start reading in verse 5, down
through verse 8 or 9. Philippians 2.5. Let this mind be in you, which
also was in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God, he
was God manifest in the flesh, He saw him, he saw God. He was
the image of the invisible God. The fullness of the Godhead dwelt
in him bodily. He thought it not robbery to
be equal with God. He took nothing from God's glory,
nothing from his attributes, nothing from his will. And look what happens. He made
himself of no reputation. He took upon him the form of
a serpent. and was made in the likeness
of men, and being found in fashion as a man. He humbled himself
and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.
Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a
name which is above every name. I want you to look there in that
verse 8, where it says he became obedient unto death, even. Paul says he became obedient
unto death. And then to give great emphasis
to it, it says, even, even the death of the cross. That's what
I want to talk about. The death of the cross. Our Lord's
death on the cross. The death of our Lord Jesus Christ. is mentioned in the New Testament
alone 175 times. 175 times. Paul told the Corinthians, he
said, that's why I'm determined to know nothing among you. Save
Jesus Christ and He'll crucify you. And all the great doctrines,
all the great doctrines of the Bible are laid by the Holy Spirit
at the foot of the cross. You cannot separate any of the
great doctrines from the cross. He's talking about God's sovereignty.
Scripture says God made him to be sinned. Who knew no sin? It
pleased the Lord to bruise him. Talking about depravity. There
were thieves on either side of him. Both of them were cursing
him. Men dying in their dying breaths
were cursing another man. Cursing another man. And it said
he was wounded for our transgressions. He was numbered with the transgressors. And the way that he was treated
there on the cross by all that were gathered around him. Talk
about depravity. Oh my. You can't separate. And then how about sovereign
mercy, unconditional election? There on the cross were those
thieves that had railed on him and cursed him. Our Lord turned
around and looked at him and says, Thou shalt be with me in
paradise. What mercy! Sovereign mercy. Unconditional election. A special
calling. Right there and before our very
eyes. With that feet on the cross.
One moment cussing. The next moment defending. The
next moment asking the Lord to have them. The next moment remembering.
And our Lord Jesus Christ. All these things are laid to
feed the cross. And what about the revelation
and regeneration? The revelation, our Lord Jesus
Christ Himself said, as Moses lifted up the serpent in the
wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up. And
then there's a regeneration from that again, that thief on the
cross. How did he know that Jesus Christ was Lord? How did he know
that Christ had a kingdom? How did that happen to him change
in a moment of time? He had to be regenerated and
given a new heart and given eyes to see. Christ regenerated him
on that cross like that. And he went to know and he called
him Lord. Talked about his kingdom. Knew
he had the power and knew that he was going to raise again from
the dead because he put all his eggs in that basket. What happened
that day? Revelation and regeneration just
like that. And particular redemption again
laid at the cross of Christ. Two things, but Christ only died
for one. One was left to die in his sins
and one Christ our Lord borne his sins. Injustification. Paul says, you
know, in Romans 4, 25, that he was delivered for our offenses. When he's on that cross, delivered
for our offenses, raised for our justification, being justified
freely by his grace through the redemption that's in our Lord
Jesus Christ. Reconciliations laid at the cross
of the Christ, the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. When we were
enemies, of God alienated by our wicked works, yet God has
reconciled us through the blood of His cross. Through the blood
of His cross. Reconciled things in heaven,
things in earth, things under the earth. Reconciled us by the
blood of His cross. And then the resurrection. And
they read that tonight. Oh my, when you read that there,
and they said, those fellows, they said, this guy said, this
man said he's going to rise again the third day. I'll tell you
why I left him. Just to make it sure. Let's get
us a bunch of guards set on that too. Christ rose from the dead
with all the guards there, with all the rocks there, with everything
that was there. And beloved, that man, they said,
well, they, and one thing struck me so. You think a man ain't
a wicked. These fellas said, Lord, they
said, let our first mistake be worse than the second. Our second
be worse than the first we made. If he rises, then we're really
in trouble. So here's a pile of money. Here's
a pile of money. But you don't tell what we tell
you to tell, and you don't do that what we taught you. And
they did what they were taught to do. Oh, my. But God raised you from the dead.
And then, you know what? You cannot Even the lordship
of Christ laid at his feet. Ain't that what he says after
he humbled himself even unto death? God also exalted Saul
and even gave him a name that's above every name. That every
name, every knee's gonna bow and every tongue's gonna confess
that Jesus Christ is Lord. All of these, all of these, all
these blessed doctrines are in Christ and Him crucified. Now
Lord Jesus and His cross are represented as one. When you
talk about the cross, you're talking about Christ. When you
talk about His crucifixion, you're talking about Christ. Christ
and His cross, you cannot separate them. They go together. Paul
said, I'm going to preach Christ and Him crucified. Christ and
His cross, the glory of the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. They
were nailed together. Christ and His cross are one
and you can't have one without the other. If you've got His
Christ, you've got His cross. If you've got His cross, you've
got Christ. And you're a partaker of everything, if you're a believer,
everything that our Lord did on that cross. Now there was
a man who tried to. He tried to have Christ without
His cross. Look with me in Matthew 16, I'll show you. There's a
man who wanted Christ without his cross, but he couldn't have
him. And oh, that's why our Lord Jesus
Christ said constantly, he said, my hour's not yet come, my hour's
not yet come. I must go up to Jerusalem. Look
what happened here in Matthew 16, 21. From that time forth began Jesus
to show unto his disciples how that he must go unto Jerusalem
and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and
scribes, and be killed, and be raised again the third day. Now
what's this? Then Peter took him and began
to rebuke him, saying, Be it far from thee, Lord, this shall
not be unto thee. There's no way. That's two things
that Peter done. Well, one thing, he denied the
Lord. Here he rebuked the Lord, talking about going up to Jerusalem
and being crucified. Be raised again the third day
in that he rebuked the Lord Jesus Christ himself. And Peter turned
around, our Lord turned around and said to Peter, Look, I believe
this is one of those times that our Lord looked him right square
in the eye and I believe he withered. He says, Get thee behind me,
Satan. Satan was using him. Oh, you're
not so bad that you need somebody better. You're not all that bad. Lord, we don't need you to suffer
that bad. You're such a good man. Oh, listen, pity yourself.
Pity yourself. And I said, you're an offense
under me. You're an offense under me. You don't savor, you don't
delight in the things of God. But those things be of men. You
want to be saved without a cross. You want to be saved without
somebody bearing your sins. You want to be saved without
a substitute. You want to be saved without
a sacrifice. You want to be saved on your
turn, but you can't have it. Get behind the devil. That's
what our Lord said to one of his old disciples. And another
time that Simon Peter, you know, He, when the Lord speaks to the
horse, and all his disciples feed him, he got the son to feed
him. Not me, not me. But if I don't work, you got
no part in me. I'll tell you that. But to glory
in the cross is to glory in that grace, which the death of our
Lord Jesus Christ in sin has been put away, and the enmity
of the human heart has been slain. God slew my enmity that is in
my heart. when I saw Christ bearing my
sins and He stepped on the cross. He took all that envy out of
my heart. Took all the will away from me
to ever resist Him. You see, let me tell you something.
The death of the cross, Christ on that cross, the death of the
cross of our Lord Jesus Christ is the death of sin. When He
died on that cross, sin died with Him. And when He died to
sin, beloved sin was We died to sin when our Lord Jesus Christ. Sin no longer has any power,
any dominion over us. He slew sin on the cross. He put sin away on the cross
for all believers. And I tell you, sin is dead by
the cross. Now, as I'll be praying tonight,
men can approach unto God by the one who gave himself on that
cross, who became obedient unto death. Now we can approach God.
And let me tell you this, and I love this right here, the death
of the cross is the death of death itself. That's why our
Lord Jesus Christ said, I'm the resurrection, if a man believes
in me, He'll never die. He may go from this world to
the next, but he ain't gonna die. You know what death is? The wages of sin is death. And
you can't die of death because Christ put away death by the
sacrifice of himself. Death no longer exists for believers. Death no longer is something
that we fear. Our Lord Jesus Christ, He slew
death. He conquered death. He put death
in its place. He destroyed the power of death,
which is sin. And if sin is dead, then death
is dead. And there's nothing but life
in Christ. That's why I tell you, don't
mind me. I know we want to stay here as
long as we can. I understand that. I understand that we want
to stay here as long as we can, as long as God will enable us
to have some health and some semblance of a mind, we want
to stay here as long as we can. But when it comes time to leave
here, we don't have to put up our hands and try our best to
stop. And we, for those believers,
as God gets to go on, we can say, beloved, they just started
life! Like Claude said, we said, I'll
see you in the morning. That to me is starting a brand
new day. Oh my. The wages of sin is death
and Christ paid the wages. That's why it says Martha said,
if you've been here, my brother had to die. He said, Martha,
Martha, Martha, don't you know I'm the resurrection? I'm the one. If a man is dead,
I call him to live again. And we were dead and we live
again now in Christ. And those that are of us that believe
on Him, we will not bleed, mean we will not die. We're just going
from here to the presence of Christ. Face to face with Christ
my Savior. Face to face with Christ my Lord. Oh, let's talk about this death
on the cross. Let's talk just a few things
about it. First of all, it was a shameful
death. A shameful death. It said, being obedient unto
death, even the death of the cross. You see, the death on
the cross was for criminals. It was for robbers. It was for
murderers. And they always stripped them
naked. And you remember that our Lord
Jesus Christ, He says, they gambled for His garment. They split everything,
there's four soldiers there, and they split everything evenly
among them. But He had a garment that was
woven from top all the way to the bottom. No seam in it, nothing. He just flipped it over His head.
Perfectly woven. And they gambled for that. They
gambled for my garment. And He was stripped naked, numbered
with the transgressors. putting him out there to an open
shame before the whole world. He endured the cross, despising
the shame. And all I tell you, to be crucified
was to be accounted a curse, both by heaven and earth. And
look with me over in Deuteronomy, chapter 21, Deuteronomy 21. I'll show you that. You know,
Paul said, Cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree. And that's
what our Lord Jesus Christ, did I tell you what to be crucified
with, to be accounted a curse of God himself and a curse of
earth. Chapter 31, excuse me, 21, not
31, excuse me, 21. Deuteronomy 21 and verse 21.
Excuse me, verse 22, Deuteronomy 21, 22. Look what it says here about
crucifixion, hanging on a tree. And if a man hath committed a
sin worthy of death, and he be put to death, and thou hang him
on a tree, his body shall not remain all night upon the tree,
but thou shalt in any wise bury him that day. For he that is
hanged is accursed of God. that the land be not defiled,
which the Lord thy God giveth thee for inheritance." You know,
He bore our cursing. He was as cursing as ever one
that hangeth on a tree. He bore our cursing. He bore
our sin. And in bearing sin, He bore the
shame for sin. The shame that goes with sin.
The shame that goes with all the things that we've done. The
shame that goes with our blasphemy, and our cursing, and our wickedness. He bore not only the sin, but
the shame that went with the sin. For sin and shame, you can't
separate them. And I, Lord Jesus Christ, the
shame that went with sin, to kill that which was sinned, the
curse that which was sinned. Our Lord Jesus Christ, he was
dying a shameful death because he was treated as a common criminal
that day. And the most shameful thing was
who it was that was crucified. Paul said he's holy, harmless,
undefiled, separate from sinners, higher than the heavens. And
he said he was the Lord of Glory. If they had knew who he was,
they would not have crucified the Lord of Glory. And when Paul
prayed to Peter, preached that on the day of Pentecost, and
he says, this same Jesus whom you crucified, God hath made
him both Lord and Christ, that's when they were pricked in their
offerings. Not only was it a shameful death, but it was a voluntary
death. Voluntary death. Nothing made our Lord good but
His own will and the will of His Father. Turn with me to Hebrews
10. Oh, bless His holy name. Oh, what a shameful death. Ain't
you ashamed? Ain't you ashamed of all the
sin you've done and all that you know? And all the shame that
goes with sin. Our Lord bore it all. All the
curse that goes with sin. Our Lord bore it all. And oh
my, He was wholly harmless. And everybody He did that for. He was free to make bed. That's why the whole purpose
of crucifying the man was to cause you to be a criminal. And oh, look what it says here
in Hebrews 10, in verse 5. Excuse me. Wherefore, when he
cometh into the world, when Christ came into the world, he said,
God said, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not in a body,
but a body hast thou prepared me. Prepared me in life. Prepared me in the womb of a
virgin, that's what we prepared. In burnt offerings and sacrifice
for sin, thou hast had no satisfaction. never ever put away sin. David
said, if that is our sacrifice for you, if you would have done
it, I would have gave it to you. But he said, I couldn't. And
then he said, look what he said. Then said I, Christ said, Lord,
I come. I come. In the volume of the
book, it's written of me. I come to do thy will. So above,
when he says sacrifice and offering and burnt offerings and offering
for sin, thou wouldst not neither have satisfaction therein that
are offered by the Lord. That's when he said, When none
of those things could ever put away sin, that's when Christ
said, Lord, look, look, I come to do thy will, O God. He takes
away the first that he may establish the second. Now, what's this?
By the which will, what will? I delight to do thy will. I delight to come in that body
you gave me. I delight by the which will. The will that He came to do,
the will that He came to fulfill, the will that He came to accomplish,
the will of God, that He might, through the which will we are
sanctified, set apart by the offering of the body of Jesus
Christ, once and for all. Oh my, the will of God was in
our Lord Jesus Christ's heart, written there. And every day
of every hour, He was obedient. And how obedient was it even
to the death of the cross? Our Lord Jesus said in John 10,
17, He says, I have laid down my life. No man takes my life
from me. I have the power to lay it down.
I've got the power to take it up again. And you remember when
Pilate asked Him, He says, tell me, answer me. Don't you know
I've got the power to crucify you or the power to release you?
And then our Lord spoke, and you know what He said? He said,
you have no power except that which is given you from above.
And you're only doing what my Father willed to be done. And
I'm standing here by the will of God, fulfilling the will of
God, being obedient to the will of God, gladly, joyfully doing
what my Father sent me to do. And had I known the Lord's life
might have been laid down, It would not have been a sweet savor
to God as an atonement for sin. I mean, he voluntarily did this. Nobody made him do it. It was
in his heart to do what his father's will was. And he freely offered
himself to God. Offered himself without spot.
Though our Lord Jesus Christ was rich, he became poorer than
we through his poverty. might be made rich. You see,
his life, listen to me now. Our Lord's life was a voluntary
life. He said, Thou hast prepared me
a body. He was there in the light of his Father from all eternity.
His Father looked in his Son, rejoiced in his Son, delighted
in his Son. And then the will of God was
written on his heart and he came and said, I'll go and I'll do
your will. Put it in the book. Write it
in the book. Tell me everything about your
will and I'll go and I'll do it. Put everything in the book. Put the promises. Put the debts. Put my sufferings. Put everything
that you want me to do and I'll do it. And his life was voluntary. And
I tell you what, from the day he was born to the day he died,
everything he did, he did willingly. Nobody made him do anything.
And we should never separate his obedience representative
of life from his death. He became obedient when he walked, came into this
world, became obedient even to the death of the cross. His obedience was unto death,
so his obedience and death were one offering. Oh, if he hadn't
been obedient, there'd have been no salvation for us. If he hadn't
been obedient unto death, still no salvation. So his obedience
and death were one offering. God took his obedience and he
took his obedience and he's dead. His sacrifice was and is a sweet
smell and savor. Look over here with me. Ephesians,
just a moment. Ephesians 5. His sacrifice was
and is a sweet-smelling savor unto God. Our Lord Jesus Christ, His whole
life, His sacrifice, God smells it. Ah, what a sweet-smelling
savor. And that's why we got to have
Christ. We got to be found in Christ. And look what he said
in verse 2, Ephesians 5, And walk in love, as Christ also
hath loved us, listen to it now, and hath given himself for us
an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savor. When we come without a word to
Jesus Christ, God says, that smells good. Smells good. If we come with ourselves, stench
in the nostrils of God. Oh, and listen. Shameful death. Shameful death. Treated as a
common cripple. Hung naked before heaven and
earth. Ridiculed and marked. Cursed of God. Cursed of the
world. Cursed of men. Cursed as he that
hangeth on a tree. Voluntary death. He said, I delight
to do that with you. Obedient. And then his death
was a predestinated death. Predestinated death. You know,
Revelation 13.8, he stood as a lamb slain from the foundation
of the world. There are so many places, so
many places, him being delivered by the determined counsel and
foreknowledge of God. And when Peter prayed in Acts
4, he says, they have took the Holy Child, Jesus. And they've
done beforehand what you're determined to be done. So they just got
together and carried out the will that you intended for them
to carry out. Known unto God are all his works
from the beginning. And those men, here's one of
the greatest mysteries, and this is the mystery of God, this is
the world-wide wisdom. Those men, when they crucified
Christ, cried out for Him to be crucified. And the men who
nailed Him to the tree, Pontius Pilate, all the Jews, all the
Gentiles, they were doing exactly what God determined for them
to do. And they were doing just what
they would do by nature without God. God wasn't there. They were doing just exactly
what God determined them to do. Huh? And they did everything
that they wanted to do and what their natures would do. That's
a great thing. Let me show you what I'm talking
about. Look with me. They were fulfilling their eternal
purpose of God. Look in Luke 22 with me just
a moment. Those men were doing what they wanted to do. They
really did. When they offered those fellows money, they were
doing just exactly what they were supposed to do. When Judas
was offered 30 pieces of silver, it's told what he's going to
do. Look with me in Luke 22, in verse 1. I'll show you what
these men were doing. Doing just fulfilling the will
of God, and yet doing what their nature was inclined to do, and
yet were fulfilling the eternal purpose of God. Now the feast
of unleavened bread drew nigh, which is called the Passover.
And when the chief priests and scribes thought how they might
kill him, for they feared the people. Now watch. Then entered
Satan into Judas named Iscariot, being of the number of the twelve.
And he went his way, and communed with the chief priests and captains
how he might betray him. And they were glad and coveted
to give him money. And he promised a sole opportunity
to betray him to them in the absence of the multitude. They
was doing just exactly what they wanted to do, but yet he took
them over. in the Garden of Gethsemane and
pointed out Christ. That was written of him to do
that, wasn't it, Gary? My friend lifted up his heel
against me. Look over here in Luke 23, verse 2. Oh, this is what these
fellas say, how they justify themselves. Yet they're fulfilling
God's eternal purpose. Christ was a lamb slain before
the foundation of the world. And they began to accuse him,
the whole multitude did. Said, we found this fellow perverting
the nation. Now, they're lying. They're lying. And for beginning, permitting
to give tribute to Caesar, saying that he himself is Christ the
King. And Pilate asked him, saying,
art thou the King of the Jews? And he answered him, said, thou
sayest it? Is this what you say? Then said Pilate to the chief
priests of the people, I find no fault in this man. And all
of what they said, they were more fierce, doing just exactly
what they wanted to do. Doing, showing the enmity and
hatred in their heart. He stirs up the people, teaching
throughout all Jewry, beginning from Galilee to this place. They
said, oh my, we got to get rid of him. See how they hate him
and despise him, and yet they were doing just exactly what
God said to do. Look in Mark 15 with me just
a moment. Back over in Mark. Look with
me in Mark 15. They just do beforehand what
God determined to be done. Simon Peter, the scripture said
he was a son of perdition, the devil from the beginning. He didn't know it. He really
did not know it until his nature came in. Look what is said here
now in Mark 15 and verse 11. But the chief priests moved the
people that he should rather release Barabbas unto them. You
know what Barabbas is in prison for? Murder and sedition, trying
to cause an uprising. And Pilate asked, and said unto
them, What will ye then that I shall do unto him whom ye call
the king of the Jews? And they cried out, Crucify him,
crucify him. Then Pilate said unto them, Why,
what evil hath they done? And they cried out the more exceedingly
to crucify him. And so Pilate, willing to content
the people, released Barabbas unto them, and delivered Jesus,
whom he scorned to be crucified. These men were doing exactly
what they wanted to do. But David was delivered by the
determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God. And we know this, and
say this, and believe it with all our hearts, that God provided
us a Savior before there was ever a sinner. Before Adam ever
sinned in the garden, God gave us a Savior. He was a lamb slain
from the foundation of the world. He was slain on purpose and the
purpose of God. He became a man for the purpose
of God. And they just, his death was
predestinated. The death of our Lord Jesus Christ
and the glory that should follow. That's the preeminent message
of this blessed book. Our Lord Jesus Christ set his
face as he would go to Jerusalem. Everything in the Scriptures
pointed to Him, dying, rising, and ascending to glory, and everything
about our Lord Jesus Christ is the preeminent message of God
Himself. And then my last point is this,
and you all never want to know what it ought to be. His death
was a substitutionary death. He's dying for somebody else. Oh, listen, he gave himself to
God. He offered himself to God. And
he gave himself to God that we might be free from guilt, might
be free from sin, and might be made drawn nigh to God. I want
to show you two things in 1 Peter. Look with me in 1 Peter 2.24. Oh, my. That's why it says, you
know, he was bruised for our iniquities. Chastisement of our
peace was upon him. The Lord laid on him the iniquity
of us all. God made him to be sin who knew
no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God. In
him that was made to be sin. God, not by works of righteousness,
but by his own blood. He saved us. Look here in 1 Peter
2.24. "...who in his own self," oh, did you hear
that? "...who in his own self," his
self, in his own self. You get on with that, his self.
"...bear our sins in his own body." He says, His self. Lord, put your sin on me. To
his own self bear our sins, and his own body on the tree, that
we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness, by whose
stripes ye are healed. He healed us of our sin by the
stripes there that God laid on him. Look over here in verse
18 of chapter 3. 1 Peter 3, 18. For Christ also hath once, just
one time, suffered for sins, listen to it now, the just for
the unjust. And why did he do this? That
he might bring us to God. He brings us, brought us to his
death, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the
Spirit. And the only way we can be brought
to God is through the obedient death of our Lord Jesus Christ. No wonder Paul said, I'm crucified
with Christ. And therefore if I live, it is
not I that live, but it is Christ that liveth in me. And the life
I now live, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me
and gave himself for me. The death of our Lord Jesus Christ
and the sinners Listen, the death of our Lord Jesus Christ in the
sinner's stead is God's final and irrevocable settlement with
sin. It's done. Nothing else to be done. And
what happened, beloved? It's like when Abraham found
that ram caught in that thicket, he put that ram in the stand
of Isaac. And Isaac came back down off
that mountain just as if he raised him from the dead. And Christ
was put in our stand. And God, when He risen against
us, He put Christ in our stand. And now, beloved, He raised and
we raised with Him. And I tell you, we have an absolute
and a perfect exchange. He got all of our sins, all of
our guilt, and we get all of his righteousness and all of
his obedience. He became what we were and what
we are, that we could become what he is right now in the sight
of God. Perfect exchange. No sacrifice
could ever take away sin that was ever offered and ever will
be offered by any person on the face of this earth. But Christ's
sacrifice put away sin once and for all. Put it away. Gone. And let me show you something
and I'll wind it up. You've got to see this. Jeremiah
31-34. I told you, I mentioned this
this morning. Because of that sacrifice of
our Lord Jesus Christ, bearing our sins in his own body there
on that tree. Jeremiah 31, 34. Because of that sacrifice, God
doesn't remember our sins. And that's one of these paradoxes
that we deal with. We as believers in the gospel,
we understand, we believe it, that God put away all our sin,
past, present, and future. All of my sins were future when
Christ died on the cross. All of them were. And yet, at
the same time, we mourn over our sin, we grieve over our sin,
repent over our sin, even though we know they've all been put
away. Because we understand how ugly
it is now. Look at Hebrews 31, 34. Jeremiah
31, 34. What did I say that time? Pity me, pity me, pity me. And
they shall teach no more every man his neighbor, and every man
his brother, saying, Know the Lord, where they shall all know
me. From the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the
Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, And I will remember
their sin no more. I don't know who's the least,
and I don't know who's the greatest, but it don't make a big difference
to me as long as my sin's gone. And I tell you what, God would
not, could not, accept anything less. And there could be nothing
more than what Christ gives for a payment for sin. And he could
not and would not accept anything less for payment of sin than
the holy spotless son of his love. God made his soul an offering
for sin and is satisfied, is pleased with him and his offering.
And why shouldn't he be? Now let me ask you this. Are
you satisfied with it? Are you satisfied with it? Are
you satisfied with the death of Christ and who it was that
died? Are you satisfied with it? I
am. I really, really am. I ain't
looking for nothing else. Don't want nothing else. If that
pleases God, oh my, it just makes me happy all over. Don't you,
Brad? Oh, bless these men. Oh, our Father, our Father, in
the blessed, glorious name of our Lord Jesus, thank you, Lord,
for becoming obedient even to the death of the cross. And Father,
now there is a multitude of people, some in this building here now,
that we bow our knees and confess that you are Lord, to the glory
of God our Father. We exalt your name. We bless
your name. We praise your name. We bow to
your name. Gladly, joyfully, thankfully. And bless you. Oh, blessed be
your name. Thank you for this great, great
love. Thank you for the great, great
sacrifice. Thank you for bearing our sins
there in your body. Thank you for putting them away.
Thank you for sending the Holy Spirit and making Christ alive
and real and vital to us. God bless the hearts of these
saints tonight. They go to their jobs, go to
their homes, pray for their children, pray for their homes, pray for
grace to be given to them in abundance. And Lord, I pray for
Mary and that you continue to strengthen her. Pray for Rupert. God bless his body. Give him
strength in his body. And Lord, for others among us
who are weak and are traveling, please be with them, protect
and preserve them until we can worship again. We ask these things
in Christ our Lord's name. Amen. Amen.