We're gonna turn back to Hebrews
chapter eight for this hour as well, if you'd like to turn there. Hebrews chapter eight, there
is one singular hope to the Lord's people. To be found in Christ. To be
found in Christ. There is but one thing that brings
us hope and rest, and it's his finished work. No matter what
happens in life. No matter what circumstances
arise. Having the Lord's finished work, knowing that salvation
was accomplished, knowing that he is your Savior, there's rest. There's peace. There's hope. The Lord's promise as we heard
the last hour to his elect and the father was it is finished.
That's the hope of God's people, isn't it? That's our hope. It's
not what we promised him, but it's what he promised us because
he can't lie. You and I can lie. I can have
my best efforts, best attempts, best intentions, and I can still
end up not being able to fulfill that which I promise you I would
do. When God says something, it's done. It's done. He cannot
lie. He cannot lie. And he said, I
will and you shall. He accomplished all things according
to his purpose. As we heard the first hour, he saved us and he
called us. Not according to our works, but according to his own
purpose and grace. He elected his people, he redeemed
his people, he calls his people, and he keeps his people, don't
he? He keeps them. Well, where's the variable for
you and I working What part of that do we have?
Well, that's the point, isn't it? We're just the benefactors
of grace. We're just the benefactors. He's given it all freely, freely
to his people. Let's read this text in Hebrews
chapter eight. We're gonna read the first six
verses. Now of the things which we have spoken, this is the sum. We have such a high priest who
is set on the right hand of the throne of the majesty in the
heavens, a minister of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle, which
the Lord pitched, and not man. For every high priest is ordained
to offer gifts and sacrifices, wherefore it is of necessity
that this man have somewhat to offer. For if he were on earth,
he should not be a priest, seeing that there are priests that offer
gifts according to the law. who serve unto the example and
shadow of heavenly things. As Moses was admonished of God
when he was about to make the tabernacle, for see, saith he,
that thou make all things according to the pattern showed to thee
in the mount. But now he hath obtained a more
excellent ministry by how much he also, he is the mediator of
a better covenant which was established upon better promises. I've titled
this message, The Pattern Showed. The Pattern Showed. He told Moses,
you build that tabernacle, do it according to the pattern showed
to thee in the mountain. Our Lord is absolute. He is absolute. Everything he does is absolute.
He never does anything halfway. Aren't you glad that he doesn't
leave anything open-ended? He doesn't try to do anything.
He just does according to his own will. He's absolute in every
aspect, in every attribute, he's absolute. He always does everything
absolutely. Absolutely. So if he shows us
a pattern, if he showed Moses a pattern, you can be assured
that that's the same pattern he'll be showing over and over
and over again. The Lord doesn't change. The
Lord doesn't change. He said, I am the Lord. I change
not. Therefore, you sons of Jacob are not consumed. And that unchangeableness
of our God, the immutability of our God, is what we rest in.
That's what we rest in. Somebody told me recently that
if you, they took the verse that says if you willfully sin, that
you're not saved. You willfully, well, That's all
we do is willfully sin. You can't do anything but willfully
sin. The flesh, that's all it does is it just sins. And what
they were saying was is they've cleaned up their life. They don't
live the life they used to live. They don't willfully sin like
they used to. And that's what they meant. We don't even mean to sin and
we sin and it's willfully because it's us that do it. It's just
our flesh that does it. It's our flesh that does it.
But even though we are changing, and we are changing, every day
we're changing, getting older. Somebody told me, you're a different
person every five years. You're a different person every
10 years. That's what they said. I don't know. I can see what
they're trying to say, I suppose. You do change. But really, we
get worse and worse, don't we? We just get worse and worse.
We change, but God doesn't change. God doesn't change. And if I
can do something that would cause me to no longer be saved, then
I've changed his word. Because he said, I won't lose
any of my sheep. Well, that tells me that the
person that talked about willfully sinning and losing their salvation,
they really don't know who God is. They really don't know who
God is. God says, I will keep you. I
will draw you. I've loved you with an everlasting
love. It never had a beginning. It'll never have an end. We can't
prevent it. We can't change it. He's unchangeable. Aren't you glad he's not blown
around like we are with everything? The wind blows sometimes, and
we get bent out of shape, don't we? The other night, we had a
storm. The wind was whipping, man. It got my zucchini, and
it killed one of my squash plants. I got so frustrated at it. I
worked really hard on that. And I got bent out of shape over
it. A little bit. Not bad. And then I stopped for
a moment. I said, you know, that was the
Lord that did that. He reminded me. And I said, woe is me. I
got to put my hands over my mouth again, Lord. I'm not going to
speak. You didn't want me to have that squash plant? I don't
want that squash plant. Isn't that what he does for his
people? He causes us just to sit and rest in his providence.
Instead of grumbling, and when we do grumble and complain, we
murmur, but the Lord always brings us to the same place of resting
in his unchangeableness. His unchangeableness. He's seated. He's seated on the throne. And
he reveals the same thing now that he has always revealed to
his people, and it's the Lord Jesus Christ. There's nothing
that motivates the believer more than seeing the Lord Jesus Christ
high and lifted up. When you see that you're the
sinner and he's the savior, there's nothing that motivates you to
love each other. There's nothing that motivates
you more to do whatever you can for each other, is there? You
see Christ, it comes out in love, don't it? It just does. The Lord only reveals Christ
to his people for his glory, and it's always unto salvation.
And notice he says here, unto Moses, that he is to build this
tabernacle, in verse five, according to the pattern showed to thee
in the mount. According to the pattern showed to thee in the
mount. The pattern is that he is holy. The pattern is that
he is sovereign. The pattern is that we are the
center and he is the savior, but that he is just and he is
good and we are not. The pattern is, is we can't approach.
We need an intercessor. We need a mediator. We need an
advocate. That's the pattern. That's the pattern. We can't
come to him on our own merits. We can't come to him on our own
worth. We can't touch the mountain,
the Mount Sinai, unless there be certain death upon us. Now
the mountain is singular here, he says, when you saw in the
mount, singular. It's the same mount where God
met with Moses. Moses went up to this mountain
multiple times. It's Mount Horeb, but it's also Mount Sinai. It's
the same exact mountain. Horeb, when you see Horeb, it's
Mount Sinai as well. It's the same one. The first
time that the Lord revealed himself into Moses, it was at the burning
bush. It was on Mount Sinai, Mount Horeb. You remember that
account. Turn with me to Exodus chapter three. The Lord revealed
himself in Exodus three to Moses, and then again in Exodus 19.
But the first one was the burning bush. Exodus three. And we're gonna see what pattern
the Lord reveals himself, what pattern
the Lord shows us as his people when he reveals himself this
morning. Look at verse four. And when
the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, Moses turned aside to
see, God called up to him of the midst of the bush and said,
Moses, Moses, and he said, here am I. First pattern that you're
gonna find out the Lord does is he calls you by name. It's
an effectual calling. It's not a general calling that
goes out to everybody. The gospel does go out in a general
way, but the calling of the Lord is a specific call to a specific
person at a specific time. Moses. Moses. And you know what
you say? Here am I, Lord. Every time.
Every time. That's what we say. It's not
sometimes my kids will get attitudes and I'll say, come here a minute.
And they'll say, what do you want? I'm like, well, I'm sorry.
What did you just say? We don't do that with the Lord,
do we? No, we say, here am I. This is God talking. We say,
here am I, Lord. And we acknowledge, that's an
acknowledgement of us, ownership of our sin, ownership of what
we are. He says, here am I. Then he says, draw not nigh hither,
put off thy shoes from off thy feet for the place where on now
standest is holy ground. Why was the ground holy that
was there? Because of the Lord Jesus Christ being there. He
made it holy. Moreover, he said, I am the God
of thy father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God
of Jacob. And Moses hid his face for he was afraid to look upon
God. Now that's us. That's us right there. Moses,
here am I. I'm going to hide my face because
you're holy. That's what he reveals. This
is the pattern that he reveals to his people. If you come to
Christ, you have to come to Christ with your face hidden. You come
to him begging, Lord, have mercy on me, the sinner, beating upon
that rich man, You remember the public and the Pharisee, the
publican wouldn't look up. He was covering his face. He wouldn't
look up to God. He was embarrassed of what he was. He was convicted
of sin. He needed a savior. He needed mercy. And that's what
we see as the pattern here. Verse seven says, and the Lord
said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people, which
are in Egypt and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters
for I know their sorrows. And I am come down to deliver
them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of the
land unto a good land and a large, unto a land flowing with milk
and honey, and to a place of the Canaanites and the Hittites
and the Amorites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites.
Now therefore, behold, the cry of the children of Israel has
come unto me, and I have also seen the oppression wherewith
the Egyptians oppressed them. Come now therefore, and I will
send thee unto Pharaoh that thou mayest bring forth my people,
the children, out of Egypt. First pattern here is that when
we see God, we see him as Lord. We see him as Lord. We see him
as holy. We see him as sovereign. And
we acknowledge that. We acknowledge that. The only
way to approach him is completely naked. Completely naked. not having any covering of our
righteousness of our own. He said, take your shoes off.
Well, that's a picture of man's works, isn't it? Those shoes
were made by man. He said, you can't approach me with that.
Take them off. You're gonna have to come uncovered. That's the pattern. He says,
I am holy. You're gonna have to come with no righteousness
if you're gonna come. The only way that men and women can come
to Christ is without having any righteousness whatsoever of their
own. No merits of their own, no worth of their own. They come
as sinners. A sinner is not a good thing. A sinner, that's what
the Lord describes, we'll sin in the eyes of the
Lord. We understand God's holy, he's
other than we are. We're sinners, we're other than
he is. Being a sinner, that's not a bragging right. Thank God
he came to save sinners, but if you see yourself as the sinner,
you loathe that sin. You loathe entirely the sin that
you are, the sin that we do. We need a savior from that sin. We can't have any righteousness
of our own when we approach him. The second thing he shows us
is that he is God and we are not. Look in verse 13, I'm sorry,
verse 11. Moses said unto God, who am I
that I should go into Pharaoh and that I should bring forth
the children of Israel out of Egypt? And he said, certainly
I will be with thee. And this shall be a token unto
thee that I have sent thee. When thou hast brought forth
the people out of Egypt, ye shall serve me upon this mountain.
And Moses said unto God, behold, when I come into the children
of Israel and shall say unto them, the God of your father
sent me into them, they shall say unto me, what is that? What
is his name? What shall I say unto them? And God said unto
Moses, I am that I am. And he said, thus shall thou
say unto the children of Israel, I am hath sent me unto you. God
said, moreover unto Moses, thus shalt thou say unto the children
of Israel, the Lord God of your fathers, the God of Abraham,
Isaac and Jacob has sent me into you. This is my name forever. This is my memorial into all
generations. Go and gather the elders of Israel
together and say unto them, the Lord God of your fathers, Abraham,
Isaac and Jacob appeared unto me saying, I have surely visited
you and seen that which is done to you in Egypt. And I have said,
I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt under the
land of the Canaanites, Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites
and the Jebusites and the land flowing with milk and honey. The Lord reveals that he is God
and that we are not. He is God and we are not. I will bring you out. I will deliver you. I am come
down to deliver you. These are the words the Lord
used. The pattern shown here is that he is the eternal I am. He is the alpha and the omega
in salvation and in all things. He's the beginning and the end.
The only one who has the power to save, the only way that we
can be saved is by his doing, by his choosing. He could have
left Moses there and never have appeared to him in the burning
bush. He chose to deliver his nation Israel out of the hand
of Egypt. He chose to do that. His power
and his will are absolute, his purpose is absolute. And the
last thing we notice as a pattern is salvation is of the Lord. He's God, he's sovereign, he's
holy, and salvation is of the Lord, it belongs to him. Look
in verse 19. I am sure that the king of Egypt will not let You
go, no, not by a mighty hand. And I will stretch out my hand
and smite Egypt with all my wonders, which I will do in the midst
thereof. And after that, he will let you go. And I will give this
people favor in the sight of the Egyptians. And it shall come
to pass that when you shall go, you shall not go empty. But every
woman shall borrow of her neighbor and her that sojourneth in her
house, jewels of silver and jewels of gold and raiment. And you
shall put them upon your sons and upon your daughters, and
you shall spoil the Egyptians. The only way, what power did
Moses have to go down to Egypt and deliver them? He said, who
am I that I should lead these people? Who am I? God says, you're
going to do it. I'm going to speak through you.
I'm going to give them all my signs and wonders. They will
let you go because I'm God and you're not. I'm God. They will
let you go. This is the pattern. This is
the better promise. Not if you do something, Moses,
I'm gonna do something for you. You're going to do this and I'm
gonna set my people free. This is God speaking. This conversation
was not a debate. Men think that they can debate
with God. They heard somebody say one time, well, I wrestled
a long time before I let the Lord save me. No, you didn't. The Lord never did save you to
begin with. That's your attitude. No, we
don't wrestle against God. Who can wrestle against God?
Who can stay his hand? No, he says, Moses, you're gonna
deliver my people. Pharaoh's not gonna like it. Pharaoh's
gonna, he's gonna kick against it, but I'm gonna deliver with
a strong hand, the strong hand. And this is, he says, I'm gonna
cause all my wonders to pass before Egypt, smite them with
plagues, and they'll let you go. They'll let you go, they'll
give you spoils. They'll say, here, just take
it and leave. And that's exactly what the Lord Jesus Christ accomplished
on the cross of Calvary for his people. He came down. That's
what it says right here. He says, I am come down to deliver
you. In verse eight, Christ Jesus
came down to deliver his people. He became a man robed in flesh
and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh. On the cross, he was
stricken of God. He was afflicted for his people,
and all the terrors come past him about, all the plagues of
Egypt. That's what came upon him on
the cross of Calvary. That's what that represents.
In order for you and I to be set free from the bondage of sin,
from the bondage of Satan, which is a picture of Pharaoh in Egypt,
Christ Jesus had to die in our stead, and that's what he did.
This is the pattern shown to the Lord's people that he has
to do it all. So now death and hell have no
more claim, no more power, no more right. Egypt has no more
claim on Israel. Pharaoh has no more claim over
Israel. They've been set free. God's chosen people have been
set free, and he spoiled the devil, took all the spoils. Hell
was created for the devil and his angels, the scripture tells
us, and the Lord has the keys to it, so Satan's locked out
of his own house. The Lord took him. He can't even, he don't
have any power to get in his house, does he? Lord took everything
from him. Lord owns it all. The Lord owns
it all. And you know what he done with
it when he got it? He gave it freely to his people by his grace.
Everything. All the joy, all the peace, all
the goodness, all the mercy, all the rest. He gave us everything
in Christ. This is the pattern shown to
Moses. He said, when you build the temple, build it after that
pattern. build it after that pattern. And I'm not going to
get too far ahead because when we go into next week, we're going
to see some of that pattern because he continues it in chapter nine
and he talks about the table of showbread. We're going to
take the Lord's table. So I'll bring it up for this reason. Everything
in that temple was a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ, the
golden candlestick that never went out. That's the eternal
light. Who is that? That's the Lord Jesus Christ. The showbread
that was there, they had to be driven through with an aug. pierced,
that's the bread, that's the body of Christ being pierced
for his people, everything, the blood coming into the mercy seat
to be put, it all pointed to Christ. He said, when you build
the temple, build it, build it after the pattern showed, build
it after the same pattern, that I'm God and I'm holy, and that
you need a substitute, you need a surety, you need a savior. This is the better promises,
isn't it? This is the better promise. Christ
is the better promises given to his people. Now the second
time Moses saw God in Mount Sinai was in chapter 19, Exodus chapter
19. Turn over there with me. We'll
see the same pattern again. Let's look at verse 21 through
the end of the chapter. Now the Lord, Moses has been
up on the mountain and the Lord has caused smoke to fall and
to sin because the Lord descended upon it. And here it says in
verse 21 of chapter 19 of Exodus, and the Lord said unto Moses,
go down, charge the people as they break through unto the Lord
to gaze and many of them perish. Basically he's saying, if they
see me, they're going to die. If they try to peek, they're
going to die. And let the priests also, which come near to the
Lord, sanctify themselves, lest the Lord break forth upon them.
What do you think they did to sanctify themselves? You had
to have the blood. You had to have the blood sacrifice. Moses said unto the Lord, the
people cannot come up to the Mount Sinai for thou charges
us saying set bounds about the Mount and sanctify it. And the
Lord said, said unto him away, get thee down and thou shalt
come up thou and Aaron with thee. But let not the priests and the
people break through to come up unto the Lord, lest he break
forth upon them. So Moses went down under the
people and spake unto them. And this is the same pattern
as before. God is holy. God is holy. He is unapproachable in and of
our, based upon our merits, in and of ourself, in and of what
we do. He's unapproachable by us. To come near this mountain
is certain death. And this mountain represents
the law. This represents judgment of sin. That's what this mountain
represents. He says, if you come near, you'll
surely die. Look at verse 12. Go back to
verse 12. This is what he says. And thou shalt set bounds of
the people round about saying, take heed to yourselves that
you go not up into the mount or touch the border of it. Whosoever
touches the mount shall surely be put to death. There shall
not a hand touch it, but he shall surely be stoned or shot through.
Whether it be beast or man, it shall not live. When the trumpet
soundeth long, they shall come up to the mountain." Even a beast
came near into this mountain, had to die. See, God is holy. This is the pattern. God is holy
and he's unapproachable. The pattern given here is to
show us we must have a high priest. We must have a representative.
We must have a Moses, if you will, that can approach this
mountain. And you see Moses and Aaron going forth. That's the
law and the prophets. That's what that represents.
They're going forth under this mountain. The Lord's the one
that told them they could come to the mountain. You and I can't
approach. We're not holy. We're not sanctified in and of
ourself. That's the pattern that's shown
is we have to be made holy. We have to be made the righteousness
of God in Christ. We need one who approached God
on our behalf. Otherwise we will die. So what
is our hope? Well, it's not that God says,
if you will, then I will. It's not that God says, well,
if you'll give your best effort, if you'll put your right foot
forward, I promise I'll take the rest of the steps. That's
not our hope. That's not our hope. Our hope is not, well,
if we let the Lord have his way, no, the Lord's gonna have his
way, he's God. Our hope, our hope is that he promised that
he loves his people with an everlasting love. Our hope is that he, by
the sacrifice of himself on Calvary's cross, being the way, the truth,
and the life, has given us access unto the throne of grace, the
very holy place of God, that we may obtain mercy and find
grace to help in the time of need. He said, I have loved you
with an everlasting love, therefore have I drawn thee with loving
kindness. I've drawn thee. We have a high
priest the scripture says and that's what really Hebrews chapter
7 through 10 is all about is that high priesthood and we've
continually talked about that so you'll remember things that
I've said there. We have a high priest that's passed into the
heavens who's seated on the right hand of God. When he had by himself
purged our sins, he sat down on the right hand of God. We
have that advocate. That's what the pattern is showing.
We can't approach the mountain. We can't approach God in and
of ourself. He's holy, and we're not. But we have one who can
touch God and not die, and touch you and I and not be defiled,
the God-man, the Lord Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ the righteous. We
have an advocate with the Father who by his grace saved his people.
from their sin. That's what he promised. That's
what he promised. It is of the Lord's mercies that
we're not consumed. This is the pattern. This is
the pattern. If anybody's going to live, it's
going to be that they're saved by grace alone. By grace alone. The pattern is we can't approach
on our merits. Can't approach on our works.
We must be saved by grace. The only way that we can approach
is because the Lord Jesus Christ approached that mountain. He
approached that mountain of judgment, that Mount Sinai on the cross
of Calvary, he did. He approached it bearing our
sin in his own body, the scripture says. Enduring the punishment
due us, he died in his people's stead. So that the mountain is
no longer angry with the Lord's people. They've been made the
very righteousness of God in him. Now we have a better promise,
not do, But it is finished. It is finished. This pattern
shows you and I are sinners and we can't fix it. Thanks be to
God, Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom
I am chief. Men will try to put a band-aid
on a sin problem. The best example
I can give you is if you go to the doctor and you have a particular
ailment, the doctor gives you a Tylenol. That doesn't really
treat the problem. It might help with a little bit of pain, but
that's about all it does. And that's what men are doing every day.
They're trying to treat symptoms. They're trying to treat symptoms.
When you get a cold, you treat your symptoms, don't you? You
get a runny nose or you get itchy, watery eyes, you take medicine
to try to get rid of that. This is so much deeper than just
symptom treatment. We need a cure. See, they that
are whole need not a physician, they that are sick. And I'm not
talking about just a little sniffle and a little cough. I'm talking
about sick unto death. We're dying. We're born dying. I need, you need that great physician. That's what the pattern shows
us, is we are sick. We can't approach. We're leprous. Lord, have mercy on me, the sinner. Now the Lord says, come. There
is a remedy. There is a remedy. The fountain
has been opened. The blood of Christ has been
shed for his people. There is one who makes the center
whole, one who makes God just and the justifier of his people. There is a place, Lord said,
there's a place near unto me. Turn with me there, Exodus 33.
Look at verse 17. If you want to come to the Lord,
this is how you must come to him. In verse 17 of Exodus 33
says, and the Lord said unto Moses, I will do this thing also
that thou has spoken, for thou has found grace in my sight.
And I know thee by name. What a thought. What a thought. I know thee by name. I know you
by name. And he said, I beseech thee,
show me thy glory. And he said, I will make all
my goodness pass before thee, and I will proclaim the name
of the Lord before thee, and I will be gracious to whom I
will be gracious, and I will show mercy on whom I will show
mercy. And he said, thou canst not see
my face, for there shall no man see me and live. The Lord said,
behold, there is a place by me. Thou shalt stand upon a rock,
and it shall come to pass while my glory pass by, that I will
put thee in the cliff of a rock, and will cover thee with my hand
while I pass by, and I will take away mine hand, and thou shalt
see my back parts, but my face shall not be seen. We no longer
approach Sinai for justification. We no longer approach Mount Sinai
to be justified. We approach Mount Calvary. That's
where the cleft of the rock died for his people. That's the only
place that we have hope of being able to see the Lord's glory.
It's the only hope we ever have of seeing him under salvation. We need to be hidden in the cleft
of the rock, and we know what that cleft is. That's the Lord
Jesus Christ. That's the hiding place for his people. That's
the only hope we have. Lord, put me in that cleft. I
can't approach Sinai. I'll die. But I want to see your
glory. You have to be in the cleft of
the rock. Otherwise, you'll die. Only in Him will we see the glory
of God. There's none other revealed but
the Lord Jesus Christ. There's no other remedy, there's
no other hope but the Lord Jesus Christ. And all you get to see,
and I love this, one of these days, scripture says we look
through a glass darkly, but one of these days we'll see Him face
to face. We'll see him face to face. We'll be made like him
for we shall see him as he is. But right now, all you get to
see is his hinder parts, his back, back parts. What does that
mean? Well, David said, goodness and mercy will follow me all
the days of my life. That's what was behind him. What do you think
the hinder parts means? What he's already accomplished.
what he already accomplished in eternity and what he's already
accomplished in time. He just letting us know about it. That's
what we heard the first hour. Wasn't it's given us in Christ before
the world began. He says, here's my hinder parts.
Here's my backside. This is what you get to see.
You want to see my glory. It's at the cross. That's where
it's at the cross of Christ, Mount Calvary. It's not Mount
Sinai that we approach hoping for justification based upon
our works, based upon our merits. No, we come crawling and begging
to Mount Calvary. Lord, have mercy on me, the sinner.
We're coming to Christ. Lord, save me. Lord, save me. This is the pattern of all these
mountains shown. This is the pattern. All we get to see is what he's
done for the salvation of his people. In closing, let's turn
back to Hebrews 8. Let's read our text one more
time. Now of the things which we have
spoken, this is the sum. We have such an high priest who
is set on the right hand of the throne of the majesty in the
heavens, a minister of the sanctuary and the true tabernacle which
the Lord pitched and not man. For every high priest is ordained
to offer gifts and sacrifices, wherefore it is of necessity
that this man have somewhat also to offer. For if he were on earth,
he should not be a priest, seeing that there are priests that offer
gifts according to the law, who serve unto the example and shadow
of heavenly things, as Moses was admonished of God when he
was about to build the tabernacle. For see, saith he, that thou
make all things according to the pattern shown in thee in
the mountain. But now hath he obtained a more excellent ministry
by how much also he is the mediator of a better covenant, which was
established upon better promises. The pattern that the Lord showed
Moses in the mountains is the same pattern that he shows you
and I. He's holy, he's sovereign, he's just, he's true. And if
you and I are gonna be saved, we have to be in the cleft of
the rock. It's gonna be all by grace, isn't it? All by grace,
all by grace. He's holy. He's the sovereign
God of everything. You know what the good news about
that is? Salvation is of the Lord. Salvation is of this God
that we're talking about, our God and Savior. It belongs to
Him. He purchased it with His own
blood. And he gives it freely by grace to his people according
to his will, according to his purpose. Thank God it is finished.
And the Lord Jesus Christ is our hiding place from this wrath.
He's our hiding place from Sinai. We're justified in him, justified
freely by his grace. Otherwise we have no hope. Brethren,
this is the pattern. This is the pattern shown to
the Lord's people. He doesn't show anything new. I heard Greg
say one time, if it's new, it ain't true. And if it's true,
it ain't new. I don't think he said ain't,
but I did. You understand what I'm saying?
And that's true, isn't it? We have one hope. Lord, put us
in the cleft of the rock. Don't ever leave us to ourself
thinking we can approach your mountain. Give us Christ. Show
us the pattern. Give us Christ. Let's pray. Father, we come before thee now
thanking you for your word. We ask that you would bless it
to our understanding. We ask that you would cause us
to see Christ and be found in him. Lord, as we are about to
partake of these elements that you've given us to remember you,
the ordinance of your table, we pray that you would bless
it according to your will. You would bring to memory your body
and blood broken and shed for your people. Cause us to see
your face in it. Cause us to rejoice in Christ
name, amen. Matthew and Steve, can you come
and disperse the elements, please?