Well, good evening, everyone. If you would care to open your Bibles with me, I'll be reading from Psalm 130. Psalm 130. This is what's called a psalm of degrees. And I always appreciate in this psalm how David starts out in the depths. and then he ends up on the mountaintop of redemption.

He says in verse one, out of the depths, have I cried unto thee, O Lord. Lord, hear my voice. Let thine ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications. If thou, Lord, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand? But there is forgiveness with thee that thou mayest be feared. I wait for the Lord. My soul doth wait. And in his word do I hope. My soul waited for the Lord more than they that watch for the morning. I say more than they that watch for the morning. Let Israel hope in the Lord, for with the Lord there is mercy, and with him is plenteous redemption. He shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities. All right, Sean. If you would, turn in your hymnal to song number 282. Hiding in the 282.

Oh, save to the rock that is higher than I, my soul in its conflicts and sorrows would fly. So sinful, so weary, thine, thine would I be. Thou blessed rock of ages, I'm hiding in thee. Hiding in Thee, Hiding in Thee, Thou blessed Rock of Ages, I'm hiding in Thee. In the calm of the noon, Tied in sorrow's lone hour, In times when temptation Cast o'er me its power, In the tempest of life, on its wide-heaving sea, Thou blessed Rock of Ages, I'm hiding in Thee. Hiding in Thee, Hiding in Thee, Thou blessed Rock of Ages, I'm hiding in Thee. How often the conflict, when pressed by the foe, I have fled to my refuge and breathed out my woe. How often, when trials like sea billows roll, have I hidden in thee, O thou rock of my soul, hiding in thee.

Okay, if you would now turn to song number 242, and we'll sing Jesus I Come. 242. Out of my bondage, sorrow, and night, Jesus I come, Jesus I come, Into thy freedom, gladness, and light, Jesus, I come to thee. Out of my sickness, into thy health, Out of my want and into thy wealth, Out of my sin and into thyself, Jesus, I come to thee. Out of my shameful failure and loss, Jesus, I come, Jesus, I come into thy glorious vein of thy cross. Jesus, I come to thee.

Out of earth's sorrows, into thy balm. Out of life's storms, and into thy calm. Out of distress to jubilant song, Jesus, I come to Thee. Out of unrest and arrogant pride. Jesus, I come. Jesus, I come. Into thy blessed will to abide. Jesus, I come to thee out of myself to dwell in thy love, out of despair into raptures above. Upward foray, on wings like a dove, Jesus, I come to Thee. Out of the fear and dread of the tomb. Jesus, I come. Jesus, I come. Into the joy and light of thy home, Jesus, I come to thee.

Out of the depths of ruin untold, Into the peace of thy sheltering fold, Ever thy glorious face to behold, Jesus, I come to thee. Thank you, Sean, I love that song. All right, let's open our Bibles, if you would, to Exodus chapter 29. Exodus chapter 29, we'll begin reading in verse 35.

And thus shalt thou do unto Aaron and to his sons, according to all things which I have commanded thee. Seven days shalt thou consecrate them, and thou shalt offer every day a bullock for a sin offering for atonement, and thou shalt cleanse the altar when thou hast made an atonement for it, and thou shalt anoint it to sanctify it. Seven days thou shalt make an atonement for the altar and sanctify it, and it shall be an altar most holy. Whatsoever toucheth the altar shall be holy.

Now this is that which thou shalt offer upon the altar two lambs of the first year, day by day continually. The one lamb thou shalt offer in the morning, and the other lamb thou shalt offer at even. And with the one lamb, a tenth deal of flour mingled with the fourth part of a hen of beet and oil, and the fourth part of a hen of wine for a drink offering. And the other lamb thou shalt offer at even, and thou shalt do thereto according to the meat offering of the morning, and according to the drink offering thereof, for a sweet savor, an offering made by fire unto the Lord.

This shall be a continual burnt offering throughout your generations at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation before the Lord, where I will meet you to speak there unto thee. And there I will meet with the children of Israel, and the tabernacle shall be sanctified by my glory, And I will sanctify the tabernacle of the congregation and the altar. I will sanctify also both Aaron and his sons to minister to me in the priest's office. And I will dwell among the children of Israel and will be their God. And they shall know that I am the Lord their God that brought them forth out of the land of Egypt, that I may dwell among them. I am the Lord their God. Thank God for his word. Let's bow before our Lord together.

Our father, I thank you that this is the day appointed where we can meet together with our brothers and sisters. And the father to be enabled by thy spirit to worship your matchless name. Father, what a blessed privilege. We thank you for it. I pray that you never let it Let us take it for granted that you meet with your people where the gospel is being preached, that we can meet together and worship you to hear the glorious gospel of your son. How that he did for his sinful people what no one else would ever do and what no one else could do to redeem us from all of our sins. to call us to Christ, to give us faith to believe him, to give us a heart that loves him, that hungers and thirsts after him, that you've given us a soul that is refreshed when we hear the gospel of Christ preached. Father, we're so thankful.

And Father, I pray that you would be pleased to meet with us this evening, that you bless your word. Father, first and foremost, to your glory. And Father, it'll be for our good if you would enable us to see the glory of Christ our Savior, that he is perpetually, always, eternally everything that we need. And Father, the blessing that we pray for ourselves, we pray for your people everywhere they're meeting together this evening. Father, bless for your great namesake. Bless your word.

Cause it to go forth in this dark, dark day. in which we live, shine as a light in a dark place, that Father, people would see your glory, and that you'd cause them to run to the Lord Jesus Christ. Father, we pray for the sick and afflicted among us, those who cannot be with us this evening. Father, we pray that you'd touch their bodies, that you'd heal them, that you'd comfort them, be with them, and that you might be pleased to return them soon that we may worship Thee together.

And Father, I thank you for this congregation. I thank you for the love that you've given us one to another. Father, always cause us to be a help and encouragement one to another. As we travel through this veil of tears here below, that you'd cause us to be a help and an encouragement, not make the journey more difficult than it has to be. Father, all these things we ask and we give thanks in that name which is above every name, the name of Christ our Savior. It's in his name for his sake and his glory we pray.

Amen. Now because of the weather and my illness, I have had this message prepared for some time and it has It's just been such a blessing to me. I'm excited to bring it this evening. I pray that the Lord will make it a special blessing to you as it has been to me as I've looked at it for a couple of weeks.

We've been looking at this very detailed ceremony, how the high priest is to be consecrated so that he's able to serve the Lord, and how that's a picture of Christ, our great high priest, how the Father consecrated him to be the Savior of his people, to be the high priest of his people.

And I wanna look at all these verses in light of the beginning here of verse 42, that says, this shall be a continual burnt offering throughout your generations at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation before the Lord, where I will meet you to speak there unto thee. Now, this is to be a continual burnt offering. It's something that they don't just do once, it's continually, constantly repeated, morning and evening, day after day after day, month after month, year after year, this is constantly being repeated. And when the Lord gives this commandment, that the ceremony to consecrate the high priest is to be redone every time there's a new high priest, and these sacrifices are to be offered every single day, morning and evening.

The Lord's not putting a burden on his people by giving them this constant sacrifices and things that they are to do, a continual burnt offering. It's not a burden at all. He's giving us a glorious picture of Christ, our great high priest. And this is what I hope that we all see from this text tonight.

No matter how sinful we are, And you know, we're much more sinful than we think we are. But when the Lord gives us some glimpse of it and we feel under the weight of sin and the weight of the guilt of sin, no matter how sinful we are, there is a perpetual burnt offering that is always able to put away the sin of God's people.

I don't care how sinful we are. I don't care how unfaithful we are. I don't care how many mistakes that we make. There is always, perpetually, a high priest who is ever living, making intercession for his people. I don't care how needy we find ourselves to be.

Perpetually, always, Christ is everything that we need. He has been from eternity. He will be through this life and He will be in the time to come. Christ is everything that we need. Now you think of the blessing of that. You know, we're all in this flesh and we would like to always be content with whatever we have and not want something more. And we don't. There's things that we would all like to have, you know, that we don't have or whatever. But really and truly, If God's given us faith in Christ, you have everything, everything that you need.

You think of that. Everything that the infinite, eternal God has to give to sinners is yours. If Christ died for you, you think of that. What a glorious, glorious blessing this is. And it comes from this continual burnt offering that Christ's blood is always sufficient.

That's the old thing they used to tell you in speech class. You know, tell people what you're going to tell them, then tell them, and then tell them what you already told them. Well, that's how I'm going to start out. But here's the first thing about this continual burnt offering. I want us to see, is Christ the continual high priest?

In verse 35, the Lord says, and thus shalt thou do unto Aaron and his sons according to all things which I commanded thee. Seven days shalt thou consecrate them. They went through this whole ceremony of the sin offering and the burn offering and putting on the attire and sprinkling the blood. They did this every day for seven days before the high priest was consecrated to serve the Lord in that office.

Seven, you know, is the number of perfection. I seldom like to get into numerology, but this is one I know. Seven is the number of perfection. This ceremony that is repeated for seven days, it's a picture of the perfection of Christ, our great high priest. He is perfect. Perfect. You and I are the exact opposite of that. We're completely sinful. We're completely imperfect. And yet this perfect high priest loves his imperfect, sinful people perfectly and eternally, so that he will always love his people. Christ himself is perfect, but you know, this also gives us a picture of how he makes his people perfect. Verse 36.

And thou shalt offer every day a bullock for a sin offering for atonement. And thou shalt cleanse the altar when thou hast made an atonement for it, and thou shalt anoint it to sanctify him. Seven days, Thou shalt make an atonement for the altar and sanctify it. And it should be an altar most holy. Whatsoever toucheth the altar shall be holy.

Now, this was under the Old Testament law. Today, we don't have an altar, do we? I mean, we do, but we don't have one down here made of stone and we're offering animals and so forth upon it. Christ is our altar, isn't he? That's what the writer to the Hebrews tells us.

And this altar that was holy, it was set apart for holy use. It was set apart for these sacrifices that are pictures of Christ. And those sacrifices were holy, because they touched this altar. As soon as they touched that altar, they were holy. They were set apart for holy use. They were pictures of Christ, our perfect, holy sacrifice. Christ, our altar, is holy. He's holy in his nature. He can't do anything unholy. He's holy in action. He's holy in thought. Unlike this altar made of stone, he's not just set apart for holy use. He is actually holy. Let me show you that in Hebrews chapter seven. You may want to mark the book of Hebrews. We're going to turn back and forth to it a few times this evening. Hebrews chapter seven. For such a high priest became us who is holy. He's harmless, he's undefiled, he's separate from sinners, made higher than the heavens.

Who needeth not daily as those high priests to offer up sacrifice first for his own sins and then for the people's. For this he did once when he offered up himself. Christ offered up himself. He's the high priest. The perfect, holy, harmless high priest who offered himself the perfect, holy, sinless sacrifice upon himself as the altar, the holy, perfect altar. And by that sacrifice, he made his people holy. Everybody he touches is made holy because he's taken their sin away. Christ, the holy high priest, makes his people holy. He takes their sin away from them and gives them a holy nature.

Now that's something Aaron and his sons could never do. They did it in a picture, but Christ does it actually for his people. You know, scripture says without holiness, no man shall see the Lord. If you trust Christ, God's given you what you need to see the Lord. He's given you a holy nature. What a gift.

But now, this is a ceremony for the high priest. Every time that high priest died, well, his son would take his place, but they had to do the same ceremony all over again. Seven days, they had to go through this ceremony so that a new high priest was sanctified and able to ordain to serve the Lord in the office of a high priest. He had to be hollowed all over again, the same way that the old high priest was. You know why they had to do that ceremony over and over and over again to ordain a new high priest? Because he had to be a picture of Christ, our perpetual high priest, Christ, our eternal high priest. If you're still there in Hebrews chapter seven, look up at verse 22. By so much was Jesus made a surety of a better Testament.

And they truly were many priests because they were were not suffered to continue by reason of death. But this man, because he continueth ever, he's the perpetual high priest, hath an unchangeable priesthood. Wherefore, he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth. He perpetually lives, he always lives to make intercession for his people. We have a perpetual, eternal high priest. He's seated on the throne of heaven and he's ruling and reigning everything in his creation so that in the end, when God's appointed time comes, he'll gather all of his people to himself and take them to be with him that we might see him as he is and behold his glory. And while he's sitting on that throne, he ever lives.

You know what he's doing right now? He's making intercession for us. We might think this is the most sinless thing that we've done all week, coming together to worship, reading the Holy Bible, the Holy Word of God, and it's so full of sin, oh my soul. But it's accepted because Christ, our high priest, is the perpetual high priest, making intercession for us. Now hang on to that, hang on to this, and take advantage of it, enjoy it. I don't care how bad it looks. I don't care how downtrodden we feel. We have a high priest who's making intercession for us.

Now, I know we can't see him with these eyes like the children of Israel could see Aaron. I mean, you could see Aaron offering these sacrifices, making intercession for you. We can't see Christ with these eyes making intercession for us, can we? But he's so much better than Aaron was just offering the blood of bulls and goats that are pictures of Christ.

Christ pleads his own precious blood that always forgives the sin of all of his people. Thank God we have a perpetual high priest. Number two, if you look back in our text, there's Christ, the continual sacrifice in verse 38. Now this is that which thou shalt offer upon the altar.

Two lambs of the first year day by day continually. The one lamb thou shalt offer in the morning and the other lamb thou shalt offer it even. And the one lamb a 10th deal of flour mingled with the fourth part of a hen of beet and oil and the fourth part of a hen of wine for a drink offering. And the other lamb thou shalt offer it even and thou shalt do thereto according to the meat offering of the morning. and according to the drink offering thereof, for a sweet savor, an offering made by fire unto the Lord.

Now this had to be done, these sacrifices, morning and evening, they had to be done continually. They offered these sacrifices for sin continually. And you know why they had to do it again? They offered the sacrifice in the morning, why'd they have to do it again in the evening? Why'd they have to do it again the next morning and the next evening? Because those sacrifices could never take away sin.

And it shows us we constantly need a sacrifice. We constantly need a sacrifice that will forgive our sin. And Christ is so much better than all these sacrifices. His one sacrifice was able to pay the sin debt of all of his people. A number that no man can number so that our sin is always forgiven because we In this sense, we have a continual sacrifice. The blood of Christ is always fresh and powerful to cleanse us from all of our sin. Look back at Hebrews chapter 10. Hebrews chapter 10, verse nine. Then said he, lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second.

By the witch will, we're sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. No need for it to be repeated, once got the job done. And every priest standeth daily, ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which could never take away sins. But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down, on the right hand of God, from henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool. For by one offering, he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified."

By one offering. Because of the sacrifice of Christ. Of all the things, I mentioned earlier the things that we feel like we want and we need. Of all the things that we think we need, This is our greatest need, the forgiveness of sin. We need to have our sin forgiven.

And the sacrifice of Christ is always fresh and effectual. It never becomes ineffectual because it became stale. So there's no need for these continual animal sacrifices. Verse 18 says, now where remission of these is, there's no more offering for sin. We don't have to have another offering for sin because the one sacrifice of Christ put away all of the sin of all of his people.

So that when the Father looks at you and me, if Christ died for us, he sees no sin. I mean, when I look at myself, I'm so disappointed. I'm so full of sin. And like I said, I don't even see, I'm just scratching the surface. But the father who sees everything, sees no sin in his people because of the blood of Christ.

Read on verse 20. By a new and living way, which he had consecrated for us through the veil, that is to say, his flesh. And that phrase, a new and living way, means a freshly slaughtered way. The blood of Christ is always fresh, always powerful. There is a sense in which the blood of Christ was shed before the foundation of the world. The lamb slain from before the foundation of the world in eternity before God ever created anything, before God ever said, let there be light, the blood was shed. Christ, the lamb slain from the foundation of the world.

And however long ago that was, it's still as fresh today as it was then. Then in time, 2,000 years ago, Christ shed his blood on Calvary's tree. That blood came out of his body, dripped down that cross, dripped down his body, dripped into the ground, and put away all of the sin of all of his people. And 2,000 years later, it's still as fresh and powerful as it ever was. The continual sacrifice Someone who continually sins, don't they need a continual sacrifice? I mean, this is good news. The songwriter said, dear dying lamb, thy precious blood shall never lose its power.

To all the ransomed church of God be saved, to sin no more. And if you look back in our text, Exodus 29 verse 34, you'll see this, not a drop, of the blood of Christ is wasted. He didn't shed his blood for anyone that's gonna wind up in hell. He didn't shed his blood for anyone who will ever be found guilty. There's not a drop of his blood that was wasted. Verse 34 gives us a picture of that.

And if aught of the flesh of the consecrations or of the bread remain until the morning, then thou shalt burn the remainder with fire. It shall not be eaten, because it's holy. Not a drop of the blood of Christ was wasted. So, again, I say, take advantage of this. Hang on to this and take advantage of this blessing.

It'll ease so many of your worries. Sandy and Sean and I are talking before the service about what time of day it is, whether it's you're trying to go to sleep at night or, that's when it is for me, Sandy, I'm trying to go to sleep at night. I got to have something to keep me awake all night, trying to solve all the world's problems. And this is where you got to come to when you're trying to solve all the world's problems.

If Christ died for you, you got no problems. I mean, you've got no problems. You are saved and you could never be lost. You're cleansed and you could never be made filthy again. You're forgiven and you can never be charged with sin again. You're righteous and you can never be unrighteous again. You're accepted and you'll never be unaccepted. Always accepted in Christ because his blood is always perpetually effective.

I don't care how sinful we are. And we should be ashamed of ourselves. I mean, we probably ought to be ashamed of ourselves more often than we are. But this is what you gotta come back to. The blood of Christ is always powerful enough to pay my sin debt, a perpetual sacrifice.

Then thirdly, there's Christ, our perpetual object of worship. Verse 42, and this shall be a continual burnt offering throughout your generations at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation before the Lord. where I will meet you, to speak there unto thee. And there I will meet with thee, with the children of Israel, and the tabernacle shall be sanctified by my glory. The Lord says in this place, in this tabernacle, where this sacrifice is offered, the tabernacle that we looked at in previous weeks, it's all a picture of Christ. And God says, there I'll meet with thee. in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, I'll meet with thee. And he's not gonna meet with us in destruction. He's not gonna meet with us in judgment to destroy us. He's gonna meet with us and speak to us. I don't even feel like I should comment on that.

That is so high and holy that here as we open God's word, and we seek to worship Him, we seek to preach the gospel, Almighty God is speaking to His people. And this is such a precious promise. Now, I've told you this before. You know, oftentimes we find prayer difficult, don't we? Because we don't know what we should ask for, as we ought. You know, am I asking for this in the will of the Lord? Is this really, you know, God's will? Should I really be praying for this?

I tell you how you always know that you're on solid ground. Pray for what the Lord already promised. He said there, I'll meet you and I'll speak to you. We'd be doing each other a great favor if every one of us, before we started driving to this building on Sundays and Wednesdays, would pray and say, Lord, now you promised you'd meet with us there. You promised that you'd speak to us there. Lord, don't let me just hear the words of a man. Lord, you speak to me. Meet with us here and enable us to worship.

Because I'm telling you this, we've met in vain if Christ doesn't meet with us. Isn't that true? If he's not here, we've met in vain. But yet he promised that he would. The Father promised that he would meet with us and accept us as long as we come to him through his son. Look back over at 2 Samuel chapter nine. We have a good picture of that here. 2 Samuel chapter nine. Will always be accepted for Christ's sake.

This is the story of David and Mephibosheth. And David didn't show mercy. to Mephibosheth. He didn't seek Mephibosheth out. He didn't show mercy to him. He didn't shower him with all these blessings because Mephibosheth was something else. The Lord showered, David showered all this upon Mephibosheth for Jonathan's sake, because he made a promise to Jonathan. That's why Mephibosheth was blessed. And you and I, if God's going to bless us, it's because he made a promise to his son. And as long as we come to him through his son, we'll be accepted.

Now you know the story, poor old Mephibosheth is down there hiding out, he's lame, he's dirty, he stinks, his beard's not trimmed, and he is hiding from David. I mean, the last thing Mephibosheth wants to see is David's face, because he figures David will kill him. He's the heir to the throne of the previous king, he figures David will kill him.

He's hiding, and David calls and says, bring Mephibosheth to me. Where am I at, verse five. Then King David sent, and he fetched him. He fetched Mephibosheth out of the house of Maker, the son of Amiel from Lodabar. Now when Mephibosheth, the son of Jonathan, the son of Saul, was coming to David, he fell on his face and did reverence. And David said, Mephibosheth? And he answered, behold, thy servant.

I mean, you just see him, can't you? He is so afraid to look up. He's so afraid to look at David in the face. He just knows he's getting ready to be hung or have his head cut off or whatever they did. And David said unto him the same thing the Lord says to us so often, fear not, fear not, for I will surely show thee kindness for Jonathan thy father's sake. To ever hear God say to us, fear not, I'm gonna show you kindness for Christ's sake. That's the best words you could ever hear. I'll be merciful to you for Christ's sake, and I will restore thee all the land of Saul, thy father, and thou shalt eat bread at my table continually.

And he bowed himself and said, what is thy servant that thou shouldest look upon such a dead dog as I am? Then David calls Ziba and repeats to Ziba the promise that he made to Mephibosheth. And then here's how it ended. Verse 12. And Mephibosheth had a young son whose name was Micah, and all that dwelt in the house of Ziba were servants unto Mephibosheth.

So Mephibosheth dwelt at Jerusalem, for he did eat continually at the king's table, and was lame on both his feet." He was still lame on both his feet. He still couldn't do anything to add to David's riches. He still couldn't do anything to add to David's glory, but he ate continually, perpetually at the king's table. for Jonathan's sake, for Jonathan's sake.

You know, so often it's just this, this nature, this sin nature that we dwell with. I'm telling you, I'm so tired of it. I'm so tired of fighting with myself every day. It's this sin nature that makes us think, God will bless me if I do this right. And I do this right. And I do this right. And I'm faithful to him this way. And I serve him this way. why the Lord's gonna bless me. I hope the Lord never deals with me or you on the basis of what we've done. It's always for Christ's sake.

And even though we're still lame on both our feet, we can't do one thing to add to the glory of God. We can't do one thing to add to his riches and his fame, and we're still lame on both of our feet. But we're gonna eat continually at the king's table. You know what's on the king's table? Christ. We'll eat that continually for Christ's sake.

And he goes on, look back in our text, verse 44. He says, not only will I meet with you, I'm not just going to meet with you and speak to you once in a while. I'm going to dwell with you. Verse 44. And I will sanctify the tabernacle of the congregation and the altar. And I will sanctify also both Aaron and his sons to minister to me in the priest's office, and I will dwell among the children of Israel, and I will be their God. God dwells with his people. You know how he dwells with his people? I know God's everywhere. He's all around us. He's everywhere you look. He's in everything that you see, but in a special way with his people. You know how God dwells with his people?

Look at 1 Corinthians chapter 6. And since that's true, we know it is because we read it plainly in the word of God. If God dwells in, again, I just feel foolish even trying to comment on such a glorious gift that God in the person of his spirit dwells in the hearts of his people. If the spirit dwells in you, What more do you want? What more do you need? The heavens cannot contain God, yet he dwells in the hearts of his people.

And since that's true, shouldn't we be kind of careful what we do with these bodies? They're the temple of God. That's what Paul says. Look here at 1 Corinthians 6, verse 19. What? Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, which is in you, which ye have of God, and you're not your own, for you're bought with the price. Therefore, glorify God in your body and your spirit, which are gods. They're both gods. You know, I was reading this this afternoon, and this made me so happy.

Frank, you're not your own. It's not up to me to get me from here to glory. It's not up to me to get me from here to the end of my journey here, but I'm not mine. I belong to Christ. It's up to Him. I'd a whole lot rather this thing be in His hand than mine, wouldn't you?

What a blessing that God would dwell in you and allow us, sinful as though we might be, to glorify Him both in our body and our spirit. You think of the blessing it is to be able to glorify God by worshiping Him. It's too much for human language. And when God talks to His people, look back at our text, verse 46.

We'll close with this. There's some things we're gonna know. There's some things we're gonna know. And one of them is this. we're gonna know that He redeemed us. Verse 46, and they shall know that I am the Lord their God that brought them forth out of the land of Egypt, that I may dwell among them. I am the Lord their God. Now there's no doubt about this.

You know, we were talking before the service about how you gotta get a little older before you realize you don't know nothing. And getting a little older before you realize how many things that you don't know. And I find that the more I read and study the scriptures, and I hope I'm learning something, I guess, and I see some more of the Lord that I didn't see before, but the more I read and study, the more I realize how much I don't know about the Lord.

Just like your darling son, I remember being so cocksure. I had every answer, and I knew everything. And buddy, all you had to do was give me an opportunity to tell you. I'll tell you what you ought to know. Now, I mean, I don't know. Somebody asked me about something. My first response is always, I don't know. I don't know.

But just because there are a lot of things I don't know, that the Lord has not been pleased to reveal to me about himself, this is what I know. I know this. God saved me by his grace. He set me free from the land of Egypt. He set me free from the power of my sin, and I know this, he saved me. He did all the saving. I did all the sinning, he did all the saving, and he saved me all by himself. by His purpose, for His grace, by His doing, for His praise.

And I can say with Paul, now I don't know everything there is to know about God, but I know whom I have believed. I know it. I know Him. That's why I'm persuaded that He's able to keep that which I've committed unto Him against that day. And He is the continual Savior. And I'm so thankful just to be able to trust Him alone And here's that last thing. At the end of the verse, I know this. He said, I am the Lord, their God. I don't know why. I don't know why the Lord would be pleased to do it. It's a mystery to me, but I know this. I belong to the king. I'm his. I am his. And we continually learn this because I'm his. You know what?

He's gonna do with me as he pleases. And it'll be right, and it'll be good. I was talking to a dear, dear pastor friend of mine the other day, and he said, you know, the Lord's the first cause of everything. And if he did it, it's right, and it's good. Sometimes I might wish he didn't do it, But he did it for good. And you know what?

I can't talk back to him about it, can you? If I belong to him and I'm happy to belong to him, he's gonna do with me as he pleases. What is all that gonna be in the next time every years I got left in this life? I got no idea. But I know where it's gonna end up, don't you? Because Christ our continual high priest And I go back to where I started. I don't care how bad it looks. I don't care how bad you feel. I don't care how deep down in the hole that you think you are. We have a continual high priest who hears his people and answers his people and because he has already saved them by his sacrifice. All right.

I hope the Lord bless that to you and comfort your heart with it. Let's bow together. Father, how we thank you for Christ, our continual, perpetual high priest. We thank you for his perpetual sacrifice, the sacrifice that is always able to cleanse us from all of our sin and make us accepted in thy sight. He's always able to save to the uttermost all that come unto God by him. Father, we're so thankful.

This thrills our hearts and our souls. Father, I pray that you would put it in our hearts. Let us take this glorious good news home with us. Let us feed on it. Let us take it with us through the rest of the week to comfort our souls, to thrill our hearts, to lead us and guide us in the way that we should go. Pray that you'd return us again Sunday. and beg that you might be pleased once again to meet with us and speak to us here. Father, it's in Christ's name, for his sake and his glory, we pray, amen. All right, Sean. Don't normally change our last song, but I think we'll sing 275, I Belong to the King, as we close our service tonight. Stand as we sing. I belong to the king. I'm a child of his love. I shall dwell in his palace so For he tells of its bliss in yon heaven above, And his children its splendor shall share. I belong to the king. I'm a child of his love.

And he never forsaketh his own. He will call me someday to his palace above. I shall dwell by His glorified throne. I belong to the King, and He loves me, I know, for His mercy and kindness so free. are unceasingly mine, wheresoever I go, and my refuge unfailing is He. I belong to the King. I'm a child of His love. and he never forsaketh his own.

He will call me someday to his palace above. I shall dwell by his glorified throne. I belong to the king and his promise is sure that we all shall be gathered at last in his kingdom above by life's water so pure. when this life with its trials is past. I belong to the King, I'm a child of His love, and He never forsaketh His own. He will call me someday to his palace above. I shall dwell by his glorified throne.