Hebrews chapter 7 verse 25 is our scripture this evening. I heard it on a lecture that was about something else, and this was just kind of a quick side comment. And of course, I recognized the verse, or at least that it was a Bible verse, and I felt like I wanna spend some time just thinking about that verse together this evening. I think it'll be a blessing for us. The impetus of it is simply having heard that verse and wanting to go through it together. It's quite a tremendous statement. Hebrews 7 verse 25. Keep your Bibles open, please, as we will look at its context quite a bit tonight. Hebrews 7 verse 25. Hear now the word of the Lord. Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them." And the part I'm really wanting us to highlight in our memories is, he is able also to save them to the uttermost. He is able to save his people to the uttermost. Well, before vacation and before being sick, I preached on Psalm 103 verse 3, the first part that taught us that God forgives all your sins. We focused on that and other scriptures that emphasize the word all. Because of course, if all our sins were not forgiven, we'd have no hope. God forgives every single one of our sins. Jeremiah 31 verse 34, remember taught, for I will forgive their iniquity and I will remember their sin no more. All your inadvertent sins forgiven. All your secret sins forgiven. In Christ all your heinous sins, all your presumptuous sins, All of them forgiven. All your habitual sins, all those sins that keep coming back to your conscience, your past sins, your present sins, your future sins, all forgiven. All punishment is taken away from you now if you are in Christ. into eternity so you can stop punishing yourself all the time and at this moment. The message for you on that text was, none of your sins shall ever be held against you. If you have trusted in the Lord Jesus Christ to be payment for your sins, then not one sin will ever be held against you. But how can this possibly be so? A lot of people have a hard time believing and receiving that. It isn't that they have a hard time believing they're bad. Plenty of people say, oh, I'm a good person. God is happy with me. There's plenty of people who don't believe that they need to be forgiven, but there are others who believe they cannot be forgiven. How is it possible that God forgives us all our sins, every one of them? Through the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Because Jesus has an eternal priesthood, he can save you both now and forever. I give you that as the main idea of this verse in its context, because Jesus has an eternal priesthood. He can save you both now and forever. so that we can go to Romans 8 with Paul, after he cries out in Romans 7 of what a sinner he is, and he does what he doesn't want to do, and he doesn't do what he wishes he would do. Who can save me from this wretched body? And then he says, thanks be to the Lord Jesus Christ. And he goes into Romans 8, and then he gets to the point where he says, no one can separate us from the love of God and Christ. Nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ. That is what forgiveness establishes. And it is because Jesus Christ has offered himself to be the sacrifice in the place of a believing Christian in him. Jesus is the son of God. And so he is able to save through his perfect work once and for all that he has applied in heaven now, back in heaven from whence he came. Jesus is able to save to the uttermost. And the message for you this evening is Jesus is able to save you to the uttermost. Some of us still struggle to believe that we're saved. Some of us struggle with assurance of our salvation because we just think it's impossible, all the sins I've done, the degree of things, the repetition of things, it's hard to believe. Jesus is able to save you to the uttermost. Some of you think you can't possibly be saved with all the accumulation of all that you have done, forsaking God, and ruining everything in your life and with others, Jesus is able to save you to the uttermost. That's what the Bible says. Jesus is able to save you to the uttermost. But recognize you cannot save yourself, and no one else can save you. even at the innermost. You cannot save yourself, and no one else can save you, even at the innermost. Ephesians 2 verses 1 and 5 tells us we're dead. Spiritually, we're dead. We're already dead when we're born. Spiritually, we're dead. And dead men don't talk. Dead men don't walk. Dead men do not resurrect themselves. They just lie there dead. That's why we don't really like to go to funerals. We don't like to have to think and deal about death because it is so final. We cannot save ourselves because we're dead. We need to be resurrected by Christ, by his spirit. We need to be born again, that is born from above. We need to be given belief in Jesus to save us. of our sins, to trust in His merit, His perfect life, His good works, credited to us by faith on our behalf. Ephesians 2, 8-10, For by grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus on two good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. Titus 3, 5 and 6. Not by works of righteousness, which we have done, but according to his mercy, he saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost, which he shed on us abundantly. through Jesus Christ, our, what? Savior. We need to be saved. And we cannot save ourselves, that's why it is, it says, He is able to save you to the uttermost, not you. You are not able to save yourself. No one else is able to save you but Jesus. No other priest. And that's the context. Nothing else can save you at all but the sacrificial system of the Old Testament. The sacrificing of the animals. The priests, sprinkling of the blood, all of those things were pointing to Jesus, but they could not in themselves save. They were pointing to Jesus, who would be the true high priest, who alone could save. And that's the point of the context of our verse. I'd like you to read, starting at verse 20 of chapter 6. Would you look at chapter 6 of Hebrews? Hebrews 6, verse 20. Whither the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus made an high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. Now chapter 7. For this Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of the most high God, who met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him, to whom also Abraham gave a tenth part of all, first being by interpretation king of righteousness. and after that also King of Salem, which is King of Peace. Without father, without mother, without descent, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but made like unto the Son of God, abideth a priest continually. Now consider how great this man was, unto whom even the patriarch Abraham gave the tenth of the spoils. And verily, they that are of the sons of Levi, who received the office of the priesthood, have a commandment to take tithes of the people according to the law that is of their brethren, though they come out of the loins of Abraham. But he whose descent is not counted from them received tithes of Abraham and blessed him that had the promises. And without all contradiction, the less is blessed of the better. And here men that die receive tithes, but there he receiveth them of whom it is written that he liveth. And as I may so say, Levi also who receiveth tithes paid tithes in Abraham, for he was yet in the loins of his father when Melchizedek met him. If therefore perfection were by the Levitical priesthood, for under it the people receive the law, what further need was there that another priest should rise after the order of Melchizedek and not be called after the order of Aaron? For the priesthood being changed, there is made of necessity a change also of the law. For he of whom these things are spoken pertaineth to another tribe, of which no man gave attendance at the altar. For it is evident that our Lord sprang out of Judah, of which tribe Moses spake nothing concerning priesthood. And it is yet far more evident, for that after the similitude of Melchizedek, there ariseth another priest, who is made not after the law of a carnal commandment, but after the power of an endless life. For he testifieth, thou art a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. For there is verily a disannulling of the commandment going before for the weakness and unprofitableness thereof. For the law made nothing perfect, but the bringing in of a better hope did by the which we draw nigh unto God. And inasmuch as not without an oath, he was made priest. For those priests were made without an oath, but this with an oath by him that said unto him, the Lord swear and will not repent. Thou art a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. But so much was Jesus made a surety of a better Testament. And they truly were many priests, but they were not suffered to continue by reason of death. But this man, because he continueth ever, hath an unchangeable priesthood." See, the context is comparing Jesus, who is the priest after the order of Melchizedek, and we're going to look at Psalm 110, verse 4, and how that's quoted. You notice it's quoted constantly. But it's pointed to the fact that he's the final true priest. There's no other priests after him. And the priests that came before him in the Old Testament were never sufficient because they died and they had to constantly make offerings. It was never enough. And they had to constantly every year make this special final offering on the Day of Atonement. It was never enough. And they had to make offerings for themselves, not just for the people. They were just a type of Christ. Christ is the true priest. What he's pointing out here is we need a priest to save us. We need mediation. We need someone to represent us before God with a blood sacrifice. But all of the priests of the Old Testament system were not sufficient. They couldn't save truly. They were just pointing to the true Savior to recognize him when he would come. We remember that Romans 3.23 teaches us that no one is good. All have fallen short of the glory of God. Everyone sins. We remember that Romans 6.23 teaches us that the wages of sin is death. And what all of this is pointing to, and earthly death is pointing to, that there is an eternal death waiting for all those who will not turn to Jesus Christ to take that death upon himself on the cross. You cannot save yourself, and neither can anyone else, including any quote-unquote priest. There are many masquerading as priests today, we think especially of the Roman Catholic Church. They are following, they are trying to bring back much of the system of the Old Testament that has been fulfilled in Christ. It's gone. There is no priest. We go straight to God through Jesus Christ, our high priest. No one else saves us. no man, no other person who calls himself a priest, no one can save us. But we do need to be saved. And this system pointed us to the Savior and the need for him. The shadow, as the book of Hebrews refers to the Old Testament priesthood, the shadow looked up to the figure of the reality of Jesus Christ, the Son, who would come and save his people from their sins. Jesus alone can save you, no matter how deep or far you have gone. You cannot save yourself, and no one else can save you, even at the innermost, but Jesus alone can save you, no matter how deep or far you have gone. Lazarus, come out, Jesus said. at his gravesite. And Lazarus, who had been dead four days, and as one of the ladies says, Lord, he stinketh. He's dead. He's already stinking. But Jesus raised him from the dead just by calling out, Lazarus, come out. And he came out and said, take off his bandages. Later we read of the meeting. Jesus can raise the dead. And more importantly than their bodies, what it's pointing to is Jesus can raise us from spiritual death. Because again, Ephesians says we are dead. We are spiritually dead to God. You know how sometimes we say, I'm dead to you? As if I have nothing to do with you anymore. Because death is death. There's no relation. It's gone. I think of a little more of a humorous example. There's this illustration of a number of men who got food poisoning. And they realized the culprit. They identified the particular food. And until that time, it was the favorite food of this person. But after he learned it was the calzones, he said, you're dead to me. I'll never have anything to do with you again. Death. Death is final. Death separates. We are spiritually dead. We're dead to God. We have nothing to do with him. because he's alive. This is what was evidenced when he kicked Adam and Eve out of the garden, because eternal life is to know the son and the father whom sent him, is to have fellowship with God in the garden. And they were kicked out and they started to die, every one of them. That's what you read through Genesis, right? Every generation. One of the themes is, and then he died, and then he died. Death is the penalty for sin. Death is the curse for sin. We need to be saved from it. We need to be raised from the dead. So He can save. We need to be saved. He can save to the uttermost. That is pointing out to the fact that we need to understand we need to be saved from ourselves, from our sins, from the fact that we are born sinners, thus we sin. We need to be saved from our sinful nature and from every sin that we commit. Because the wages of sin is death. We need the high priest after the order of Melchizedek. He, Jesus, is able to save. He is. All of those priests can't save, but Jesus is the true high priest. He can save. He's the priest after the order of Melchizedek. Did you notice how many times that was said? You are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. So many times, that's quoting Psalm 110 verse 4. according to R.C. Sproul, the most quoted Old Testament verse in the New Testament. The Psalms are the most quoted in the New Testament, but Psalm 110, and especially verse 4, the most quoted in the New Testament. As we look at the scripture in the beginning verse, we recognize in verse 1 that God the Father is speaking to God the Son. The Lord said unto my Lord, sit thou at my right hand until I make thine enemies a footstool for your feet. The Lord said unto my Lord, Jesus quotes it in the Gospels and said, who is he speaking to? It can't be David. And he's helping the common people rejoice and understand it's God the Father speaking to the Messiah. But in what context? It's foreseeing, it's prophesying, Jesus the Messiah, after he has sacrificed himself, risen himself from the dead, ascended back to heaven, and applied his blood in the true Holy of Holies. Because you see, that's what the high priest did. Once a year, the Day of Atonement, they sacrificed the animal, and they took the blood and sprinkled it on the altar in the Holy of Holies, which was representing God's special presence. And Jesus, Went up as the high priest after the sacrifice of himself and applied his own blood once and for all. There's no more resacrificing Jesus, which is why this table that says this do in remembrance of me is not an altar. The Lord's Supper is not a mass, it is not a constant re-sacrificing of Christ. He said on the cross, it is finished. He has an everlasting priesthood. There is no more sacrificing need to be done. He sacrificed himself as the true Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world. And then he went up, remember at his death what happened in the temple. The temple cloth, the curtain to the Holy of Holies was torn from top to bottom. representing that the true way into the Holy of Holies has come in Christ. That's what is said here in Hebrews. And it says also, Jesus is the veil. It's through him and his body ripped on the cross that we have entry into heaven once and for all. He saves. Without the shedding of blood, the Bible says, there's no forgiveness of sin. But Christ shed his blood for the remission of our sins, he said. And the Lord's Supper is a remembrance at the table of fellowship, expressing our communion with God presently because of the once final and everlasting priesthood of Jesus Christ. Wherefore, it says, Wherefore in the verse is referring to chapters four all the way until now because Jesus is the true high priest. We can have comfort unlike the other priests. He saves to the uttermost. The word uttermost means completely. Completely forever. There's no idea of a little bit of salvation and works. It's all salvation completely through the gift of faith. No works only the finished work of Jesus Christ. Wherefore, refers to all that has come before, the major comparison again of the Old Testament Levitical priests with Jesus, the true high priest after the order of Melchizedek in the tribe of Judah, not the tribe of Levi. And the tribe of Levi and those priests was always meant to point to Jesus when he would come. Now, Paul is referring to some obscure passages. and making a huge issue out of them. He's pointed to Genesis chapter 14 when this mysterious figure Melchizedek comes and he is a priest. He offers up a meal and Abraham ties and worships and Jesus is the true Melchizedek. This is Melchizedek of the Old Testament as a figure pointing to Christ, the true Melchizedek. And because it doesn't speak of a beginning or an end and all these things, it makes us as if he's eternal, pointing to the fact that Christ's priesthood truly is eternal, unceasing. One sacrifice of himself on the cross, it is finished once for all, and that blood is applied once and for all on behalf of his people. There is no need to think that we have to keep trying to make it right. Jesus has made it right for the Christian. The Christian who trusts in him and his own sacrifice and his own application of himself, his own blood, and the true holy of holies is made right with God once for all. And that's unlike the earthly priesthood. This is the heavenly priesthood. Notice it is everlasting. Did you notice every time, Psalm 110 verse 4, speaking of Christ, the true high priest, you have, thou art a priest forever. after the order of Melchizedek, not after the order of Levi, but of Judah. You are a special, unique priest, the others were pointing to. Notice again it is an everlasting priesthood, which is where he goes with the next verses. After our verse tonight, verses 26 and 27 of Hebrews chapter 7. For such an high priest became us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens, who needeth not daily as those high priests to offer up sacrifice, first for his own sins and then for the people's. For this he did once when he offered up himself. Now remember, this is why the resurrection and the ascension is so important. He offered himself up on the cross. He shed his blood. That's part of the priestly work, sacrificing the animal. In this case, he is also the sacrifice, the Lamb of God. But that's not enough. The blood had to go be applied at the altar in the Holy of Holies. And so that's what he did. He raised himself. He ascended back to heaven where he came, now in our flesh, always representing us as the true high priest. That's why Timothy says he is the only mediator between God and men. The man Christ Jesus. He alone is fully God and fully man. He alone was ordained according to chapter four of Hebrews. No one else was ordained and anointed to be this high priest. Only he was ordained by God to do this. No other man. And he had to be God's own son. He alone is the mediator between God and men. He alone applies his own blood at the altar in heaven. He alone offers us access to God. And the encouragement is it is an access that's never cut off. It isn't that he's sacrificing himself for eternity. It's that his once and final sacrifice has an eternal application on our behalf. So he's always representing us in heaven as our advocate, which is pretty encouraging. Why? Because we have an accuser, the devil. always speaking of our sins against us before God, always accusing us, and we need our advocate. And Jesus is our advocate. He's our lawyer, if you will. He's our mediator standing between us and God. He is the one who mediates. I paid for that. That penalty has been paid, Lord. They are allowed admission. There's nothing for them to do to make it right. It's done. I have paid the price with myself. I apply it here with my blood in heaven. Back to verse 25. Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them. Because Jesus has an eternal priesthood, always making intercession in heaven. He is able to save you completely. Again, uttermost means completely. Not mostly. You figure out the rest. You do penance. You do works. No. He has completely, entirely, saved a Christian from their sins as they trust in his good work, his perfect work of saving them on the cross, paying for their sins with his own blood, his perfect righteous work of living a perfect life undefiled. He was the perfect lamb of God. That was the thing. The animals in the Old Testament system, they had to be without blemish because they had to be representing that Jesus would be without sin. He would be the perfect sacrifice on our behalf and credit us his perfect righteousness. Again, Psalm 110 verse 1, very similar to Psalm 24, speaks about Jesus having ascended back to heaven, talking with the Father. Now that he has come back and he has established salvation and he applies his blood, God the Father says, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet. And I'm making a willing people in your day, right? Psalm 110, I'm going to make people willing to trust in you and be saved by you. He is able. The Greek word for able is where we get the word dynamite, dunamis. He is so powerful to save you to the uttermost. Try to imagine, I think some of the young boys will enjoy this the most, try to imagine a big explosion, a whole bunch of explosives, stand back, get real far back like the... He is so powerful. The impact of his sacrifice is eternal and unceasing. There's been a cosmic change of direction for eternity because the Son of God came down and became one of us, he writes in the letter tonight. and in our humanity, body and soul, saved us of our sins, offering himself on the cross, slaughtering himself, and then applying his blood in heaven after the resurrection and the ascension. So Romans 3, 24 comes after Romans 3, 23. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Verse 23, verse 24. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. Romans 6, 23, the first part is followed by the rest. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Now, what part of gift do we need to have explained? What part of grace? We have a hard time. We can be in our pride. We can be too proud and say, I'm not in need of salvation. Or we can be too proud and say, I'm too sinful. I can't take the gift. Imagine the offense if you offered a gift to someone and they rejected it, even just to try to say, I'm not worthy. How offended would you be? What a missed opportunity not to take a gift. Salvation in Jesus Christ is complete to the uttermost through him alone, and it is free grace. His blood pays for our sins, Christian. What is his name the angel gives to Mary? Jesus. Reflecting the Old Testament, Yeshua, which means God saves. And the angel said, his name shall be Jesus because he will save his people from their sins. He is able to save to the uttermost. Consider that not only just some of our sins, but all of our sins. Consider the weight of that that often weighs you down on your shoulders. If you had to think about approaching God with all of that, but consider not just you, but all of the brethren, all of Christians throughout time, he has saved all of them to the uttermost. People from every tongue and tribe and all nations of the world we know from Revelation. He can save to the uttermost. But it is for you who would draw close. Notice that. Wherefore, he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him. That you would respond to God through him, that you would come to God not through your works, not through your penance, not through the sacrifice or offering of some earthly priest, that you would come to God only through the true high priest, the only mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus. You have to come to him. You receive the gift through the hand of faith that's given to you through the hand of Christ. You receive the gift. You come to God through Jesus Christ. Notice, you come to God through Jesus Christ alone. But you come. Beloved, you are not too far gone. You are never so lost that you cannot be saved and found. Be made right with God through Jesus Christ. Tonight, It doesn't matter how far back your sins go, Jesus the high priest can go there. It doesn't matter how deep down they go, Jesus the high priest can meet you there. Before I continue, our friend in the back, our visitor, this sermon is for you. It's for all of us. We all need this, but I had you in mind. And you know, you're the first person who has said they would be here and in four weeks in a row has been. The offer of forgiveness of sins and salvation is made available to you tonight. Come and receive it tonight. It doesn't matter how dark. Jesus, the high priest can shine his light there in you. while you may feel utterly unforgivable and utterly unreachable. Remember, Paul said he was the chief of sinners and God converted him and saved him and used him to save the Gentiles. Remember the man who beat his chest praying before God. He couldn't even look up. He couldn't even look up. And I have in view, my friend, how often you've not been able to look up. He couldn't look up. He beat his breast and he cried out to God, have mercy on me, a sinner. And Jesus said that man went away before God justified. That is made right with God. Because he knew to trust in the mercy of God through Christ, and Christ alone. Whereas the other man was saying how great and religious he was, and that man did not go away justified before God, and he was a religious leader. Remember the man on the cross, the thief on the cross dying next to Jesus says, I deserve to be here, we deserve to be here, he doesn't. Breathing his last words, can you imagine? Can you imagine him looking down from the cross saying, I've wasted my life. Here I am breathing my last breaths. I have nothing. I can't do anything to make anything right. It's gone from me. It's too late. And he might have thought to say, it's too late for me. I'll die here now and go to hell. But instead he looked to Jesus and with his last suffering breaths said, have mercy on me. Please remember me in your kingdom. And Jesus turned to him also suffering soon to give up the ghost. And Jesus said, today you will be with me in paradise. Saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. And if you're not yet hanging on a cross, It's not too late. The Bible says today is the day of salvation. Repent and believed while it is. What if that thief on the cross had waited just a few more minutes, groveling in his own sin, considering himself unworthy? He might have waited too long and breathed his last breath and not have asked Christ to save him. Ask Christ to save you tonight. Do not let your sins become bigger than him. He is mighty to save. Do not commit the sin of pride to think that your sins and your guilt, as wicked and evil as they are, are bigger than Jesus, are more powerful than Jesus, are more important than the cross and his precious blood and his perfect once for all sacrifice of eternal significance. You can't forgive yourself, I've heard you say. Friend, let God forgive you first. He'll take care of the rest. Can I say to my brothers and sisters, is that not the same for all of us? If we waited to forgive ourselves, would it ever happen? We can't forgive ourselves. We know who we are. We know what we've done. But when we know Jesus is able to save us to the uttermost, through the forgiveness he gives us in himself as the eternal high priest after the order of Melchizedek, an unceasing priesthood, we forgive ourselves because God forgives us. And yes, it is amazing grace. Psalm 86 verse 5 says, the Lord is ready to forgive. May you be ready to be forgiven tonight while you still can. How can you be forgiven? Once again, Jesus is able to save you to the uttermost. And Jesus has said elsewhere, whoever comes to me that the Father sends, I will in no wise cast out because he is able to save to the uttermost. Let us pray. O Lord God in heaven, we do thank you that you save to the uttermost because you can and because you will to do so. This is why you sent your son. This is why you came, Jesus, and took on our humanity, to save your people from their sins. And the only way that we can be saved is to turn to you, Yeshua, the Messiah, the high priest after the order of Melchizedek, you who now have ascended back in heaven, now in our flesh and soul, having applied once and for all your own blood as the Lamb of God, once and for all, thus having an unceasing, unbroken, eternal priesthood. So as it says in chapter four of Hebrews, we can approach your throne of grace with confidence, seeking mercy in our time of need because we have such a high priest. Oh Lord God may no one run away from you tonight in themselves. May we all turn to you anew and forgive ourselves because you are ready to forgive and you are able to save. Let us not consider ourselves unsavable because you the son of God the son of man have the power like dynamite to explode salvation into our lives. and remove all that was there. Oh, Lord, we pray for your washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Ghost. We pray your merciful work of redemption through regeneration this evening for our friend. We pray he'd be able to hold his head up high as he looks to Jesus, the author and finisher of his faith, we would pray. Pray that you would take the heavy burden off him like Christian in the book, Pilgrim's Progress. They would bow to the cross and have all of the weight stripped off of him and the bands cut and broken and feel the freedom of walking with a conscious, a clean conscience to serve the living God, which this letter to the Hebrews also speaks of. None of us can serve you with a clean conscience. We know who we are. We know our sins. But as we have been cleansed by Christ, we can serve you, the living God, with a clean conscience because there's nothing left to pay for. It's all been paid in full by the propitiation of the Lord Jesus Christ. So we pray that you would work a work of salvation this evening and a work of revival and salvation in us all. And Lord, We do thank you for proclaiming this glorious gospel to us. We ask indeed, O Lord, that it would do its work and save. And we pray that you bless us as we would continue our worship outdoors and proclaim this salvation, and that you indeed would answer our prayers through the Psalm 67, that you would show grace through all nations, that you would call out your elect and bring them into salvation, and that you, Holy Spirit, would cause them to hear you, that you would cause your sheep to hear your voice, to come to you, great shepherd of the sheep and the blood of the everlasting covenant, and your unceasing priesthood forever, and be saved to the uttermost, and enjoy this abundant life in Christ here and eternal life forever. after death, and then especially in the resurrection of our bodies. Lord, we do recognize that the most important thing is to be saved from eternal death in hell, and to be given eternal life in Jesus Christ. We thank you that you offer it here tonight, and pray, Lord, that you would cause it to be received by faith and truly. And we pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen.