Well, let's turn in our Bibles to Romans chapter four. And Brother Glenn, you did not take my text this morning in your earlier comments, so we'll just save his introduction until the next time I am able to preach in my series from the Book of Romans. So this morning we're going to finish chapter four by looking at two statements that are made in this closing verse of Romans chapter four. There are two statements here that are very straightforward. One of them is maybe easier to understand than the other. but we want to unpack the meaning of these two phrases here in this closing verse. The first phrase is, who, that is Jesus Christ, was delivered up because of our offenses. And the second phrase is, and he was raised up or raised because of our justification. Let's pray and ask the Lord to bless the preaching and hearing of the word, and then we will go into our sermon. Father, we thank you this morning that you have provided such wonderful detail and encouragement in the gospel of Jesus Christ. And we thank you this morning that you do change our lives through the hearing of the word. And we pray that you would do that both for the speaker and for the listener today. Amen. This text is one of the great summary texts of the gospel. It's one of the great statements where the truth of the gospel is put in a condensed form similar to statements that we find like in 1 Corinthians 15 where Paul says that Christ died for our sins according to the scripture and he was buried and he rose again the third day according to the scriptures. That's a summary of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Titus 2 also has such a summary when Paul writes there, for the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for himself his own special people, zealous for good works. And there are others, other statements where the gospel is put into short, condensed form. And verse 25 is one of these statements, that Jesus was delivered up because of our offenses and was raised because of our justification. Now, verse 25 is the last or closing verse of another one of the big sections in Romans. It's a conclusion. There's a transition going into chapter 5. In verse 25 is a summary of everything that Paul has said so far. Paul explained in chapters 1 and 2 that humanity is ruined by sin. Humanity is enslaved to sin. Though there are different degrees to which sin has brought forth its disintegration, that all man, that all mankind is ruined by sin. Some sinners express their sinfulness in pagan behavior. Others, they may be Or moral men and women, they have a desire to be good, and maybe they portray in their lives, their lives maybe portray some common grace, though they're sinners. And then Paul deals with religious individuals who are still under the wrath of God, But they're looking to religion to make themselves acceptable to God. There is no man-made cure for sin. There is no man-made solution. All have sinned, chapter three says. There are none that are righteous. And only the righteousness that God provides for you is going to meet your need. And this is the theme of the book. This is the theme of what Paul was saying so far. Only the righteousness which God provides through Jesus Christ will answer the problem of our guilt. And praise God, the righteousness which God provides does suffice. It does redeem. It propitiates, it justifies, it redeems us, as we saw in chapter 3. In chapter 4, Paul explains what saving faith looks like. Now, we're not saved by faith, period. Though we're saved by faith alone, it's in Jesus Christ. There is no merit in faith. The merit is all in the Lord Jesus Christ. And our salvation is because we have faith in Him. It's not because of just faith or a strong confidence that we have somehow in ourselves. It is in Jesus Christ being the object of our faith. In chapter 4, Paul not only explains what this faith looks like, but he uses two Old Testament real-life examples, David and Abraham, to show faith at work. And so the gospel is this message that God has provided an acceptable righteousness for sinners in Jesus Christ for all who will truly believe in him. That's the gospel that God has provided for us, an acceptable righteousness for sinners through faith in Jesus Christ for those who believe in him. So let's look at our text now. What does Paul teach in this concluding verse? Well, there are two parts, but there are three points. The first thing we want to notice is that God is the great doer in our salvation. And that's been the theme ever since the beginning of this book. God is the great doer. He is the great actor. And I don't mean actor in the sense of someone putting on a show. But I mean the one who does the action, the one who is the doer. Number two, we want to think about Jesus being delivered up because of our sins. And then number three, we want to look how that God raised Jesus up for our justification. So first of all, the first thing we notice in verse 25 is that God is the one who is doing. Verse 24 says that it shall be imputed to us who believe in Him who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead. The Him here is God. Is that God the Father? Yes. Is that God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit? Yes. That is God. That is who it is that is doing the delivering up and who is doing the raising up. It is God himself. The point here is that God has taken our pathetic case in hand. That's the point. And that's right, that is pervasive throughout this verse, that it is God who has taken our situation, our pathetic case, case or situation in hand. God is the one who is determined to save a great number, to redeem a great number to himself. God is the one who determined to elect unto salvation. Ephesians chapter one, first Peter chapter one and other like passages. God is the one who foreordains. God is the one who foreknows. God has taken us in our plight in hand. God has from the beginning taken the problem of sin in hand. Who was it that covered Adam and Eve in their nakedness? It was God who took the initiative, who took their nakedness in hand, the problem of their sin in hand. And we see this throughout all of Holy Scripture, that it is God who is acting, it is God who is doing. Now, sin has consequences. I think we know that. And I think sometimes we wrongly think that that God looks upon humanity and their sin and says, well, if you do these bad things, I'm going to make these bad things happen to you, or I'm going to bring my wrath upon you. The consequences of sin are tied up in the nature and the fundamental essence of sin itself. Sin leads to death. Death is not an external judgment that God somehow pronounces upon. the sinner. But sin itself leads to death. Sin leads to disintegration. When sin leads into its awful consequences, the consequences of sin follow sin. And God has determined that to be true. That's right. But if you and I choose to sin, We're choosing something that has attached to it consequences that follow, like day follows night. God doesn't have to do something to us because we choose to sin. Sin has in itself a natural judgment, and the wrath of God is fixed against sin itself. Sin brings forth death. Paul says that sin has wages that follow. When sin is finished, it brings forth death. It pours out or brings to pass the consequences of the wrath and judgment of God upon each one of us. And so God steps in to intervene. That's the meaning of John 3.16. For God so loved the world. God said that I am going to intervene in this fallen world. I'm going to intervene and redeem to myself a great multitude who are going to be redeemed and transformed and delivered and saved. And so Man couldn't save himself. And even if he tried, he wouldn't even try. He both couldn't and wouldn't save himself. But God takes this matter in hand and God determines to redeem individuals unto himself. You know, when God intervenes in our lives to redeem us, when God does Romans chapter for in our life. It has great effect. It has great consequence. It's life transforming. And I've used the illustration before that if I came here this morning late and I explained to you that I was delayed because I was run over by a logging truck. You would say, Philip, your story is inconsistent. There's something about you that doesn't look like a logging truck ran over you. You know, I had a flat tire. I was by the road. I was changing the tire. One of the lug nuts fell out of my hand. It rolled out. I reached back for it. And a truck came by and hit me and rolled over me. And I'm late this morning. And you would say, well, Philip, there's something inconsistent about that. You physically don't look like you were hit by a logging truck. And, you know, that I think that meeting the Almighty God is of more consequence than meeting a logging truck. If you argue concerning an encounter with the God of the universe, your encounter with God is going to leave an unmistakable change in your life. And I'm not saying that there is a total freedom from sin and fallenness. I'm not saying that, but to say that you met God, that God took your case in hand, and you're not changed by it, is a greater inconsistency than the illustration is an inconsistency. And so it leaves us with a question Does what you call your salvation have the mark of God upon it? You know, if the first teaching of Romans 4.25 is that God has taken my case in hand, that God has taken your case in hand, if that is the first teaching of this text, Does my life, does your life have the mark of God upon it? Is there something in my life, in my person, that's marked with divine power and glory? Is there genuineness, genuine holiness in our lives, in my speech, in my home? in my marriage, in my relationship with my children, in my relationship with my parents, in my friendships, in what I read and how I spend my life and the ambitions that I have and the thoughts that I have is the mark of the work of God upon me. I think this is what John the Baptist meant when he was baptizing and certain individuals came to him to be baptized. And do you remember what he said to them? He says, why did you come out here to be baptized? Where is the marks of regeneration in your life? He says, you go and you bring forth fruits, meat for repentance and then make another trip out here. And he was not saying that baptism produces salvation, but he was saying that regeneration transforms the life in some grand and glorious way. And in your lives, he said to those who came, I don't see the marks. May I say the tire tracks of that truck on you? I don't see the marks that there's an encounter with God on your life. And however imperfect and however needy you are, it is inconceivable to me to think that that God can take my individual, my personal. And it has to be on that level, brothers and sisters. There is no salvation in a generic way. Our judgment before God is going to be a personal, unique, individual judgment. And our encounter with the grace of God through faith in Jesus Christ must also be an individual, a personal encounter with the Lord of glory. And so examine yourselves not to see what degree, though we should also do this, grace is at work, but examine yourself to see whether or not the grace of God has come into your life. And so the first thing we notice here is that God is the one who is the great actor, the great doer in our salvation. Number two, let's look at the first phrase then. The Lord Jesus was delivered up because of New King James. The Lord Jesus was delivered up for the English Standard Version, and I'm not going to argue whether because or for is the best translation. I think that there's a similarity there that makes the question mute, that really whether it is translated because or for, I think it's a non-issue. But the Lord Jesus Christ was delivered up for our offenses. Now, Jesus was not martyred like individuals are martyred sometimes because they stand up against evil for the right. And we know what martyrs are. Martyrs, whether they're Hindu leaders that are martyred. There's individuals in probably almost every movement or religion that they could point to individuals that were martyred because they stood up against evil or injustice. John the Baptist, right? He was martyred because he stood up against evil in the life of the King, King Herod. He spoke out against that social ill, that moral ill. In the case of a martyr, they're killed because men of power, in anger and hate, they pour out their wrath against an individual and they have the power to have them put to death. The Bible does not say that Jesus was killed because of his enemies. Our text says that he was delivered up by, that's right, by God. God is the one who delivered him up for our offenses. He was handed over because of our sin. When a criminal is found guilty of a grievous crime and is sentenced, He is handed over to those who will see that the sentence is carried out. And so it was with Jesus. Jesus himself told the disciples prior to his arrest that he would be delivered up to be crucified. That's the same word as here in verse 25. Jesus said, the days coming, disciples of mine, when I'm going to be delivered up to be crucified. Jesus was also delivered up by Judas to the representatives of the chief priests. It's the same word. When Judas betrayed Jesus Christ, Judas delivered him up to the chief priests, Matthew 20, 18. And then Jesus was then delivered over, delivered up to Pilate by the chief priests. The same word, Matthew 27, 2. Then Pilate delivered Jesus up to the soldiers to be crucified. It's the same word, Matthew 27, 26. Now, it looks like Jesus were being handed around like some kind of hot potato, doesn't it? You know, handed over, handed over, handed over. But we see that, and that's amazing to me, this is the same Jesus who, when he spoke, the winds obeyed his voice. And when he spoke, the waves, they became calm. And here he is, the creator, the Lord of glory, being handed over. Now, when Judas delivered him over, Jesus said two words, I am, and it says that the soldiers who came to arrest him fell back and fell down to the ground. I mean, he just spoke two words, and it just knocked him over. But you know, he never said, I am again in that way. He allowed himself to be delivered over into the power of evil men. When we get to Romans chapter eight, just four chapters later, we have this word used again in verse 32. What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own son. Who is the he there? That is God, that is God the father. He who did not spare his own son, but delivered him up for us all. That's the same word again that God delivered him up, that our Heavenly Father handed him over to the power of men and to the power of death. God is the one who gave him up. God is the one who planned the circumstances, the time, the betrayer, the bribed witnesses. the whip, the crown of thorns and the cross. Behind Judas was God giving up his son. Behind the chief priests was the almighty God giving up his son. Behind Pilate was the sovereign God giving, delivering Jesus up. Behind the soldiers, was Christ's own Heavenly Father giving him up to those soldiers there to crucify him. Acts 2.23 says that Jesus was delivered up, same word, by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God. In Acts 4.27 and 28, Herod and Pilate and the Gentiles and the people of Israel gathered together against Jesus to do what God's hand and God's purpose determined before to be done. You know, all of the the men and women involved, including those who cried crucify him, crucify him, Judas and. The chief priests. Pilate, Herod, and the soldiers, you know, they were actually just, can I say it, the servants of God in delivering Jesus up to the cross. And I know that may sound a bit wrong to us, and I think it's okay if it does sound a bit that way. as long as we don't reject it because it is the revealed truth of scripture. But all these men and women, you know, they were like the flower delivery guy bringing the flowers to Miriam that I ordered for her. And, you know, Whenever the flowers come, Miriam doesn't go and kiss the delivery man and say, thank you so much for the flowers. No, she kisses me. She thanks me for the flowers because I was the one that made the flowers happen as it were. And so behind These individuals who whom the Bible says delivered up behind them all was God delivering up Jesus Christ to the cross. When the soldiers spread his arms and nailed his feet to the cross, it was God who was delivering his son up. to the anger and the agony and all the animosity and that awful affliction of being forsaken even by God. God delivered him up to the darkness and the despair and the death. That's what our text says, that Christ was delivered up by God because of our offenses. And in Isaiah 53, that famous Old Testament chapter pertaining to this, we read that it pleased whom to bruise him. It says the prophet says it pleased the Lord. That's Jehovah. It pleased the Lord to bruise him, to put him to grief. The English Standard Version says, it was the will of the Lord to crush him. You know, when Christ was delivered up, it was what God planned in eternity past, wasn't it? God planned this in eternity past. And so what God planned in eternity Men did in time, but it was God who purposed this to be. And so God's holiness condemns everything that's defiling and dirty and unclean and everything that's evil. God's holiness condemns it all. The scripture says that God is angry with the wicked every day. The Bible says that his wrath is revealed from heaven against all iniquity, all evil. So how can propitiation be made? How can the wrath of God be turned away from us? Is there any way for me, the sinner, to be delivered from the wrath of God, the eternal wrath of God. And the answer is, yes, there is a way. God takes a lamb from his own bosom and delivers him over to the wolves. Annas and Caiaphas and Pilate and Herod and Judas and others. And our text says clearly that he was delivered up for our offenses, for our sins. Jesus suffered the penalty that is due to sin. Jesus didn't die on the cross because he was a social reformer. He didn't die on the cross because he was a martyr. Jesus Christ suffered the penalty that's due to sin. That's why he died on the cross. And it's not, this isn't theory, this is fact. Pain and death are penalty. It's a penalty that's paid by sinners. The wages of sin is death. And the penalty is not just that God's mad at sin, as if sin wouldn't be such a big deal if God would not have made it a big deal. The penalty of death and damnation is embedded in the very nature of sin itself. Sin, when it's finished, it leads to eternal death. And God cannot and God will not say, well, I'll just let it go. I'll let it pass. I'll overlook it. I'll sweep it underneath some big rug somewhere. Now, I know that God has mercy. He does. Praise God for that. And he has patience even with sinners. We see that in the example of Adam. God said, Adam, when you eat the tree, you're going to die. And he didn't die that day, did he? He lived another day and another day. And that's the mercy of God. But it wasn't God sweeping it under a rug. It wasn't God overlooking it. Death entered the world through sin. Through the trespass of Adam, many died, we're going to see in the next chapter. Death reigned by the trespass of one man. Sin reigned in death. Why did Jesus die then if death is the result of our offenses? Jesus did no sin. He was human. He was tempted, but he never ever sinned. He asked his enemies once, who can prove that I'm guilty in any matter? And no one could because he wasn't. There were no sins of omission, no sins of thought, no sins of word, no sins of motive. no sin of affection. He was a lamb without spot and without blemish. He was holy and harmless and separate from sinners, not in the fact that he was separate as a human. He was a companion of us in our humanity, but he was separate from us in our sinfulness. The sinless one suffered the penalty, death, even though he never sinned. Jesus did no sin. He was not delivered up for his offenses, but he was delivered up for our offenses. Jesus was the Son of God. The hymn in our book says, I think like verse eight, maybe the longest hymn in our song books, I think it has like 10 verses, some of them printed in little letters at the bottom. Who is he on yonder tree? Dies in grief and agony. Tis the Lord a wondrous story. Tis the Lord the King of glory. And so Jesus is the wonderful, the counselor, the mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. So why is he hanging with two criminals then, if he is this? And it is because the sinless one is reaping the harvest of sin for us. That's why he's hanging on that tree, the son of God. He's reaping the harvest of our sin and God is smiting him with the pains of death. God is not an horrified spectator looking down upon earth and watching evil men kill his son. He's not that. He's actively involved. He's doing. God is not sparing him the pain that the other two guys were suffering, is he? You know, even while God is working in the heart of one of those criminals, convicting and redeeming and and showing great mercy to him. He's not even doing that for his own beloved son. He was more active in mercy and kindness to the thief beside him than what he was to his own son. It's most amazing to contemplate. He's working in the heart of the one criminal with saving grace. But he has no comfort to mitigate the suffering of his son. But rather his son cried on the cross, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? So why is the son hanging there on that tree? Why is the beloved son hanging there? The son in whom the father is always pleased. Jeff Thomas says this, God had become a priest. Golgotha was his temple, and God was engaged in a very solemn business. God was offering a sacrifice. The cross was the altar, and his own son, the Lamb, laid out upon it. And God had been preparing for this all through the Old Testament, the tabernacle, the priests, the sacrifices, the day of atonement. All of that was preparation for this day. So why? Why was Jesus delivered up? Well, the text tells us it's for our Offenses. It's for it's a word of substitution. Luther preached a message on the death of Christ, and he said, I quote. Thus, the whole emphasis is on the phrase for us. For Christ is innocent so far as his own person is concerned. And therefore, he shouldn't have been hung from the tree. But because according to the law, every thief should have been hanged. Therefore, according to the law of Moses, Christ himself should have been hanged for he bore the person of a sinner and a thief. And not just of one, but of all sinners and all thieves. For we are sinners and thieves, and therefore we are worthy of death and eternal damnation. But Christ took all our sin upon himself, and for them he died on the cross. He is not acting in his own person now. Now he is not the Son of God, born of the Virgin, but he is a sinner who has and bears the sin of Paul. the former blasphemer, persecutor, and assaulter of Peter, who denied Christ, of David, who was an adulterer and a murderer. In short, he has and bears all the sins of all men in his body, not in the sense that he has committed them, but in the sense that he took these sins, committed by us upon his own body, in order to make satisfaction for them with his own blood." End quote. Jesus is a great advocate. You know, sometimes we think of the advocate, the attorney, the defense attorney, the advocate standing in the courtroom in the place or pleading for the guilty. And that's a true picture. And I think the only reason why we're not consumed in a moment is because Christ does that for us even prior to our conversion. And so he does stand representing us. But, you know, whenever it's time for the sentence to be pronounced and the sentence to be executed, carried out, We see Christ climbing into the prisoner's dock and standing in the guilty person's place and receiving the sentence himself and then him being delivered to the executioner. He is not just beside the sinner in that moment. He is in the place of the sinner. He dies in order that we might be spared dying. He drinks the cup. Love drank it up, so we should not drink it. He receives the wages his clients have accrued, the wages of sin. And now Jesus says to his father, see these men and see these women, I made propitiation for their sins. They have confessed their sin. So now, my father, be faithful and just to forgive their sins and to cleanse them from all unrighteousness. We saw that God is the great doer in our salvation. Number two, we saw that God delivered Jesus up for our sin. And now lastly, thirdly, the Lord Jesus was raised for our justification. And that's very clearly stated, there's no ambiguity in the language there. It's very straightforward. It's very simple. It's very clear. You know, the resurrection of Jesus, we'll talk a bit about that and then we'll look at because of our justification, the resurrection of Jesus from the dead is a fact in history. It's a well established fact. Uh, this is not something that just takes place in, in some, uh, either space somewhere. It's not just something for theology or Christian doctrine. The New Testament details all sorts of circumstances and occasions where individuals and groups met with the risen Lord Jesus. And I'll give them just quickly. I mean, I think I got them all and may have missed some. But after Jesus was He died and was buried. He rose again. Mary Magdalene met him at the tomb. I think it was after Peter and John got there and didn't meet him. Mary Magdalene was there and she met him. I think that's where she called him a gardener. Is that right? That's a mouthful. What a lovely picture. Jesus was met by a group of women somewhere between the tomb and the city. the morning of his resurrection, Jesus met two disciples on the road to Emmaus, and they were going from Jerusalem to Emmaus, about seven miles journey. And after spending some time with these two, he departed from them and they hurried back to Jerusalem to tell the others that they saw the risen Lord. Before they got there, someone else brought the news to them that Simon Peter had seen the risen Lord. It's like the news reports are coming in, Jesus is raised from the dead. And while they were yet talking about their news and the news of Simon meeting the risen Lord, Jesus appeared and stood among them. A week later, He again appeared to His disciples while they were, I think, still hiding. And then he appeared to his disciples by the Sea of Galilee. Then Paul says that he appeared to more than 500 people in one group at some point. And the Bible says he appeared to James. And then he met with the 11 disciples while they were going up a mountain in Galilee. And then finally he met with his disciples at the time of his ascension. And then he appeared to Paul after his ascension. He appeared to Paul when God dealt with Paul. And I don't think that was a vision. I think that that was an actual appearance of Jesus Christ in glorified flesh. That I believe that just like Jesus went up to heaven, Jesus came down from heaven to meet with the Apostle Paul. And so we have, this is just a fact of history, the resurrection of Jesus. The resurrection of Jesus certainly is a promise of future victory for us. Resurrection victory for us. Jesus triumphed over the greatest, most defeating foe that the saints ever did or ever will face, that is death. And scripture teaches us that we have resurrection power in our lives because of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. And that we sang that, didn't we? In Rock of Ages, not only is the guilt of sin taken away, but the power of sin is also overcome. We sang be of sin the double cure. cleanse me from its guilt and power. And I don't know why some editors have fiddled with that. It really doesn't sit well with me when editors fiddle with good theology and a good old hymn. But it's been fiddled with. But it's a double cure, the guilt of sin and the power of sin. And so in the resurrection of Jesus, We discover that sin can be overcome. Satan can be overcome. Temptation can be overcome. Discouragement can be overcome. Grief can be overcome. Persecution can be overcome. In fact, our death is already overcome. Everything is conquered, and we see that in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Do you ever think about the transformation that took place in the lives of the disciples? We find them, for weeks after the crucifixion, hiding. They did not dare show their face. They were just hiding. They were afraid. But after the truth of the resurrection sank in, fear gave way to courage and boldness. The resurrection of Christ was the precise point of the prohibition against their preaching in the book of Acts. It seems as though they could have preached whatever they wanted, but whenever they preached that Jesus was raised from the dead, that's when they were arrested and beaten and strictly warned, don't you preach anymore this resurrection stuff. Now, the authorities knew that if Christ were raised from the dead, they are in big trouble. In fact, isn't it in, I think it's the end of Matthew, where he records that the Jews wanted a guard or wanted his burial to be made sure they put soldiers there. because they didn't want the disciples to come in there and sneak the body away and then say he was raised from the dead. And so they put the guard there, but guess what? He was still raised from the dead, but it wasn't the disciples that did it. And remember how that the chief priests and the Sanhedrin told the soldiers that, you know, twist the story up a bit and say the disciples did get him, and if you get in trouble, we'll get a collection together and we'll cover you in that. But if the disciples stole the body away, who knew that he wasn't raised? Well, the disciples would have. They would have had a corpse that they had to deal with somehow. But, and there would not have been any joy. I mean, they would have had the proof, the ongoing proof, the decaying proof that he was not raised. But he was raised and their lives were transformed by the resurrection. But the big question is, and our final question, why does this text say that Jesus was raised for our justification? That's the question. Aren't we justified by the blood of Jesus Christ? And the answer is yes, we are. It is through his death. Paul preached the cross. Paul preached the dying of the Lord Jesus Christ. He bore our sins in his dying. On the cross, Jesus said, it's finished. And the cross was indeed the point of atonement, of reconciliation, of propitiation. It was upon the cross that the blood of atonement was poured out. So exactly what is the importance of the resurrection in relation to justification? Why does the text say that he was raised for our justification? Well, simply for this reason, the resurrection certifies the work completed. The resurrection was the certification that the work was completed. Who saw Christ sprinkle his own blood on the heavenly mercy seat? No human. And there's a great parallel between the priest going into the holiest of all on the day of atonement. And he went in there to offer for the sins of the people. And it's like everybody stood by holding their breath until what took place? Until he came out again. And when the high priest returned from sprinkling the blood and he came, his hands were empty, the blood has been poured out, the atonement has been made, it's like A sigh of relief, the work is done, it's certified, it's finished. What they could not see, they saw evidence of being completed. And you know, that's the reason why if you read in the book of Exodus, that the high priest on the garment that he wore in to the holiest of all had those little bells around the bottom. Do you ever think about that? It says a bell and a pomegranate, a bell and a pomegranate, a bell and a pomegranate. It was to give an audible testimony that the work was being done and that the priest himself survived the encounter. And so it is. When the Lord Jesus made atonement for us, Is our representative in the presence of God? Is the work done? Has the blood of atonement been poured out? And the people waited, and when the high priest came out of that holy place with empty hands, the blood of the sacrifice being left as it were in the presence of God, the people knew indeed that atonement had been made, that God had accepted them. There is peace. That's what the resurrection declares. It declares that the justification The atonement that is made through the blood of Jesus Christ has been completed and the work is finished. And so Christ comes forth to be seen and to be interrogated and to eat and drink with his disciples alive from the dead to give us the guarantee that the work of atonement has been done. Did you ever think about why a point is made in some of these statements in the Scripture concerning Christ's burial as being part of our atoning work? You know, He was tried, and He was crucified, and He was buried. Well, why does the Scripture say He was buried? You know, on the human level, His burial was proof that He died. And on the same level, his resurrection was proof that the work unseen was done. And so God is accommodating us in our humanity, in verifying. He didn't swoon, as some religions say he did. He died and was buried. The death was complete and he was raised and that points to the fact that the atonement was complete. God has accepted the atoning sacrifice. And we see that you can read Hebrews chapter nine at your leisure. And so he was delivered up because of our offenses and was raised for because of our justification. Ah, we have great confidence. We have great confidence. This is transforming for us that the work was done. The work was accomplished. The work was accepted by the same God who delivered him up for us all. Let's close with Father, we thank you that you have given us such assurance of the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. And we thank you, Father, that you have shown us clearly that you yourself is the one who saw to it that the work of salvation was done. You did not give this to another to a lesser, but you yourself have secured for us our eternal salvation. Blessed be your name. Father, I pray that you would percolate this through our lives, that we might be strengthened and given confidence in our Christian walk, this side. of glory. Amen.