Sometimes in the news, we see, as our brother described it, some horrific actions. And the carnal, fleshly impetus amongst all of mankind is to look at some horrible failure and some catastrophic sin and to console ourselves that we're so much better than that. and that we would never do such a thing. And as we heard earlier this morning, that thereby we can feel like we're relatively justified. But righteousness is not a pile of good works. It is perfection in every work. It is like a seamless garment, if you will. Once torn, it's no longer perfect. And that's why a man, having fallen once into sin, or having been charged even with the original sin, which we know all mankind is. And Adam cannot repair that righteousness no matter how many good works he may render, for it is like the vase that has been broken, it cannot be put back together again. but Christ has a perfect righteousness which He wrought for us, and He has taken our guilt upon Himself, and we have imputed to us that perfect righteousness." I like rather to look at the signs of fallenness and sin that we see in the news and have it provoke in my heart and I hope in your heart as well, rather than looking at our own relative righteousness, and consoling ourselves, rather having it point as a contrast to the perfections of the Lord Jesus. So many times we see things in this world that ought to lead us to extol and glorify the Lord Jesus, for He alone is worthy of glory, and His righteousness alone is perfect in all its ways. And in today's news, I thought late last night, it struck me that there is an incident that's bubbling up just this week that brought to my mind again, by way of contrast, the glory and the perfection of Christ, particularly that of Christ's priesthood, His high priesthood for the believers on behalf of sinners, saved by grace. There is in the news just this week yet more rumbling and trouble, more dark revelations about the great priest scandal in the Roman Catholic system. And now attention focuses on the new pope who was before his elevation to the papacy, went by the name of Ratzinger, Cardinal Ratzinger. And he was for about 20 years prior to his elevation as the pope, he was what the public press calls the doctrinal watchdog of the Roman Catholic system. It's called today the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, also called the Holy Office, also called a court. It's supposed to look out after the purity of the doctrine of the Roman Catholic system, which means that its purpose is to perpetuate the falsity of the doctrine of the Roman Catholic system, for the doctrine is not pure in any sense. It is not biblical as we've talked about for many weeks now. Interestingly enough, the congregation for the doctrine of the faith used to have the word Inquisition in the name, but for PR purposes they have taken that out apparently. This was the same institution in the Roman Catholic system that condemned heretics and delivered them up to the state for execution that led to the deaths of many saints. in the history of the church for refusing to go along with the blasphemy of the mass or the usurpation of the pope over Christ's person or the usurpation of the priesthood, so-called, over the great high priesthood of the Lord Jesus Christ. And the latest accusation is that while he was head of this Inquisition court, he dragged his feet or covered up or whatever the word the press likes to use, yet another incident of a child molesting priest by the name of Stephen Kiesel. And Mr. Kiesel personally requested that he be taken out of the priesthood in 1981. This was after he got off of probation, after he was sentenced. for molesting two young boys. By 1985, his bishop wrote Cardinal Ratzinger wanting to know what the problem was, why it had been four years since this man voluntarily asked to be removed or defrocked from the priesthood, and Cardinal Ratzinger's office hadn't even responded yet, to which Ratzinger returned a personally signed letter explaining the slowness of his organization's process. It wasn't until another two years that this man was defrocked finally. And this was someone who asked, volunteered to be defrocked. I want to read a few excerpts from the New York Times article on the subject. The future Pope Benedict XVI resisted pleas to defrock a California priest with a record of sexually molesting children, citing concerns including, quote, the good of the universal church. According to a 1985 letter bearing his signature, the correspondence obtained by the Associated Press is the strongest challenge yet to the Vatican's insistence that Benedict played no role in blocking the removal of pedophile priests during his years as head of the Catholic Church's doctrinal watchdog office. Kiesel had been sentenced in 1978 to three years probation after pleading no contest to misdemeanor charges of lewd conduct for tying up and molesting two young boys in a San Francisco area bay church rectory. As his probation ended in 81, Kiesel asked to leave the priesthood, and the diocese submitted papers to Rome to defrock him. In his earliest letter to Ratzinger, his bishop, Cummins, warned that returning Kiesel to ministry would cause more of a scandal than stripping him of his priestly powers. Quote, it is my conviction that there would be no scandal if this petition were granted, and that as a matter of fact, given the nature of the case, there would be a greater scandal to the community if Father Kiesel were allowed to return to the active ministry, Cummins wrote in 1982. Diocese officials considered writing Ratzinger again after they received his 85 response to impress upon him that leaving Kiesel in the ministry would harm the church. Rev. George Machel wrote in a memo to the Oakland bishop, quote, my own reading of this letter from Ratzinger, is that basically they're going to sit on it until Steve gets quite a bit older, unquote. The memo wrote, despite his young age, the particular and unique circumstances of this case would seem to make it a greater scandal if he were not laicized. Now let me say this, the word laicized is an amazing word, isn't it? That is, to make into laity that which was not laity before, to demote this ordained priest back to the common laity from which he had originally been drawn. It is, of course, a redundancy, the notion of laicizing people, since according to the Scriptures, we're all members of the laity. And there is no special high order of clergy to which a person can be promoted, is there? Then the article goes on, as Kiesel's fate was being weighed in Rome, the priest returned to suburban Pinole to volunteer as a youth minister at St. Joseph's Church where he had served an associate pastor from 72 to 75. And some of the people he was working with, the children, And one of the local ladies who was upset, she was with the youth ministry office, she found out about it and complained to the church officials and they wouldn't do anything. So finally she wrote a letter which she showed to the Associated Press. She said this, obviously nothing had been done after eight months of repeated notifications. In other words, she complained to the diocese for eight months that they had this pedophile volunteering to work with the children while the papacy languished, drug its feet in finishing his removal. How are we supposed to have confidence in the system when nothing is done? A simple phone call to the pastor from the bishop is all it would take. She finally had to confront the bishop at a confirmation service, and shortly thereafter, Mr. Kiesel was gone. Later on, after he had been defrocked, he was accused of multiple acts of vicious crime. He was arrested again and sentenced to six years in jail for another incident that took place in 1995. Now he's on the registry of sexual predators or sexual offenders. The article concludes, more than a half dozen victims reached a settlement in 2005 with the Oakland Diocese, alleging Kiesel had molested them as young children. Quote, he admitted molesting many children and bragged that he was the Pied Piper and said he tried to molest every child that sat on his lap. said Louis Van Bloy, an attorney for six Kiesel victims, who interviewed the former priest in prison. Quote, when asked how many children he had molested over the years, he said, tons. Unquote. Now, having laid down the bare facts of this horrible incident, let's read the letter that the now Pope, then Cardinal Ratzinger said. Having received your letter of September 13 of this year regarding the matter of the removal from all priestly burdens pertaining to Rev. Stephen Miller Kiesel in your diocese, it is my duty to share with you the following. This Court, although it regards the arguments presented in favor of removal in this case to be of grave significance, nevertheless deems it necessary to consider the good of the Universal Church together with that of the petitioner, and it is also unable to make light of the detriment that granting the dispensation can provoke with the community of Christ's faithful, particularly regarding the young age of the petitioner. It is necessary for this congregation to submit incidents of this sort to very careful consideration, which necessitates a longer period of time. In the meantime, your excellency must not fail to provide the petitioner with as much paternal care as possible. And in addition to explain to same the rationale of this court, which is accustomed to proceed, keeping the common good, especially before its eyes. Now, the reason I bring all this up is not the reason that most of you will think is pertinent, and that is to say this, that the secular and even the Protestant critics of what Ratzinger did in this case are really missing the point. about what his motives were and what he was about in this letter. Most of the press and the conservative critics of Pope Benedict are taking the view that, ah, see there he was trying to cover up sexual misconduct by the priests. He's trying to cover it up. He was trying to excuse it. This is the smoking gun, but I submit to you that that's not the case at all. That to think that is to misconstrue the real motive behind what's going on here, and to fail to see that it is the false doctrine of the Roman Catholic system that Ratzinger was trying to protect, not that he was trying to protect a child molester. Because as a matter of fact, it was already widely publicly known that this man was a child molester. There was no way to cover up that fact. There was no way to keep that scandal quiet. There was no prohibition against the bishop warning everyone. And he was expected to warn everyone. He was expected not to allow this man to carry out any official priestly duties. Now that wasn't what Ratzinger was trying to cover up. There was a cover-up, but it wasn't an attempt to cover up the sexual misconduct of this priest. No, it was rather an attempt to cover up the grotesque flaws in the Roman Catholic system's notion of the priesthood. You see, it wasn't the good of Christ's church wasn't to cover up the sexual misconduct of this priest. The good of Christ's church, which Ratzinger was concerned about, was not the scandal of sexual molestation, it was the scandal of deposing a priest. You see, it was a greater scandal in Ratzinger's mind to depose the priest for whatever reason than it was that the public should know that the priest was a sexual predator. He wasn't trying to cover up the predator nature of this priest. He was trying to cover up the scandal of deposing a priest from the Roman Catholic priesthood. Because you see, it's necessary for him to protect the Roman Catholic system's doctrine relating to priests, which is a false, pernicious, blasphemous, usurping doctrine. But nevertheless, it is their doctrine which they have embraced for over a thousand years. It is a doctrine that says that salvation is mediated by these human priests appointed by the Roman Catholic system. In fact, that salvation can only come through the offices and actions of these priests, that they have all the power of the gospel at their command personally as priests, and that a man's salvation depends upon the words and the proclamations and the determinations made by these so-called priests. The scandal is not the sexual abuse. The scandal that he's concerned about in his letter is not the sexual abuse. It is the scandal of undermining the Roman Catholic system's doctrine by laicizing or defrocking a priest. It undermines the power and the authority of the priesthood. It undermines the doctrine, the false doctrine of the Roman Catholic system with regard to the priesthood. It undermines the so-called gospel. which their institution perpetuates to go about trivially, easily defrocking a priest. That's what he's concerned about. The universal good, the common good, all that talk about a scandal to the Christian community. He's not talking about covering up the sexual abuse because it's a scandal. He's talking about covering up, or going slow, or being very cautious about defrocking a priest, because defrocking the priest is the scandal that will harm the Roman Catholic system. Now to understand why this is so, you have to understand all of the false and pernicious doctrine and views that the Catholic system has about its so-called priesthood. And the best way to understand that is to read what Liguri wrote about the priesthood. Now Liguri, Alphonsus Liguri, has written a book called The Dignity and Duties of the Priest, which is the standard text that describes what the Roman Catholic system really thinks about the nature of the men that it calls priests. Now this Liguri is not just some wild-eyed crazy man. He's not some fringe priest who wrote a bunch of stuff that the whole Roman Catholic system doesn't accept. No, he's a doctor of the church. He's been declared by the Pope a doctor of the church. That means none of his writings need to have an imprimatur or a nihilabstat attached to them. They are official teaching of the church because the Pope has declared him a doctor of the church like Saint Augustine or like Thomas Aquinas was a doctor of the church. So this Liguri has been declared a doctor of the church. So let's read what Liguri says about, says that the Roman Catholic system believes about its priests. And I'll read excerpts because they're very revealing. Quote, the dignity of the priest is estimated from the exalted nature of his offices. Priests are chosen by God to manage on earth all his concerns and interests. Divine, says St. Cyril of Alexandria, are the offices confided to priests. St. Ambrose has called the priestly office a divine profession. A priest is a minister destined by God to be a public ambassador of the whole church. to honor Him and to obtain His graces for all the faithful. The entire church cannot give to God as much honor, nor obtain so many graces as a single priest by celebrating a single mass, for the greatest honor that the whole church without priests could give to God would consist in offering to Him in sacrifice the lives of all men. But of what value are the lives of all men compared with the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, which is a sacrifice of infinite value? What are all men before God but a little dust, as a drop in a bucket, as a little dust? They are but a mere nothing in His sight. All nations are before Him as if they had no being at all. Thus, by the celebration of a single Mass in which He offers, that is, the priest offers Jesus Christ in sacrifice, a priest gives greater honor to the Lord than if all men, by dying for God, offered to Him the sacrifice of their lives. By a single Mass he gives greater honor to God than all the angels and saints, along with the Blessed Virgin Mary, have given or shall give to him, for their worship cannot be of infinite value like that which the priest celebrating on the altar offers to God. Hence it is that on this account also the priestly dignity is superior even to all celestial dignities." Jesus has died to institute the priesthood. It was not necessary for the Redeemer to die in order to save the world. A drop of His blood, a single tear, or prayer was sufficient to procure salvation for all. For such a prayer, being of infinite value, should be sufficient to save not one but a thousand worlds. But to institute the priesthood, the death of Jesus Christ has been necessary. Had He not died, where would we find the victim that the priests of the new law now offer? A victim altogether holy and immaculate, capable of giving to God, and honor worthy of God. The dignity of the priest is also estimated from the power that he has over the real and the mystic body of Jesus Christ. With regard to the power of priests over the real body of Jesus Christ, it is of faith that when they pronounce the words of consecration, the Incarnate Word has obliged Himself to obey and to come into their hands under the sacramental species. Our wonder should be far greater when we find that in obedience to the words of his priests, Hoc Aescorpus Maim, God himself descends on the altar, that he comes whenever they call him, and as often as they call him, and places himself in their hands, even though they should be his enemies. and after having come, that he remains entirely at their disposal. They move him as they please from one place to another. They may, if they wish, shut him up in the tabernacle or expose him on the altar or carry him outside the church. They may, if they choose, eat his flesh and give him for the food of others. Oh, how very great is their power! Says St. Lawrence Justinian, speaking of priests, a word falls from their lips and the body of Christ is there substantially formed from the matter of bread and the incarnate word descended from heaven is found really present on the table of the altar. The priest has the power of the keys or the power of delivering sinners from hell, of making them worthy of paradise, and of changing them from the slaves of Satan into the children of God. And God Himself is obliged to abide by the judgment of His priests, and either not to pardon or to pardon according as they refuse or give absolution. providing the penitent is capable of it. Such is, says St. Maximus of Turin, this judiciary power ascribed to Peter, that its decision carries with it the decision of God. The sentence of the priest proceeds and God subscribes to it, writes St. Peter Damian. Hence St. John Chrysostom thus concludes, the sovereign master of the universe only follows the servant by confirming in heaven all that the latter decides. upon earth. Were the Redeemer to descend into a church and sit in a confessional to minister the sacrament of penance, and a priest to sit in another confessional, Jesus would say over each penitent, Ego te absolvo. The priest would likewise say over each of his penitents, Ego te absolvo. And the penitents of each would be equally absolved. Hence, priests are called, that is, speaking of the transubstantiation, Hence, priests are called the parents of Jesus Christ. You really can't hardly read this without breaking up. Such is the title that St. Bernard gives them, for they are the active cause by which he is made to exist really in the consecrated host. Thus, the priest may, in a certain manner, be called the creator of his creator. since by saying the words of consecration, He creates, as it were, Jesus in the sacrament, by giving Him a sacramental existence and produces Him as a victim to be offered to the Eternal Father. Priests are called vicars of Jesus Christ because they hold his place on earth. You hold the place of Christ, says St. Augustine to them. You are therefore his lieutenants. In the Council of Milan, St. Charles Borromeo called priests the representatives of the person of God on earth. And before him the apostle said, For Christ, we are ambassadors, God, as it were, exhorting by us. When he ascended into heaven, Jesus Christ left his priests after him to hold on earth his place of mediator between God and men, particularly on the altar. Let the priests, says St. Lawrence Justinian, approach the altar as another Christ. According to St. Cyprian, a priest at the altar performs the office of Christ. When, says St. Chrysostom, you have seen a priest offering sacrifice, consider that the hand of Christ is invisibly extended. The priest holds the place of the Savior Himself, when by saying, Ego te absolvo, he absolves from sin. This great power which Jesus Christ has received from His Eternal Father, He has communicated to His priests. Jesus, says Tertullian, invests the priests with His own powers. So this is what the Roman Catholic system teaches and believes about the critical centrality of their ordained so-called priesthood in the exercise, as it were, of the power of salvation and the gospel. There is a summary here that I'd like to read to you about the consequences of what happens when a priest in the Roman Catholic system is laicized. A dismissed cleric is forbidden to exercise ministerial functions under nearly all circumstances, but an indelible priestly character is held to remain on his soul. As is sung at a priest's ordination, you are a priest forever, like Melchizedek of old. Consequently, any exercise of his sacramental power to consecrate the Eucharist is considered valid but illicit. In other words, if a defrocked priest consecrates a so-called mass, it's valid. It's just improper for him to do it. In being dismissed, the cleric is automatically relieved of any and all office's roles and obligations, including his vow of obedience to his bishop, except to his vow of chastity and hearing the confession of a dying penitent. He is debarred from celebrating some sacraments, but again, if he does celebrate them, they're still valid. But he may still perform others under certain circumstances. If a penitent is in danger of death, a dismissed priest may hear his confession and confer absolution. Additionally, he may perform religious rituals that are permitted by any lay person. So you see, even when the priest has been defrocked, his power as a priest remains with him because he's a priest forever. after the order of Melchizedek according to the Roman Catholic system. Recently, the Pope has loosened up a little bit on the ability of the bishops to speed along defrocking priests who have abandoned their ministry or have been convicted of some crime or who have volunteered to withdraw from the priesthood This communication was promulgated in a letter by Cardinal Humes. who is the prefect of the congregation of the clergy. His letter contains this very eye-opening description. While the church teaches that properly performed sacraments are valid whether or not the priest officiating is living in a situation of holiness, the discipline of the Latin Rite Catholic Church is to insist that priests strive for moral perfection and to imitate Christ who was chased. Now listen to their argument. The church, this is a quote now, The church, being the spouse of Jesus Christ, wishes to be loved in the total and exclusive manner with which Jesus Christ loved her as her head and spouse. Priestly celibacy is therefore the gift of oneself in and with Christ to his church and expresses the service of the priest to the church in and with the Lord. The cardinal wrote. So you see, they're equating these priests, which they've ordained, to Christ Himself. And as Christ unconditionally and completely loves the church, so too the priests should, as they stand in the place of Christ. They should love the church unconditionally and perfectly and purely. No, the scandal that Ratzinger sought to avoid was not the scandal of sexual misconduct. That was a horse already out of the barn as far as he was concerned. This man had been on probation. He was publicly and notoriously a sexual pervert. The scandal was the scandal of removing a priest for any reason. whether because he didn't want to be a priest anymore, whether he volunteered, whether he was serving time in jail, whatever. The scandal was in removing the priest for any reason, because it undermines the Catholics' false gospel. It undermines the power of the Roman Catholic system. It calls into question and undermines and shakes the very foundation of the salvation, so-called, of all members of the Catholic faith. Having an open and notorious sexual predator as a priest does less damage, according to Catholic doctrine and thought, than the removal of that priest's duties and obligations because of the position that their doctrine and their tradition places priests in. So far have they usurped Christ's priesthood They have usurped his priesthood so far and so blasphemous a way that they are loath to confess any error in their usurpation. It would be a scandal to find that the church had ordained a person who was unworthy. And they are so loath to take back Christ's prerogatives, which they've snatched from him and illicitly conferred to another man who's now found to be a wicked and perverse man. You know, this is the thing that all the commentators are missing about the true motive and the true reason and the true scandal that Ratzinger is referring to in his letter. But what do the Scriptures have to say about the real high priest that we have? the Lord of glory, our beloved Savior. We read Hebrews chapter 7 this morning, but I called to mind these three verses. For such a high priest that is the Savior became us who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, made higher than the heavens. Do you see what he's saying there? He's saying this is the kind of priest we need. This is the kind of priest that suits us. Not an old priest of the Aaronic priesthood who died, who couldn't save to the uttermost, who had to be replaced year after year, who was the priest of an inferior covenant, who was a priest not by oath of God, but by the appointment of the law. No such a high priest as Christ is, is the kind that suits us. One who is wholly harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, made higher than the heavens." Not that he's made higher than the heavens by some trick or artifice or some false doctrine, promulgated by some false religious system. No, he is made higher than the heavens by the power of God and by the reality of his exaltation. at the right hand as even the great Saint Stephen testified as he was stoned as the first martyr of Jesus. I see the Savior, I see the Lord Jesus standing at the right hand in the glory and majesty of God in heaven. It says here further in verse 27 of our Lord Jesus, One who needeth not daily as those high priests to offer up sacrifice first for his own sins. then for the peoples. For this He did once when He offered up Himself. He was perfect. He was holy, undefiled. He didn't have to have a sacrifice for His own sins. He didn't have to offer daily a sacrifice for the peoples, for He's offered Himself one time for all for the sin of His people. By that one sacrifice, the writer of Hebrews says in chapter 10, He is forever made perfect, them which are sanctified by it. And then look at this verse, verse 28. For the law maketh men high priests which have infirmity, but the word of the oath, that is God's oath to his son, thou art a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek, but the word of the oath which was since the law maketh the son who is consecrated forevermore. Praise God, we have a priest, we have a high priest with the power of a sacrifice that really saves, that really cleanses. There's no sin, there's no failing, there's no flaw in our high priest. Look at what it says, the law maketh men high priests that have infirmity. We might paraphrase that today. The Roman Catholic system maketh sexual perverts and degenerates. into priests. And what good is it? but the promise of God to His Son, the Lord Jesus, makes the Son consecrated forevermore without flaw, without error, without disappointment to His people. Our High Priest is so far greater than the so-called priests of man's false religious systems. What a beauty it is, what a glory it is that we never have to worry about our salvation being entangled in a frail, broken, perverted man who has been made by a false religious system into a so-called priest to handle the gospel, to deliver the gospel, to effectuate the gospel, even to withhold the gospel, to forgive sin. but our great high priest and our salvation are not entangled and can never be entangled with such a fallen, perverted, and broken system. You know, the Scriptures tell us there's only one sacrifice for sin. I think I said that seven or eight times in the book of Hebrews, you will find reference to the fact that Christ's sacrifice for sin was one time. One time never to be repeated, one time complete, one time perfect. It also assigns that sacrifice to only one priest. Only one priest is authorized to handle that sacrifice before the throne of God. And that is the one who made the sacrifice, the Lord of Glory. We don't need to have and we can't appoint any priests to handle that sacrifice or to make an additional annexation to it or addendum to it, as the Roman Catholic system does in the mass. but rather that sacrifice is appointed to be handled by that one priest, the Lord of glory. And he pleads that sacrifice for us, not in earthly tabernacles, not in cathedrals, not on stone altars draped with vestments, not in the sound of bells or smothered in incense or with great pipe organ music. No, the Scriptures say that He handles and He presents that sacrifice in the heavenly places before the throne of the Lord. We'll never have to confront the scandal of the false doctrine of the Roman Catholic system in our faith and in our worship and in our hope for the resurrection, how much the scandal of this world and the scandal of false religionists should drive us to see and to behold and to glory in the perfections and marvels and glories of our Lord Jesus. For our sacrifice for sin, our atonement, is only in the hands of our Lord Jesus. And no man can take it from Him. No man can interpose himself between us poor sinners and our great High Priest. It can't be snatched from Him. It can't be mediated by mere man. There is no mediator between God and man except the man, Christ Jesus. We have our salvations is in the hands, our gospel salvation is in the hands of a perfect priest who lives forever and who can save to the uttermost. I want to close by reading a passage from Romans chapter 10 because I think that it is the capstone to all that we've said here. Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they might be saved, for I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge, for they being ignorant of God's righteousness and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves under the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. For Moses describeth the righteousness. which is of the law, that the man who doeth those things shall live by them. But the righteousness which is of faith speaketh on this wise, say not in thine heart who shall ascend into heaven, that is, to bring Christ down from above, or who shall descend into the deep, that is, to bring up Christ again from the dead. But what sayeth it? The word is near thee even in thy mouth and in thy heart. That is the word of faith, which we preach, that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto the righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the Scripture saith, whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed." There is a great deal of shame about these days with regard to certain false religions, false gospels, and usurping priests. But the man or the woman or the child who comes to Christ, the heavenly Lamb, and calls out to Him in faith, believing the gospel of salvation, what does it say? He'll never be ashamed. He'll never be called up short. never be caught up short. They'll never find that his salvation was entrusted at the hands of wicked men who have created a scandal, who have undermined the confidence of the penitent sinner in the salvation that's offered. But we have our hope only in our great high priest, in his sacrifice, in his perfection and glory and beauty that can never be tarnished. that can never be taken away, that can never be usurped successfully by any man in this world. Let's give thanks for the Lord's table that reminds us of that sacrifice which Christ gave. It's not a re-sacrifice of Christ. or to do so would be to overthrow Christ's claim that His sacrifice was once for all complete for sinners. But rather it is a remembrance, it is a picture, it is a reminder of the finished sacrifice. We're not priests here offering a sin offering. We're priests offering praise. for the sin offering once made and once delivered by our blessed High Priest, never to be improved on. I'd like to ask Brother Witten if he'd give thanks for the bread that reminds us of the body that's broken for us. And the Scriptures tell us that on the night he was betrayed, the Lord Jesus took the bread and He blessed it and He broke it and He said, take and eat, this is My body which is broken for you, this do in remembrance of Me. Let's give thanks for the cup that reminds us of the blood that was poured out for us at the cross. Oh God, our Father, we come to You with rejoicing in the name of the Lord Jesus. We who were guilty, unworthy sinners before You found us and You drew us unto Christ and He has taken away our guiltiness. We thank You that He shed that precious blood as an atonement for our sin to make peace between us and offended God. Thank you for the words of the Apostle Peter. For as much as we know that we are not redeemed with corruptible things like silver and gold from our former vain conversation, but rather with the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb without blemish, without spot. We thank you that our perfect high priest in which there was no sin and there ever will be, harmless, perfect, holy, undefiled as He is, that because of that He was the perfect Lamb, the Lamb without blemish. For you have said that you would not accept or receive a sacrifice that was blemished or lame or maimed or in any way less than perfect. And the Lord Jesus, who was perfection itself, He kept all the law for His people. He was obedient in all things under your will, and you loved Him so. He was your well-beloved Son, and you were well-pleased in Him. Because of that, His sacrifice was perfect for His people. We thank You that He offered that perfect sacrifice and that He poured out that precious blood to make atonement for us. We thank you for the symbols, the emblems that he left for us. He didn't leave us with a picture. He didn't leave us with a description, but he left us with these indelible images of the work he did at Calvary to save his people, upon which all our hopes rest, the great sacrifice of our Savior. We thank you that it's handled in heavenly places by the One who made it, by our perfect High Priest. We thank You that it never passes through the hands of any depraved or fallen man, but that He is our Priest and we stand with Him, we communicate with Him. He is our great Mediator. We thank You for this remembrance and pray that You would help us to take it with us throughout the week. and help us to look at all the news, and all the events, and all the creation, and all the happenings, and help them to be used by the Holy Ghost to prompt our attention towards the Savior, and that we might have drawn before our eyes the glory and perfection of our Lord Jesus. We pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen. The Scriptures tell us that after they had supped, He took the cup and He blessed it, And He said, drink ye all of it, this cup is the new covenant in My blood for the remission of sins. Do it as often as ye do it in remembrance of Me. Scriptures tell us that as often as we eat this bread and drink this cup, we do preach. the Lord's death till He comes. Let's stand and sing number 121. The veil is rent low. Jesus stands before the throat of grace and clouds of incense from His hands fill all that glorious place. Number 121.