Inviting you to turn with me in first Peter and chapter 3 verses 18 to verse 22 And this is the second message and there will be three unless we need four or if we need five There are several there's so many things that are going on in this that just to pass over them Is to leave us with more confusion than answers there are there are So many passages, and it's a finite, it's a small number, it's not huge, of what are called troubling or problem passages in the Bible. And this is one of them. And so if we don't come away having some concept or some understanding of it, then I have done you no service at all. it would be better to spend more time and for us to come away saying, you know what, I think I understand this. I think I'm able to comprehend it, that even if I don't have all the answers, I have an answer sufficient that it settles me on what I believe. So tonight we're going to look at Jesus going into those spirits who are in prison and proclaiming to them and passing into heaven. Now next Sunday night we can't look at this because we have vacation Bible school. But the Sunday night after that we're going to look at baptism and in what sense is it an anti-type or a type and in what sense does it save us? Because those are the words of the passage. And so if we don't come away understanding it, we may look to ourself and say, well, maybe the Church of Christ were right. You know, maybe baptismal regeneration is really the answer. And it's not. But if we don't settle it and at least look at it, then I think we do ourself a disservice to have looked at a passage and to have not looked at it. When I became a Christian, I wasn't looking for easy solutions. I was tired of the simple answer or being told, well, you know, that's for somebody else to think about. You know, we just want to get to the gospel. And most of the time they are avoiding it. And they it was simple sermons for simple Simon. And the reality is, is God didn't fix didn't wire me that way. I am the guy that wants to tear it apart. Walter, I don't know if you ever tore things apart, but I want to tear it apart and I want to see how it works. Even if I can't get it back together to work, I want to know how all the parts work and what their functions are. I want to see how this thing works. I don't want to just look on the screen and say, wow, what a product. I want to see it work. I want to understand it. And so that may be my fault, but it's how God designed me. I was asked to preach a revival, the very first revival that I was ever asked to preach. And it was in all places, a place called Shiro. Anyone here know where Shiro is? Well, you ought to. If you've ever traveled from Sam Houston, from Huntsville, going to Bryan College Station, you take 30. And as you take 30 going across there, you'll come to a little hairpin turn area. And in that hairpin turn, that's Shiro. There are more cows than there are people in the population of Shiro. And it's right before you get to the four-way stop at 90, and then you cross over and you go on and make your way to Bryan College Station. But I was asked to preach a revival out there. And I'm thinking to myself, all right, this is my first time to ever preach a revival. What do I want to do? And I've got five messages that I'm supposed to preach. And so I said to myself, so what is it that I would like to do? And I said, well, I'm going to take five of the most difficult passages in the New Testament, and that's what I'm going to preach on. Was it the wisest thing to do? Probably not. But in this real small community where we had all the little churches came together, the Presbyterians were there, the Methodists were there, the Church of Christ were there, Assembly of Gods were there, we had everybody there. and we had everybody stirring when we got finished and lots of questions that were coming out so we looked at the order of Melchizedek and we looked at baptismal regeneration and we looked at this we looked at Hebrews chapters 5 and 6 and we looked at how is it that one could possibly if at all possible lose their salvation we looked at a lot of things and one thing about it when I got done They all said this was the most interesting revival service they had ever been at because they didn't fall asleep they never knew what was coming up next and You know, so go figure But I want you to be settled The Bible gives us a solid firm foundation. It's not it's not shifting sand. It's a rock and we just saying This is the air I breathe your very word spoken to me And so the Word of God is that. It ought to be life to us. It ought to be the thing that presses us to move us forward. And so beginning in verse 18 and reading through verse 22, I'd like us to read it again. And we will read it again in two weeks. And I hope you will read it often beyond this. Because Christ once concerning sin suffered. the just on behalf of the unjust, in order that he might bring us to God, or rather, as it says, bring God us. We're the reward of this. Suffering the just for the unjust, bring God us. We're the booty, we're the reward, the victory. Dying in the flesh, a life making by the Spirit. by which he also made proclamation to those spirits that were in prison passing through. Formally were disobedient when God's patience waited expectantly in the days of Noah as he was building the ark in which a few That is eight souls were saved through water Which is for us an anti type Which now saves us even baptism It's not the the the wash of the filth of the flesh but rather of the presentation of a good conscience to God by the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who is at the right hand of God, passing through into heaven, submitting to Him angels and authorities and powers. I'd like you to look that twice we find this participle that says passing through. There's an old hymn, I think Stance Baxter's type hymn, and it says, this world is not my home. I'm only passing through. You know the difference between passing through and going and entering or exiting and leaving. You know the difference. You know what, we entered into this building, we came into it, and we're here. And we can go out of it, at the end of the service we will exit and we will go out of it and we will proceed out. But we go through life passing through, and that's what it is here. It's not the destination. It's not saying that his destination was to go, and again, we gotta look and say to ourself, what does he say and what does he not say? Because so often time we read into a text words that are not there. You do understand that. We read into things, things that are not said. So he's passing through. What's he doing while he's passing through? Because that's a participle is looking at an action. It's ongoing. It's not looking at it as something, for example, if you say he preaches, then is that something I do once? Something I do often, isn't it? It could be descriptive. I mean, there's some weeks that it's four or five times, and there's been weeks that it's been as many as 12. But he preaches, so it's something I'm always doing. It's not something I did, or I might do, or right now I'm doing, but it looks at the whole lifestyle. He's passing through. As he's passing through and he's in the same tense for both of them that it uses in verse 19 It says passing through and again in verse 22. So the beginning and we got it's kind of like bread on a sandwich You got it at the beginning you got it at the end and then you got sandwich in the middle So that what's stuffed in the middle is where he's trying to point us to you understand that To begin with it to end with it. It's there. There's a a literary device That's called a chiasmus, but that doesn't mean anything to you But just understand it this way the fact that he said this here and he says it here Opening and closing and he uses exactly the same word in the same in the same tense He's giving us the indication that both of them are one in the same that it's exactly the same thing What he was doing in verse 19 is what he's doing in verse 22. Do you understand that? Is anyone not with me there? The reason I'm asking that because I don't want to keep going if you've got a question on this I don't want to look at this whiteboard and see it empty I want to see the whiteboard with all kinds of marks and all kinds of questions coming up and popping up and going Well, what about that? You know, I don't I don't let's look at this for a second What's he doing in the process? What's the verb say he's doing? What's it say he does in verse 19? first of all in 19 it says that he is a What's it say? It says that he is making proclamation. Now, it doesn't say what the content does. It doesn't say preaching the gospel or gospelizing. It says he's heralding. He's making an announcement. He's proclaiming something that people are to pay attention and to listen up and to pay attention to. But what's he doing in verse 22? What's the verb or what would be the form that he's using? The verb form there tells what he is. Now there's a difference in Spanish. You use ester or you use ser. And you use them because one can be something that he is, but it's not, in descripting something that's temporal, versus something that is permanent. If someone were to say of me, he is married, well you'd use one that's more permanent, wouldn't you? Because this September is going to be 36 years, that seems kind of permanent, right? All right, but you could say he is dancing. Is that something I do all the time? No, it's kind of one of those periodic things, you know, at wedding receptions that that might happen that, you know, dance with the grandkids and with the nieces and all of those. But it's not something I do all the time. So if you were to say last night he was dancing with Sadie or dancing with Francis or dancing with Kaylee, then I was doing it then. But I don't always do that. Maybe I should do it more, but I don't. So he is sitting at the right hand of God. He's proceeding through He's heralding. He's making a message and as he's proceeding through he is at the right hand of God That's the destination. That's where he is proceeding through to do So what exactly or what's he announcing? What is it that he's announcing as he's passing through let's look back and verse 18 where we find the confession it says he suffered once Concerning sin the just for the unjust in order that he might bring God us how? Dying in the flesh being made alive by the Spirit That's the message That is the message That he is dying once for sin the just for the unjust bringing God us dying in the flesh A live making by the Spirit. This word life making, you know, making alive, but it's one word. You know, English doesn't do that so well. German does it real well. If you want to make up a word, you just start adding words together. You just kind of bump them together, collide them, and they become one word. So it'd be like, the only thing I can think of that anyone have a context to would be Jack reading N.T. Wright. The once for all, one kind of, save people, there's, you know, with all the hyphens, the hyphenated. Well, hyphenated really isn't very good English, is it? They just keep hyphenating words. But to get the indication we're talking about one thing, and then to hyphenate everything that comes together. Well, life making's one. It's not two. So this, it's not, Christ by his own power, by the power of God that's in him, is made alive. But that's one concept. It's not making alive as though life was the goal or the thing he's making. It's together. It's what he's doing. It's coming back alive. It's breathing again. It's living again. And so it says he is making an announcement as he's passing through. And to whom is he making this announcement? It says, to those who are, to the spirits who are in prison. Now we have had flesh once and we have had spirit once already in verse 18. Flesh is just purely his humanity. Spirit goes beyond that to that non-material part of who he is. And so he's announcing not to the fleshly part of man, but to the soulish part of man, he is announcing to those who are in prison. Well, has that been used any place else before not in not in first Peter? But where in the world do we find this concept of these that somehow or another are bound up in prison? Well, let's just take a road through the Old Testament for a second You know the scripture is its best interpreter You ought to write that down if you don't have that written down someplace in your mind someplace you ought to write down the best interpreter of scripture is Scripture if you want to know what the Bible says then ask yourself. What's the Bible say that the Bible says what's it say? It it's saying because the Bible will interpret itself. Let's just go back for a moment Because again, so oftentimes we are looking only in the New Testament when the reality is is the Bible of the Apostles and the Bible of the first century church wasn't the New Testament It was what? The Old Testament, because they didn't have the New Testament. So if he's telling them that he's making this proclamation as he's passing through, not staying, passing through, and he is preaching to, or making this announcement to spirits that are in prison, let us go to Psalm 68 first. Not that it's the first, but at least if we're going chronological, or not chronological, but orderly through our Bible, then Psalms is going to come before the rest. Psalm 68 we find an announcement of the greatness and the sovereignty of God of God's mighty power and We come down and I guess probably start in verse 15 to go through verse 18 because it's verse 18 We're looking at but to get it in context Mount Bashan is God's towering mountain Mount Bashan is a mountain with many peaks Why gaze with envy you mountain peaks at the mountain God? desired for his dwelling The Lord will live there forever God's chariots are tens of thousands and thousands and thousands The Lord is among them in his sanctuary as he was at Sinai You ascended to the heights taking away captives You received gifts from people even from the rebellious so that the Lord God might live there The psalmist is singing this hymn of the greatness of God He is singing a hymn that God is taking captives The God is taking along people that have been brought into captivity. Well, what is captivity? Who goes into captivity? Somebody who loses right The losers go into captivity, the winners take captives, right? Isn't that how it works? Go back to, again, Genesis chapter 14, with the battle that took place with Kedi Laomar. So we go to Isaiah, and we will look at Isaiah, at a couple passages there. In Isaiah chapter 14, And in Isaiah chapter 14, we find this announcement that Babylon's going to fall. And in this announcement that Babylon's going to fall, he begins to talk about those that are captive, but their captivity isn't a captivity with chains. It's captivity that's far worse and far longer and more severe than that. And so we read as God is talking about the downfall of Babylon and beginning in verse three, but particularly looking at verses nine through 11. When the Lord gives you rest from your pain, torment, and the hard labor you are forced to do, you will sing this song of contempt about the king of Babylon and say. So when God delivers Israel from their captivity, they will sing this song of contempt against their captors. How was the oppressor? How has he quieted down and how the raging has become quiet? The Lord has broken the staff of the wicked, the scepter of the rulers. It has struck down the people in anger with unceasing blows. It subdued the nations in rage with relentless persecution. All the earth is calm and at rest and people shout with a ringing cry. Even the cypresses and the cedars of Lebanon rejoice over you. Since you have been laid low, no woodcutter has come against us. Sheo below is eager to greet your coming. He stirs up the spirits of the departed for you all the rulers of the earth He makes all the kings of the nations rise up from their thrones talking about in the grave not upon their thrones on earth They're dead the rulers and they're in crypt and they've been encrypted as kings and he makes them rise the grave makes them rise up to greet the king of Babylon Rise from their thrones and they all respond to you saying you too have become as weak as we are You have become like us your splendor has been brought down to Sheol Along with the music of your harps maggots will spread over you Will spread out under you and worms will cover you verse 18 We continue and we read this and all the kings of the nations lie in splendor each in his own tomb but you are thrown out without a grave, like a worthless branch. So he talks about those that are in captivity, and in this sense, where are they captive? What's the captivity that has them? It's the same one that's gonna eat us, isn't it? It's the grave. When we go there, who comes out? Nobody is on strength. And whatever honor we go with when we go there is the only honor we have, but it's not much. The kings say you're as weak as we are. You have become like us. We could turn over to chapter 24 and we could look at the downfall of all the earth and all the nations, but particularly verses 21 to 23 of chapter 24. And we read this on that day. The Lord will punish. The Lord of hosts will punish the host of heaven above and the kings of earth below. And they will be gathered together like prisoners in a pit. And they'll be confined to a dungeon. And after many, many days, they will be punished. The moon will be put to shame and the sun disgrace because the Lord of hosts will reign as king on the mountain in Zion, in Jerusalem, and it will display his glory in the presence of his elders. It's the same picture that we find here in first Peter Where Peter says he proclaims through those in prison and then he goes into heaven sitting down at the right hand of God subjecting who see subject angels authorities powers It's the same picture here They are bound in prison that they're bound in captivity that death has subdued them and that there's no rising out of that They have no possibility of strength in and of themselves that they will ever rise out of this And so they are held in bondage. They are held in captivity and Then we find in chapter 26 in this song that comes that God is going to ultimately be vindicated in verse 14 and verse 19 and The dead do not live. Departed spirits do not rise up. Indeed, you have visited them and you have destroyed them. You have wiped out all memory of them. And then we read in verse 19, your dead will live. Their bodies will rise awake and seeing you who dwell in the dust for you will be covered with the morning dew and the earth will bring forth the departed spirits. So what's he looking at? One and he's looking at death's going to put them in bondage and they'll be enslaved and they'll be in captivity But on the other hand, he looks that the dead are going to be what? They're gonna be raised It's going to be like coming up in the morning when they've got to do all over them from the from the early morning Before the Sun has come up and they will come out and that's what we find in verse 19 And the earth will bring forth the departed spirits. He's looking at a resurrection, isn't he? You're dead and now the departed spirits come back up. Is he not looking at a resurrection in that what the picture is Turn for a moment to Zechariah chapter 9. I Hope you write these down because you will not remember them Zechariah chapter 9 and we find this messianic picture of the coming of the Messiah and Chapters 9 to 10 look at His first coming, or chapters 9 to 11 look at His first coming, 12, 13, and 14 look at the second coming of Christ. So in chapter 9 we know that because we generally have it sometime around Palm Sunday when it says, Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion, shout with joy, daughter of Jerusalem, see your King is coming to you, He is righteous and victorious, humble and riding on a donkey. Have you heard that before? Palm Sunday when Christ comes in verses 9 and 10 and it talks about his dominion that he's going to reign He's going to be king and he's going to subdue his enemies and it says then in verse 11 as for you a Different group of people as opposed to those that have stood as God's enemies in verses 1 to 8 as for you because of the blood of your covenant I will release I will release who? Your prisoners. From where? Waterless cisterns. Return to the stronghold, you prisoners who have hope. Today I declare to you that I will restore double to you. For I will bend Judah as a bow, and I will fill the bow with Ephraim, and I will rouse your sons, O Zion, against the sons of Greece, and I will make them like a warrior's sword. When? When the Messiah comes. So those that are in bondage and those in captivity will ultimately be raised, and what will they be raised to? Well, we've read some from the Old Testament, and the picture is God's judgment ultimately sends people to the grave, shield. And in the grave, you don't get to come back out. There's no redo, there's no second chance, you just go. And if it were not for a hope that God holds out to us, that would be the end of it, wouldn't it? There'd be no more to the story. We would be dead and that would be it. No more. But that's not the end of the story. And the reason it's not the end of the story is because God has promised the Messiah will come. When the Messiah comes, he will accomplish something that only God can do, and he will accomplish something that those who are departed spirits that have gone into the grave have the hope of being raised out of it, and they will have hope. And they will go someplace. Now, I'd like to ask you a question in Peter. So far, have you heard any of these words, any of these words as to yet? What do you think the thematic word for the whole book of first Peter is? Verse three of chapter one, blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who caused us to be born again to a. Living. Hope. How? By the resurrection of Christ from the dead. What do we find here? The prisoners, what's the message he's preaching? Is it not hope? That God has, God is going to raise us, and why? Because in verse 21, by the resurrection, same thing that he said in chapter one, by the resurrection of Christ from the dead. So the announcement is to those who are in prison, who are in prison, those who have died. Even dying in the Lord, we're in prison. We can't come out of there. I cannot go and I cannot get my grandmother and say, grandmother, I'd like to bring you up and talk to you today. She can't I can't go down and get her and bring her up, can I? I wouldn't want to. One day, those that are in the grave will hear the voice of Christ. John five says that. And when he speaks, what will happen? The dead will come. And they will come to the voice of Christ and they will rise to a resurrection. that comes, and he's announcing the resurrection is coming. Why? Because he's not going to stay. He enters into the grave, and he enters into the grave with the announcement that this isn't the end of the story. It's been their story, like we saw in Psalm 68. They're all lying in state, just like they were put in the crypt, just like they were putting their sepulchers. That's how they are. They aren't moving around. You know, until somebody opened up the pyramids, those pharaohs were in there exactly like they had been placed. Amuhakuf did not get himself out of his, out of his, how do you say it? Seraphicus? You know, he was in the box and he's wrapped up like a mummy. He did not get himself out of that, did he? How do we know what he looks like? Because somebody opened the lid and somebody unwound him and they laid him out there all darkened and all hardened and we said, wow, that's what he looked like. Not faring too well after all these, you know, thousands of years. He's kind of, you know, it's not holding up really well. Probably better than someone who wasn't involved, but he's still not, he doesn't look too good. You know, I'm not sure that any of the models that have been on covers of things look nearly as good in the grave as they did when they were on the cover of a poster for something. Do you? I don't think so. And so it is that when we have entered into the grave, Christ passing through, He went there too. And He makes a distinction. He died in the flesh, but what was He? He was made alive by His Spirit. And who's He making this proclamation to? To the spirits, to those who are alive. They're still there conscious. At least that seems to be the picture that we saw in Hebrews. But there's one other passage I'd like you to look at. And that's in Ephesians, in chapter four. In Ephesians chapter four, we find this announcement. In Ephesians chapter four, we find, beginning in verse seven, now grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ's gift. For it is said, he who ascended on high took prisoners into captivity and he gave gifts to people. You remember reading that? Where did that come from? Did it not come back from again from the Psalms where we have already read this? And so it is that God has given to us this promise. And so we find Paul saying that's what he's talking about. All right, so the passage says he ascended on high. What's it say in verse 22? He who is at the right hand of God passing through into heaven has subjected all things to him, angels and authorities and powers. So He's only, He passing through, He ascended into high, He took the prisoners into captivity. Those that were bound here now are in His victory. 2 Corinthians says that He has led, that He has laid captivity captive, and He has, that He has, that we're in the train of His victory. And so we find the picture that the resurrection of Jesus Christ is the victory, it's the triumphal march. And so then we find Paul giving the explanation for that in verse 9. But what does He ascended, that phrase, what does it mean except that He descended into the lower parts of the earth? And what do we find in verse 19? By which, the Spirit, by which He made this announcement. It doesn't say He preached the gospel. There's no second chance in hell. It doesn't use the word euangelizomai, that He is preaching the gospel. It is karithai, it means to make a proclamation. He's making a declaration. He's not preaching the gospel to them. Those are two entirely different words. He's making an announcement as he is passing through the grave to those spirits that are in captivity Why because that's exactly what he says here the Paul says He who descended is the same one who has ascended far above the heavens That's what verse 22 says that he might fill all things and he personally gave some to be apostles and prophets and evangelists and pastor teachers for the training of the Saints for the work of ministry to build up the body of Christ and until we reach that unity of faith. So what he did in this interim from rising to sitting is in this interim of the church is to give gifts to men in order that the church might grow and that the church might be united as a declaration of what heaven is going to be like. And so he who suffered once concerning sin, the just for the unjust, in order that he might bring God to us, dying in the flesh and rising or made alive by the Spirit by which He Himself made proclamation passing through to the spirits that were in prison. His announcement is sitting down at the right hand of God. Hebrews 1 verses 1 to 3 says that God in verse 2 says that God has spoken Final in it happened then and it's over. It's not a participle. It's something that was done He was speaking back then was speaking to the prophets and to our fathers by the prophets, but not now He spoke He's not adding anything. He spoke It's over. How do you pardon me? How did he speak his son who is his exact? representation of his and the affluence or the radiance and splendor of God's very character of who God is and Having made purification for sin. He sat down at the right hand of God. That's what Hebrews chapter 1 verses 1 to 3 says and So he who spoke and as God has spoken, made purification, that's what this says, same thing, made purification for sin, sat down at the right hand of God because he's made purification of sin and God has exalted him high above all things. So when we come to verses 19 and we come to verse 22, we're reminded of this, that this process, it wasn't that his intention was to die and to die alone. Because you and I will die and that would be it if it were not for the other part of it by the resurrection of Jesus Christ By the resurrection of Jesus Christ we have as he said in chapter 1 we have not only a living hope But we have something goes beyond that He says for the hope for an inheritance imperishable unfading and is not passing away kept for us in heaven for us being guarded by the power of God through faith, leading to salvation, which is ready to be rebuilt in that last time. And he talks about the coming of Christ, and he talks about the spirit of Christ, and he talks about the suffering and death of Christ, and all of these things bringing to us our salvation. And so his goal in all of the movement from Christ's incarnation to his life, to his suffering, to his death, to his burial, to his resurrection, is to come ultimately to sit down at God's right hand. We have elections every four years of presidents. And when the president is elected on the second Tuesday of November, and he has chosen to be president, or she's chosen to be president, whomever that person may be, are they president then? Not until January. They may get together a cabinet. They may set out an agenda of what they'd like to do in the first 100 days, but when do they become president? in January, in Washington, with their hand on a Bible and with a Supreme Court justice, they're swearing them in. And the day that they swear them into office, they then go into session, don't they? Then they meet with the joint houses. And they make their, you know, some of you didn't take government or something. You've slept since then. But they go into the joint meeting of the houses. And the president then lays out the agenda for the next hundred days. Do you remember this? I mean, it only happens every four years. But I've been around for a lot of four years. And so they make this declaration and they say, here's my agenda and this is what I want you to do and these are one of the things I want you to pass. And they start laying out the agenda because they're in session. They were elected and now they're in session and then they take their seat in the White House and everything begins to move through in those first hundred days until they start fighting, right? Christ, He entered into this world, He suffered and died for sin, He went into the grave, He rose and on the third day He made Himself apparent and seen like the election day. He is Christ. He is the Savior. He is the resurrected Lord. But after the 40 days, He's ascended into heaven and He takes His seat at the right hand of God and He is in... Session. See, we forget about that. We got a resurrected Lord, but he ain't doing anything. You know, he's just kind of waiting around. You know, when's the last day going to come? You know, it's been a long time since I got up here. What am I going to do? You know, I guess I'll just have to wait till the last day comes. No, he's in session and he rules and he reigns. And that's what he says. And he is subjected to him who God, everything to Christ, angels of powers, authorities. Principalities everything is under his feet and Paul says in 1st Corinthians chapter 15 that he will do that until all things have finally under his objection then Christ will give them to the father You see there's no loony tune We get a second chance We don't trust Christ now. It's okay. I Jesus is gonna show up in hell and he's gonna give us a second chance You know if you didn't have enough sense here when in the sufferings and the anguish and all of that, you know Finally, you'll get it right and you'll say man. I don't want to spend eternity here Lord. I want to trust you and that kind of what the Mormons offer With their vicarious baptism that somebody can get you out Somebody can rescue you once you've gone to hell it didn't happen it's taken care of now and here and or it's taken care of permanently, for it is appointed unto man once to die, just like Christ died once to die, and after that, what? The judgment, Hebrews 9, 27. And so we find that Christ is making an announcement that he has accomplished for them, that those that are dead aren't going to stay there. And I may be longer-winded. You know, it's nice not having to watch. I may be a bit long-winded, but I'd like to remind you of this. We know on the Resurrection Day that Matthew tells us that an earthquake happened and there were spirits that came out. They were there in Jerusalem. Waiting what? Waiting for the ascension. Why? It's kind of like an early announcement that Christ is taking their, not their bodies, their spirits, to heaven. We read in Revelation chapter 6 that one of the breaking of the seal, we hear all these crying going out. And his crying is going right out there before the throne of God. Where is the throne of God? It's the mercy seat. It's the place where Christ has seated, where he has offered his own blood as a propitiation for our sin. Where he has set himself down on the propitiatory, the mercy seat, and he is on his throne. the grace of God, everything, when we look at Jesus Christ, we see Christ enthroned, where do we see Him? At the very place before God that He sacrificed, that He gave His own blood for our sins. so that when we come to Him and we come to the mercy seat of God, we have to remember, because that mercy seat in Hebrew is the place where propitiation is resolved. Like the Ark of the Covenant and the throne that sits over the Ark of the Covenant where blood is spilled, Christ gave His blood and sits down on the very place before God where the blood was spilled, so that when God, truly when God looks at Him, He sees the blood He shed, He sees the life He gave, He sees Christ, and He welcomes you and me. Now you know I didn't get much sleep last night. At bed at 2.30 and up at 7. But I can say this is wonderful and this is exhilarating and I am enthralled to death to know that Christ has died for me. And He's sitting down at the right hand of God. I don't know about you, but I couldn't sleep through this. I might be able to sleep through, you know, one of the great babies being born. But I don't think I could ever sleep through this. Because this is such great news. It's the most wonderful thing that you will ever hear. That Christ's destination wasn't the grave. And Christ's destination wasn't even the cross. Christ's destination was to sit down in the very presence of God, that you and I, that He brings God, us. See, you and I don't come by ourselves. Jesus Christ came down, and he came down, and it says that he brought us. Come here. He brought us. He brought us. He says, come on. He brings us right to the presence of God, right here, right to where the blood was shed. And he comes, and he says, come on. He came to bring us, us to God, us God. God's there, and he's bringing us to God. He says, do you want Christ? Do you want God? You want the forgiveness of sin? It's here. Where is it? It's in me. It's in my death, it's in my blood. Now, I don't know about you, but don't you think it's exciting? Jesus Christ brought you. And I bow before him and I say, Lord Jesus Christ, don't ever let me get over it. Thank you, too, for being so pleasant. Don't ever let me get over it. Lord Jesus Christ, thank you for saving me. And as we come to the Lord's table tonight, Lord, it's my prayer that that's what you say before Christ. Thank you, Lord. Thank you that in all that you have done, when you sat down, you sat down to bring me. So that when I come and I take the Lord's Supper tonight, you don't have to stay up here. When I take the Lord's Supper tonight and you take the Lord's Supper tonight, be reminded, just like that, Christ comes and he brings us to God. He says, come. And the end of the book. It says, in the spirit and the bride, they say what? They say, come. You know what the end of Revelation says? The spirit of the bride, it says, come, come. To everyone that's thirsty, come, come drink. Come eat freely. Isaiah 55 says the same thing. Without money, without cost, why? Because it's already paid for. Come, come. So as the deacons come this evening to bring to you the gift of Christ, The reminder of Christ's shed blood of his life, Christ is saying to you, because this is the Lord's Supper. It's not mine. It's not even ours. It's the Lord's Supper. And he says to us, come. Will you come? As we stand, as the deacons come, let's come to Christ. Let's bring ourselves before him and thank him for bringing us to him. Lord God, I thank you. I thank you for the privilege to be able to stand on your behalf before this congregation every week. And to speak on your behalf and to say come. God, thank you that you say come to us. And all you who are heavy laden. You will find rest. I will give you rest. My burden is is easy. It's light. God, as we come before you. To lay our burdens down, to lay our sins aside. Blessed is a man whose lawlessness has been forgiven and whose sins have been covered over. Blessed is a man to whom the Lord never, never accounts his sin. And so, God, we stand before you because you did not reckon our sin to ourself, but upon Christ Jesus, our Lord. And dying, he has brought us to you. Living, we have life and we are justified. Lord Jesus, we come before you this evening to give you praise, to give you glory, to give you honor, and to thank you for your death, for us, and for your life, and for your session. and that you welcome us each to come to you. In Jesus name, amen. I wanna ask if you'd be seated and the deacons if they would serve and I think I can. After what we've just heard, what else can you say except what? Amen. Amen. Because God is right, it is correct. It is his word, amen. And I'm gonna do something a little different. We may have done it before, I don't remember, but I'm gonna just ask everybody, where you're at right now, just bow your head, and just pray to the Lord, and just ask him, where am I at in my walk with you? Because like we have heard tonight, this isn't anything to play around with. It's very important to the Lord, and it's very important that we get it straight. I want you all to pray, and I'm going to read some scripture from 1 Corinthians. Because therefore, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord, in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and the blood of the Lord. A man ought to examine himself before he eats of the bread and drinks of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without recognizing the body of the Lord eats and drinks judgment against their self. That is why many of us are weak and sick, and a number of us have fallen asleep. But if we judge ourselves, we would not come under judgment, because when we are judged by the Lord, We're being disciplined so that we will not be condemned with the world. And the Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread. And when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, this is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me. Amen. Most gracious Heavenly Father, Father, we do thank you for this loaf that we hold in our fingers, Father. But Father, most of all, we thank you for what it truly does represent and what it means is Jesus Christ's body. And Father, we thank you for the plan that you have had from the beginning when creation was made that included everybody in this world. And we thank you for using us to be a part of it, Father. And Father, we thank you for loving us enough to keep us on your heart until we turn around and come to you. Because as your word tells us, everybody is born into this world as a sinner. But that is taken care of when we accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior and step out on faith. And we thank you for that plan. And we thank you for giving us the privilege to spread that plan to other people to let them know. And Father, as we partake of this, we do it in the love of Jesus Christ. that we have for him and for you as you do us. You ask these things in his precious name. Amen. We've been observing the Lord's Supper for many years, over 100 years in this church. As a Christian body, we've been observing the Lord's Supper over 2,000 years since it was started by the Lord. at this night before his betrayal, before his time that he would become the sacrifice for our sins. And you know, you think about this long journey that we've gone through this tradition or this practice of Lord's Supper, and the importance of it has never waned. It still is as important as it was the first night when they took this supper. And you know, I read the scripture in Luke, and I'm not sure how much the deacons, excuse me, it was disciples then, I guess it could have been deacons, but it was disciples then. And I wondered just how much they realized the importance of this. I would like to think they really understood it, but I'm not sure. Because if you read on after this little phrase about this cup is a new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you, then what happened a little bit later? It says they got into a dispute about who was to be considered the greatest in heaven or on earth or wherever. Tonight, I ask you, I said, as we take this cup, let's just remember the importance of it and what God expected, what Jesus expected of us. And it says this, do this in remembrance of me. Lord, we just thank you for this time. We just honor you. We remember you with this cup. just two announcements before we close with our song. And the first one is that we still need a vegetable and a salad tomorrow for the funeral. And the other one is the funeral is at Livingston's tomorrow in Groves on 39th Street at 10 o'clock for Ms. Bea Wilkerson. And so if you can help, please let Karen know or sign up on the sheet. Also, another announcement is we need as many people as can help afterwards to move some boxes and things to get ready for vacation Bible school. August 1st, Gaither's money get to Miss Charlotte for the gift of faith. You know, thinking about what we heard tonight, a song come to my head. Living, he loved me. Dying, He saved me. Buried, He carried my sins far away. Rising, He justified freely forever. One day, He's coming. Oh, glorious day. Amen. Let's stand as we close. God is so good. God is so good. God is so good.