Turn your Bibles to Matthew chapter 27. Matthew chapter 27. There is a kind of a strange way in which that hymn is one of my favorites. It's a very heavy, heavy hymn. but I think it contrasts very clearly the difference between Christ's innocence and our guilt, and those are good things to dwell upon, and we're going to speak to that this morning as we continue to work our way through the passion of the Lord Jesus Christ. We're going to read from verse 11 this morning of Matthew chapter 27. Matthew 27 verse 11. And Jesus stood before the governor, and the governor asked him, saying, Art thou the king of the Jews? And Jesus said unto him, Thou sayest. And when he was accused of the chief priests and elders, he answered nothing. Then said Pilate unto him, herest thou not how many things they witness against thee? And he answered him to never a word, insomuch that the governor marveled greatly. Now at that feast, the governor was wont to release unto the people a prisoner whom they would. And they had then a notable prisoner called Barabbas. Therefore, when they were gathered together, Pilate said unto them, whom will ye that I release unto you, Barabbas or Jesus, which is called Christ? For he knew that for envy they had delivered him. When he was set down on the judgment seat, his wife sent unto him, saying, have thou nothing to do with that just man? For I have suffered many things this day in a dream because of him. But the Jews, the chief priests and elders persuaded the multitude that they should ask Barabbas and destroy Jesus. The governor answered and said unto them, whether of the twain will ye that I release unto you? They said, Barabbas. Pilate saith unto them, what shall I do then with Jesus, which is called Christ? They all say unto him, let him be crucified. The governor said, why? What evil hath he done? But they cried out the more saying, let him be crucified. Pilate saw that he could prevail nothing, but that rather a tumult was made. He took water and washed his hands before the multitude saying, I am innocent of the blood of this just person. See ye to it. Then answered all the people and said, his blood be on us and on our children. Then released he Barabbas unto them, and when he had scourged Jesus, he delivered him to be crucified. Let us pray. O Lord, our God and our Father, we thank Thee that Thou hast given us this faithful account of the trial of the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray, O Lord, that it may smite our hearts as we consider these things before Thee. We pray that we may receive this as Thy holy word. It is a word that is necessary unto our souls, that we must know these things and that we must know them well. We pray that these may not just be interesting words to us, but that they may pierce our own hearts also. We ask, Lord, that Thou wouldst work upon our hearts by Thy Holy Spirit to turn us from sin and to make Christ most precious unto our souls. Lord, bless the preaching of Thy word that Thy church may be built up and edified and that Christ Jesus alone may be praised. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Beloved congregation, as we have sung and read here today, the righteousness and holiness and innocence of the Lord Jesus Christ stands in a very stark contrast to your own. You've been born in sin and you are you're no treasure to a holy God. There is iniquity that separates between you and him, and we're not often given so much to think about those things. It's just nicer to think about positive things and glorious things, but the glorious things of the gospel mean nothing. until you really appreciate your own unworthiness of Christ and of the blessings of the gospel. We want to consider this morning an accusation or accusations and then aberrations and then anathemas. The accusations are found in verses 11 to 14. Jesus standing before the governor. The governor, by the way, is Pilate. Sometimes he's referred to as Pilate, sometimes as the governor. And I think Matthew is reinforcing that he's standing before the Roman authorities. It's a political trial. Pilate asks him, art thou the king of the Jews? And Jesus, whereas he has not said much before in answer to the accusations against him, he was compelled by an adjuration, we saw also earlier, to confess who he was. And here again, he asked, art thou the king of the Jews? And Jesus said unto him, thou sayest. So the words, by your own words, you're condemning or admitting And he's not saying openly right now that he is, but he's saying he's agreeing you have said it. He's not denying it, as some of the cults today would say that he's denying it. No, he's agreeing with the pilot to say yes, the very words of your mouth testify who I am. the King of the Jews. Very brief, very much to the point. He has been speaking for three years, the Lord Jesus has, and his words have been rejected. They've gained in popularity and they've dropped in popularity, but by this time, he is at his lowest point in the opinion polls, we would say. People care nothing now for the Lord Jesus Christ. The chief priests and the elders accused him, verse 12. And when he was accused of the chief priests and elders, he answered nothing. Everything that he said, everything that he needed to say had already been said. They knew who he was. They confessed who he was. They opposed who he was. They knew very well that he was the son of God. And so having said everything that he needed to say, He didn't need to say any more. And Pilate asks again, hearst thou not how many things they witness against thee? And again, verse 14, he answered him to never a word in so much that the governor marveled greatly. Why would you not speak in your defense? The accusations are very serious. Why would somebody not speak up in his own defense? And he's already done that for one thing, but he's also purposing to go to the cross, to be crucified. So here are the accusations. They're open accusations, and they come against the Lord Jesus. There's no clear defense at this point. but the accusations are certainly there directed towards him. And then we have a number of aberrations. We have introduced a fellow by the name of Barabbas. Barabbas is an interesting name. It means son of a father. Seems very obvious. Seems like who would name their son that, but that's his name, son of a father. But he is a notorious criminal. Matthew says they had then a notable prisoner called Barabbas. And so he was not just somebody that had committed, obviously committed a very serious crime worthy of death, but he was a vile criminal whom everybody knew about. It seems as though, we don't know the details, but it seems as though one of the gospel writers calls him a murderer. So he was convicted of all kinds of things, it appears, when we bring all the gospel records together. And everyone knew how horrible he was. And we can think of notorious criminals in our own day. that everybody knows about, everybody thinks that, you know, if we should have capital punishment, that criminal would be worthy of capital punishment. You hear people talking like that from time to time. So here is Jesus being put up against a notable, notorious criminal, someone well-known to everyone. Now Pilate had this very strange custom, and we don't know whether it was just on the Passover, but at least on the Passover, Pilate had a custom where he would release a criminal, a criminal of the people's choice. It doesn't really make any sense, but that was what he did. It's like the President of the United States has the authority to pardon a criminal, pardon someone who has been found guilty. I don't know if the Prime Minister Our Prime Minister has that authority or not, but the President of the United States often gives pardons. So this is a kind of pardon on Pilate's part. Pilate, of course, is looking at all of this politically. He wants them to choose Jesus. Like, that's the obvious choice. He is a criminal by your accusations. I could let somebody go, who do you think it should be? And he's saying, just choose Jesus. Jesus, he calls him Christ. He's a Jesus the Christ. Jesus the Messiah, the one that your scriptures speak of, the one that you're hoping for, the one that you've been waiting for, the one that your rabbis have been teaching us about. Don't you want me to release Jesus the Christ? And surely, he says, these people and my own little plan here are going to release me from what's a very awkward and a difficult situation. Who are you going to choose? And because, he says, the reason was he knew that for envy they had delivered him. So that was just kind of a personal thing. But envy, beloved, is a very destructive, a very destructive sin. Proverbs 14 verse 30 says, envy is the rottenness of the bones. First Corinthians 13 verse four, Paul says, charity, love, does not envy. Charity envieth not. And, Dr. Hendrickson, in his commentary, defines envy. He says, envy is the displeasure aroused by seeing someone else having what you do not want him to have. And largely, I think, in our society, we think of that in terms of material things. That person doesn't deserve to drive such a nice car. That person doesn't deserve to have such a nice home. But sometimes we like to pull down celebrities as well, or people who are well-known, right? I mean, really, how did Steve Jobs or Bill Gates get to where they were? Are they really that smart? They're not really so smart as they are maybe good at manipulating people. How did Michael Bloomberg get his billions and billions of dollars? Well, he was just in the right place at the right time. He doesn't deserve those. He hasn't worked for them. We like to bring people down. And there's that envy that says, yeah, we know what they have, we know even what they are, but they don't deserve what they are or what they have. And so it's been a great problem throughout the history of the world. That was really what motivated Cain, was the envy that God had received abled sacrifice and not his. It was the sin of Joseph's brothers. They envied that at least Jacob appeared to be more favorable to him, and it seems that he was by the scripture text. And so they envied Joseph to the point where they all wanted to kill him. Reuben eventually delivered him, but they did want him out of the way. We think of Korah and Dathan and Abiram saying to Moses, who are you, Moses? We all have the spirit of God. Who do you think you are, high and mighty, leading us and directing our steps? You're not the only one that has the Holy Spirit. And so there was envy there against the man whom the scriptures record as the meekest man that ever lived. And here's Envy, he knew that for Envy, they had delivered him. They didn't like the fact that he was always right. And he was, wasn't he? When they challenged him, he was always right. When they tried to manipulate him with clever questions so that he would convict him with his own words, convict himself with his own words, he answered with wisdom that could only come from heaven, only could come from God. He was not clever, he was wise. And he was wise in a way that nobody could answer or address or confront him about. So every time they challenged him, he came up with the perfect answer. And it was always an answer that convicted them of their sins. Isn't that just what the Lord Jesus does? And when you oppose anything that he says or does, then his wisdom just come right back and slap you in the face, kick you in the butt. It just, there's no refuting it, there's no answering it. And you end up looking very, very foolish. How could I possibly have opposed Christ himself? It's ridiculous. But even our sinful hearts can find that place of envy and challenging the Lord Jesus Christ. So there is a strange custom that ends up working against Pilate. He could see that the only reason you're doing this is for envy. It's not really a crime worthy of death. So he sits down in his throne seat, the praetorium, and as he's about to render judgment, He's interrupted by a message from his wife, and from the circumstances, it seems as though somebody's come running up, out of breath, your wife has told me that this message can't wait. Verse 19, when he was set down on the judgment seat, his wife sent unto him, saying, have thou nothing to do with that just man. For I have suffered many things this day in a dream because of him." We don't know what that dream was. Sounds like it was a nightmare. Something happened there that she dreamt that God revealed to her the holiness of this man. So she was so struck by this dream that she had to tell her husband immediately, just have nothing to do with this man. Now the problem is he had everything to do with this man. This man's destiny was in Pilate's hands. He was the one who was going to make the final decision. As much as he wanted to push that off on others around him, he was the one that was going to make that decision. And he knew it. And so he couldn't, he couldn't have nothing to do with that just man. He had to either condemn him or acquit him. Those were the two options before him. And he was, as the prophets of Baal, he was halting between two opinions. What should I do? What should I do? How can I make this work? Either way, it's not going to work out well, very well for me. And I'm in a lose-lose situation. So here is Pilate, the situation is getting worse and worse for him. I wanna just take a moment to point out that Jesus was declared innocent three times, just in Matthew chapter 27. And many more times that his innocence is repeated at this trial if you compare all of the gospel messages. We read in verse four that Judas said, I have sinned and that I have betrayed the innocent blood. So he said that Christ has done nothing worthy of the crime that I committed against him. Pilate's wife said, have nothing to do with that just man. If you look down in verse 24, Pilate himself says, I am innocent of the blood of this just person. So repeatedly, he's announced and declared to be innocent, but we all know that the Lord Jesus dies. We just read how he was delivered up to be scourged and then to be crucified. So here's the Lord Jesus in his innocence and repeatedly declared to be innocent. And then we can see the anathemas, the hearts of the people so aroused, so riled up, so angry, so bitter against the Lord Jesus. And we read of the pronouncement of the Jews. Verse 25, then answered all the people and said, his blood be on us and on our children. That's how they were not even thinking clearly. But the Jews understood something about covenantal language, didn't they? They had been raised with this idea of the covenant and how it affects succeeding generations, that those who hate the Lord Jesus Christ are going to pay for it, and generations that will hate him as well, to this third and fourth generation. So here, but the people that love the Lord will be blessed to the thousandth generation. So they know something about covenantal language. And here they pronounce a curse upon themselves. Don't worry about this pilot. If you sentence him to death, we will be responsible. We'll take the accountability and our children. We're so sure that Jesus is not who he says that he is that we are ready to curse ourselves and our children. Doesn't that just chill you that someone would bring this upon themselves? In a way, it's very, very mindless. It's very thoughtless. It's impetuous, I think, the emotions of the moment, but they do, they do do that. And Christ has already predicted that the kingdom will be taken away from the Jews for a time and be given over to the Gentiles. And this is, again, the fulfillment of that. Then he has also the anathema of Pilate. So Pilate takes took water, and washed his hands before the multitude, saying, I am innocent of the blood of this just person. See ye to it. The problem that Pilate does not understand is that his sin can't be cleansed with the washing of water, but only by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. And then, verse 26, then released he Barabbas unto them, And when he had scourged Jesus, he delivered him to be crucified. So Pilate brings this anathema really upon himself. He's playing with popularity. He's trying to figure out how he can come out of this smelling like the proverbial rose, but he's very indecisive. He can't take leadership. And then Pilate also, of course, not only brings an anathema upon himself, but also upon the Lord Jesus Christ. So he scourged him and delivered him to be crucified. So there's the sentence. It's about to be carried out. Beloved, what are the lessons that you and I can learn from this? Is there some application to your heart? We find here a good reminder to guard your conscience. Guard your conscience. Pilate had been playing games through all of this. And he was playing loose with the truth and with righteousness. He knew, from the beginning, he knew what he should have done. He knew that he should let Jesus go. But he tried to find some other way out of it. Rather than declaring for Jesus, he tried to manipulate the circumstances so that he was not really found guilty. So beloved, educate your conscience. Care for your conscience. and render a quick obedience to it. You see, as time progressed, it became harder and harder, even in these few hours, became harder and harder for him to do what he knew was right. He knew at the beginning what he should have done, but it became harder and harder so that eventually, there was no going back at all. And that is the humility of repentance. It humbles a person very, very deeply. And I remember almost 30 years ago, how people left, number of people left this congregation in anger and with great resolve. And they said things that I knew would be very difficult to, for them to come back. We would say today that they burned their bridges behind them. And while I wanted to be firm in the declaration of the gospel, I don't know that I was always successful, but I tried to say things that would keep that door open if there was repentance. And I remember telling people, it was very hard to say, it was very hard for the Lord's people to hear. If they come back in repentance, we are required to receive them. If they come back asking for forgiveness and say, we didn't handle this well, we sinned against you and against the Lord, take us back, we would be required to do that. The Lord is so clear about the nature of forgiveness if there's repentance, right? It would be very, very difficult, but I also saw that it would be very, very difficult for them to actually confess that what they had done was wrong. Have you ever been in that situation where you know that what you did was wrong, but you're not sure you want to be plunged into that depth of humility that would require you to confess that sin? I think particularly of sins against the Lord. To admit to God, I've sinned against thee, and I've been wrong. And I've been wrong sometimes for an extended period of time. But one day your heart just awakens to that fact. One day the Holy Spirit provokes you in such a way that you can't deny it anymore. And you realize that God has been long suffering with you even to bring you to that point. To be able to say to the Lord, I have sinned against thee and thee only. Will you forgive my deep sin? So beloved, it's so important to obey Christ promptly. Those of us who are older in the faith and have served the Lord longer often come across those situations where, why did I leave it so long? Why did I not Obey the Lord at the first promptings of the Spirit. Of course, that's the very most important regarding salvation. When you hear the call of salvation, don't put it off. Now is the day of salvation. And the Lord makes that very clear. Don't say, well, I'll turn to the Lord sometime when I'm older. I'll call for you at a more convenient time. I'll come when it suits my lifestyle. Because what happens as you put that off is that you become hardened against the gospel. You have one excuse here, I can't come now, I've married a wife, I've bought me a cow, and I can't come at this present time, and then those excuses begin to mount, and they become bigger and bigger, and then the first objections seem insignificant. And now, what does it take for you to turn to the Lord? It takes only the power of the Holy Spirit, which it does it at any time, even when you come promptly. But to mount up those accusations of the Lord against you by defiling your conscience is a great evil. So beloved, in all matters of righteousness, now is the day of salvation. Don't put off your saving, your salvation. Don't put off your sanctification either. Don't say, well, I'll be holy at another time. This is not convenient for me. And you think of the beauty and also the difficulty of the slogan or the motto of John Calvin. Here, Lord, here is my heart. I offer you my heart promptly and sincerely. I do it now, not just impetuously in the emotion of the moment. I give you promptly and sincerely. I mean it. Take my heart. I take my life and let it be. Lord, let it be yours forever. Let it be completely yours. I know you don't take half a heart. It's either yours or it's the devil's. It's either yours or mine. It's either yours or the world's. But it can't be both. So beloved, guard your conscience. And remember what a terrible example that pilot is to you here by having given way to the ways of the world. And we see increasingly that your conscience needs to be instructed by God through his word and impressed upon you by his Holy Spirit. And we're seeing more and more compromise in the churches regarding how they accept the things of the world and the ways of the world, particularly in these days with regard to sexuality. And the church is not openly opposing those things, and then gradually becomes accepting of them. Because, often because their chief end is evangelism, all we need to do is get souls into this place. We just need to get bodies in here. And how are they gonna stay if we preach the gospel? How are they gonna stay if we start preaching against sin? they're just gonna be out the door right away. Well, now we have to keep them here. How are we gonna keep them here? Well, we're gonna make them feel happy and accepting and loved, and we ought to show love to sinners, but we ought to show them the greatest of all love, and that is bringing them to the cross, showing them their sin and the Savior who died for sin. That is the greatest love of all, isn't it? So here is the, we ought to always order ourselves, beloved, by the word of God and not by the thoughts or the intents of what men would prefer or what they would like. We know what people like, right? You go to Roger's place, whether it's a hockey game or a rock concert or any other kind of concert, that's what people like. They're not lining up to get in here, but they'll pay hundreds and thousands of dollars to watch their hockey games. So, beloved, let us have our consciences guarded always by the Word of God and have our standards elevated to His standard and not lowered to the standards of the world. Consider also, beloved, that Christ was put to death in the place of a criminal. Think about Barabbas' situation. There was no hope for Barabbas. There was no hope. He was condemned to die. But Jesus took his place. The only hope that Barabbas had was the death of Christ. Is that any different from your standing before a holy God? You have no hope of eternal life. You have absolutely no hope of peace with God. There's nothing. You're undone. You stand condemned, and you stand justly condemned. Do you think Barabbas would have, maybe he would have asserted his innocence, but it seems as though there were so many charges against him that he couldn't. But that's where the sinner is brought to by the Holy Spirit in the place of salvation. The Holy Spirit is the one who brings you to that place to see your condemnation, to see your utter lostness, to see how much further you are from God than you ever thought possible. You always thought he was very close to you because really you were just worshiping your own idea of God. It's very easy to worship a God whom you get along with really well because he's only the one that you created in your own imagination. When you open your Bible and you start reading and studying and understanding who God is and how righteous he is and how holy he is, you're gonna stand like Isaiah. You're gonna fall down on your face. And say, woe is me, for I am a man of unclean lips. I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips. I can't stand. My knees are weak. I'm falling down, passing the sentence of death. I'm not worthy of life. And then it's God and his mercy that shows you the glories of Christ. Beloved, this is a very precious doctrine. We call it the doctrine of substitutionary atonement. Sometimes we use the word vicarious, vicarious atonement. It means that Jesus died in my place. I'm the one who should have been accused. I'm the one who should have been mocked and made fun of. I'm the one that should have been scourged. Can you say that? As you read those things about Jesus and you see his innocence, and you say, how? Ah, holy Jesus, how hast thou offended? I look at your life, you've done nothing. You've done nothing, but I have. I've done everything against you. I've done everything against your holy law. And you have offended in no way. You received the mocking that I deserved. You received the scourging that I deserved. You took the crucifixion that I deserved. In the 1920s, turn of the 20th century, There was a great upheaval, particularly in the Presbyterian Church, USA, where liberals came in and downplayed doctrine, said doctrine doesn't really matter. Do you really need to know the virgin birth to get to heaven? Do you really need to know that Christ performed miracles, did things supernaturally? Do you need that to get to heaven? Do you need really to believe in Christ's vicarious atonement, his substitutionary atonement? Of course you do. You need to know all those things. And there are people who don't know all the doctrinal details of that, but it wasn't just about getting to heaven, it was about preaching the gospel. It was about men who were standing for ordination to hold and stand in the pulpits of the Presbyterian churches who were denying that. They said, well, he doesn't have to believe in the virgin birth. Yes, he doesn't have to believe in the substitutionary atonement of Christ on the cross, and they were going to ordain those men. Now I hope you can see why the Bible Presbyterian Church exists, because men wouldn't stand for that. They said, this is not the gospel anymore. You're denying the way of salvation. You're denying that Christ is a Redeemer, that he's the Son of God. And we have huge problems with that. And they, like Christ then, were put out of the temple, they were put out of the church. We can't have this holiness in our midst. And they were kicked out. But they were willing to suffer that because they knew that Christ had died in their place on the cross. It was them that deserved to be on the cross. Peter tells us in 1 Peter 3.18, for Christ also hath once suffered for sins the just for the unjust, or the just on behalf of the unjust. That's substitutionary atonement. Christ hung there in the place of the Christian, in the place of his church. Why? That he might bring us to God. So beloved, until you see yourself in the place of Barabbas, until you see yourself as a wicked, notorious, and vile criminal before a holy God, you have no part with Christ. You need that death. You need that blood to be right with God. And there's a tragedy in that. There's a heaviness in all of that, that my sins, not just the sins of the Jewish leaders or the Jewish people or the Roman governor or the Roman soldiers, but there I was with them. There I was. If it wouldn't have been for the Holy Spirit, Crucify him, let him be crucified with all of my energy, with all of the air in my lungs, let him be crucified. I want this man out of the way. I don't want him convicting me of my sin. I don't want him to be making me feel bad all the time. It's a beautiful quote. We won't read this morning. Take time to read that quote by J.C. Ryle. What a beautiful quote. thought that he has. We all think we'd like to live around a perfect man. We all think everybody around us should be more perfect. But we don't like perfection when we meet it. Just like the Jews didn't like perfection when they met the Lord Jesus Christ. They were there in his midst. They heard him speak. They talked to him. They were in the very midst of perfection. and they wanted to crucify him, get rid of him, kill him. That's how much they hated perfection. That's how much your heart hates perfection until the Holy Spirit regenerates you and brings you into the place of salvation. And that is the place of peace alone. Again, Paul says, for he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. He knew no sin, but he was made sin, imputed, he was made sin for us. Martin Luther, and these words have been considered controversial by a lot of people, but Martin Luther said these words. All the prophets did foresee in spirit that Christ should become the greatest transgressor, murderer, adulterer, thief, rebel, blasphemer, et cetera, that ever was or could be in all the world. For he being made a sacrifice for the sins of the whole world is not now an innocent person and without sins, but a sinner. I think it was R.C. Sproul that preached on this idea as well. His text was the vilest person that ever lived. The most wicked person that ever lived. And you have to understand rightly when he says it was the Lord Jesus Christ. And he didn't live in those sins, did he? He didn't live in those sins. He didn't experience those sins. But he had those sins imputed to him. He was accused of those sins, we might say. And he bore the punishment of them. He said, I am guilty, in effect. on their behalf, I am guilty of those sins and I will take his place. Greater love hath no man than this, that a man should lay down his life for his friends. And we see that periodically in history. We have people doing that. I was reading of the history of Canada where a missionary was going down the river And his gun went off and accidentally shot one of the Indians that was rowing the boat, taking care of the canoe with him. And he felt horrible. And he went hours out of his way to go back to the tribe of that native man and admit what he had done and lay himself open to whatever justice they would give to him. And the mother of that boy saw how sorry he was and how grieved he was that this had happened and how willing he was to receive that punishment, that she actually adopted him as her son. and loved him. And he, of course, loved her like a mother. And that's nowhere near what the Lord Jesus Christ did, of course. But it's a picture in our own history of that idea of substitution, standing in the place of another. And the Lord Jesus did that for people who, as Luther says, the greatest transgressor, murderer, adulterer, thief, rebel, blasphemer that ever was or could be in all the world. That's how God looked at him. That's how God punished him. And here we are. Beloved, are you in the place of Barabbas? that an innocent Jesus, the innocent Son of God died for you, that you should have eternal life, that you should have all the treasures of heaven, all the gifts of the Holy Spirit, all the blessings of the gospel. Did Jesus die in your place, beloved? And you say, Jesus died for me. That's what it means. People often say that very thoughtlessly. Jesus died for me. Jesus died in my place. He received what I deserved. And finally, beloved, let us consider that all of this that we have read today and will read in the weeks to come, all of this happened by the sovereign decree and purpose and will of God. Tavius Winslow said, who delivered up Jesus to die? Not Judas for money, not Pilate for fear, Not the Jews for envy, of course the scriptures record that all those things were true, but he says ultimately it was the father for love. Ultimately Jesus went to the cross because God loved his church. Because God loved sinners, took pity upon them, and sent his only begotten son to redeem them from a lifetime of hell, eternity of hell and punishment, redeem them from his wrath, his anger against sin. He knew that his anger against sin was so unbearable that he was the only one who could provide a way to escape from his own wrath. We're mere humans. We're just creation. and yet the Lord made a way of escape through the Lord Jesus Christ. Beloved, is Christ your Savior? Is He your Redeemer? Is He your sacrifice upon the cross for the sins that you have committed throughout all your life? What a precious thing it is to receive the grace of God in Christ Jesus. Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. It's the only hope of your salvation. Let us pray. Oh, Lord, our God, we are humbled to think of the great cost of our salvation and the innocence of the Lord Jesus Christ, who suffered so cruelly and vengefully at the hands of those creatures that he created, to whom he brought life. We pray, Lord, that we may, even as we prepare to meet next week at the Lord's table, that we may consider the greatness of thy love in making full provision for our salvation. We pray, Lord, that thou would speak to our hearts concerning these things, that we may love thee in return. that we may rejoice to know that our sins have been covered by Christ whom thou sent. And we pray, Lord, that thou wouldst be pleased to open the hearts of anyone here who does not know thee. We ask, Lord, that thou wouldst bring salvation to this place, that thou wouldst stir us up to holiness, and that thou wouldst make us to stand fast in our Christian liberty. Hear our prayer, Lord, forgive us our sin. We pray in Jesus' name, amen.