll tell you who does
see it as evil? Men do. Why has this evil come upon me?
Have you ever said that or thought something similar to that when
you get sick or something bad happens? Why has this evil come
upon me? Well, my friend, if you're a
child of God, that's the loving chastisement of your Heavenly
Father. We just call it evil. You know
why? That's the way we think. That's the problem, you see.
That's why we have to immerse ourselves into God's Word and
stay there. Well, what about this God repenting? You know what repentance is?
Repentance means change, doesn't it? Change of mind, change of
heart, change of purpose, change of way. Doesn't the Bible say? Let me just give you a couple
of scriptures. I'll give you three scriptures.
I'll just read them to you. Numbers 23, 19. Listen to this
one. God is not a man that he should
lie, neither the son of man, that is born of Adam, that he
should repent. God is not like that. Now he's
talking about that I may repent me of the evil here now. And
then here's one, 1 Samuel 15, 29. This is Samuel, right after
he talked about Saul disobeying God and God removing his spirit
from Saul. And here's what Samuel said in
1 Samuel 15, 29. He said, the strength of Israel. Now who's
that? That's God. Certainly wasn't Saul. That's
God. The strength of Israel. will
not lie nor repent, for he is not a man that he should repent."
What he is saying there is that God does not need to repent. It is not in His nature to repent. Malachi 3.6, you all can probably
quote that one, can't you? For I am the Lord, I change not. Now why is that important? Why
is that important to you? Or to me? Tell you why. Therefore
you sons of Jacob are not consumed. You know if God changed his mind
or changed his heart or changed his way, what would happen to
the sons of Jacob? We'd be consumed. So his immutability, which literally
boggles our minds, we can't even begin to conceive of immutability. Sit around and think about that
a little while, you'll get a headache. Get you some Advil. Because you'll
need it. You can't conceive of immutability.
Everything I know has changed. Everything around me has changed.
What does that song change? All around I see, O thou who
changest not, abide with me. But the Bible says, and I can't
explain it to you, and I can't logic it out for you, that God
is immutable. God doesn't change. So what is
this about God saying He would repent? Well, He's using human
language coming down on our level in His Word to show, number one,
how much He hates sin and how much He loves holiness. Remember it's said back in Genesis,
I think chapter 6, that it repented God that it made man, for man's
heart was evil. And then secondly, it's given
to show us the depravity of man making this point. Now listen
to what he said in verse 3. If so be they will hearken and
turn every man from his evil way. Now let me ask you this
question. Based upon God's revealed word, in light of God's eternal
purpose, will any man repent and turn from his evil way? And
the answer is no. No. So what's he doing here? He's exposing the depravity and
spiritual deadness of man. And then thirdly, we know that
it was God's will and purpose always to save his people by
grace, not by works, through the Lord Jesus Christ. That was
established back over in Genesis. And it's a theme that continues
throughout Revelation. He tells us over and over again,
salvation cannot be by the works or the will of men. And then fourthly, God has already
shown and revealed that this nation that he's talking to here
about if they'll hearken and turn every man from his evil
way, this nation under the old covenant was never intended to
continue eternally. Salvation, eternal salvation
was always and is always according to the terms of the everlasting
covenant of grace fulfilled in Christ in the new covenant. So what's he doing here? He's
just simply using human language to expose the depravity of man
and show that man under a conditional covenant will not be saved, cannot
be saved. He talks about the evil of their
doings. I purpose to do unto them because of the evil of their
doings. And again, notice they were coming to the temple to
worship just like Cain who came to offer an offering. But it
was an evil one. Well look at verse 4, he says,
Thou shalt say unto them, Thus saith the Lord, If you will not
hearken to me, to walk in my law, which I have set before
you. Now to walk in his law ultimately
was to seek salvation by his grace through the promised Messiah.
You remember, Christ said the law was about him. He said Moses
wrote of me. He said if you believed Moses,
you'd believe me. But verse 5, he says, to hearken
to the words of my servants, the prophets, prophets like Jeremiah,
Micah, Isaiah before him, whom I sent unto you, both rising
up early, their eagerness to tell the truth, sending them,
but now here's the case now, but you have not hearkened. Now there it is. In previous chapters we've seen
some of Jeremiah's messages about the coming judgment. The emphasis
now here is on the responses that the people had to his messages.
And what do we see here? We see examples of the natural
man. Man left to himself. Man dead
in trespasses and sins. Here it is, you have not hearkened. Man will not hear, left to himself.
And then we see examples of men brought to repentance by the
grace of God. They received the message, though
few. In Isaiah's day it was a remnant. Same in Jeremiah's day, a remnant.
There is a great parallel here between Jeremiah who is an ambassador
of Christ and of Christ himself in his
earthly ministry. Look over at John chapter 1 that
we read earlier. John chapter 1. Here is the true light, Jesus
Christ. That is who Jeremiah is preaching. He is preaching Christ. And it says in verse 10, John
1, about Christ as the light. He was in the world. The world
was made by Him. You think about that. The one
who made the world was in the world. That speaks of His incarnation,
doesn't it? God-man. And look here, the world
knew Him not. That's what John said over in
1 John 3, the world knoweth us not because it knew Him not.
Verse 11, He came unto His own, and His own received Him not.
They would not hearken. Just like in Jeremiah's day.
But there are some, a few, a chosen few, if you will. I
know people don't like to hear that, but that's taken from the
pages of the book, the Bible. As many as, however many there
is, I hope a whole lot more than what I see in my day. As many
as received Him, to them gave He the power. Now, as I told
you, that word power there doesn't mean ability. It's not the word
dynamus, like in the power of God in the south. It's the word
right and privilege. In other words, do you claim
to be a child of God? What right do you have to claim
that? That's the issue here. So to them gave He the right
to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name.
Now what made the difference between those who received Him
and those who received Him not? Well, verse 13, which were born?
Those who received Him were born. Now He's not talking about physical
birth, you know that. He's talking about the new birth.
Born from above. Regeneration, conversion. And
they were born not of blood. It wasn't physical birth. Nor
the will of the flesh. It wasn't by their works. Nor
the will of man. It wasn't by their will. But
of God. That's who made the difference.
You see that? The last chapter of the book
of Acts, you don't have to turn there. Paul was in prison. He
kept in bonds in his own hired house. He had a little bit of
liberty because they'd let people come in and go out. And they
would come and visit Paul and they'd sit and Paul would preach
and teach the gospel to them, teach the scriptures. One of
those fellas was a runaway slave named Onesimus. But Paul could do that. And it's
said that many came in and they listened to Paul and it says
this, some believed and some believed not. What made the difference? Well, those who believed were
better than those who believed not. The grace of God. Sovereign mercy. That's what
made the difference. It's not of him that willeth,
nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy. Isn't that right? Well, look
back at Jeremiah 26. Look at verse 6. He says, then
will I make this house like Shiloh. Jeremiah 26, 6. Now this house,
this temple, he's saying, I'll make it like Shiloh. We'll make
this city a curse to all the nations of the earth. When you
think of Shiloh, you think of Genesis 49.10. Most of us do. The scepter will not depart from Judah until
Shiloh comes. Shiloh there being a person.
Shiloh here is a place. Shiloh was the place where the
Ark of the Covenant had been kept during the time of the judges.
The time of the judges, that's where the Ark was, in Shiloh
place. And because of this sin and depravity and unbelief and
rebelliousness of Israel, God allowed Israel to lose in battle
to the Philistines of all nations. And Shiloh was wiped out and
the ark was captured by the Philistines. You can read about that in 1
Samuel 4. What he's saying is, I'm going to make it just like
that day. This temple is going to be destroyed. The ark of the
covenant is going to be destroyed. Jerusalem is going to be destroyed.
And so what happens, look at verse 7. So the priest and the
prophets and all the people heard Jeremiah speaking these words
in the house of the Lord. Now the next section shows us
how Jeremiah is opposed, he's seized and brought before the
court. Look at verse 8. He says, Now
it came to pass when Jeremiah had made an end of speaking,
all that the Lord had commanded him to speak unto all the people,
that the priest and the prophets, there's the religious Majority
the religious leaders of course you know those are the false
priest and the false prophets and All the people who followed
them took him saying thou shalt surely die Now you think about
this now. This is people think about the
irony here. Here's people in the house of the Lord denying
the word of the Lord Disobeying the word of the Lord Satan's
deception. I think it's interesting the
last line of this, thou shalt surely die. That's Satan's message.
Satan's message was thou shalt not surely die. That was their
message to themselves. Their message to Jeremiah was
thou shalt surely die. You're going to die, Jeremiah. You see, the natural man hates
the Word of God. This is the condemnation. Light
has come to the world and men love darkness and hate the light
because their deeds were evil. Jeremiah said, your worship is
evil. Your doctrine is evil. Your way
of service and religion is evil. There's only one good way, one
holy way, one righteous way. It's the way of Christ and the
grace of God in Him. All other ways are evil. So they
looked at him and they said, you shall surely die. We're going
to kill you. This man is worthy of death.
And so we see the natural man's thoughts and judgments. And it's
always somebody else is worthy of death, but not me. Not us. Jeremiah, he's worthy of death,
but not me. Remember, Jeremiah had spoken
of submission to God's judgment against them. Take sides with
God against yourself. Submit to His judgment, because
that's what we deserve. Lord, if Thou, Lord, shouldest
mark iniquities, O Lord, who would stand? What David pray
in Psalm 51, against thee and thee only have I sinned that
thou mightest be right, judgest right in thy judgments. Always
somebody else. Remember, consider God's judgment
against ourselves, the wages of sin is death. You know, by nature, none of
us think we're worthy to die. We're like those in Isaiah 65,
get away from us, we're holier than thou. You say, well, I've
never said that. Well, my friend, the moment that
you ever counted anybody worthy of death and not included yourself
as being worthy of death, that's the equivalent of saying I'm
holier than thou. Have you ever said that? Verse 9, look at it. He says,
Why hast thou prophesied in the name of the Lord, saying, they
are saying to Jeremiah, Why hast thou prophesied in the name of
the Lord, saying, This house shall be like Shiloh, and this
city shall be desolate without an inhabitant? And all the people
were gathered against Jeremiah in the house of the Lord. Natural
man's thoughts. You see, the Bible says, The
wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all. sin and all
unrighteousness of men who hold the truth in unrighteousness.
That's why we deserve death. We've all sinned and come short
of the glory of God. Who shall drink the cup of God's wrath?
All who are without Christ. And you know here too we see
something about the natural man's thoughts of the Lord Himself.
Turn over to Matthew 26. I want you to see this. Look at Matthew 26. And look
at verse 57. You see, in condemning Jeremiah
for preaching God's Word, the Word of Christ, what are they
doing? They're bringing judgment against the Lord. Do you realize
that? I want you to think about something,
and it's kind of spine-tingling to think of. And I've often, I've thought
about this quite a bit in the last years. You know, I believe
that I'm preaching the gospel to you. I sincerely believe that. And I try my best in prayer and
in study to stick to the Word of God. If I am preaching the Word of
God to you, if I'm preaching the gospel of God's grace in
Christ, Any man who accuses me of not preaching that gospel,
do you realize what they're doing? That's why I'm very careful about
that. I know there are men who do not preach the gospel, and
I know exactly why, and I can show you in scripture, and I'm
not afraid of that. But you know, any man who accuses
a true preacher of God of not preaching the gospel, that's
the same as bringing judgment against the Lord himself. And
I'm not saying that just to protect myself. I'm saying that because
that's what we're studying right here in Jeremiah. That's what's
happening. I want you to think about that.
Look at verse 57. It says, They that had laid hold on Jesus led
him away to Caiaphas, the high priest, where the scribes and
the elders were assembled. But Peter followed him afar off
into the high priest's palace. He went in and sat with the servants
to see the end. Now the chief priest and the
elders and all the council sought false witness against Jesus to
put Him to death. They wanted to prove Him worthy
of death. And what they had to do is they had to accuse Him
falsely to do it. In verse 60 it says, but they
found none. I love that. Yea, though many
false witnesses came, yet found they none. And at the last came
two false witnesses and said, This fellow said, I am able to
destroy the temple of God and to build it in three days. Christ
is talking about the destruction of the temple just like Jeremiah
before him. And the high priest arose and
said unto him, Answerest thou nothing? What is it which these
witnesses against thee? But Jesus held his peace. He
didn't say a word. And the high priest answered
and said unto him, I adjure thee by the living God that thou tell
us whether thou be the Christ, the Son of God. And then Jesus
saith unto him, Thou hast said. What he's saying there is the
words you speak are true. Nevertheless, I say unto you,
Hereafter shall you see the Son of Man sitting on the right hand
of power and coming in the clouds of heaven. Now look at verse
65. Then the high priest tore his clothes, saying, He hath
spoken blasphemy. What further need have we of
witnesses? Behold, now you have heard his
blasphemy. What think ye? They answered
and said, He is guilty of death. He is worthy of death. And that's when they spit on
him They'd go behind him and smite him and say, tell us who
smoked you. You see that? The carnal mind is enmity against
God. For it's not subject to the law
of God. Neither indeed can be. Look back
at Jeremiah 26. They said this man is worthy
to die, just like they say it later on of our Lord. He's worthy
to die. For he hath prophesied, verse
11, this man is worthy to die. For he hath prophesied against
this city as you have heard with your ears. Now the princes of
Judah there in verse 10, that's the civil leaders. They came
up. They heard these things. Look
at it. Then they came up from the king's house into the house
of the Lord. They sat down in the entry of the new gate of
the Lord's house. Don't know really where the new gate was.
Some say it's close to the eastern gate. We don't know, but that's
alright. There's a judgment seat here. And then come the priest
and the prophet. You see, it's the religious majority
who's really leading the charge, isn't it? It's the most religious.
Just like against our Lord. You see, Most of the political
leaders, they really don't care what you say about them, but
the more you step on a religious man's hope, rock his boat, challenge
his refuge, then you'll get his dander. This man is worthy to
die, they say. Well, who is worthy of death?
Who is worthy of death? Think about that. I know that if God were to judge
any of us, any of them, based on our best efforts to serve
Him, we are worthy of death. We have no righteousness of our
own. There's nothing good in us or about us that would recommend
us unto God that would make us unworthy of death. You say, I've
tried to do the best I can. My friend, I'm telling you, I
wouldn't offend you for the world, but I'm telling you, you're still
worthy of death based upon your best. You say, why do you say
such things? Because that's what this book
says. There's none righteous, no not one. There's none that
doeth good, no not one. That's the way it is. And you
may try to do your best, and I'll tell you this much, you
ought to try to do your best. But if you think that's what
makes you holy, or what makes you righteous, And you don't
see your sin and your depravity and your deservedness of death.
And you don't see the worthiness of Christ and Him alone. You're
worthy of death. So am I. I'm in the same boat
with you. Woe is unto me. I'm undone. I'm cut off. I'm a man of unclean
lips. But I dwell amidst a people of
unclean lips. I'm not the only one in this
mess. You see. We're all in this mess. Look at verse 12, it says, Then
spake Jeremiah unto all the princes and all the people, saying, The
Lord sent me to prophesy against this house and against this city
and all the words that you've heard. Therefore now mend your
ways and your doings and obey the voice of your God, the Lord
your God. And the Lord will repent him
of the evil that he hath pronounced against you. Now again, that's
just simply a way of bringing it down to our level to show
that if we could, if we could, turn our hearts and keep the
law, God would bless us. No, we can't. So he says in verse
14, As for me, behold, I am in your hand. Do with me as seemeth
good, and meet unto you whatever you think is right. But know
you for certain that if you put me to death, you shall surely
bring innocent blood upon yourselves, and upon this city, and upon
the inhabitants thereof. For of a truth the Lord hath
sent me unto you to speak, All these words in your ears. Now,
Jeremiah, when he describes himself as innocent blood, he's not saying
that he's sinlessly perfect in himself. That's not what he's
saying. But he is saying this, he's innocent of the crimes of
which he'd been accused. The message he preached was not
an evil message. It's one God gave him. And here we see him as a type
of Christ. Now Christ was sinlessly perfect
in every way in Himself. He's the Lord of glory. He's
the holy, harmless, undefiled Son of God. Knew no sin, did
no sin. He was never contaminated with
sin. He knew sin in the sense that
He knew sinners. Proximity, He ate with publicans
and sinners, but He didn't contract that disease. He wasn't born
in sin like you and me. He was born of the Virgin, conceived
in her womb by the Holy Spirit, the power of God, that holy thing. That couldn't have been said
about you. Not even that innocent thing could have been said about
you or me. The only one that that could
be said of is Christ, the seed of woman, that holy thing. He grew in wisdom and stature,
and I don't understand how all that works. I know that's to
be attributed to His humanity, but He never had a sinful thought,
a sinful motive, or a sinful goal. Somebody said, well, He
must have stood out. Well, I think He always stood
out, but man is so naturally dead and trespasses in sin that
he doesn't recognize Him. He came into the world. He made
the world. He came into the world, and the
world knew Him not. From our point of view, Christ
in Himself was not worthy of death. Peter said it. He said,
you with wicked hands have crucified and slain the Lord of glory.
But now you did only that which God before determined to be done. It was God's will. It was God's
purpose. It pleased the Father to bruise Him. But in our hearts,
what was it? It was murder. That's right. We hanged him on the cross as
a malefactor. That's a criminal. Let me tell you this. From God's
point of view, Christ was made worthy of death. Did you know
that in God's view, He was worthy of death? How? Well, first of
all, He was the only worthy substitute and sacrifice. What was required
of the substitute, the sacrifice? Had to be a what? What kind of
lamb? Spotless. Worthy is the Lamb. And He was
a spotless Lamb. But secondly, He was worthy of
death because of our sin imputed, charged, accounted to Him. He
was made sin for us. He was made a curse. He became
actually guilty, not by sins He committed or sins that He
was contaminated with, but by our sin imputed to Him. It pleased the Lord to bruise
him. God was just in punishing his son. And what an amazing thought when
we see the flip side of that. To know that we are worthy not
based on our works but in Christ. Worthy is the Lamb that was slain. Isn't that something? Well, Jeremiah wasn't guilty
of what they claimed. Jeremiah was a sinner saved by
the grace of God, wasn't he? And that's the way it is with
all of his people. And we know where our worthiness lies. In
ourselves we're worthy of death. And everybody who is found before
a holy God without Christ is worthy of death. But thank God
that Christ Himself took our worthiness of death onto Himself. and died and drank damnation
dry. And he, the worthy lamb, stands
in our place so that we might receive all the blessings of
eternal life and glory in him. It's amazing, isn't it? All right.
Let's sing a couple of verses of hymn number 509 for our closing
hymn, The Sands of Time Are Sinking, 509.