If you would open your Bibles
with me to Hebrews chapter 13. Let me tell you again what a
joy it is for me to be here and for us to get to worship together
with you. I bring you greetings from your
brethren in Ashland. Thank God for you. Pray he bless
us tonight as we meet together to worship him. I titled the
message this evening, Christ the Only Altar. Hebrews 13, beginning
in verse nine. Be not carried about with diverse
and strange doctrines, for it's a good thing that the heart be
established with grace, not with meats, which have not profited
them that have been occupied therein. Now the writer here
makes a distinction between the two ways sinners try to come
to God. One is grace. electing, distinguishing,
saving, keeping grace. It's a good thing that our heart
be established with that grace, God's grace. And when we say
grace, salvation is by grace, that means that salvation is
all. It is entirely because of God's
grace to us and not in any way by our works. Our works enter
into the equation absolutely zero. either our works before
or after conversion. Works do not enter into it. It's
all of grace. Salvation is all of grace. Grace
is God giving us what we do not deserve, not what we've earned
by our good works or our good Christian living, not by our
honesty and our morality, but God giving us what we do not
deserve. That's what God's grace is. What
does God give his people by grace that we do not deserve? Well,
the list is long and varied, isn't it? How about salvation? That's what God gives us by his
grace. Not because we deserve it, but because God would give
it. Righteousness, giving us the righteousness of his son.
The forgiveness of sin. Now you think all of our sin
is against God. And in order to forgive our sin,
he killed his son to put it away. Now that's grace, isn't it? To
give us the forgiveness of sin. Eternal life. acceptance with
God, favor with God. These are things that God gives
us by his grace. When we say that salvation is
by grace, we mean that salvation is entirely the work of God,
and we do not contribute our works to it at all. That's what
salvation by grace means. That's the first way a sinner
could come to God. The second way sinners try to come to God,
the writer describes as meets. uses the term meats, what he
means is all the works of the Old Testament law. The law had
so many requirements, what you could and could not do, what
you had to do, what you couldn't do, and it included what you
could and could not eat. The law forbid eating anything
that God called unclean. And that whole law was given
to point sinners to Christ. The purpose of the law, the purpose,
if you think, well, if God's gonna save people by grace, why
give us the law? Well, the reason God gave us
the law is to show us our sin and to show us our need of God's
grace. God gave us the law to show us
we need Christ to come and keep the law for us because we can't
keep it ourselves. God never gave the law as a way
for a sinner to earn God's favor by, you know, how well we keep
it, you know. Some people think, well, God kind of grades on the
curve and we know we can't keep it perfectly, but if you keep
it better than the average bear, God will bless you. That's not
it at all, not at all. The law was given to show us
our complete and utter sinfulness, to show us the depravity of our
soul and our need of Christ. God gave the law to show us salvation's
got to be by grace and it can't be by our works because all of
our works are sinful and do not please or impress God. And the
writer warns us, don't get carried away by these false gospels that
give you some works to do in order to come to God. Don't get
carried away with those things. Don't get carried away with any
preaching other than Christ alone, God's grace alone, salvation
by faith alone, by grace alone. You run away from preaching that
makes you feel better about yourself because what you've done. Run
away from it. You know, if you're honest and
you don't steal and you're very moral, you live in immorality
and you don't lie, you don't cheat your neighbor. Well, that's
good. You ought not do those things.
But if you hear preaching that makes you feel better because
of those things, because of what you do, you run away from it.
That's not grace. That's not salvation by grace.
That's not salvation in Christ. That salvation is something the
creature's done. You wanna build your house on sand like that?
Oh, no, you run away from that kind of preaching. The writer
says that that kind of preaching never benefits the souls of the
people who have been occupied therein. He calls them strange
doctrines. They're strange doctrines because
they're strange to the word of God. They're found in somebody's
creed. Somebody, you know, whoever,
whatever denomination writes them a book and says all these
things, this is our confession of faith, Well, it might be in
that, but it's not in this book. They're strange to God's word.
That's not God as he's described in this book. Those things are
strange to the holy character of God. They're strange to sovereign
grace, and it's not gonna benefit you. It will not, will not benefit
your soul. So run away from it. Just run
from that kind of preaching. And he says it hasn't benefited
those who have been occupied therein. And that word occupied
has a good definition. It's trying to make progress. That's what the word means, trying
to make progress. It's trying to get yourself holier,
little by little by little, by gradually getting better and
better and better. It means to regulate yourself. It's someone
regulating themselves by the law and seeing how they should
conduct themselves by looking at the law. Now that kind of
religion, will never profit the soul of anybody who's occupied
their end. As a matter of fact, if you're
using the law to come to God, it'll make you further from God.
Not only will it not profit you, it'll be detrimental to your
soul because God's not pleased. We cannot do anything that will
impress God. Now the writer uses specifically,
he's talking specifically here about meats. He's using that
illustration Because you have to remember who he's writing
to. He's writing to Hebrew believers. They grew up, I mean, they grew
up under this law. I mean, they were steeped in
it from before they could ever understand language. They're
so steeped in this. And they were just having a hard
time letting go of those grave clothes, letting go of these
commandments. Peter had trouble with that,
didn't he? Peter told the Lord, I'm not gonna eat anything that's
unclean. I never have, I never will. Peter said that after he
saw the Lord crucified, die, be buried, and resurrected, and
sent back to glory. And even after seeing all that,
Peter believed God. Peter believed Christ. He said,
we believe and are sure thou art the Christ. And he still
said, I'm not gonna eat that pork. I'm just not gonna eat that bacon.
I'm not gonna do it. He couldn't let go. He just could not let
go. And that's sad. That's sad. bondage
and restriction. I feel bad for somebody who can't
eat bacon. I mean, you know, that makes your life better.
I feel bad. It's so sad that somebody thinks something that
you just put in your belly and goes out through the sewer somehow
is going to make God happy with you. And the writer has good
news for us. The writer has good news for
these Hebrew believers and for anybody else who's having a hard
time letting go of these grave clothes, the bondage of the law.
Here's his good news. God's given his people something
far better, far better than the law, far better than the ceremonies. God has given his people the
unspeakable gift of his son, the Lord Jesus Christ, who is
the fulfillment of all of the law and all of the ceremonies.
Verse 10, we have an altar whereof they have no right to eat which
serve the tabernacle. Now, when the writer says we
have an altar, this is what he means. We who believe have Christ
as our altar. And that's important because
sinners cannot come to God without an altar and without a sacrifice. Can't be done. Now here, we don't
have a physical altar here in this building because believers
don't have an altar on earth. We don't have an altar made up
of earthly things. Christ is our altar and he's
in heaven. You know, the closest thing to
what we have, something that looks like an altar, that's the
shape of an altar, is this table. But this table is not an altar.
You know, after every service, your pastor doesn't come down
here and stand by this table and have an altar call, because
this table is not an altar. There's no saving power in this
table or in the space around it. All it is is a table. We use it to serve the Lord's
Supper When we're not serving the Lord's supper, there's some
nice flowers on it, because it looks nice. This is not an altar. This table is not an altar. The
altar is the place God says, I'll meet with men. I'll meet
with men at the altar. And God's not going to meet you
at this table of wood. No, he's not. But here's the good news
the writer has for us. God will meet you in Christ.
He will meet you in Christ. And that's far better than meeting
you at this table. So here's what the writer is telling us
and what the whole word of God is telling us, Christ is our
altar. And God will meet you in mercy
and grace at Christ, our altar. Now, that's very important to
understand. One thing has not changed from
the time of the Old Testament law, we still must have an altar. We must have a sacrifice by which
we can approach God. God has given us to our altar,
the Lord Jesus Christ. We have some great spiritual
blessings. Number one is this, if Christ is our altar, we can
worship God. God can only be worshiped in
Christ, our altar. Now remember when Adam left the
garden, God kicked him out of the garden. Adam knew right from
the beginning, God can only be worshiped at the altar. That's
what Adam taught his boys. Cain and Abel came to worship.
Where'd they come? They came to an altar, didn't
they? Because Adam had taught them, God must be worshiped at
the altar. And when we talk about the altar,
you can never separate the altar and the sacrifice that's offered
on the altar. They're all one. An altar is
only good if you've got a sacrifice to offer. Well, Cain came to
the altar, didn't he? But Cain was occupied with meats. He was occupied by his own works. He was occupied by the fruits
and vegetables that he grew. And Cain brought those things
to the altar, and Cain did not profit, did he? He did not profit
by that at all, because he brought his own works. He didn't come
by God's appointed way of a blood sacrifice. Now, if God's gonna
be worshiped, something must be done with our sin. Something's
got to be done with our sin. And this is the common error
false religion makes. They don't begin with this fact,
God's holy. God is holy. He cannot accept
us as we are. Something's got to be done with
our sin. If we're gonna worship God, there must be death for
sin to satisfy God's holy justice. And that's what the altar shows.
The altar's use is death for sin. The death of the substitute. the blood being shed. Without
the shedding of blood, there is no remission. Cain brought
no blood, so God would not accept him. He didn't profit there,
did he? But Abel came to an altar, and
he brought a lamb, and Abel profited. God accepted his sacrifice, because
Abel came God's appointed way with the blood sacrifice, and
God accepted Abel. Now all that is given to us is
a picture. Christ is the believer's altar. And Christ is the lamb
offered upon the altar. And God will meet sinners in
Christ. And only in Christ. Only in Christ. Only in God's appointed way.
Not by our works. I feel pretty confident that
the statement I'm about to make is true. Cain brought the very
best that he had. I mean, can you imagine at that
time how the earth produced bounty? I mean, fruits and vegetables.
He didn't bring something that was bruised and overripe or underripe. I mean, he brought the best. And God would not accept it.
God cannot accept us in our works. But God will accept us in Christ.
And that's a blessing, isn't it? God's given that to his people.
All right, number two, the position of the altar in the tabernacle
is given to us as a picture of Christ who is all in salvation. You remember the first thing
someone would see when they entered the court of the tabernacle.
There was that white fence that went all the way around it, and
there was one way in, one gate. And the first thing you saw when
you entered that gate was this big old brazen altar. That's
the first thing you saw. And that brazen altar was prominent. It was the most prominent thing
you saw there in the court of the tabernacle. And God immediately
was teaching us something. Soon as you entered that gate,
he immediately taught us something. God cannot be worshiped until
you go past that altar. Can't be. And that altar, oh,
it was a bloody place. Oh, can you imagine? I mean,
they brought animals there all day long. And that high priest
slaying those animals, The blood, the smell, the smell of death. Oh, what an awful bloody place. And the fire was burning. The
fire burned hot in that brazen altar. It's constantly consuming
the sacrifice. God's gonna save sinners, but
it's gonna take a bloody sacrifice in it. It's gonna take a sacrifice
that will please God. And something interesting about
that altar, you know what God said about that altar? When he
was giving instructions for that to be built, he said, Moses,
anything that touches that altar is holy, is holy. Now that's
a picture of Christ. God can only be worshiped in
Christ. And in the preaching of the gospel,
in worship, Christ is prominent in there, prominent. Do you know
why he's prominent? He's all in everything spiritual.
Christ is all. And the only way a sinner can
approach God is through the blood of the sacrifice of Christ, through
the death of the substitute. But Christ, our altar, is so
much better than that brazen altar. When they offered sacrifices
on that brazen altar, the fire that was in there consumed the
sacrifice, didn't it? And that fire kept burning, and
it kept burning, and it kept burning until it consumed the
sacrifice. And when the fuel was gone, the
fire went out, didn't it? When Christ offered himself a
sacrifice for the sin of his people, the fire of God's justice
fell on him, didn't it? And it fell, and it fell, and
it burned, and it burned. All the wrath of God against
sin fell in its unmitigated fury. upon Christ our sacrifice. And then the fire stopped. You
know why? Not because the fire consumed
Christ our sacrifice, but because the sacrifice consumed the fire.
The fire of God's wrath stopped when there was nothing left to
fuel it. The sin that fueled God's anger and God's fury was
gone because Christ put the sin of his people away by his sacrifice,
and God's not angry with his people anymore. There's no more
fury left in him. He poured it all out upon our
substitute, and all that's left for God's people is mercy and
grace. See, the death of Christ, remember
I told you that anything that touched that altar became holy?
The death of Christ made his people holy. There's no reason for them not
to. Christ took away every reason that would make God angry. Now
that's a blessing. That's a blessing we have of
Christ as our altar. You see why Christ is so prominent
in preaching the gospel? Why would we want to preach anything
else? This is our sacrifice. This is our savior. All right,
thirdly, look back in Exodus chapter 27. The materials that
were used to make that brazen altar are pictures of Christ
our Savior. Exodus chapter 27, verse one. And thou shalt make an altar
of shiddim wood, five cubits long and five cubits broad. The
altar shall be four square, a perfect square, and the height thereof
shall be three cubits. And thou shalt make the horns
of it upon the four corners thereof. His horns shall be of the same,
and thou shalt overlay it with brass. Now this brazen altar
was actually made up of two substances. It was made up of incorruptible
wood, and it was all covered with brass. And that's a picture
of the two natures of Christ. He is the God-man. The incorruptible
wood is a picture of his sinless humanity, and the brass is a
picture of the deity of Christ. This is our savior, this is our
altar, the God-man. The brazen altar was also a perfect
square, which gives us a picture of the perfection of Christ.
Salvation in Christ is perfect. It's complete. There's nothing
left for you to do to ratify it. If somebody gives you something
to do to ratify the sacrifice, they're giving you some works.
Run away from it. Salvation in Christ is already
perfect and complete. It's full and free salvation
for his people because of who died. The God-man died. See, the Lord Jesus Christ is
God. It's not like he's God. He's
not some special manifestation. He is God. He is the, Isaiah
said, you call his name the eternal father because the father and
the son are one. He is God. Yet our Lord Jesus
Christ became a real man so that he could be the representative
of sinful men and women like you and me. And when he died,
the God man died, that sacrifice can put away sin. And this altar
had four horns, one on each corner, and horns in scripture are a
picture of power. This is teaching us there's power
in this sacrifice, the sacrifice of Christ. There's power in his
blood to cleanse from all sin because of whose blood it is.
This is the blood of God that he shed to put away the sin of
his people. Now that's a blessing, isn't
it? If Christ shed his blood for you, my friend, your sin's
put away. There's power in his blood. All
right, now look back a few pages at Exodus chapter 20. God gave
some instruction for some other materials that could be used.
as an altar, and they're all pictures of Christ. Exodus chapter
20, verse 24. An altar of earth thou shalt
make unto me, and shalt sacrifice thereon thy burnt offerings,
and thy peace offerings, thy sheep, and thine oxen. In all
places where I record my name, I will come unto thee, and I
will bless thee. pictures the humanity of Christ.
The Lord Jesus Christ, like I said a minute ago, he is God. But
when he was born of a virgin, Mary gave birth to a real baby. He's a real man. Our flesh is
made up of dirt. I think we should think about
that more often. If we really thought about how our flesh,
our body's made up of dirt, We'd be a whole lot less full
of ourselves, wouldn't we? I mean, there's really not much
to be proud of. All we are is a pile of dust.
That's all we are. The Lord Jesus Christ became
a real man of flesh. Bone of our bone, flesh of our
flesh. He had a body just like yours
and mine, with one exception. He was without sin. And you know
why he became a real man? Because God can't be the representative
of sinful men. He didn't have the same nature
that we have. He didn't have a body like we have. So his son,
God's son became a real man. He can be our representative
because he's bone of our bone, flesh of our flesh. And as the
representative of his people, he can save them from their sins.
And this sacrifice, the sacrifices that were offered on this altar
of earth, show us the blessings that we have in Christ, our sacrifice. They offered burnt offerings
on this altar of earth. The burnt offering was always
used to make an atonement for sin. In a burnt offering, the
whole animal was sacrificed. It was completely consumed by
the fire and all offered up to God. When our Lord Jesus Christ
was sacrificed, the whole Christ was sacrificed to the Father
as a burnt offering for the sin of his people. He sacrificed
himself body and soul. And his sacrifice put away the
sin of his people. See, the father was never pleased
with all these animal sacrifices, was he? Now, he required them
by the law, he required them to give us constant reminders,
there's someone coming. We're looking for someone else
who's coming. But that's the only way that those sacrifices
were ever offered. God required them as pictures
of Christ. But those animal sacrifices never
pleased God the sacrifice of Christ did. The father's well
pleased with Christ because his sacrifice put away the sin of
his people. And they could also offer peace
offerings on the altar of earth, showing us sinners can have peace
with God. Now we need peace. Somebody needs
to bring us a peace treaty because we've declared war on God. God
didn't declare war on us, we declared war on God. In Adam,
we rebelled against God and we've declared war and we can't make
peace. So you know what God did in his
mercy and his grace? He sent his son to make peace
with God for his people. That's what Christ did through
his sacrifice. We have peace with God through
the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. At this altar, God says, to alter
the Lord Jesus Christ. God says, I'll come there. I'll meet with you and I'll bless
you there in the Lord Jesus Christ, the God-man. Now verse 25, he
says, if thou wilt make me an altar of stone, thou shalt not
build it of hewn stone, for if thou lift up thy tool upon it,
thou hast polluted it. Now you could make an altar of
stone. And you read about that many times in scripture. Someone
made an altar of stone. They just found stones that were
laying around and they stacked them up and made an altar. And
God says, you can do that. As long as you take the stones,
just like you find them. And what that means is use the
stones just exactly like God provided them for you. If you
say, you know, I'd like to build this stone altar, but I believe
if I cut this edge off and I made this stone a little shorter and
I rounded this one off, Oh, this altar is gonna look a lot better.
It's gonna look straighter and neater and nicer. And that just
makes me feel more religious. God says, if you do that, if
you lift your tool upon these stones, you've polluted the altar.
And I won't accept it. Could God make that any more
plain to us? He's not gonna accept our works. We try to add one
work to the altar, to the sacrifice of Christ, we've polluted the
whole thing. Don't add your works to Christ.
Just come to Christ as He is. We can't make our righteousness
look better than Christ alone. I mean, really, who do we think
we are that we can add something to Christ and make it better?
Who do we think we are? The only way we think that is
we're dead. That's the only reason. Here's the good news. If there's
any sinners here tonight, if there's anyone here under the
bondage of the law, my friend, I've got good news for you. You
come to Christ just as you are. Right, I mean right now. Where you sit, you come to Christ
right as you are. Don't wait and think, well, you
know, if I do this or that or the other, I quit doing this
and I start doing this, I'm gonna make myself look better and then
God will be more likely to accept me. Friend, that's works. This
works. Come to God as you are. In your sin, in your weakness,
in your defilement, in your corruption, you come to God just as you are. Because you know what God says?
God says he sent his son in this world to save sinners. Are you
a sinner? Then don't try to hide your sin.
Come to God as you are. He saves sinners. All right,
verse 26. Neither shalt thou go up by steps
unto mine altar, that thy nakedness be not discovered thereon. Now
they could make an altar, but you can't make an altar that's
on a platform, up a bunch of steps. You know, you think, well,
if I put it up on this platform, you know, on top of all these
steps and people can see it for further, you know, and it'll
probably look real religious. And it probably would. But God
said, I'm not gonna offer, I'm not gonna accept a sacrifice
that you offer there. And here's why. Here's what these steps
are a picture of. God's not approached gradually. Step by step that we take by
our own strength. Step by step, gradually climbing
higher and closer to God. Sinners don't come to God by
climbing degrees of holiness a little bit at a time. If that's
what you're trying to do, go back to what the writer's talking
about being occupied by the law. If you're trying to just get
a little bit better a time, you're being occupied by the law. Sinners
come to God all at once, all at once, by faith in Christ,
and you don't get gradually holier. Instantly, instantly holy in
Christ, and you'll never get more holy. You who believe, even
in glory, you won't be more holy than you are right now. Your
body will be better, but you won't be more holy than you are
right now. We grow in grace. We grow in knowledge of Christ,
but never grow in holiness. That's why God says you can't
come up by steps to my altar. And if we try to do that, he
says your nakedness will be discovered. And what that's talking about
is if we try to come to God, little by little, gradually by
getting a little bit better, you're uncovering the shame of
your sins. And God says he's not gonna accept
us when he sees us in our sin. But if we come to God by Christ
alone, not an altar with stairs, not anything that we can do to
add to it, come to Christ just the way God has provided him,
God will accept us. You know why? Our nakedness won't
be uncovered. Our sin won't be uncovered because
it's been covered in the blood of Christ. See, in Christ, we
have no sin. So God will accept us. Now that's
a blessing. That's a blessing. Come to Christ
just as you are. And you have to come to Christ,
because God says the altar is the only place I'm gonna meet
with men in peace. God would only meet with men
in peace at the altar where the blood sacrifice was altered.
And both the altar and the sacrifice are pictures of Christ. And that
tells us that God, I have it here in my notes, that God will
meet with men. I don't wanna talk about men in general. Let's
you and me talk, you and me. God will accept you and me. Those
of us right here tonight, he'll accept us in Christ, in Christ. Now, come to Christ, don't try
to come, with your good works. It's not Christ plus our good
works. It's not Christ plus our knowledge. It's not Christ plus our right
doctrine. Salvation is in Christ alone. And God will meet with
men. He'll do business with men in
mercy in Christ. Now come to Him. You know, the
altar teaches us this. Salvation is not in what you
can do for God. is in what Christ has done for
you on your behalf, what he's done for God on your behalf.
Now don't get mad. Don't get mad that God's not
gonna meet you and accept you in your works. Don't get mad
that your works don't please God. Brother, get glad that God'll
meet you anywhere. God will meet you in Christ.
He'll meet you in who Christ is and what Christ has done for
you. I can't think of a better reason to be glad. and rejoice
in that. God has provided a way for sinners
to come to him. Not by our works, but by his
grace. Then give me more of that grace.
Tell me more about that grace. All right, now back in our text,
Hebrews chapter 10. I wanna show you this one more
thing. I've said all what I've said so far to get right here.
Here's what I want you to take home with you tonight. You take
this and you put it in your lunch bucket and take it with you to
work tomorrow. The whole point of this passage is sinners cannot
come to God by our works of the law and our works of religion.
We come to God in Christ. And I'll show you that, verse
10. We have an altar whereof they have no right to eat which
serve the tabernacle. Now what does that mean, they
have no right to eat which serve the tabernacle? Well, the Old
Testament law said that the high priest and his family could eat
the meat of the animals that were offered on the altar. That
was their portion, the portion that God had given them. You
know, the Levites, you remember, they didn't have farms and herds
of animals and jobs, you know, that they worked outside of the
tabernacle to earn money to buy food and so forth. Their only
work was the service of the tabernacle, the service of the Lord. Later
on in the temple, after that was built, God provided for the
tribe of Levi through the sacrifices and through the tithe, which
the other tribes paid, which were a tax. Now, here's the picture. If you are trying to work to
serve the law and to make God happy with you, if you're using
the law as your rule of life to see how you should conduct
yourself, what you should and should not do, if you're using
the law to try to come to God, you have no right to come to
Christ in need of him. You have no right to come and
partake of all of the blessings that are found in the Lord Jesus
Christ if you're trying to please God by your works of the law.
That's exactly what he's saying. The only people who have a right
to come eat of Christ and partake of all the blessings that God
has provided for his people are people who don't have any works
of their own. If you've got nothing, you've
got nothing to plead, there's nothing about you that's any
count and you have to depend entirely on Christ for all of
your salvation, then you've got a right to come eat of Christ,
to feast upon Him, to enjoy every blessing that Almighty God has
for sinners in His Son. Now, what's stopping you from
coming to eat? What's stopping you? When we
talk about eating Christ, we're talking about believing Christ,
having union with Christ. Now you come to Christ. I know
you've got a bunch of works. Leave them all in the trash.
Don't even leave them at home. Throw them in the trash and come
to Christ naked and empty and God will fill you. You eat Christ
and be filled. You have life in him. Come and
eat all you want and all you need. Now remember the people
who could eat of the meat of the sacrifices, the only people
that could do that are the family of the high priest. Well, Christ
is all. He's all in salvation. Christ
is the altar on which the sacrifice is offered. Christ is the sacrifice
on the altar, the perfect lamb of God, sacrificed for the sin
of his people. And Christ is the high priest
who offered the sacrifice on the altar. See, Christ is all. And scripture calls Christ our
great high priest. Believers are his family, his
family. If you believe Christ, that's
your right to come eat of him. Well, you think, well, what right
do I have to believe Christ? How do I know that Christ died
for me? What's my right to believe Christ?
Well, God made it right for his people. He made it right for
you to come eat by making us kings and priests unto God. He
made it right for his people to come eat of the sacrifice. He made it right for us to come
believe in Christ because he's adopted us into his family. He caused us to be born again,
born into his family. That's your right to eat. Now
come eat. What a blessed privilege to be able to come and eat of
Christ. Now you have no right to come
and eat of Christ and live upon Christ if you're trying to come
by your works. but you do by grace. You do by
God's grace. Thank God for his grace. Thank
God for it. All right, let's bow together
in prayer. Our Father, how we thank you. How we thank you for
your word that reveals your son, our Lord Jesus Christ. Father,
how we thank you for Christ our altar, the sacrifice that you
will accept because the sacrifice of Christ put away the sin of
your people. Father, I pray you take your
word as it's been preached. As weak and stumbling as it may
have been, it's your word. Father, cause it to go forth
in power, power to bring glory to your name, power to penetrate
to the hearts of your people, to feed us and encourage us,
to cause us to come to Christ. Father, let each one of us tonight
leave here trusting in, eating upon, living in Christ and Christ
alone. It's in his blessed name. that
we pray and give thanks.