Turn your Bibles to the Gospel of Luke, Luke chapter 23. We have been working through this Gospel for a couple of years now and we're in that most crucial section of Luke, the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. Luke chapter 23. Let me pick up the reading at verse 44. Luke 23 verse 44. Now it was now about the sixth hour, and there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour, where the sun's light failed, and the curtain of the temple was torn in two. Then Jesus, calling out with a loud voice, said, Father, into your hands I commit my spirit. And having said this, he breathed his last. Let's again look to the Lord. Father, we again are thankful that you are the Father of mercies, the God of abundant grace. We need grace for everyday life. We cannot live apart from your grace and mercy. And so we pray, Lord, again, we pray by faith, which is a grace you've given us, We pray that you would come and bless us today. Lord, help us to see things in your word that would encourage us, but also convict us, words that would comfort us and challenge us. We pray that no one will sit here this morning and not think that they have not heard the voice of the living God. Speak to us, Lord. change us we want to be more holy in all manner of life and so come we pray by your spirit and by your word and we pray this in Christ's name amen you might remember the story of Moses when he stood on the back end of that Midian desert in Exodus chapter 3 and he had his close encounter with God by way of a theophany a burning bush And God told him to take the shoes off his feet because he was standing on holy ground. And I'm sure Moses moved very quickly to get those sandals off his feet. And we certainly need to think of that ourselves because when we come to church we are on holy ground. Jesus has told us that he would be present here. We are going to have close encounters with God, the living God, because He speaks to us by his word when we open up our Bibles, and we are standing before the cross of Jesus Christ. Is there more holy ground than this? And is there a better place to hear the voice of God? In his classic work by Gardner Spring, titled The Attraction of the Cross, he makes this very point. Listen to what he says. Nowhere does truth utter her voice, with such distinctness, such fullness and emphasis. Yes, truth speaks by way of the prophets, the giving of the law at Mount Sinai. We hear the thunder and the power of God's voice when he gave those Ten Commandments. We certainly hear the voice by way of angels when they announce to that Virgin Mary and that young man named Joseph that There will be the birth of the very Son of God, the Son of Man, the Holy One. Yes, He spoke by way of every miracle. We certainly learn about the greatness of God and the goodness of God when we see Jesus opening the eyes of the blind and healing lepers and casting out demons, and even when He silenced that storm on the Sea of Galilee. God speaks clearly, does He not, through all of those great miraculous deeds. But again, nowhere does he speak more clearly than at the cross. You could say this is God's greatest sermon, God's greatest miracle, the miracle of salvation. At the cross, we hear the preacher of preachers, Jesus. He speaks seven times from that cross. Even the number seven is significant. The first words are captured here in Luke 23, verse 34. These words really are prayer words, perhaps even spoken while they were pounding nails into his hands, or as they were lifting up that cross. He prays, Father forgive them, for they know not what they do. And again, it's in the imperfect tense verb, which tells us that this was repeated. He said this over and over again, Father forgive them, Father forgive them, for they know not what they do. You won't find more gracious words than those. Remember, they were killing him, putting him to death. His enemies were laughing and sneering at him. But there's more, more that he says from that cross, and what he says helps us to understand what the cross is all about. You might recall the last time we were together, we heard him speak to that criminal, a fellow sufferer. Jesus is hanging there not by himself. There are two other men on crosses. Luke identifies them as criminals. It's the fulfillment of that Old Testament prophecy that he will be numbered with transgressors. And again, listen to what he says. He speaks words of grace. He tells that thief who said, remember me, he says to him, today you will be with me in paradise. He's there to save sinners. He saves a sinner, but he's there to save sinners prone. The cross is a rescue operation. But there's more that happens on the cross to understand why Jesus is there. God, you could say, speaks. Jesus will speak one more time here in Luke's Gospel. We saw that. He will say, Father, into your hands I commit my spirit. So he will speak one more time. But God, that's right, God also speaks by way of sign. cosmic sign, supernatural phenomena. Luke mentions one of them here. The first one he mentions is darkness, a total blackout. It's like this, children, God pulls the plug on the sun. If you listen carefully, if you listen carefully, you will hear the voice of God. And here's what I want us to note this morning from this text about the darkness. Number one, it was a significant darkness. Number two, it was a supernatural darkness. And number three, it was a symbolic darkness. Let's consider then the darkness at the cross. Number one, it was a significant darkness. Luke, perhaps more than the other Gospel writers, at least when they come here to the cross, focuses more upon the innocence of Jesus, I think at least five times. You can note that verse 4 of Luke 23, verse 13, verse 15, verse 22, verse 41, people are saying He's innocent, He's not guilty. Now, I don't think they understood what we understood when we say that Jesus was innocent. We believe he was perfect. That means that everything he said, everything he did, perfectly aligned itself with the Ten Commandments or with wisdom and truth and love. Isn't that what makes his death so shocking? The perfect sinless man, the blameless innocent One, the Son of God, is dying, and he's dying in the worst way. He's dying by way of crucifixion. This is the Romans' way of capital punishment. And to add shock to shock, this was a vast conspiracy. It wasn't a one-man deal. The guilty fingerprints of Rome, of Pilate, of King Herod, the Gentiles, the Jewish and Sanhedrin, all are involved in this murder. Even the Jewish people. Remember what they cried out back in chapter 22. Crucify Him! Crucify Him! So the whole world, you could say, has plotted, schemed and desired the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. But now it's on this Friday morning that Jesus is put on a cross. In all likelihood, he's hanging there naked. None of the gospel writers give us any of the specific details with respect to his physical sufferings. They are very restrained. All they tell us is that he was crucified. And we do know from the secular accounts of crucifixion that sometimes the hands and the feet of the crucified one were tied. In the case of Jesus, they were nailed. Long, tapered iron spikes, like the size of railroad spikes, would have been used to pound through his wrists. and one nail would have been used for his feet. It often went through the Achilles tendon. There he hangs, in the hot blistering Palestinian sun, experiencing this bone-wrenching pain through every muscle in his body. But we need to remember that his pain was intensified because of a verbal, you could even call it a psychological form of torture. In fact, that's what dominates the scene. If you read through the gospel accounts, this is the matter they put into sharp focus, that through those three or so hours while he's hanging there on the cross, people are heaping abuse upon him, disdain, contempt. Matthew tells us the crowd, Matthew 27, verse 39, and those who pass by blasphemed him. Luke doesn't tell us anything that the crowd said. He tells us simply that the crowd looked on passively, doing nothing, perhaps watching this gory scene like you'd watch a blood sport or a horror flick. Luke reminds us, however, there were other people standing there that were mocking him, the religious leaders. Look at verse 35. He captures the activity of their tongues. He uses a very unique word here, a rare word, they scoffed. And the word literally means to turn up your nose, to just sneer. It's a fulfillment of Psalm 22. He will be scorned, he will be mocked. Luke also lets us hear the soldiers. Verse 36, the soldiers also mocked him, coming up and offering him sour wine. And there's one more vocal of ridicule and scorn, perhaps the most surprising, but even the thieves. Matthew tells us that both of them railed upon him. Luke only identifies one of them, verse 39. But again, this is what dominates the scene. Jesus is riddled with scorn and mockery and disdain. Luke uses five of his seventeen verses to let us hear the enemy's scorn. And the one word that pops up over and over again when they scorn and they ridicule Jesus is the word save. Save. Verse 35. The people stood by watching, but the ruler scoffed at him. He saved others. Let him save himself. Verse 37. If you were the king of the Jews, save yourself. Verse 39, are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us. Ironic, isn't it? But it's a cruel chant. Save yourself, save yourself, save yourself. It does appear, as one man put it, that God the Father has His hand in His pocket. As His Son is being railed upon, it does appear that the enemies of God have triumphed here. Where is God? He seems to have disappeared. It appears He's vacated His throne. I'm sure there were some disciples who were standing off in the distance wondering, this is the Messiah. But suddenly God speaks. And he doesn't speak by words, but by a sign, a total blackout. Sudden darkness, a midnight darkness envelops the cross. It may have been so, so dark that you couldn't even see Jesus on the cross. Mark in his gospel uses an aorist tense verb. You should know what that means by now, but it captures the suddenness of the event. It wasn't a gradual, progressive kind of thing, but happened very suddenly, quickly. No one was prepared for this. Mark 15, verse 33, And when the sixth hour had come, there was darkness, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour. It's interesting that after this happens, you don't hear one more mocking word. It was almost like God telling them, be silent. Be silent. Stop mocking my son. But an eerie silence has replaced the noise of taunts and sneers. Maybe all you could hear was a few sobs and groans from those two thieves hanging next to Jesus. Maybe All you could hear was the sound of soldiers' footsteps around the foot of the cross. But this is pretty significant because all three gospel writers, that is, the three synoptic writers of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, they all tell us about it. They can't ignore it. Remember, Luke's gone around getting eyewitness accounts to understand what took place. And there certainly were few people who said, this is what happened. There was this darkness. They all catch it on camera here, don't they? Now, there were other signs, other supernatural events. There was an earthquake. Matthew tells us that graves opened up and some of the bodies of the saints were raised from the dead. Luke doesn't tell us that, nor does Mark. But all three gospel writers, all three of them, tell us about the darkness and about the torn veil in the temple. That too is significant. And that torn veil was a sign that things were going to change, moving from old covenant to new covenant, that worship was going to change, no longer localised in the temple, no longer limited to a geographical locality, specific time, specific place. But this darkness, it tells us something significant as well. It really tells us, it will tell us, that things are going to change. Change for Jesus. Change for us. And change for the world. The darkness of Calvary was singular. Secondly, the darkness of Calvary was supernatural. Supernatural. How do we explain the darkness? Did you know that whole books have been written about this darkness? You even find it mentioned in secular history books. Apparently, until the Enlightenment era, the crucifixion story and the darkness of that story was often used by Christian apologists. For example, when a critic by the name of Celsus claimed that Jesus could hardly be a god because he had not performed great deeds. The 3rd century Christian commentator Origen responded in recounting the darkness, the earthquake, and the opening of the tombs. Here's what he said. By way of proof, he referred to a man, an ancient Greek historian, Phelagon, who lived in the 2nd century, who himself spoke of this eclipse. He called it the greatest eclipse of the sun during the reign of Tiberius the Roman Caesar. One of the early church fathers, Tertullian, says this was common knowledge among the pagans. They even have a record of it in their history books and in writing in defense of Christianity to these raw pagans, Tertullian writes, at the moment of Christ's death, The light departed from the sun, and the land was darkened, which is recorded in your archives to this day. Now, you would expect that folk would want to de-supernaturalize this, and they have tried, at least attempted. Some say it was simply an eclipse of the sun. We see that in our own day. They don't want to believe this was a miracle, but Once you try to explain a miracle, it ceases to be a miracle. That's what makes a miracle a miracle. You can't explain it. I can't explain how Jesus walked on water, could you? I can't explain how he could feed 5,000 folk with a couple of loaves of bread. There's no logical explanation, no rational way to interpret miracles. Now, the word that Luke uses here is an interesting word. It's only used by Luke. You could even say it comes from, or we get our English word, eclipse from it. Luke 23, verse 45, eclepto, then the sun was darkened. That word could be translated failed. One translation I like, the sun went out. It's like someone shut the light switch, and the whole city was plunged into darkness. And again, think of what that might have been like if you were walking through the streets of Jerusalem, maybe going to the temple or to your favorite restaurant, and all of a sudden, in this darkness, people were left no doubt groping in this impenetrable darkness. You might have heard shrieks and cries, all kinds of questions were being asked. A little boy cries out, what happened dad? I can't see anymore. A little girl cries out, dad, mom, where are you? And those who were in their houses were frantically grabbing for their oil lamps. A solar eclipse? No. A solar eclipse could never have occurred during the Passover because of where the Moon was. The Passover was time of the full Moon. A full Moon means that the Moon is on the opposite side of the Earth. Plus, a solar eclipse is momentary. Seven minutes, 31 seconds, to be exact. This one lasts for three hours. Some writers have explained it, as I said, in terms of ordinary events, a dust storm, a heavy cloud cover, the aftermath of a volcanic eruption, but it's pretty clear what we have here. God's fingerprints are all over it. It's a miracle, and there's a couple of things you might want to note here to tell us that it was supernatural. Every one of the Gospel writers tells us to look at the clock on the wall, known as Luke 23, verse 44, this was about the 6th hour. Again, all three gospel writers, those who are writing about this, the synoptic gospel writers, they all mention the 6th hour. What's so significant about the 6th hour? Well, that's 12 noon. That's when the sun's at its highest. That's midday. That's when the sun's at its brightest. This would have been when People were crowding through the streets and the hustle and bustle into the marketplace. This was Passover, remember that. Jerusalem was full of pilgrims. It would have been packed to the gills. And of course, the God who made the sun can certainly stop it from shining. We know from the book of Joshua, he actually stopped it on one day, right there in mid-sky. It's sort of like this, children. It's like you're taking your hand and wrapping it around a light bulb, or put it in front of a flashlight. God wraps his hand around the sun. Maybe it's like this, you know, on your birthday you blow out candles. Well, God kind of does that here. He blows out this candle called the sun for a few hours. But suddenly it fails. It's like a dead battery. It doesn't seem to be working anymore. It may have been extinguished. We don't know exactly what takes place here. Notice, secondly, in terms of it being a miracle, not only in terms of when it happened, but notice how extensive this darkness was. All the Gospel writers, again, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, tell us that it was pretty far spread. All the earth is how Luke describes it. The language here tells us that it was more than just a local thing. How far? We don't know. All of Palestine, probably. All the world, perhaps. Just like a global flood. It has world significance, doesn't it? It impacts the whole of creation. God is shaking the earth. Seeking to grab the world's attention. Something significant is happening here at the cross. So he shakes the earth by way of an earthquake and he takes hold of the sun and just like you and I could take hold of a little golf ball and put it behind our backs, he takes the sun and puts it behind his back. F. W. Krumacher says, this terrific phenomenon, even the blindest of men could not mistake the finger of the Almighty. You have to be blind to not see this is God at work. The darkness of Calvary was singular. The darkness of Calvary was supernatural. But thirdly, the darkness of Calvary was symbolic. The darkness of Calvary was symbolic. One of the great themes and dominant motifs in our Bibles is this contrast of light and darkness. You can go right back to creation, can't you? Remember what the earth looked like before God began to speak. It was waterlogged and it was dark. And then God speaks, let there be light. And there was light. God speaks and makes a beautiful world teeming with light, variety and beauty. But the very first word God spoke was, let there be light. As we read through our Bibles, light and darkness take on significant meaning. They become symbols, metaphors. Light can represent God Himself. Jesus says, I am the light of the world. Light can represent holiness. We are to be children of God, children of light, who walk in the light. Darkness has great significance as well. It can represent a number of things. It can represent death. Psalm 23, even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death or the dark valley, darkness can represent sorrow and pain. Darkness appears at least 25 times in the book of Job. Job was a man suffering. Job describes himself as a man who's made his bed in darkness. He's talking about pain, suffering, sorrow. The darkness can also represent sin, can't it? The world of the unregenerate, the non-Christian, is described as a person who sits in darkness, who walks in darkness, who loves darkness. And even Jesus himself, you might want to look back at Luke 22, verse 53, he mentions darkness here in a negative sense. He says, to those who captured him there in Gethsemane, this is your hour and the power of darkness. Darkness can mean a lot of things, can't it? And some of those things might even have significance here when we come to the cross. But here's the thing we have to remember the most about darkness and what it can represent. It can stand for divine judgment. Divine judgment. The very first time, and I think this is a key, to understand what is happening here at Calvary. The very first time darkness is used in a negative sense in the Word of God is Exodus chapter 10. You can even turn there and see for yourself. Might be good if you do that. Here in Exodus, you know, the people of God, the Israelites, have been enslaved. They've been under the cruel captivity of the Egyptians. Pharaoh's been something of a despot, a dictator, and God will set them free from this horrible bondage. And how does he set them free? Well, God uses ten powerful And they all had significance, didn't they? Plague number nine was the plague of darkness. That's brought into focus here in Exodus chapter 10, verse 21. Exodus 10, 21, Then the Lord said to Moses, Stretch out your hand toward heaven, that there may be darkness over the land of Egypt, and darkness which may even be felt. I wonder if the darkness at Calvary could be felt. Uncomfortable darkness. Unusual darkness. Perhaps darker than anyone had ever seen dark before. Now you might remember in the Exodus story, the next plague is the death of the firstborn. And it's connected with the Passover. That's where it starts. So fast forward to Luke chapter 23, where are we in terms of time, in terms of the calendar? We're during the Passover. This is a darkness that will not envelop Egypt, but the land of Israel. This is a divine judgment. If you read through the Old Testament prophets, they often made reference to darkness and God's judgment or God's wrath. I'll give you several references. You can look them up if you want. This afternoon, Isaiah 5, Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness. And then verse 30 of Isaiah 5, Behold, darkness and distress, and the light is darkened by its clouds, God bringing judgment. Isaiah 13, the day of the Lord comes with wrath and furious anger to make the land the desolation, for the stars of the heaven will not give their light and the sun will be darkened. Joel chapter 2, the day of the Lord is coming. It is a day of darkness. Amos chapter 5, is it not the day of the Lord? Darkness. Zephaniah 1, the great day of the Lord is a day of wrath, a day of darkness. That explains Calvary. That's why it's so dark. God's wrath. And His wrath is not coming upon the enemies, but upon His Son. God's wrath is not coming upon the mockers and the scorners, but is coming upon the representative sinner, the one who is taking the place of sinners. It is the fulfillment of Isaiah 53, smitten by God, wounded for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities. And if you're still not convinced, then I would turn your attention to Matthew 27, because Jesus Himself exegetes the darkness. Matthew 27. Matthew in his Gospel links the two things together, the darkness and the wrath of God. Matthew 27 verse 45, Now for the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour. And about the ninth hour, Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lemme So back from I, that is, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? That's why it's dark. Jesus is forsaken by God. He's being judged by God. God's inflexible holiness and justice is being manifest there. after the cross. That's what describes what's happening here behind the black curtain. As one man put it, Jesus goes into the holy place. He goes to the altar to perform the sacrificial function as the high priest. And someone might ask the high priest, but where is the Lamb? And the high priest says, I am the Lamb. slaughter me. And God slaughters the lamb on the cross. Now it's true, the power of darkness was at work here. The devil was working overtime. We don't want to underestimate what the devil was doing, and I'm sure that he thinks in his own perversity that he's won. He has, you could say, from one perspective, masterminded the greatest crime in the universe. It does certainly appear that Jesus is defeated, but he's forgotten something, hasn't he? You know what he's forgotten? He's forgotten the devil's forgotten that sin deceives. If you deceive people, you'll get deceived yourself. Don't forget that. Lie? and you'll soon believe her lies. The devil's a liar! And he's believing his lies. He really thinks he's won. He really thinks he's won. He's forgotten that God is God, the mighty fortresses are God, a bulwark never failing. And so when the darkness disperses, There is another cry from the cross. It is a victory cry. It is finished. Jesus is saying, I won. The powers of darkness were defeated, to use the language of Colossians 2. He disarmed the rulers and the authorities and put them to open shame by triumphing over them. But we can't forget the ultimate here. The ultimate Darkness is the darkness of divine wrath and judgment. That's what's happening. Jesus is experiencing a God-forsakenness. And remember what hell is like. What is described there? A place of utter darkness. To be forsaken by God That's what hell is. He's overwhelmed, swallowed up in the wrath of God. He becomes the shock absorber for divine wrath. Now, what should be our response, Christians? Well, looking at the darkness of Calvary, it was singular, it was supernatural, it was symbolic. Let me just give three very, very brief applications that we can certainly draw from what we've considered this morning. Number one, in terms of our response to the darkness of Calvary, it should engage us in worship. To use the language of one of the hymns we sang this morning, lost in wonder, awe and praise. or to use the words of Charles Wesley, and can it be? Is it possible? Can it be, says Wesley, that God would send His Son, His only beloved Son, to die the curse of death for me? Can it be that God would send His Son to suffer the horrible pains, the spiritual anguish of an abandonment of God Himself? The greatest breach ever, ever takes place on the cross. God divorces His Son. And it's a holy divorce. And casts Him into utter darkness. Did He leave His Father's throne for that? Yes, He humbled Himself, because He loved us, and He bleeds for all His chosen race. And don't forget, brethren, this isn't just the love of Christ, this is the love of the Father. We've got another hymn in our supplement, how deep the Father's love, how vast beyond all measure that He would give His only Son to make a wretch His treasure. That's not a bad word, wretch. It describes us well. wretched sinners, but he makes us his treasure. Remember when God's people crossed over the Red Sea and God showed his power and his mercy in delivering them from Pharaoh and the Egyptian army and on the other side of that Red Sea, what do they do? They worship. They begin to sing. If we understand what God did for us and what Christ did for us at Calvary, it should make us worship. This is the best response. Worship the Lamb. Second response, brethren, if we understand the darkness of Calvary, it should give us, brethren, ample reason to be the most thankful people on planet Earth. Gratitude thanksgiving should pour off our lips rather frequently. A couple of weeks ago, maybe it wasn't that long, I was in New Jersey and spent some time with one of the pastors. We went out to supper a couple of nights and had supper in his home. He often led in prayer. And it struck me, every time he prayed, he took us to the cross. He thanked for the food, great food. But He took us to the cross. We should be thanking God for salvation more than we should thank God for a food choice. It's a good habit to get into when you pray and thank God for your food. Thank God for the great salvation found in Christ. We should be the most thankful people on planet Earth. Should we not, if we understand what God has done for us? What were we? We were once children of wrath, and we would have died children of wrath unless Jesus endured the very wrath of God. Thank you, Jesus, for saving me from my sin. Brethren, we breathe the air of entitlement in our generation, don't we? We think we're owed. We're owed a better job. We're owed a better home. And we're owed a better paycheck. We're owed a better wife. We're owed a better husband. We're owed better parents. We're owed, owed, owed! What you're owed, you know what you're owed? You and I are owed the judgment of God. That's what we deserve. We don't deserve anything more. Everything else is mercy. So every time we grump and complain, it's probably evidence that you've lost sight of the cross. No matter how bad things get, No matter how difficult your circumstances, no condemnation to those in Christ Jesus. That never changes. Thank you. Spurgeon said our prayers should be perfumed with praise and thanksgiving. And then the third final response that we could argue from our text brethren is pray. Pray for the unconverted. Pray for those who don't know the Savior. We sometimes forget. Maybe it's because we really don't want to think that much about it, but there is a doctrine of hell in our Bible. There's a doctrine of divine judgment, divine wrath. It's become almost taboo. Don't talk about wrath today. But those three hours of darkness give us a little peek into what we will endure, or what sinners will endure, but it will be an infinity. In hell, there are no stop clocks, no escape latches, no reprieve, no time out. You're there forever. And forever. And forever. If you don't know the Savior, that's what's going to happen. You'll be cast into utter darkness. The Bible speaks of a day of wrath. It's on God's calendar. And there will be great cosmic signs if those warnings that our Lord Jesus gave. He does talk about the moon and the sun and the shaking of the whole universe as He comes back again. But it will make earthquakes and tsunamis and hurricanes look like little things, little harbingers. When He comes back on that final day, the earth will shake, the heavens will shake, Perhaps the stars will fall from the sky, and the moon and the sun will turn all kinds of different colors and gyrate. Jesus will summon all the nations before him, and he will judge them. He will divide between the goats and the sheep, and he will say to the goats, I prepared a place for you. It's called hell. And there's another place. It's called heaven. And the only way, the only way you get into heaven is by way of Christ. His blood, His sacrifice in Christ and Christ alone. He must be yours. He must be yours by faith. You have to take hold of Him just like that thief took hold of Christ by faith on that cross. It's not because of any good thing. It's all of grace. But you cry out for mercy. You say, save me from the darkness of divine judgment. Save me from the wrath to come. Francis Schaeffer, some think was the greatest apologist in the modern world for the Christian Church. Great intellectuals would gather to hear him at a chalet in Switzerland to explain the gospel and apparently in one occasion he was talking about hell. And a young man asked Dr. Schaefer about those who've never heard the gospel, what's going to happen to them? Everybody waited for Schaefer to give a brilliant answer. He didn't say a word. He bowed his head and he wept. He wept. Do you know someone who doesn't know the Savior? Are you praying for them? Are you shedding any tears for them? We should, brethren, pray that they would come to know the Savior escape the wrath of God, that they would not leave this world and enter darkness, but enter the light of heaven and see the blessed Savior. Let's pray. Father in heaven, we thank you again for your son in that sacrifice on Golgotha. Help us, Lord, to live in light of it we so easily forget, so easily are distracted by so many cares. Help us to go back to the cross frequently to make regular rendezvous every day. Help us not to forget Jesus Christ and not to forget to survey that wondrous cross And Lord, again, we would plead that you would save sinners, even those who sit here this morning who don't know the Savior. May this be the day in which you grant them faith to see Him and repentance so they will turn from their sins and embrace Him. And we pray this in Christ's name. Amen.