In the spring of 1976, I was 11 years old. We moved to
Wheelersburg, Ohio near Ashland, Kentucky. In my wildest imagination,
I never thought I'd be standing here. But I'm honored and thankful. Got to spend the night with my
old Sunday school teacher. And even though he did get sick,
it was a rich blessing to me. I'm confident that every man
that comes and fills in for your pastor when he's gone says this,
but I cannot let it go unsaid. You know better than I what a
blessing he's been to us in Ashland and to me in particular. His
friendship and companionship in the gospel and his faithfulness
to preach Christ, his faithfulness to the word has been a blessing
and an example to me and I'm very thankful. If you would open
your Bibles to Numbers chapter 16, the title of the message
comes from the end of the chapter, he stood between the dead and
the living. And I want to preach this message
by God's grace and power of his spirit in such a way that when
I'm finished, we run to Christ. And we have to begin at the beginning
of the chapter so we see how dire the situation is. How dire
the situation is in our nature, in our flesh. This is how dire
the situation is. Any religion. I don't care, you
know, we typically think of sin as, like Brother Henry used to
say out in the honky-tonks and places like that. But I'm talking
about any religion. What men call religion. Any religion. that preaches salvation or hope
anywhere other than Christ alone and other than the atonement
that was made by the Lord Jesus Christ and his sacrifice alone
is rebellion. It's rebellion. But despite our
sin and our rebellion, There is salvation in the Lord Jesus
Christ. Despite our sin and our rebellion,
God sent the Savior to sinners. So let's begin in Numbers chapter
16, verse 41. I'm sorry, verse 1, verse 1.
I'm sorry. We'll get to verse 41 in just
a moment. Now Korah, the son of Izar, the son of Kohath, the
son of Levi, and Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab and on the
son of Pila, sons of Reuben, took men, and they rose up before
Moses with certain of the children of Israel, 250 princes of the
assembly, famous in the congregation, men of renown. And they gathered
themselves together against Moses and against Aaron and said unto
them, you take too much upon you, seeing all the congregation
are holy, every one of them, and the Lord is among them. Wherefore
then lift ye up yourselves above the congregation of the Lord,
Now these men are rebelling against Moses and Aaron, and really what
they're doing is rebelling against the Lord. But these men aren't
just nobodies. These are men of renown in Israel,
men who are respected by the people, leaders in Israel. Korah
is a Levite. He's the cousin of Moses and
Aaron. And they come to Moses and Aaron, and they said, We're
just as good as you. Everybody's fit to be priests
and leaders. There's nothing special about
you that you'd be the leader of this whole nation. And most
of Israel followed Korah in this rebellion. And it shows us the
importance of sound leadership, how easily people are led astray. But look in verse four, look
at, here's this, this is a rebellion. Look at Moses' reaction to this
rebellion. He prayed. And when Moses heard
it, he fell upon his face and he prayed. And you can read the
rest of these verses this afternoon if you like, but look at verse
19. This is how the Lord is going
to respond to this rebellion. And Korah gathered all the congregation
against them under the door of the tabernacle of the congregation.
And the glory of the Lord appeared unto all the congregation. And
the Lord spake unto Moses and unto Aaron, saying, separate
yourselves from among this congregation. that I may consume them in a
moment. Now, the Lord's not just going to kill the leaders of
this rebellion. He's going to kill the whole nation. He's going
to wipe the whole nation out. Now, put yourself in Moses and
Aaron's shoes. How would you respond? I can
tell you how I'd respond. I'd say, good. Lord, you get
them. Just get them. Thank you for
judging these people that have lied about me, that have drugged
my name through the mud. They're causing me so much grief.
Lord, it's only right that you destroy them. Look at them. They're
a stiff necked people. That's the way I'd respond. That's
not how Moses and Aaron respond. Look, verse 22. And they fell upon their faces
and said, Oh, God, the God of the spirits of all flesh shall
one man sin and without being wroth with all the congregation.
Look over Matthew, chapter five, Moses and Aaron. pray for their
enemies and the Lord's going to spare the people. And our
Lord tells us in Matthew chapter five, that's exactly what they
should do. In Matthew chapter five, verse
43. You've heard that it's been said,
thou shalt love thy neighbor and hate thine enemy. But I say
unto you, love your enemies, bless them that curse you. Do
good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully
use you and persecute you, that ye may be the children of your
Father which is in heaven. For he maketh his son to rise
on the evil and the good, and sendeth rain on the just and
on the unjust. For if you love them which love
you, what reward have you? Do not even the publicans the
same? If you salute your brethren only, what do you more than others?
Do not even the publicans so? Be ye therefore perfect, even
as your Father, which is in heaven, is perfect. In Luke's account
of that, Luke said, Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father, which
is in heaven, is merciful. And the whole nation was not
destroyed because Moses and Aaron followed the example of our Lord
and interceded for the people. Now, the real blessing in this
is how this is a type of Christ. In the garden, Adam was somebody. Adam was a man of renown, representative
of the entire human race. Look back at Genesis chapter
3. Satan came into that garden and he murmured against God to
Eve. Genesis chapter 3, verse 4. And the serpent said unto the
woman, you shall not surely die. For God doth know that in the
day ye thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall
be as gods, knowing good and evil." Satan told Eve, you're
equally fit to be God. The same thing that Korah said
to Moses, the whole nation's holy. Everybody's fit to be a
priest and a leader. Satan murmured to Eve, Eve murmured
to Adam, and Adam, the man of renown, the representative of
the entire human race, murmured against God. He took that fruit
and rebelled against God. And when Adam sinned, we all
died in him. Every son of Adam died in him. One man sinned and God's wrath
came on the whole nation, the whole human race because of one
man's sin. Well, then why wasn't the whole
human race destroyed at that very moment? Why not? Because
the Lord Jesus Christ already stood as the surety and intercessor
for his people. And he prayed for his people
and he told the Father, I'll pay their sin debt. I know that
sin deserves punishment. I'll bear their punishment for
them. I'll die that they may live. I'll shed my blood to pay
for their sin debt, even though they sinned against me. You know,
our sin It's not just sin against one another or just, you know,
like some wrong thing. Sin is sin against God, against
God's Son. And God the Son said, even though
they've sinned against me, I'll come pay their sin debt. And
to this day, men still rebel against God. And it's the same
problem that Korah had. We rebel against Christ the prophet
and Christ the high priest. Men rebel against Christ the
prophet. We say, I don't need Christ to know God. God is who
we think He is. Not who Christ says He is. Not
who Christ the prophet says He is. Not who Christ the incarnate
word said God is. We rebel against Christ the prophet.
And we rebel against Christ the great high priest. We say, I
don't need the sacrifice of Christ. I don't need the sacrifice of
Christ to put my sin away and make me accepted before God.
I don't need Christ. I'll come on my own. I'll come
without a priest. I'll keep the law. I'll sin less
and God will accept me. That's rebellion against Christ
the High Priest. And that rebellion against the
Son of God, you know how that angers God. He's angry with the
wicked. Then why doesn't God destroy
the whole human race? That's all we do, sin. That's
all we can do. Then why doesn't God destroy
the whole human race right now? Because God has an elect people.
Christ came and died for them. And brethren, those people shall
be saved. They cannot perish. God is sparing
this world as bad as we think it is. God is sparing this world
right now for his elect sake. that they all be brought to faith
in Christ. It's all for Christ's sake. Now,
we know God will judge sin. God's holy. He must punish sin. The leaders of this rebellion
against Moses and Aaron, they're going to die under God's wrath.
And people take this passage of scripture, and when a person
they know gets sick or undergoes a severe trial, they say, see,
God's judging them. God's judging him because he
spoke against my preacher. He spoke against me or my favorite.
Now, wait a minute. Look at verse 28 in our text.
Moses said, Hereby you shall know the Lord has sent me to
do all these works for I've not done them of my own mind. If
these men die the common death of all men, or if they be visited
after the visitation of all men, then the Lord has not sent me.
But the Lord make a new thing. and the earth open her mouth
and swallow them up with all that appertain unto them, and
they go down quick into the pit, then ye shall understand that
these men have provoked the Lord." You know, someone gets cancer
and we say, see, God's judging them. Well, maybe, maybe not. I don't know. Probably we ought
not say that. You can say God's judging them
if he does a new thing. if the earth opens up and swallows
them up. But if it's just something that's common to all men, we
don't know what the Lord's doing. I'll show you that in John chapter
9. We just don't have the wisdom
to know what the Lord's doing, if this is judgment as a result
of some specific sin or not. John 9 verse 1. And as Jesus
passed by, he saw a man which was blind from his birth. And
his disciples asked him, saying, Master, who did sin, this man
or his parents that he was born blind? Jesus answered, neither
at this man's sin, nor his parents. This didn't come because of a
specific sin. Obviously it came to the sin,
all sickness and heartache and troubles because of sin. This
didn't come as a result of a specific sin, but that the works of God
should be made manifest in him. So we don't know why the Lord
is doing what he's doing. So most times we ought to just
leave it alone. Now look down at verse 31. And
it came to pass, as he made an end of speaking all these words,
that the ground claimed asunder that was under them. And the
earth opened up her mouth and swallowed them up, and their
houses, and all the men that appertained unto Korah, and all
their goods. They and all that appertained
to them went down alive into the pit, and the earth closed
upon them, and they perished from among the congregation.
And all Israel that were round about them fled at the cry of
them, for they said, lest the earth swallow us up also. And
there came out a fire from the Lord and consumed the 250 men
that offered incense. Now, like I said, this story
is given to us as a picture of Christ. Aaron, the high priest,
is a picture of Christ, our high priest. And when the people rebelled
against God's high priest, you know what they were doing? They
were rebelling against God's way of salvation through the
sacrifice offered by the high priest. And the earth swallowing
up these men and their families. is a picture of judgment that's
coming to everyone who rebels against God's way of salvation
in His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. Judgment is coming to everyone
who's outside of Christ. But there is salvation. Now,
all is not lost. There is salvation to be found
in our Lord Jesus Christ. Christ is the great intercessor.
He's praying for His people. And you want comfort? he always
gets what he prays for. Always. Because when he prays,
he pleads before his father, his perfect blood, his payment
for the sins of his people. And his father always gives him
what he asks for. Now this day in Israel was a
day of great judgment, but it was also a day of great mercy,
wasn't it? More people were spared than perished. It was a day of
great mercy too. And because of Adam's rebellion,
You and I do see great judgment in the earth, but we also, by
God's grace, see great mercy in Christ. And that should cause
us to be so thankful. That should cause us to bow in
worship. God's delivered his people from
the wrath to come. He's delivered us from the wrath
that we deserve because of our sin. And God gave us this book
as a memorial of what the Lord Jesus Christ has done for his
people. And you know why we're going to meet again tonight?
And you're all going to meet again Tuesday? And you're going
to meet again next Sunday? Because of how soon we forget.
I don't think I'm the only one in this room that has that problem.
How soon we forget. Israel did too. Look at verse
41. The next day. The next day! Verse 41. But on the morrow,
all the congregation of the children of Israel murmured against Moses
and against Aaron, saying, ye have killed the people of the
Lord. Frank, the next day, the next
day, the smoke is still in the air. That scar on the earth is
still fresh and the people rebelled again. I'm thankful the Lord's
mercies are new every day. I need his mercy every day. God merciful to us today. I'm
thankful his mercies will be new tomorrow. Because I'm gonna
need him again tomorrow, aren't you? We sin constantly every
day. We need his mercy every day. And the very next day, after
God showed his judgment against sin, the people accused Moses
and Aaron of killing Korah and his followers. They canonized
the rebels and they made criminals of the very men that interceded
for them and stopped the Lord from destroying them. Now that
just shows you the hardness and the corruption of the human heart. This sounds very similar to that
mob that gathered together in Jerusalem one day and cried,
give us Barabbas and crucify Jesus. Sounds very similar because
they got the same heart. They got the same nature. And
this is the reason that we preach the grace of God in Christ Jesus. Now we do warn men and women
of judgment. with judgment for our sin. That's
what we deserve. But you know why we don't major
on hellfire and brimstone preaching? Because you can't scare anyone
in the kingdom of God. You're just not going to threaten
anybody into the kingdom of God. If you know Christ, you know
this. It's the goodness of God that leadeth thee to repentance.
That's why we preach His grace. There's mercy and grace for sinners. The only thing that will break
the stony heart that all of us are born with is God's grace. You can't beat it out of somebody. The natural man's heart cannot
be changed by threats. The natural man's heart cannot
be reformed by religion. That stony heart has got to be
taken out and God's got to give us a new heart of flesh before
we'll ever believe him. Well, verse 42, it came to pass
when the congregation was gathered against Moses and against Aaron,
that they looked toward the tabernacle of the congregation. And behold,
the cloud covered it, and the glory of the Lord appeared. And
Moses and Aaron came before the tabernacle of the congregation.
Now here this lynch mob was gathered together to kill Moses and Aaron. And as they're gathering, they
noticed that cloud of the glory of the Lord appearing outside
the tabernacle. And they knew what that meant.
They knew this is the Lord showing his anger and his intention to
protect his servants. And it got everybody's attention.
Suddenly, people remember yesterday, and they're scared to death,
and they back off. Moses and Aaron go to the tabernacle
to hear what the Lord would say. Look at verse 44. And the Lord
spake unto Moses, saying, Get you up from among this congregation,
that I may consume them as in a moment. And they fell upon
their faces. Now, this is just like yesterday,
isn't it? The Lord told Moses and Aaron, you get out of the
way. I'm going to destroy this nation
in a moment. You'll see the destruction, but
it won't come nigh thee." Well, all right. What's Moses and Aaron's
reaction going to be today? Lord, you get them this time. You gave them a chance yesterday.
They should have learned their lesson and they didn't. You let
them have it. And God would have been just in doing that, wouldn't
he? God would have been just in killing every last one of
them, and that's exactly what he would have done. But Moses
and Aaron acted as intercessors for the children of Israel again. Again today, for the second day
in a row, they're begging mercy for the very people who are trying
to kill them. Now look back at Numbers chapter
14. Moses and Aaron were patient
men. Where do you reckon they learned that? Look at Numbers
14 verse 17. They learned it from the Lord.
Moses says, And now I beseech thee, let the power of my Lord
be great, according as thou hast spoken, saying, The Lord is longsuffering
and of great mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression, and
by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the
fathers upon the children under the third and fourth generation.
Pardon, I beseech thee, the iniquity of this people, according unto
the greatness of thy mercy. And as thou hast forgiven this
people from Egypt, even until now. Moses and Aaron learned
a patient, kind, forgiving spirit from the Savior. That's who they
learned it from. And every single day, God would
be just in condemning me for my sins. In the past 15 minutes,
I've sinned enough while I'm preaching the gospel for God
to destroy me. And He hadn't done it for one
reason. The Lord Jesus Christ suffered
and died in my place. The only reason I'm not punished
is Christ was punished in my place. He bore my sin and put
my sin away through his suffering, the shedding of his blood and
his death. And now he acts as my advocate, as my intercessor
before the father. And I'm so glad he's patient.
Oh, are you glad for the long suffering of your intercessor?
He doesn't just make intercession for you and me two days, two
days in a row. It's every day of our lives.
Hebrews 7.25 says, He ever liveth to make intercession for them.
It's a good thing because we ever need Him to be pleading
His blood for our cause and interceding for us. Now Moses pleaded for
mercy, but God's justice still has to be satisfied, does it
not? Sin still must be punished. Well, what will satisfy God's
justice and let the people live? What will? One thing, the atonement. Look at verse 46, back in our
text here, number 16. And Moses said unto Aaron, take
a censer and put fire thereon from off the altar and put on
incense and go quickly unto the congregation and make an atonement
for them, for there's wrath gone out from the Lord. The plague
has begun. Now Aaron went as Moses instructed. He got coals from off that brazen
altar. The brazen altar is the altar
where the burnt offering was sacrificed, where the sin offering
was sacrificed and roast with fire. That's a picture, that
brazen altar is a picture of Christ our sin offering being
sacrificed for us. Aaron took those coals from off
that brazen altar where the sacrifice was burnt, and he put them in
a censer. And he went and got incense,
and when he would put incense on those coals, smoke would go
up. And that smoke is a picture of
the intercession and intercessory prayers of Christ for his people.
And Moses told Aaron, now you get those coals, and you get
that incense, and you get down to the people. The plague's begun,
and everyone's going to die unless you get there and make an atonement
for the people. So verse 47, I've read this verse a hundred
times. It gets me every time. And Aaron took as Moses commanded
and he ran. He ran into the midst of the
congregation and behold, the plague was begun among the people.
And he put on incense and made atonement for the people. Now
Aaron's an old man, but he ran. He ran to the altar to get those
coals. He ran to get the incense. And
he ran to the people. That's a lot of running. But
Aaron's running to help people. Who's he running to help? These
very people that said all those awful things about him. The people
that tried to kill him. And Aaron's running. Because
despite who and what they are, Aaron loved those rebellious
people. They're rebellious. They're stiff-necked. but they're his brethren and
he loves them. And Aaron did not take his sweet old time to
get there. So by the time he got there,
the people would really appreciate him. No, he ran. Aaron didn't take his time to
let them feel some of the pain that they deserve. He ran. He didn't take his time and say,
I bet you're sorry now for the way you treated me, aren't you?
Maybe I'll forgive you. if you take the first step towards
me and ask me to forgive you, maybe I'll meet you halfway if
you apologize." Mary, he ran. He ran. Aaron's the high priest. And if atonement's going to be
made, Aaron must do it. And he ran. Aaron didn't plead
with the Lord and say, Lord, now they didn't mean it. They
didn't mean it. I promise you, they won't do it again. They'll
do better next time. No, Aaron ran to make atonement
for the sin of the people. And the plague had gone out.
Now, I just pictured this plague. It's sweeping across that wilderness
like a line of death. And Aaron, without any regard
for his own personal safety, ran right into the middle of
that group of rebels, just as close as he could in front of
that line of death, that plague that's sweeping across the people,
and he stood still. Now that death, that plague is
headed straight towards Aaron. And in that crowd of people,
Aaron's the only one that didn't do anything wrong. And look at
verse 48. And he stood between the dead
and the living. And the plague was stayed. Now
Aaron stopped running. He didn't run away from that
plague. He stood still. Aaron stood in the breach between
the living and the dead. On one side, everybody's dead. On the other, everyone's living. Nobody's dead over here. Why
not? The plague stopped where Aaron
stood. Right where he stood, the plague stopped because the
atonement was made. Aaron came, but he didn't come
empty-handed. He had to have an atonement.
And that's a picture of our Savior. The only difference between the
dead and the living was Aaron and the atonement that he had
that was a picture of Christ. And in the end, Moses and Aaron
were the best friends Israel had, even though they were trying
to kill them. They were trying to kill their
best friends. Now, isn't that a wonderful picture of Christ
our Savior? When Adam murmured and fell,
the plague of death went out. And everyone in Adam died. God's law demands death for sin. Somebody's going to die for sin.
Now it's either me or my substitute, but somebody's going to die for
sin. God's justice demands death for sin. And the plague of Adam's
rebellion is headed straight toward us to give us exactly
what we deserve. Because we were an Adam. What
Adam did, we did. He's our federal head. What he
did, we did. We rebelled against God in Adam,
just like the children of Israel rebelled against Moses and Aaron.
We said, we're just as good as God. I'm not going to have him
reign over me. And the first chance we got,
what did we do? We tried to kill God's son, the
friend of sinners. And we'd still to this day in
our nature, try to throw God off his throne if we could. We're
rebels by nature. So what did Christ our high priest
do? Did he say, let them suffer a while and then maybe I'll come
help them. Let them make the first move
toward me and then I'll meet them halfway. No. The father prepared a human body
for his son and his son ran down, down, down, down, down, down
to where we are. We can't imagine. The depth of
the journey our Savior took to come down to where we are, but
He ran to make an atonement for sin. He knew I must make the
atonement. He said from early in His life,
I must be about my Father's business. He was running. I must make an
atonement for the sin of my people. He set His face like a flint
toward Jerusalem because I must go and make an atonement for
my people. And he ran with urgency because
he loved his people. While we were yet sinners, he
loved his people. He gave his life for them. He loved his brethren that the
father gave him. We're sinful, rebellious, stiff-necked
people. But his father gave him to him
in the covenant of grace, and he loved his brethren. Now, the
plague's gone out. God's wrath is sweeping toward
us as an overflowing scourge. And the Lord Jesus Christ came
and stood in the breach. Just like Aaron didn't come empty-handed,
our Savior didn't come empty-handed either. Look at Hebrews chapter
8. He did not come empty-handed. Hebrews 8 verse 3. For every high priest is ordained
to offer gifts and sacrifices. Wherefore, it is of necessity
that this man have somewhat also to offer. Now look in chapter
9. What did he have to offer? What
did he bring to offer? Hebrews 9, verse 11. But Christ,
being come in a high priest of good things to come, by greater
and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is
to say, not of this building, neither by the blood of goats
and calves, but by his own blood. He entered in once into the holy
place, having obtained eternal redemption for us. Christ stood
and made the atonement, but he didn't offer a picture like Aaron
offered. Our Lord offered something much
more costly. To make an atonement for the
sin of his people, Christ must be made sin. He has to be made
guilty of their sin, and he's got to suffer and die the death
that we deserve. So he ran, he ran in front of
his people and he shielded us from the plague of God's wrath.
And he took that wrath in himself. God's wrath fell upon Christ,
our substitute, and it killed him. He gave himself, he sacrificed
himself for his people so that his people would live. Christ
died for the sin that was laid on him. God was just in punishing
his son. God wasn't, this is not, the
sacrifice of Christ is not a picture, this is a sacrifice. He was made
guilty of the sin that was laid on Him and in justice, the Father
killed Him. But you know in justice, the
Father raised Him from the dead too, because sin's gone. He raised
Him from the dead for our justification in justice and took Him back
to glory. And now He ever lives, making
intercession for those people that he suffered and died for.
And he suffered and he died. How he suffered. Oh. Who for? For sinners. Not for good people. For sinners. For rebels. For enemies like
you and me. Now that's amazing grace. And
that's the kind of grace sinners need. Amazing grace. The plague
of God's wrath stopped where Christ stood and it could go
no farther. The wrath stopped where it met
the atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ. God's wrath couldn't
go any further because God's wrath exhausted itself upon the
sacrifice, upon our Lord Jesus Christ. Normally, in the picture,
when they offered that sacrifice on that brazen altar, The fire
consumed the sacrifice, didn't it? When Christ offered himself,
when he was sacrificed for the sins of his people, the sacrifice
consumed the fire. The fire of God's wrath went
out because sin was gone. It no longer exists. The blood
of Christ satisfied God's justice, so the plague stopped. The plague's
not looking for God's people anymore. It stopped. And the
Lord Jesus Christ Himself stands between the dead and the living.
The goat's on the left, the sheep on the right. One side lives,
the other side's dead. What's the difference? They're
all the same by nature. They both deserve to die. They're
equally sinful, equally rebellious. Then what's the difference? Well,
you're not going to find the difference in them. They're the same. The
atonement. of the Lord Jesus Christ makes
100% of the difference between the dead and the living. There's
no doubt that Christ is the greatest friend a sinner ever had. Now,
I always ask this question. Why? Why did the Lord do that
for us? Why would the Lord do that for
that sinful, rebellious, stiff-necked people? because for reasons found
only in himself, he loved his people. The same reason Aaron
would intercede and go make an atonement for Israel is he loved
his brethren. Israel didn't love Moses and
Aaron, but they loved Israel and ran to make the atonement
for them. And Christ loved the people who by nature hated him.
Scripture says they hated me without a cause. And to prove
it, what do we yell? Crucify him, we'll have no king
but Caesar. Hated him without a cause, yet
Christ loved his people and he ran to make an atonement for
their sins. He ran to suffer the death that
we deserve so that we could have eternal life in him. The one
we sinned against is the very one who gave himself to be the
atonement for our sin. The songwriter said, Isn't the
love of Jesus something wonderful? Wonderful it is to me. I pray
the Lord will make it wonderful to you that will run to find
mercy, grace, and life in the atonement of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Let's bow and pray. Our Father, how we thank you
for this, your word, how we thank you for the atonement for sin
found in our Lord Jesus Christ. In an unspeakable, matchless
love and mercy and grace, you'd send your son to be made sin,
to suffer and die for the sin and rebellion of your people.
And that sin is gone under his blood, put away in his sacrifice
so that we have life in him. We have life because the Savior
died as a substitute for his people. Father, we're thankful. And how we pray for a heart that
will look to only our Lord Jesus Christ, that you deliver us from
looking to ourselves, to what we think is our ability, our
strength, and have our hope found only in him. Cause us to bow
in worship and thanksgiving for the atonement given in our Lord
Jesus Christ. It's in his precious name we
give thanks and we ask you bless your word.