I might take just a short time tonight. We'll see where this goes. But as we were singing that last or second to last hymn of a very personal song of experience that the writer was giving there, I was thinking as we were singing those words, happy day, happy day when Jesus washed my sins away. says, he taught me how to watch and pray and to live rejoicing every day. So it's speaking of a personal, a very personal relationship that a sinner saved by grace has with the Lord Jesus Christ. And I was thinking about God's work within his people and how that God works. And I was thinking of everybody in this room that can say with truth and conviction that he brought me to himself. He taught me how to watch and pray. He taught me to know him. and to love him and to serve him, I was thinking that's a whole lot of grace. So we just have really a pretty small group of people in here this evening. For those who have been called by God's grace, do you realize what an amazing amount of grace that that represents? When we think about our lives individually and think about the fact we know what scripture says, that we're born into this world lifeless spiritually, dead to Christ, dead to the things of God, blinded to spiritual realities, in love with our own sins, hardened to the gospel, hardened to Christ. And we know that by what the scripture says, but also look at our own experience and see the different ways that God called us by His grace. It really is amazing. and how that God works to reveal truth to us after that he calls us to be born again. He brings us the gospel that we may understand and know and believe and rejoice in Christ Jesus. I was reading this week an article about the country of Albania, a country in Eastern Europe. And I think for about 500 years, they were under the rule of Muslims under the Ottoman, what used to be the Ottoman Empire for many years. And then in the 1960s, they were taken over with communist rule. And it really touched my heart to see how that Christians in neighboring countries would, had a heart for these people who were in these closed environment. This kind of thing still happens today in places like North Korea. But some Christians would take tourist trips over to Albania just to pray. They couldn't do anything legally. They would go just, they had a heart to pray for these oppressed people who also had spiritual needs, obviously. And then some would send over balloons over into the country that had some kind of gospel literature in those balloons. Some would send over waterproof packages that would float on the Adriatic Sea in bottles with snippets, pages of truth in there. And the person who was writing this article says, I know a man who picked up a bottle on a beach and the Lord opened his heart and that which was written in that page had a profound impact in his life. Now, your story may not be that dramatic, but it is, right? Every story of grace is amazing. Every story of grace is dramatic. I know a young man who grew up in a Christian home, grew up in church, grew up, you know, knowing all the lingo, knowing all these things, and then family, grievous family trouble hit his home. and he turned far away from God. He went wild, wild, he said. And he was down in another state attending college. And he said the first semester, because of his lifestyle, the consequences, he got a DUI. So that was God's first punch. To the second one, I got a D. The second semester, I got a D. Always been a straight-A student. To the third semester, his grandfather, who he grew up next door to, tremendous impact on his life, died. It's like the Lord was just pound, pound, pound, and brought him to the dust, brought him to the ground. And he said, it took me a long time to see how God could really justify a sinner. It took me a long time to see and understand that I who didn't deserve it, I who had done all these terrible things could really be just in the eyes of God. It seemed wrong in a way. But now he rejoices, rejoices in the God of his salvation. I remember in my own life being just a young boy of nine years old and Nothing super dramatic, but I remember the words of a hymn in a Wednesday night service that pierced my heart. And I remember, after the service was over, grabbing my mother and dad and saying, I have got to talk to you, and sharing with them what God was doing in my life. Now, there was a lot of immature, foolish moments after that. But I do remember coming up from the waters of baptism and weeping tears of joy. And I remember soon after that having an intense hunger for the Word of God. I wish it had lasted forever, but an intense hunger for the Word of God, to know the Lord. If you look with me in the book of John, the Gospel of John chapter six, the Gospel of John chapter six, Jesus is speaking to these Jews who were rejecting him. And Jesus points them back to, they were following him here because he had done some miracles with some bread. And he had been able to use these small pieces of bread and feed thousands of people with a little bit of bread. And Jesus said, you're seeking me because you saw the miracles. But listen, there's a bread that's far more valuable than that. So we start reading in verse 25 of John chapter 6. In verse 25 he says, When they had found him on the other side of the sea, they said unto him, Rabbi, when camest thou hither? Jesus answered them and said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, you seek me not because you saw the miracles, but because you did eat of the loaves and were filled. Labor not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of Man shall give unto you. For him God the Father hath sealed. They said unto him, What shall we do that we might work the works of God? Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent. They said, therefore, unto him, what sign showest thou then that we may see and believe thee? What dost thou work? Our fathers did eat manna in the desert. As it is written, he gave them bread from heaven to eat. Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Moses gave you not that bread from heaven, but my Father giveth you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven and giveth life unto the world. Then said they unto him, Lord, evermore give us this bread. And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life. He that cometh to me shall never hunger, and he that believeth on me shall never thirst. But I said unto you that ye also have seen me and believe not. All that the Father giveth me shall come to me. And him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. For I came down from heaven not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me. And this is the Father's will which has sent me, that of all which He hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day. And this is the will of Him that sent me, that everyone which seeth the Son and believeth on Him may have everlasting life, and I will raise Him up at the last day. We'll skip down to verse 44 where Jesus said, No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him, and I will raise him up at the last day. It is written in the prophets, and they shall be all taught of God. Every man therefore that hath heard and hath learned of the Father cometh unto me. Jesus went back to this story because they said Moses, our fathers ate manna in the desert. They're talking about how that when the children of Israel were wandering in the wilderness for those 40 years, that God miraculously supplied them with bread. This bread that would come down every single day and was enough for their needs and that which was sufficient for them. And of course, we know eventually they got tired of the manna and they wanted other things to eat, but God was faithful to give them this bread from heaven. And so these Jews are using this. They're going back to their heritage. They're going back to all the stories that they know. They said, our fathers ate in the man in the wilderness, and that's nothing so special. But Jesus said, Moses didn't give you that real bread from heaven. See, the manna was never an end in itself. The manna was to supply their needs, but the manna was also a picture of Jesus Christ. The manna was pointing ahead to a true bread that would come down from heaven. Not a literal bread, of course, but the bread which Christ would bring, which was life to his people in the world. And so Jesus said, I am the bread of life. He that cometh to me shall never hunger, and he that believeth on me shall never thirst. But I say that ye also have seen me, and believe not. And then Jesus says these words, All that the Father giveth me shall come to me, and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. Jesus speaks here with confidence, doesn't He? Jesus speaks here because He knows the will of His Father. Jesus is not blind. He's not ignorant of the will of His Father. And He speaks here with great conviction. And He speaks even to some of them, that you've seen me, but you don't believe. But I'm not panicking. because all that the Father hath given me shall come to me." See, God does an amazing work of grace in those that He gave to the Lord Jesus Christ. God, by His power, by His Spirit, draws people who naturally are opposed to Christ, who naturally are in the shackles and the bondage of sin, and God changes their heart and draws them to Christ Jesus to see His glory, and to see His beauty, and by faith to eat of Him as the bread of life. And the fact of the matter is today, if you're a believer in Jesus Christ, it's because this right here happened to you. It's because God the Father drew you to Himself. Because God, you were seen in the covenant of grace from before the world began, and God the Father gave you to His Son, and at a certain point in time, God ordained to bring you to life, bring you to faith that you may see His Son and believe upon Him and embrace Him. You know that good news to know that? That we serve a sovereign God who's a mighty God, a powerful God, who all of the sinfulness of man, all the darkness of the world cannot hinder God and His purposes that He is determined to fulfill. You know, we look in a world today that's full of darkness, full of spiritual just terribleness. I can't think of any adjectives, but it's just an awful world that we live in. And getting darker, we live in a culture that's increasingly running away from God. And we pray, we cry out to God for mercy, we say, Lord, we read some of the songs, Lord, how long? The faithful fail from the children of men, the godly man ceases. And we look at this passage of Scripture and say, wow, even from this mass of filthiness and sin, the Lord Jesus Christ will draw His people to Himself. Isn't that good to know? That Christ, by His grace, by His love, by His mercy, that everyone that He gave His life for on the cross of Calvary, He's going to bring to Himself in repentance and faith that they may know Him and have a living relationship with Him, that they can be a vine in a branch that Brother Jarrett prayed about in his prayer and have faith and communion with the Living God. Some of you may have never professed faith in Jesus Christ. You've never publicly committed yourself to follow Christ and been baptized. You may wonder, what does it take, what needs to happen before that? Well, obviously this needs to happen, right? We as Baptists believe in a regenerate church membership, that the assembly of the house of God is for those who've been called and quickened by God's grace, those who've been given life, who've been given faith, who lay hold of the things of the Lord. Well, Jesus said here, all that the Father giveth me shall come to me. and him that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out." To come to God, to come to Christ, means to believe upon Him, which is obvious from the context. But Jesus gives some great encouragement here. We may wonder, what does it mean to believe? What does it really mean to believe upon Him? I know facts in my head. I've been raised from a child that there's God, there's one God, and the Trinity, and I can give you memory verses and all these things. But let me look to a couple of passages of Scripture to show the nature of true faith that God gives. Because faith is not just bare facts. It is facts, but it's not just bare facts. But it is a trusting of the heart. It is a confidence of the heart. It's a throwing of the heart upon the grace of God. I love the way it's spoken here in the Gospel of John chapter 1. It says here in verse, we'll start in verse 10. Speaking of Jesus, it says, He was in the world and the world was made by Him and the world knew Him not. He came unto His own, and His own received Him not. But as many as received Him, to them gave He power, the authority, to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name." The expression there, believe on His name, in the Greek, it's literally a believing into Him. It's believing into Him. It's throwing oneself upon Christ. It's more than just saying, I have an intellectual idea that Matthew 1.21 is true. I have an intellectual thought that Jesus is the Savior. That's true. But true faith is even more than that. It is a heart that throws itself upon Christ for mercy. It is the Spirit of, like some of these in the Gospel accounts, who would come to Jesus knowing their physical affliction, knowing their leprosy, knowing their need and saying, Jesus, Thou Son of David, have mercy upon me. It's like the woman, the Syrophoenician woman, a Gentile woman who came to Jesus and begged for a favor and Jesus said, it's not right for me to give the bread to dogs, you're a Gentile. And she said, Lord, even the dogs can eat a crumb from the Master's table. She said, Lord, I'm not going anywhere else. You are plan A, and there is no other plan. You are the only option that there is. I trust You. I look to You as my sufficiency. I look to You as the fountain of grace. I look to You as the only one who can cleanse me and wash me and forgive me of my sins. So Lord, just let me have a crumb. Do you have faith like that? Do you see your need of a Savior? Do you see your need of one to cleanse you and to wash you. We can know about our sins intellectually, can't we? There's probably hardly anybody you'll meet in the world that says, I'm a perfect person. Everybody goes, yeah, nobody's perfect. But you know, the conviction of sin that the Holy Spirit brings, it looks differently in some people than others, but the conviction of sin brings what the Bible calls godly sorrow. Godly sorrow. A sin that's not just, oh, I messed up again, I look like an idiot again. A conviction that says, oh, I got in trouble, I lost some privileges. But the conviction of sin is sorrow of the heart over having offended the God who's been so good to me. Conviction of sin sees God as a glorious being, a wonderful being, a good God, and sees my sins as one that I have crossed His line, I have transgressed His ways, and is grieved over the ways that I have offended God. That is true repentance or true conviction of sin. Look also in the book of 2 Timothy chapter 2. Here's what the faith that God gives looks like. In 2 Timothy, I love Paul's words here. 2 Timothy chapter 1. Paul says here in verse 12, this is Paul's last letter that he wrote. And he says here in verse 12, he says, and have persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day." I love this. Now, Paul's not writing this as an intellectual treatise from an air-conditioned office. He's writing from a prison at the end of his life after he's been beaten with rods and shipwrecked and he suffered for the sake of Christ for many, many years. He's coming to the very end. He's not regretting the way that he's living. He's not regretting because, listen, he says, I know whom I believed. I know whom I believe and I'm persuaded that He's able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day." The word committed is the idea of depositing, of depositing. Now, if you have a bank account, children, if you're old enough for that, or adults, if you've already got one, what do you do? You take your wealth, you take your resources, you take something that's valuable to you, and you deposit it with somebody that you don't even know. You just know them by their name tags, all you know. But you have confidence that your money is safe in that financial institution. You have confidence that your money is going to be taken well care of, and you leave, and you don't even worry. You say, boy, I hope it's all right there. Paul said, I have deposited the well-being of my soul into the hands of Jesus Christ. He's able to keep that which I've committed unto Him against that day. That's amazing. Paul said, I can't save myself, I can't wash my own soul, I can't answer for myself on judgment day, but I'm committing the welfare of my soul to the One who's able to take care of all that, the One who has taken care of all that by His glorious grace. And so, for one to follow the Lord Jesus Christ, for one to take up their cross, in baptism and to follow Christ is, this is the requirement of one who sees their sins, of one who mourns over their sins, one who reckons, they don't make excuses for their sins, but they see more than their sins, they see Jesus and they see Him as a full and complete Savior and they desire to follow Him. Now back in John chapter 6, Jesus gives some great, great words of encouragement to us. This verse 37, Jesus said in verse 37, all that the Father giveth me shall come to me. We rejoice in that. But then he says this, and him that cometh to me I will in no wise or by any means, we could say, cast out. Those words have been great encouragement to many, many people through the years. Some people might think, well, how could I come to the Lord? How could I trust in Him? How could I publicly claim His name and me having something to do with Him because seeking His grace? How could I identify myself with Him in view of who that I am? I'm not worthy. I'm just little old me. I make many mistakes. I'm not like some of these spiritual people in church. I fall short in so many ways. I have some skeletons in my closet. I have things I'm embarrassed about, things I regret. What does Jesus say? Him that comes to me, I'm not going to shut the door. Him that comes to me, I will no wise cast out. I won't cast them out when they first come and seek forgiveness and mercy, and I won't cast them out anywhere down the line. And along with that is the verse Brother Zach read on Wednesday night in 1 Timothy chapter 1, talking about Paul as a pattern. Notice something that Paul specifically said here about God using him as a pattern. In 1 Timothy chapter 1, in verse 16, Paul said, Howbeit for this cause I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might show forth all what? All what? All longsuffering for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on Him to life everlasting. Some might say, How in the world could I ever hope for forgiveness? How in the world could I ever dare to hope that God would think well of someone like me? And Paul says, you know what Jesus did? He showed my experience. He showed my story as a pattern of his long suffering to all those who will believe upon him. Look at Paul's life. Look at Paul's life. Paul was a hater of Jesus Christ. Paul persecuted Christians. Paul, it says in his own testimony in the book of Acts, that Paul compelled them to blaspheme. That means that Paul would take Christians and he would torture them. That he would put physical pressure on them to the point that they would deny Jesus Christ was his hope. He was filled with hatred towards this name. And we might think, phew, God's going to get him, I'm going to tell you. And God did get him, just not the way we might think, right? Sometimes you hear of people I've heard of stories of people's conversions, murderers. I think, I don't know. Is that legit? Is that real? Would God really do that? I mean, sure if they were elect, sure if they were chosen, He wouldn't let them go on and do that much before He calls them. You know what? God doesn't always work like I think He ought to work like. You know that? And sometimes God's grace, His long-suffering towards sinners, which I don't understand, I don't understand it toward me, I don't understand it toward any of His people, just makes our heads go upside down. But you know what it is? It's the wonder of His grace. Read about King Manasseh in the Old Testament. King Manasseh sacrificed his own children in sacrifice to pagan idols. King Manasseh brought in the pagan worship into the very temple of God itself. I mean, how much more blatant can you get of poking God in the face, of slapping Him in the face? And guess what? And God humbled King Manasseh. We have a hymn about that, that the blood of Christ is sufficient to wash Manasseh's sins. We read about the lineage of Jesus Christ. You ever considered that? the genealogical lineage of Jesus Christ? We think, well, I guess this is how God would do it. If He's gonna send His Son, take on human flesh, He's gonna get the best of the best and put them in that lineage of Christ. That's not what happened, is it? What do you find in there? You find Judah. Talk about soap opera material, right? Bad material. That was Judah's life. Can't even go into all of it right now, right? Blatant, gross immorality. And from that line, Jesus is identified as the line of the tribe of Judah, really, of this man. There was Ruth, the Moabites. The Moabites and the Ammonites came about from Lot's ungodly, filthy relationship. And from this Moabite nation, there's a Gentile pagan named Ruth. And in God's amazing mercy, she's brought to trust, as she said, under the wings of Jehovah in the book of Ruth. And Ruth is in the lineage of Jesus Christ. You find also Boaz, the harlot, which doesn't mean much to us. Let's say it in the clear language of what it means, the prostitute. A woman who lived an openly profligate, evil lifestyle. And in God's mercy, she was brought to lay hold upon the mercy of Jehovah. And she's in the lineage of Jesus Christ. We could go, no doubt there's more stories than I can even recall right now through the lineage of Christ. But the point is that Christ was willing to come to earth. And He wasn't tainted with their sin. Praise be to His name. His blood was pure and holy and immaculate and spotless. He wasn't tainted with their sins, but Christ was willing to be identified with such sinful people that He might wash them and cleanse them of all their sins. We sing of Him, there's a fountain filled with blood drawn from Emmanuel's veins and sinners plunge beneath that flood. Lose how many? 95% lose all their guilty stains. Revelation 1 says, Unto him that loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood. Isaiah 1 says, Come now, let us reason together, though your sins be as scarlet They shall be as white as snow. Jesus himself spoke to his disciples that we love to use. We talk about the feet washing service and Peter comes to him and says, don't wash me Lord. I'm not worthy. He says, look out, if you don't, if I don't wash you, you don't have part with me. Well, wash me all over. And Jesus says, he that is cleansed doesn't need to be washed. because He's clean every bit. Every bit, He's already clean because of the blood that I will shed for Him. Listen, there is no other Savior. That was Peter's message. That was Peter's gospel. There's no other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. There's no other one who can cleanse sin. There's no other one who can wash sin. You know that some people in India go in the Ganges River this literally filthy river to wash, to bathe, to cleanse, thinking that's going to do them some good. Having some sense, some vague sense of guilt or sin and thinking, this river is deity to wash me. People have gone through all kinds of different rituals, all kinds of different self-flagellation, some of the monks would do. Beating themselves, torturing themselves, inflicting pain upon themselves, thinking somehow, some way, this will profit me, this will benefit me. But you know what Paul says about the gospel? The salvation of God. Of Him are you in Christ Jesus, who of God is made into us wisdom. He's our righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. There's no other Savior but Jesus. I'm saying that to Him. Happy day, happy day, when Jesus washed my sins away. He worked in me. He taught me. He brought me to see my sins. He brought me to repentance, praised me today. He brought me to love Him and want to worship Him and want to praise Him and want to serve Him. So when we think about following Christ, we think about what is needed and what is to be seen in those who desire to follow Christ in baptism. It's a sense of one's sins, a real conviction of sin. But it's also a real faith in Jesus Christ, a real throwing of oneself upon Him, saying, Lord, You are enough, You are sufficient, Your blood cleanses from all sin. But it's also this, it's also this. There were some who came to John the Baptist seeking to be baptized. Remember what John said to them, because he knew these individuals were not displaying the right characteristics. And John said to them, bring forth fruits meet or fit appropriate for repentance. That means this, that following Jesus Christ is a glorious thing. And I'm gonna speak for the pastor. I think he'll let me talk this way because I know him and we've talked about this a lot. But if you are here today and you are thinking about, you've thought about baptism, you've thought about following Jesus Christ, let me just speak clearly and plainly to you. It's a glorious thing. There's nothing more precious than that. But it's also not a light thing. One time someone came to our church and had family there and been there, attended all her life. And she asked me, said, I think I wanna join this church. I said, well, tell me why you want to do that? She said, well, it just seems like the thing to do. And we tried to probe more, and it appeared that it was just, this is what my family's done, what my grandmother did, what my mom did, what everybody does. I think I'd just like to jump in. Listen, family in the church is wonderful. It's a great blessing. It is. And if you have that heritage, praise God for that. But to follow Christ in baptism is not a family thing. It's not a family thing. It is not something that says, well, this is what everybody's done. Mom and dad will think well of me, and they're going to praise me, and I get to have a handshake. Everybody shakes my hand. I want to do that. It's not that. It's not that. but it's one whose your heart has genuinely seen your sins and you mourn over your sins. You believe what the Bible says about Jesus. You believe he's your savior, but then it's also a desire to follow Jesus Christ. That's what John said, bring forth fruits, meet for repentance. In other words, show by your life that you're willing to turn from sin and to follow him. You're willing to hear and obey the word of God. So Jesus says this in Luke chapter nine. Very important words in Luke chapter nine. Because Christ was not some kind of a dishonest salesman, was He? He didn't say, follow me and your life will be easy. Follow me and your bank account will be filled and there's going to be roses from here on out. No, He told us the good stuff, the great stuff, but He also told the reality of what it means to be His disciple. So in Luke 9, verse 23, He says this, And He said to them all, if any man will come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow Me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it, but whosoever will lose his life for my sake the same shall save it." Jesus says, if you come after me, because there were multitudes who went after him for a time who didn't have the right motive. So Jesus says, let's make it clear, if you come after me, you have to deny yourself. That means you say, self, you no longer are Lord. That means you said to yourself, I'm no longer my own boss, but now I belong to Christ. He's more than my boss, he's my loving, gracious master, but he is the authority in my life. He's the authority in my life. When Paul was talking about the church, the Macedonian churches who were generous in their giving, Paul said here's one of the keys behind their giving was they gave themselves to the Lord. That's a powerful thing, not only for generosity, but for the whole Christian life, is they gave themselves to the Lord. They recognized, I'm no longer my own. I've been bought with a price. So therefore, no longer am I the Lord even over my money, but I'm not the Lord over anything. I belong to Christ, not to myself, so therefore I am willing to follow His authority." That's what it means to be a true disciple. That we deny ourselves. Then he says this, and he takes up his cross daily to follow me. Why did Jesus use that imagery? Take up his cross daily. because, you know, the cross now has some sentimental value, and it can no doubt be used in appropriate ways. But the cross in Jesus' time was not some kind of a sentimental value. People didn't get a warm, fuzzy feeling when they thought of a cross. They thought of a cross, what you might think of lethal injection, or the electric chair, literally. It was an instrument of execution. So nobody wears a little syringe around their neck. Nobody wears an electric chair around their neck, right? It was a symbol of execution, of death. And so Christ is saying to follow after Me. You have to be willing, as it were, to crucify yourself every day, to die to your own sinful desires, to die to your own wisdom, to die to your own way in order to follow after Me. And if you try to save yourself from that, you're going to lose your life. But if you do that, you're going to find it. You're going to find true joy, true fulfillment, true peace, true satisfaction in following after Me. So, none of us does that perfectly, right? But that's the heart of it, that's the desire of it, is that we want to follow after Christ, dying to ourselves, that we may live unto Him. And so, we as preachers never want to pressure anybody in an arm-twisting way to follow Jesus Christ. I hope never I would ever would ever profess faith in Christ because it would get brother Zach or brother Timothy or brother whoever off your back. Maybe they'll just leave me alone now. Hope nobody would ever follow Christ just to make some people happy. But I do pray that if God is working in any of your hearts and has worked in your hearts and you, this stuff makes sense to you. You don't know it perfectly, this makes sense to you. You wanna follow him. You don't like your sins. You grieve over your sins. Your heart kind of skips a beat when you think about, wow, my sin's forgiven. Loved by God. I can call him my father. Hope of heaven. Praise be to the Lord. You know what? You ought to follow Christ. You ought to publicly profess faith in His name. You ought to identify with Him in baptism. You ought to say, I'm with Him, and I needed what He did. I needed what this baptism represents, and I want to follow and serve Him all the days of my life. See, Jesus is a powerful Savior. Brother Zach said he preached this morning on the cross. And Jesus, by His cross, not only paid the sin debt, but by the cross, Jesus also assured, as He said in John 6, verse 37, all that the Father gives me, they're gonna come to me. All that are taught by the Father, have heard and learned of Him, they'll come unto me. So we rejoice in a mighty Savior, in a successful Savior, in a sufficient Savior to save all of His people of all their sins. May we rejoice tonight in being cleansed by His precious blood. I hope these thoughts have been a blessing to you.