And on each family, so many of these folks in your prairie, on each family lost a loved one. Anything else? Oh, remember Ron. Ronald James. They think the place on his heel might be healing, so that's encouraging. I remember him in your prayers also. And Gary Shepard's son, Matthew. He's been no change. unconscious for what, three days now? Unconscious, he's on a ventilator. And they really don't know what's gonna happen. They don't know whether he's gonna live or die. So remember Gary and his family in your prayers. You will.

Okay, let's begin our worship service with hymn number 222. There is a fountain filled with blood drawn from Emmanuel's veins. There is a fountain filled with blood from the Father and the Son ♪ And say that one more thing in thankful ♪ ♪ Who's on the guilty stage ♪ ♪ Who's on the guilty stage ♪ ♪ Who's on the guilty stage ♪ And sailing would, beneath that flood, Lose all their guilty stains. The dying king rejoiced to see That fountain in his tomb.

And there may I go around with you, wash all my sins away. Wash all my sins away. Wash all my sins away. Mary, I know Thou hast healed, washed all my sins away! For Thou, Ye Man, Thine precious blood, shall never be defiled! Now follow the ransomed church of God, be saved to sin no more! Be saved to sin no more! Be saved to sin no more! Will all the ransomed gentlemen be safe to sing no more?

In the cities my faith I saw on the street, I thought they would survive. The easy road has been my fleet, and shall be till I die, and shall be till I die, and shall be till I die. Creating love has been my thing, and shall be till I die. Three visions for which these men returned, I've silently ever prayed.

I'll sing thy power to save I'll sing thy power to save I'll sing thy power to save William Cowper wrote that song. If you know something about his life, you can understand the lyrics a little better. This week may apply to everybody, but Cowper suffered from great depression. He was a very melancholy man and broken most of his life. So he writes songs like this. And then an older, sweeter song. I'll sing that part of the song. You can relate somewhat. The man is in despair.

After scripture reading and prayer was seen in number 258, Lenny's favorite hymn. Romans chapter 4. You believe God concerning the seed in Genesis chapter 15 about a great nation coming from Him, knowing that the time did pass that He and Sarah were unable to bear children, didn't alter His belief that God would keep His promise. In verse 21 it says, to perform, and therefore it was imputed to him for righteousness.

Now it was not written for his sake alone that it was imputed to him, but for us also, to whom it shall be imputed that we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead, who was delivered for our offenses and raised for our justification. our Father in Heaven, we rejoice to know of our risen Lord, who rose from the grave victorious, having accomplished the salvation, the redemption, the justification and sanctification of His people by His bloody sacrifice offered unto you. power and the message of our Lord rising from the dead.

Help us, Lord, this day to rejoice in Him who is worthy of all praise and honor and glory, as we sit at Thy right hand, having accomplished the salvation of His elect and ever Lord, we thank you for grace and mercy for sinners such as we are, knowing full well, having been revealed what we are by your grace. And apart from your grace and mercy, there will be no hope for us at all.

And we thank you for saving our souls. We pray for those who are sick, going through trials and tribulations, those who've lost loved ones. For these poor folk that have been added to our prayer list, we ask Lord you would intervene for them. Turn their eyes to Jesus Christ. We know that our life is a laborer. Those faster than the weavers, Our days are numbered, our months would be, our bounds are set and we cannot pass.

Give us grace, Father, to live today, to honor and glorify your name. Enable me to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ. Fill my mind and heart with the words that you would have me speak. and caused me to say right things concerning thee. Help us to worship you this day, as we consider the greatness of our Savior. Help us now, we pray in Christ's name. A wonderful Savior is Jesus my Lord, a wonderful Savior to me. He hath my soul in the cleft of the cross, where rivers of pleasure I see. We rise. me. O Savior, who is Jesus my Lord, retain my burden away. Behold the young man I shall renew, be filled with strength as I may.

Behind my soul, in the glen, in the bar, at shadows of dark, thirsty land. Behind my life, in the dance of His love, man burrows, He there with His hand. ♪ And girl, will you ever be free? ♪ ♪ With the flesh, it is holy ground, ♪ ♪ And filled with glorious revives, ♪ ♪ I sing my rational glory to God, ♪ Who pours such a making bird as mine? Here I, with my soul, in the cleft of the rock, At shadows of my thirsty land. Behind my life, in the depths of His love, and come deliver me this day! And come deliver me this day! When glorified in His glory I rise to be enthroned on the sky His perfect salvation, His wonderful love I'll shout for millions on high there.

Let us pray. Father, again, we approach in the name of Jesus Christ, our great Savior, He who is exalted because He accomplished the work of salvation. He whom you've given freely to your people and with them freely given them all things. We thank you, Father, that this great scheme of salvation was accomplished wholly by the triune Godhead. Help us to appreciate what you've done for us. Ever cause our hearts and minds to be set upon the cross of Jesus Christ and what he did, and the fact that he rose from the grave victorious to his sin at thy right hand. show some sense of what we've been given to pray in Christ's name. Amen. ♪♪ And carry me to my peace. And carry me to my peace. And carry me to my peace. And carry me to my peace. Unless you've been living in a vacuum, you know that today religion will celebrate the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ.

I like to watch YouTube, I like to watch stuff about World War II, especially the aircraft that flew during that time. And I noticed yesterday as I was looking through, there was a whole lot of references on YouTube to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. So it's all over the place, on the news, it's in people's minds. I went to get a haircut the other day, and the lady who gave me a haircut said, sunrise service. I knew what I wanted to say, but she had scissors in her head, so I'll just say it. The resurrection of Jesus Christ is paramount in the understanding of the scriptures.

When Paul wrote his first book to the Corinthian church, there was issues in that church, and one of them was that many of them didn't believe in the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. Among the Jewish religion, there were some that believed in the resurrection. The Pharisees believed in the resurrection, but the Sadducees did not. But Paul made it an issue throughout his teaching. If you read his epistles, Paul attached so much to the resurrection.

He attached the lordship of Christ to his resurrection. where the Lord rose and resurrected that he might be Lord of the living and the dead. Here in this passage of scripture he ties justification and substitution to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. In Corinthians he wrote in verse chapter 15 which he says a great deal about He said, I preach the gospel to you, how Jesus Christ died according to the scriptures, that he was buried and rose again according to the scriptures. So the scriptures have taught the resurrection from the early days on in Genesis through Malachi.

And when you look at human history, and I'm not talking about the events of human history, I'm talking about the course of human history, there are two things or the measure of it, really. The first is the cross of Jesus Christ. All of human history worked toward that point in human history, that day in human history, those few hours on the cross of human history. And everything since then until the end of time looks back on that day and those hours on the cross. That's the central hinge of all human history, is what Jesus Christ did on the cross. Everything relates to him.

We tell our time by the fact that he's Lord over all. Anno Domini, A.D., means the year of the Lord. The year of the Lord. So when we tell our time, it's 11-something this morning in the year of our Lord, 2026. I noticed lately that they've been adding some other letters trying to dismiss Jesus Christ from telling time, but that's all right.

Let them do what they want. The fact that they want to resist that shows that that's the point where everything rests in this world. The resurrection and the blood of Jesus Christ was taught throughout the scriptures. You can't go anywhere without it. From Adam's sin, to the Lord killing those beasts to cover the sinful pair, to Noah's sacrifice and offering after the flood, to Abel's sacrifice in the Garden of Eden, to all the sacrifices all throughout scripture, to the Jewish religion that was given to the people on Sinai, and all those sacrifices. All of them pointed to one thing and pictured one person And that was Jesus Christ, the Son of God, giving Himself in the room instead for His people and securing their salvation forever.

This is what history is about. This is one of the reasons why we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them that are called according to His purpose, because it's all about Jesus Christ. It's all about Him. It's not about me. It's not about I. It's about Him.

I heard a preacher the other day say, in a sermon, he said, when you get to heaven, somebody asked the question, when you get to heaven, what if they ask you why you're there? He said, if any sentence begins with the word I or me, If someone were to ask if I go to heaven, why would I be there?

The only answer is Jesus Christ. And Abraham was a picture of God the Father, the Father of all nations. Abraham offered up his son, or meant to offer up his son. And here when Abraham's faithfulness is spoken of in reference to the righteousness that God infused to his people, it has to do with one thing, the seed. The Lord Jesus Christ, we know that in Galatians 3, he's the seed of Christ. Or he's the seed of God. He is God's only begotten son.

And when he gives the story of Abraham here in Romans chapter 4, he does give it just to give us some history, because he says this, that it was not spoken for his sake alone, that righteousness was imputed to him because he believed on the sea. It was also written for you, the people of God, which says, and therefore is imputed to him for righteousness. Now, it was not written for his sake alone, but was imputed to him that it was imputed to him but also for us also who too shall be imputed if we believe on him who raised us raised up Jesus from the dead who was delivered for our offenses and raised for Lord Jesus Christ puts two things in order here that are absolutely essential to our understanding of the gospel of Jesus Christ. That we have life before God because of what Christ did.

He was wounded for our transgressions it says. With his stripes we are healed. He was delivered for our offenses. He was delivered for our offenses. One people says, on account of our offenses, and that's true, that's the word for, is often used and referenced that way. For example, if you had a poster on the post office wall that said Malcolm James wanted for bank robbery, the word for would the fact that he robbed some banks. He was wounded for our offenses. He was delivered for our offenses. He was delivered.

That's the language of predestination, which Peter used in Acts chapter 2 in the message on Pentecost, when he said this about the Lord Jesus Christ. He says, him being delivered by the determined counsel and full knowledge of God. determinant counsel and foreknowledge of God.

Why would Christ do it? Christ came voluntarily. He was the voluntary surety for His people before the world began. What does that mean? That before the world began, God had chosen a people unto Himself, had chosen a people unto salvation for Himself, but out of love, and Christ out of love became their surety. What does that mean?

That means He signed their debts. It doesn't mean that he co-signed it where you might have to pay it again if he don't pay it. He signed the debt. When you as an elect of God came into this world, God never looked to you as accountable for paying your sin debt. Because before God, it wasn't your debt anymore. It was his debt. He had assumed our debt.

So when he came into this world, he came In that sense, owing God for our sin, owing the price that was to be paid, and that price was to be paid as death for the soul that sinneth it shall die. So the elect of God came into this world without an obligation to pay their sin debt because Jesus Christ as their surety, their eternal surety, had already assumed that debt.

And because of that, he was delivered by God, by the determinate counsel, by the predestinated, determinate, before-ordained counsel of God, to die in the room instead of his people. That's what our Lord said in Acts chapter 4. But actually, the church said it. After Peter was let out of prison, the church was rejoicing, and they said this in Acts chapter 4, that against the holy child Jesus, Both Pontius Pilate and Herod and the people and the Gentiles were gathered together for what to do whatsoever had aforeordained to be done. So that was all part of the determinate counsel of God.

They were acting in their own hatred and vehement vitriol against the Lord Jesus Christ. They excluded him. They said, we'll not have this man over here. They said, crucify him, let his blood be on my head. We don't care if you blame us. Why did they do that? Because they wanted to do it. They hated it. And they would do exactly what God had ordained for them to do. God put it in their mind to do that.

To kill his son. They didn't kill him, but their intent was to murder him. He survived the whole thing. He came out on the other side and died voluntarily. Gave up the ghost. He was delivered for our offenses. First Corinthians, 2 Corinthians 5, verse 21. He who knew no sin was made sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. He was made sin for us.

There are many who try to explain that. I hear preachers and see writings of preachers trying to explain what that means. Listen. The true place that you and I worship and reverence him is the place where he says things that we can never fully grasp. Think about it.

You want to explain the resurrection from the dead? Now a person who's been dead for three days can rise from the grave and be whole again and walk and be mysteriously able to go through walls and doors and appear in places where he wasn't there just before. You want to explain that? Why don't we believe it? Because the Bible says it. I ain't got no other reason for doing it. People will go to a site in Italy today, and they'll go there, and they'll look inside this so-called tomb that might have been the Joseph or Mary Matthews tomb, and they'll say, you know, it's full of wonder.

And that tomb is empty. There's nobody in there. And the one occupant of it stayed there only three days. Now they tried to keep him there. They put a stone over that hole and sealed it with a Roman seal. That stone, what does that represent? That's the law. That's the law. And with the purpose of the law and the reason for the law is like a stone over a grave or over That's what the law does. The law killeth. The law killeth. It's the letter. Killeth. Spirit makes men alive. What is that stone? That's the law. What happened? He who is the gospel rode that stone away. And so the believer says that though the law was applied to me, Jesus Christ rode that law away. And I'm no longer under the law. It can't keep me in the grave no more.

And that's why when it talks about the resurrection of Jesus Christ, it also talks about the believer's resurrection. That's how it's worded in Ephesians chapter 2. You were quickened together with Christ. By grace you are saved. I don't fully understand that, but boy, I love the sound of it. When Jesus Christ arose from the grave, we arose with Him. We arose with Him. What a wondrous thing. Death could not keep its prey. He tore the bars away. Our Lord is risen.

He was delivered for our offenses. He went to the cross to pay the debt that we owe. And then He went into the grave and took our sins into the grave with Him. And I blame and I guilt into the grave with Him. You left him there and he came forth alive. Why did he do that?

For our justification. What is justification? Justification is a legal term. It comes from the word justice or just. So God must be just in order to justify someone. What does that mean? He must get his payment. He must, if you will get his pound of flesh for our sin, he must get that. Because it's just. Should we die? Should we perish in an eternal hell? Should we be cast away from the Almighty forever? Yes.

We owe Him that. But our Lord, in His sacrifice, paid that debt. And so God is just. Why? I've got my payment, He said. So what's left for those who pour the pavement vate? It's just like a void. There must be righteousness accounted to their account. Again, people fuss about that. What does that mean? They say imparted, imputed, infused, things like that. No, don't bother with that. Don't bother with such theological mumbo-jumbo.

Here it is, Jesus Christ, the same who bore your sin, who took your sin upon his body on the tree, the very same Jesus God had made him to be unto us, wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. Here's the answer you have if someone asks you what your righteousness is before God. We all do fate as a leaf. Look at our congregation here. We have some young people, and I'm thankful we do. But there's a lot of gray hair in this outfit. How come? Because our life fades like a leaf. We're going away. We're going away.

But the resurrection guarantees something else. We live forever. He's not dead. He's asleep. And he'll be awakened one day. Why? Because I'm the resurrection. And the life. He that believeth on me shall never die. Shall never die. Raised for our justification.

That just term means this. If God has received payment for my sin, then I am not guilty before God. Justly. According to the law. I'm not guilty before God. Because the law has been satisfied. Therefore God cannot hold anything against me and does not hold anything against me. That's why it says in Romans chapter 3 that God is just to justify the ungodly. How? Because Jesus Christ was made to be saved for me.

He was set up or imputed to be our propitiation. Our satisfaction before God. And now he's risen. And that's proof to everyone who believes that we're justified before God. Justified before God. You as a child of God this morning, on this Easter Sunday, when everybody's talking about the resurrection, do you know what it means to you? Before God, I'm not guilty.

Before God, he was delivered for our offenses and Before God, Steve, it's just as if you've never seen Him. And you are, if you're like me, full of wonder in thinking about Him. A wonderful Savior is Jesus my Lord. What a wonderful Savior is He. He does hide my soul in the cleft of the rock. His ribbons hide it.

This is the thing that's been on my mind for several weeks now as I was considering this day. How long for that day when I won't be a sinner anymore? I remember my sin. My song in heaven will be worthy as the lamb that was slain that is redeemed as That'll be my song in heaven. I'll never forget that I was a sinner. But before God, I'm not a sinner now. I'm not guilty. I'm a sinner in myself. And I'm talking about how God sees me. You see, how God sees a thing is the way it is, not how we see it. As old Scott Rich used to say, I ain't worth a warm jar of spit. I'm not worth anything. I'm nothing. I'm dust and ashes.

You know what I am. And that's how you see me. But not how God sees me. Because of the blood of Jesus Christ, because he went to that cross, and went to that grave and rose from that grave and ascended on high and sits at the right hand of the Father having accomplished our sin and purged our sins according to Hebrews chapter 1. We stand before Him without sin.

God's not mad at you. He don't get mad at you. He's not looking for you to mess up so He'll bump you on the head. If you look for that, you wouldn't have a head. God's pleased with you. He's satisfied with His people, not because they're just special. It's because they're not. It's because of His grace and His mercy. And this is for you. Righteousness imputed to you because of the blood of Jesus Christ. He was delivered for our offenses. and raise for our justification. Have a wonderful day today.