Amen. What a beautiful song and a reminder of God's great love and mercy, and we come to speak about that today. As we return to Hebrews 11, we are focusing on faith, and we have spoken about this, but it's a faith that allows us to understand, believe, and even take hold of the promises of God. And faith is such an important thing because it is by faith that we are saved by God's grace. Now this chapter is all about people who demonstrate that sort of faith. We've been talking about that at length. And we've seen along the way some examples of faith. We've seen Abel and Enoch and Noah and even Sarah. But there's one example that's given over and over in the scriptures of faith. of what it looks like, what it is to be a person of faith, and that is Abraham. And we've already dealt a little bit with Abraham, haven't we? We've seen some of the faith of Abraham as it's demonstrated in the Scriptures unto us. And I say demonstrated because faith is something that we can't see in another person. If you tell me you have faith, James says, okay, but I'll show you I have faith by what I do. I mean, it's how it acts out, right? It's that fruit that Jesus said we are to look for. And so again, as we think about this, from what we see, people who are examples of faith, who lived their faith out in a way that allows us to see they truly had faith. We may think for a moment about those other examples and the things that we've looked at, but Abraham there is example after example after example. We've seen a few of them. Abraham was called by God to get up and leave the place that he lived in, in Ur of the Chaldees, and he did. He didn't say, God, you have to explain to me where I'm going, what conditions I'll live there, and all of that, what blessings that you'll give me. God said, get up and go, and Abraham said, yes. because he had faith that if God had told him to do this it was for a purpose and for good and so he believed God and he does what he's told and then he's told he'll have many children. In fact, children so numerous they can't be counted and this is a man who has no children. His wife is way past the age of bearing children so that the Bible can in multiple places say that it's as if her womb is dead. there's no way she can bring forth children. And God says, Abraham, you will have so many descendants that you won't even be able to count them. And again He says, if God said it, I believe it. And those momentary lapses, if you will, that we account in Abraham of faith where we say, well why did he do what he did with Hagar? Why did he ask for Eleazar to be his the one who would stand as his heir. Why did he ask for Ishmael? Well, there's no evidence there that he didn't believe the promise. He just wanted to help God in figuring out how to get there, right? He said, if Eliezer is my steward, then he can have children, and the promise will be fulfilled, or Ishmael can have children, and the promise will be fulfilled. But God said, no, Abraham, it's not that way. It's not by anything you're going to do, but it's by my promise. It's gonna be a supernatural fulfillment of this. Anything you do to fulfill it cannot be what I'm saying, because it's by promise. It's by promise. Now, Abraham gets in the land, And he surveys this great and beautiful land. We said that Cox called it the glory of all lands in that day, and I think it was, a land flowing with milk and honey. And Abraham surveys this land of which he will be given himself directly in one physical sense, no part. He purchases a small part, but God tells him, you do hold it by faith. You survey it and in some sense take possession by faith, but it will be your descendants who will actually come in and physically have this land. Abraham says, yes, I believe it. I believe it. As surely as anything I can believe, I believe it because God has told me it's so. That is faith. That is faith. And in fact, you can imagine it's Abraham surveyed that land as we read that he did. And he saw all these Canaanite peoples, a man with no children thought, in short order historically, a few hundred years, right? 400 years or so, I'll have enough descendants to displace all of these tribes and nations that are in the land now. And if you were asking Abraham, do you really believe that's the case? He would say, yes, of course, God told me so. God told me that's what will come to pass. And so though I have no descendant now that I can point to, yet I know God will raise up a multitude of descendants so great that there's no question this will come to pass. And if they're not numerous enough, then it'll just mean God, by His might, will push the enemy out of the land, which is, in part, exactly what He said to do. Be like a hornet before them, driving the people out. In other words, however it comes to pass, I know whatever my God ordains is right and he will bring it to pass. And that's the end of the story for Abraham. And all of those things are important for us to recognize that Abraham came to understand that nothing is impossible for God, that he doesn't really need Abraham's help in one sense to fulfill these things, right? He calls Abraham to do things. But God will see it through. And so as we come back to today's text, I want to read it. I want to read starting at the first mentioning of Abraham, which is verse 8. It says, By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to the place which you would receive as an inheritance, and he went out not knowing where he was going. By faith he dwelt in the land of promise as in a foreign country, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise. For he waited for the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God. By faith, Sarah herself also received strength to conceive seed, and she bore a child when she was past the age, because she judged him faithful who had promised. Therefore, from one man and him as good as dead were born as many as the stars, the sky, and multitude, innumerable as the sand which is by the seashore. These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, were assured of them, embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. For those who say such things declare plainly that they seek a homeland." And truly, if they had called to mind that country from which they had come out, they would have had opportunity to return. But now they desired better, that is to say, a heavenly country. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them. By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac. And he who had received the promises offered up his only begotten son, of whom it was said, In Isaac your seed shall be called, concluding that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead, from which he also received him in a figurative sense. Amen. As we come to this text today, I want us to look at a few points. First of all, a recollection of biblical history. Second of all, a testing of Abraham's faith. And third, a revelation of gracious salvation. And as we get ready to enter the Word of God, let us pray together. Father, help us now. to see the great truths of your word. Reveal them to us, we pray. Enlighten us by the ministry of the Holy Spirit. And Father, help us to see Christ in what we read. It's in His name we pray. Amen. Beginning first with a recollection of biblical history, you know, we enter our text immediately with the familiar wording, by faith, right? We've talked about this over and over. This is the construction of the passage, by faith. A reminder that whatever we read about or whoever we're reading about, it's by faith that they accomplish something great. Not in their own wisdom or strength or might, but by faith. By faith. Of course, that's the key to understanding everything in this chapter. It's by faith. According to faith that these things take place. Everything that is heralded in this chapter is born of faith. And that's no different from what we're going to look at today, because as we come to today's example, we see what many people call the greatest example of faith given to us in the Scriptures. It's certainly when James is thinking, what can I hold up as the paramount example of what it means to have faith in God and trust Him, he thinks about Abraham in this moment, in this scene. So powerful, isn't it? It grasps our mind. You may remember the first time you ever heard this story. It's kind of shocking, isn't it? You wonder, why would this take place? Why would God do these things? Why would Abraham be put in such a position? And I think when you think about who would be receiving this letter 2,000 years ago, it would have been a group of Hebrew believers who would have grown up hearing the Torah over and over again. They would have heard the book of Genesis over and over again. They would have heard this account of Abraham over and over again. As soon as you say, as it does in this text, by faith Abraham, when he was tested, well you say, well, what time are we talking about? Abraham was tested when he was asked to get up and leave. He was tested when he was asked to believe that he would have descendants. He was tested when he was asked to believe that his descendants would inherit a land that he himself was a pilgrim or stranger in. As our text said, he lived in it as if in a foreign land. All those things required faith and were challenges. But none of us, if we heard in that moment where Abraham was tried or tested, we would all know immediately what was being talked about. Any Hebrew listener would have known immediately we're talking about what happened at Mount Moriah. That's the event. Now for us as Christians, we probably didn't grow up studying the Torah as much as our Hebrew counterparts in the first century church would have. But certainly we grew up hearing the story. It's an important history for Christians because we recognize its typology. We recognize that it points to something even beyond itself. I mean, we quote this all the time, don't we? In various aspects of the story, there are so many points of connection to the gospel that we often talk about it. And we'll be looking at a few of those this morning, of course. But if you were raised in a Christian home, grew up in children's church, went to VBS occasionally, whatever your connection to the church was, maybe you just had a children's Bible in your home, sooner or later you happened upon this event. And it shocked you. I remember we had an illustrated children's Bible, and I remember that picture even to this day of Abraham with a knife over Isaac. And it's shocking. And you're like, what is this about? Like, tell me what's happening here, Mom, you know? And Mom having to be the amateur theologian and explain out here what's happening and how to understand it. And then we come to church and we hear sermons on it, and we're still wrestling with this text. Certainly Abraham in this moment is given a difficult challenge, isn't he? A difficult challenge. Trust God when he tells you to take your son to Mount Moriah and offer him as a sacrifice. Think about the moment Abraham's in there. Whatever difficulties we have with this passage, wrestling with it. Abraham likely would have had all those things that he had to deal with, but also the prospect of taking his own son's life at God's command. Now many scholars will tell you that really isn't the purpose of the story, a moral wrestling. It's about the faith of Abraham, that despite all of that, he obeyed. He obeyed. But we shouldn't lose sight of a man was put in this position. So if you will, turn back to Genesis chapter 22. We need to read the account itself. It starts right at the very first verse of chapter 22. And it says, Now it came to pass, after these things, that God tested Abraham, and said to him, Abraham. And he said, Here I am. Then he said, Take now your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering, on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you. So Abraham rose early in the morning, and saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son. And he split the wood for the burnt offering, and arose, and went to the place of which God had told him. Then on the third day, Abraham lifted his eyes and saw the place afar off. And Abraham said to his young men, stay here with the donkey. The lad and I will go yonder and worship, and we will come back to you. So Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac, his son, and he took the fire in his hand and a knife, and the two of them went together. But Isaac spoke to Abraham, his father, and said, my father. And he said, here I am, my son. And then he said, Look, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering? And Abraham said, My son, God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering. So two of them went together. Then they came to the place of which God had told him. And Abraham built an altar there and placed the wood in order. And he bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar upon the wood. And Abraham stretched out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, Abraham, Abraham. And so he said, here I am. He said, do not lay your hand on the lad or do anything to him. For now I know that you fear God since you have not withheld your son, your only son from me. Then Abraham lifted his eyes and looked and there behind him was a ram caught in a thicket by its horns. So Abraham went. and took the ram and offered it up, a burnt offering instead of his son. And Abraham called the name of the place the Lord will provide. As it is said to this day, in the mount of the Lord it shall be provided. And the angel of the Lord called Abraham a second time out of heaven and said, by myself I have sworn, says the Lord, because you have done this thing and have not withheld your son, your only son, Blessing, I will bless you. And multiplying, I will bless your descendants as the stars of the heavens and the sand which is on the seashore. And your descendants shall possess the gate of their enemies. In your seed, all the nations of the earth shall be blessed because you have obeyed my voice." Now, brothers and sisters, as we think about that text, it's familiar to us, I'm sure, It's a great text of Scripture, an important text of Scripture. As I said, for the Hebrew Christians that we're reading about in Hebrews, it would have been a passage that told them about their father Abraham. They would have known it well. And for us, we recognize again and again the typology and the connections that there are in this story to the gospel. And so it's important to us. You think about this as you consider just for a moment that Abraham is put in this moment, you can imagine the real consequences for him. We should never diminish that. We should never think for a moment, well Abraham figured that God would take him out of this situation at the last minute and save Isaac and therefore he would not have to go through with sacrificing his own son. In fact, the Bible tells us the opposite. Abraham believed that he would have to do this and that he obeyed. He obeyed. So again, you think about it for a moment, it's particularly difficult to understand the anguish that Abraham was going through because when you consider it for a moment, everything that he knew of God's promise ran through Isaac. And in fact, when you read the Old Testament account as we just read it, you might wonder what Abraham thought was going to come to pass. Because God has given me promises that depend on Isaac. There's no question about that. and yet he's calling me to kill him. How can those things be reconciled? Well, if it was just left with the Old Testament we wouldn't have the fullness of answer, although there is a hint in the text we'll come back to, but it seems clear that Abraham believed God could overcome whatever this difficulty was, and Hebrews tells us how he reckoned that God would overcome it. So when you think about this for a moment, I want us to come to our second point, which is a testing of Abraham's faith. From the very beginning of Genesis, it tells us that God was testing Abraham. In Hebrews, it certainly tells us that God is testing Abraham. When you think just for a moment about that, we want to recognize that God wasn't testing as if to find out something. Now God does, the angel of the Lord does say, now I know. We understand these things are given for our benefit. God didn't learn anything here. God didn't learn, oh, I wasn't sure about Abraham and now I see because of what he did. God sees the end from the beginning. He knew exactly what Abraham would do. So why would he do this? Well, sometimes God works in this way to demonstrate things to us, ourselves. Maybe that's what he's working with Abraham there. Or maybe for Isaac. the young man who most scholars say was at an age where Abraham as an older man would not have been able to wrestle him down easily. In some sense it might be that Isaac submitted, if you will, upon what Abraham told him God's will was to go down on that altar and lay there. Or maybe it's to the nation of Israel and they came to understand the Torah and read it to recognize Abraham is a man of faith. I don't have to wonder about what's in his heart because his actions demonstrated what was in his heart. His actions were the fruit that came out of the root of faith that is within his heart. And I can see that in that he got up and left and I can see that in his belief of the promises even here in Genesis 22 when he believed the Word of God so outstandingly that he said, if God calls me to do this, I will do it. I must do it. For God has commanded it. One of the reasons we chose that song we sang today, the song of the week, whate'er my God ordains is right, is that's an easy thing to say. You ever thought about Abraham in that moment, wrestling with that? My God has ordained for me to do this. It must be right. Now again, if we're left with just Genesis, we don't know how Abraham answered those questions. I'm thankful that we have Hebrews and the answer to how he reckoned through this and knew that God would act. But when you think about it for a moment, we recognize that Abraham was put in this situation and tested, I think, ultimately for our benefit. Because Abraham is used not only in Hebrews but in James as an example of faith. He's given in the Gospels as Father Abraham whom you should emulate, you should be like. Have the faith of Abraham if you want to be a child, a son of Abraham. But that doesn't lessen just because the events here are for our good and for the good of helping us to understand the Gospel. that there isn't some important things actually happening in the actual historicity of this text. For one thing, notice what is said in the text of Genesis. God tells Abraham to offer up Isaac and he calls him Abraham's only son, the son that you love. And if you remember, not only did he say the son that you love, but he said your only son like three or four times, right? He says over and over again, your only son, and immediately we might object and say, wait a minute, has God forgotten about Ishmael? He was a son of Abraham. But I think we see here that there's two things that we need to wrestle with. First of all, that Abraham loved his son. Let's not skip over that part of the equation. Abraham loved Isaac. He had waited for Isaac. He trusted that God would eventually give him Isaac and then God gave him Isaac and he loved Isaac as the one through whom all these promises would be secure and given. So it's his son that he loves. But then we come to that second part about his only son. And I think there's two things at play here that we need to think about. First of all, there's a sense in which Isaac is truly the only son of Abraham because the account of Abraham is running through this sense of the coming promise. And the only son that Abraham has that has anything to do with the promise is Isaac. Through Isaac shall your seed be counted. I mean, Hebrews tells us that in its short little section we just read. We have to wrestle with the fact that Abraham knew that everything that God had promised was through Isaac in one way or another. And so, in a sense, he is his only son. His only son according to the workings of God in terms of the promise. But I think there's another sense that's intended as well, which is typology here. In God saying, your only son, or as some translations say it, your only begotten son, The connection is unmistakable, right? You can't miss it. It's the only begotten son of Abraham who goes to Mount Moriah to be sacrificed as a type of the only begotten son of God who will go to the same mountain and give his life as an atonement for sinners. And every detail of this story rings with these illusions, rings with these typology references. I mean, we don't even have time to go through the way some people have exposited that account in Genesis, even going so far as to say, and on the third day, he looked up and saw the mountain. They say, oh, the third day and the connection. I'm not downplaying that. I'm just saying we wouldn't have time to go through it at that level. One day when we go through Genesis, we might. It actually sounds very much the way John Bunyan writes in Pilgrim's Progress of on the third day, they looked up and beheld the mountain that they were seeking. I think that has a lot to do with what Spurgeon said about Bunyan, which is, if you cut him, he bleeds Biblon, right? About Bunyan. But again, there's typology here. In this sense, Abraham's only begotten son reminds us that God will surely offer his only begotten son, even the Christ. And even that typology in some regard might have been understood by Abraham in that the coming Savior would be through this very seed. He understood that. There's a seed that will be numerous and take the land, but there's the spiritual promises given in Genesis 12 of one through whom all the nations shall be blessed. This Redeemer who will come and save the people from their sins. To what degree Abraham understood that, we've wrestled with, haven't we, for some time. A lot of scholars, as I was reading this week, seem to think that when Jesus said, Abraham saw my day and rejoiced in it, that he's actually referring to this very moment. where there's a sacrifice offered and he says that ultimately, son, God will provide his own sacrifice. God will provide his own sacrifice, his only begotten son, who will come and die in our place. So returning to the text of Hebrews, we're told all of this plainly, that Abraham has a difficult situation to wrestle with by human accounting. What does the text tell us in Hebrews 11, verse 17, excuse me, verse 18? Of whom it is said, meaning his begotten son, Isaac, of whom it is said, in Isaac your seed shall be called. We want to remember how great Abraham's faith is and that he had believed this promise. God will give me everything that he said through this seed, even Isaac. And now God tells him to take Isaac upon a mountain and put him to death. as a sacrifice, put him to death. Now, what this dismisses for us is any idea that Abraham is wrestling with the idea that maybe God has a backup plan. Oh, maybe he just wants to get rid of Isaac and he's going to take Ishmael after all. You know, maybe God has changed his mind on something. You know, we get to some pretty loose and bad theology this way, don't we? And we're thankful that Abraham didn't get there either, you know. But again, the problem with that is this, if God has changed his mind in regard to who the seed shall be, then nothing is certain, nothing is sure. The God who says, okay, I will use someone other than Isaac, though I promised only in Isaac shall your seed be counted, is the same God, a same God, who could say, you know what, forget the whole thing. There will be no Redeemer to crush the serpent's head. There will be no salvation for my people. We talked a little bit, I think it was Wednesday night, about the Greek gods and how capricious and changeable they were. You could be in their favor one minute and they bring a storm against you the next. That is not the God of Scripture. The God of Scripture is an unchanging God, a God who is eternally faithful to keep His word. And Abraham knew that. We say, what did Abraham know? Abraham knew God has to keep his word because that's who he is. He's a God of truth. And so, Abraham comes to this moment and he's wrestling with this. God has promised me that through Isaac shall my seed be counted. And all the promises come through Isaac and now he's calling me to put Isaac to death. So, how will he deal with this? What is he thinking about this? One thing that I like is we often think about this as a great moment of challenge to Abraham's faith. Philip Hughes said this, far from shaking Abraham's faith, this moment actually sets out to establish it. How? Because it demonstrates the very thing that we are saying. Abraham never lost faith in the promise of God, even when he's put in this difficult situation. So we might say, if we're just reading Genesis, well, how are we to reckon all of this? How is it Abraham believed God would keep his word and Isaac could be put to death? The one that he had waited upon, rejoiced in, his beloved and only begotten son be put to death. How could God possibly keep his word? And then we come to verse 19 in Hebrews chapter 11. And this inspired author tells us exactly what Abraham was thinking. It says he concluded, Abraham deduced, he worked through the formula and said, I've got it. I know what God's going to do. He says this, that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead, from which he also received him in a figurative sense. First of all, just grapple with the faith of Abraham for a moment. That he said, these two things are true together. God is going to bring this promise through Isaac. And He's asking me to put Isaac to death. And that man of great faith saw no contradiction here. But he said, since both things must be true, the only way that I can reckon it to be is that God, after me taking my son's life, will necessarily resurrect him from the dead. Now my friends, I said earlier it'd be hard to gather this from Genesis, but it is there. You'll remember that Abraham says to the two servants, you stay here back afar, and we'll go yonder to that place and worship, and then we both will return to you. Now when we read that in Genesis without the light of Hebrews, we might say, oh, Abraham's being deceptive. Now I think in light of what we read in Hebrews here, it tells us that Abraham meant that. He said, I'm going to go up here and worship God and do what God has called me to do. He didn't tell them the fill in the blank part there, right? But take my son's life, offer him up as a sacrifice unto God, and then God will raise him from the dead, and we will both walk down here together again. There's no lie in what Abraham said. Abraham believed that very thing. that the God who keeps his promises is so certain, so trustworthy, that I can tell you this, even if I go up and do this thing, or as Abraham in that moment would have thought, after I go up and do this thing, God is going to do an amazing thing and raise my son from the dead and keep his promise. Now, my friends, when you think about this just for a moment, it's easy for us to wrestle with and say, well, God didn't ask ultimately for him to do that. And there's a sense in which that's true, right? He goes to Mount Moriah, he prepares this sacrifice of his son, and when he reaches out to get the knife, that's when God says to him, or through the angel of the Lord, he says, Abraham, Abraham, and then tells him, do not lay a hand upon that boy. And we think, well, he was never really brought to the moment where he had to take Isaac's life But if you notice in Hebrews, it doesn't say that. By faith, Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac. We were talking in our Sunday school class this morning about faith and about how we can't see it. And we were referencing what Samuel says to Jesse when Samuel comes to find the next king of Israel and Jesse brings out all of his sons but David. And he says, I know the one that God told me to come and anoint isn't here. Do you not have any other sons? And Jesse says, well, there's another one, but it can't possibly be him. He doesn't look like a king. And what does Samuel say? Man looks on the outside, God looks in the heart. So we can't see each other's hearts. I mean, the way God has given us to inspect each other's hearts, so to speak, is to see the fruit. That's why these works that don't save us are important. Because as we look at each other's fruit or works, we recognize that's a brother. How do we know Abraham was a man of faith? Look at what he did over and over again. He wasn't faithful because of what he did, but those things that he did reveal his faithfulness. And we see that with each other. That brother or sister loves the Lord, and here's how I know it. Here's what I've seen. Here's what I can testify to about them. You see, when you think about this for a moment, we might think, well, Abraham was never really fully put in the spot where he had to plunge that knife into Isaac. And God says, yes, he was. Just not right there on Mount Moriah, but in his mind, he had fully convinced himself he was going to do it. God knew it. God could see his heart and know that even before that knife was placed into Isaac, that Abraham would do it. God knew it from the beginning that he would do it. God didn't need to see him do it to know it. That's the point. But Abraham truly in his own mind and heart had offered up Isaac. He was prepared to do what God called him to do even though this was the child of promise. So my friends we need to think for a moment about how serious this is and to be careful how we speak about it. That Abraham got to the point at least emotionally, spiritually, mentally that he was prepared to do this. God prevented it because ultimately it wasn't the sacrifice of Isaac that was needed. And I think when we think about this account, we begin to see all those connections to the gospel. That glorious moment where after this takes place, he looks over and there's a ram caught in a thicket. And he says, here's the sacrifice that we're to offer. For God has provided a sacrifice in place of you, son. In this type, it's a ram caught in a thicket. So we know what that ram points to, that God will provide the ultimate sacrifice for Isaac, and for Abraham, and for Jacob, and for all those who are the people of God. He offers the perfect sacrifice, even Christ. And then when you understand that, you begin to look back at all the connection points in this text, and there are many. There are many. Isaac carries the wood of his own sacrifice upon his back. Jesus carried the cross. Things like this. But that can obscure us almost from the point that this text is getting to, which is a simple point of the faith of Abraham who believed God's promise so outstandingly that when God said, do this, he said, God must supernaturally still keep his promise and so by faith I will do what God calls me to do in obedience to the great God whom I serve. All of this story points and typifies the salvation that God is going to offer in Christ. We recognize that as Christians. That's why this text is so important to our preaching and teaching and our believing and our walk of faith. We say it's from the very beginning. As early as Genesis 22 we see an obvious type of Christ. And the promise that just as Isaac was saved from bearing that sacrifice himself, but having one offered by God in his place. So that is a type that points to the anti-type of Christ himself, who will be that one to be put in the place of his people. My friends, that is glorious. When you think about it for a moment, Abraham is put in a terrible moment. I mean, we recognize it points to glorious things. But you can only imagine the stress Abraham was in in that moment. Even knowing that God would resurrect Isaac, imagine still going through the action before that. I had a professor in seminary who wrote a book, and in that book he, speaking of this passage, says, what God would not allow Abraham to do, God himself did, in bringing his own son to that same mountain and offering him as an offering for the people of God. My friends, when we think about this account, we should never forget that. And when we think about this table that we're coming to this morning, how more clearly could there be a connection? That we have this table to come to, that we can come here as a people because we were purchased at a great price. even the life of our Savior, the Christ Himself, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, God's only begotten Son. And so, my friends, as we come to this table, never forget the great cost at which we were purchased from sin, the blood of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. With that, I ask that you prepare to come to this table, if you're a person belonging to Christ, as we close with a word of prayer.