If you have your Bibles with you this morning, I invite you to open and turn with me to the book of Philippians. Book of Philippians chapter 2. We'll read verses 5 through 11 this morning. We'll be particularly focused on verse 8 in our sermon. So Philippians chapter 2. We'll read verses 5 through 11, but land on verse 8 this morning. Philippians chapter 2, verses 5 through 11. Please hear the word of our God. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself by taking the form of a servant. being born in the likeness of men, being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore, God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of the Father. As far as the reading of the Lord's Word, may he bless it. Please join me again in prayer. Oh, our glorious and gracious God, we thank you that we can come to you. We thank you that though your words were written by men, that undoubtedly it's also inspired by your Holy Spirit, that these words are living, that they are active, that they are sharper than a double-edged sword. They penetrate even to the dividing of soul and spirit and bone and marrow. And as we come before your word this morning, as we seek to lift up Christ and him crucified in our hearts and in our minds, we pray that you would grant us the faith that we need. to see that precious blood of Jesus Christ for what it is, that you would grant our faith to find refuge in him and in this sacrifice of himself on behalf of his people. Be with us this morning, we ask, in the name of Jesus. Amen. Over the last several weeks we've been taking apart Paul's statements here as he gives us such a cogent and summary explanation of who Jesus Christ is and what he has done for us. We looked last week at Christ being a servant. And we see here in this passage how Christ being found in the form of a man, that he humbled himself by becoming obedient. And we noted last week that as our servant, that Christ has fulfilled the law with its righteous requirements for us. that because of our sin we are unable to keep this law, and so Christ came and he lived the life that we should have lived. And by faith we can come to Christ and we can say, the Lord, my righteousness. But it's important for us to remember that not only did Christ live for us, yes, that is of the utmost importance when we think of our salvation, but it's also important that we remember this truth, that Christ has not only lived the life that we should have lived, but he has also died the death that we deserve to die and that we should have died. We see in verse 8 that Paul goes on, not merely talking about his life, but saying that Christ humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. So as we've been working our way through these verses, you'll note the progression that Paul has been using here to point out the immense humility of Christ. Remember, the chapter 2 here is largely, if we needed to zoom out and summarize it, the chapter 2 is calling all of us to radical self-sacrificial service of one another. Paul, in using Christ as an example here, we see the great depths of humility, of sacrifice that Christ made. We noted several weeks ago that Christ was fully God, and that being fully God, he humbled himself by becoming fully man. We saw several weeks ago that not only did Christ become fully man, but that he also became a servant of the servants. And as we see this morning, one more step in this progression of humility, that he has come not only to be a servant, but he has also come to be a sacrifice. So Paul, as he notes in these verses, the steady progression of the immense self-sacrificial humility of Christ. And this morning we want to just focus on the death of Christ, primarily this phrase, the death of the cross. We're going to keep our three points that we've been using over the last several weeks, the meaning, the necessity, and the influence of this truth that Christ is our sacrifice. Our first point this morning is to deal with the meaning of this, to understand what Paul means when he says that Christ died, he became obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Now as we think of Christ's death on the cross, there's at least three things that we ought to bear in mind as we grapple with what does this mean that Christ became obedient to death on the cross. The first thing that's important for us to remember is that when we speak of Christ's death, when we speak of His becoming obedient to death, It's important to see here that Christ was submitting to the will of the Father. Paul shows us that very clearly here in verse 8, that being found in human form, that he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death. And we noted last week that who was it that Christ was obedient to? Well, He was obedient to the Father. And as we read here of His obedience being placed in closest proximity to His death, what we see is that Christ's death was an act of obedience to His Father. The cross, contrary to the way that it's sometimes conceived of or thought of in our day and age, Christ's death on this cross was not an unfortunate happenstance. The cross wasn't unplanned by either God or by Christ. The cross wasn't unanticipated by our God. Jesus didn't simply die on the cross because some Roman soldiers got upset with him and decided that they would crucify him. Christ did not die because the devil was exerting his will and found this wonderful way to put the Son of God to death. But as we read on the pages of Scripture, Christ was obedient in His death to His Father. It was God's plan to crush His Son. And we read that, don't we, in that Messianic prophecy of Isaiah 53.10, that it pleased the Lord to crush Him. We read Christ in John 10 saying that this is the reason the Father loves me, because I lay my life down for the sheep. And you remember as the early church went and they proclaimed the death and the resurrection of Christ, they proclaimed before the Jews that you only did what God's hand had purposed and determined beforehand that you should do them. Christ's death and this death that we read of, was Christ being submissive and obedient to the will of the Father. And the idea that the Father would crush His Son wasn't plan B in the mind of God. that this was something that the Father had purposed even from eternity past. Perhaps you know that verse, Revelation 13, 8, where John speaks of those whose names are written in the Book of Life and the Lamb who is slain from the foundation of the world. As we read here, we see the immense obedience of the Son to the Father and that Christ submitted Himself even to death. Secondly, not only do we see that the meaning is to be found that the Father had planned and purposed this, but secondly for us to understand the meaning of the cross. It's important that as Christ came and that as He died, that He didn't die by drowning, that He didn't die by some sickness, that He didn't die by some other ailment. But as Paul so wonderfully brings to the fore here, that not only was Christ obedient to the point of death, but it is even the death of the cross. Why is the cross important? Why is Christ dying on the cross important? It's important because what the cross was, is the cross was a sign of one who was cursed. Christ's death was not happenstance, it wasn't by mere fate, it wasn't just by the hands of people or even simply by the will of God, but that Christ's death on the cross was meant to be a cursed death. Remember, as we have so often said before, that the law of God demands personal and perfect and perpetual obedience. That is, that we ought to owe all of our faithfulness to the Lord and what he has commanded in his law. But we see that the law, even from the Garden of Eden, came with a curse. And the curse was that in the day that you eat of that tree of the knowledge of good and evil, in the day that you sin, in the day that you disobey the voice of the Lord, you will surely die. As that sentence was threatened there in Genesis 2.17, and indeed as we see it come to fruition as Adam and Eve ate the fruit. It's not a natural death. Death is not natural to the human individual. But it's a cursed death. And Christ, as he came and as he died on the cross, he died a cursed death. Remember Paul explaining this in Galatians 3, verse 13. He says that everyone who is hanged on a cross or a tree is cursed. And that's what we see of Christ, don't we, in the Gospels. That as he was handed over to these Roman soldiers, that as he was beaten and as he was flogged, as a crown of thorns was pounded into his skull, as he carried that cross to the hill where he was to be crucified and they pierced him through on the tree, the Christ on the cross became a curse. And you remember one of those seven sayings of Jesus on the cross as he cried out, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? As we read Paul's words here that Christ became obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross, what we read is that Christ Himself willingly subjected Himself to be a curse. And as Christ was hanging there upon that tree, that as He was dying this death, that we deserve to die, that as He was dying as one who had broken the covenant with God, Here on the cross, the Father removed His favorable and comforting presence from His Son. That the Father, in a sense, turned His back. That He looked upon Christ, who is God over all, and blessed forever, and no longer accounted Him as blessed, but as the off-scourging of the world, and as a curse, and as something that was reproachable. Christ, who was the sinless Savior because of this cross, became sin. That there on the cross, the pure Son of God became impure. That the righteous became unrighteous. That the holy became defiled. That the living died. And that there on the cross, the one who was the beloved of the Lord became rejected. And as we read here in Paul's words that Christ became obedient even to death on a cross, we remember so clearly what it is for Christ to be cursed on the cross by his father. There on the cross, the father gave his only beloved and begotten son to all the darkness and the torments and the hell of his enemies. the floodgates of hell in one sense were opened up and that Christ endured the suffering in His own body there on the tree, His sufferings far surpassing that of even righteous Job, that God removed His governing providence to keep Christ from the power of darkness and handed Him over to His enemies as if to say, go ahead, hell, do all your worst to Him. And that Christ, there on the cross, drank this bitter wrath and curse of God, and He drained the cup to its end. That there on the cross, as Christ was forsaken, God not only handed Him over to the powers of hell, but that He removed His comforting presence from Him. No longer was He being upheld by the comforting presence of God. I remember so well that just a few scenes back in the Gospels, that as Christ was travailing there in the garden, that God sent His angels to comfort Him and to minister to Him. But there on the cross, there was no help. The heavens were shut up. There were no angels to comfort our Savior as He died on that cross. And when you think of Christ, you see that in all of the afflictions with which He was afflicted, He didn't cry out. He didn't cry out when they flogged him and when they pierced his head, but rather like a lamb who was led to his slaughter, he opened not his mouth. But the immense affliction that it was to be on the cross, there he cried out as he had never cried out amongst his other trials. And the part of this curse of his death is not only being given over to his enemies and having God's comforting presence removed from him, But there on the cross, God's infinite wrath was poured out on Christ. And we noted several weeks ago that it is necessary for Christ to be fully God. Christ needed to be fully God so that he could bear this infinite wrath and indignation. And there on the cross, the Lord of hosts drained all of his fury. and all of his wrath, and all of his hatred, and all of his anger against sin. When we read that Christ became obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross, we must let this sink into our minds what it means that Christ died a cursed death. A very prominent theologian of our day has written it this way, and I mean no disrespect with this quote. But he writes that the one who was pure was pure no more, and God cursed him. And it was as if there was a cry from heaven, as if Jesus heard the words of the Father, God damn you. Christ's death on the cross was a cursed death. It was a cursed death. And that's what it is to be cursed by God. Thirdly, in understanding this meaning that Paul has here, that he became obedient to death, even death on a cross, we can ask, well, why this curse? Why so severe? Why do we have to talk about something as awful as the death of Christ and the cross of Christ and the curse that Christ bore? And we see so clearly from the pages of Scripture that the reason why this is important is because Christ was dying for His people. That as we read here that He became obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross, that Christ was not dying because He had to be subjected to the curse of God. He's not dying for His own sins or His own unrighteousness or His own unholiness. Christ isn't dying for Himself as we read here in the Scriptures, but rather He is dying for the sake of His people. That Christ endured this judgment of God, that He became obedient in this way, that He bore this curse of God for our sakes. We deserve to be cursed because we are those who have broken the covenant with God because we have sinned and we have transgressed His holy commandments in thought and word and in deed. And we deserve to be the ones who are cast there upon the cross and have the hellish forces released against us and have the malediction of God Himself resting upon us. But Christ in His grace has become obedient to the point of death for the sake of His people. And we see that so clearly, don't we, in 2 Corinthians 5.21, where Paul wrote that he who knew no sin became sin. That Christ not only lived the life that we should have lived, but he died the death that we should have died. In theological language, we simply call this the substitutionary atonement. Christ dies, he is cursed in the place of his people. Christ receives my curse and I receive His blessing by faith. And so we see the meaning of what Paul intends to impress upon our minds and our hearts here that Christ became obedient to death. He was obeying His Father's will. He was dying a cursed death. He was dying for the sake of His people. We have secondly this morning not only to consider the meaning, but the necessity of this doctrine. Perhaps you've noticed that as we've been going through this, we see that these are the fundamentals of Christianity. We have unashamedly drawn this line in the sand, and we have said to believe this is to be a Christian and to not believe this means you are not a Christian. When it comes to the death of Christ and Christ's substitutionary death, it's important that we ask, why is this a necessary doctrine to the Christian faith? Now, if you have read your theological textbooks, you know that since mid-20th century that there has been a great tendency to marginalize the death of Christ. The people don't want to hear about the cross, that it's gruesome, it's gory, it has no place in encouraging my heart. I want to hear about the life and the love of Jesus. I want to hear about how to have a happy and good life. People sail the cross and they say, well, it's not politically correct to speak this way. There are those who have leveled against these charges that God would plan the death of his son. And they say, if that's true, and this amounts to nothing more than divine child abuse, think that the father would kill his son. People want to hear other things. Remember, one of my instructors in seminary once told us that he got a complaint from one of his congregants who said, I am just so tired of hearing about Jesus. Can you give us something more? And we perhaps chuckle at the idiocy of that statement. And yet, how true it is that our focus can so often be taken away from the cross to other things. This isn't new to the 20th century, is it? Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 1.23 that the cross is a stumbling block to the Jews, that it is folly to the Greeks. The cross is ridiculous to sinners. The cross is devoid of wisdom and power and glory to those who are perishing. As Paul tells us, to those of us who are being saved, the cross is the power of God. Well, why? And why is this doctrine necessary? We must be limited in this. I have no doubts that it will take all of eternity for us to grasp the glory and the necessity of this truth that Christ has died for us. And I can only imagine that for eternity, world without end, we will only be seeing new and greater glorious truths of what this statement means from Paul's pen. If we needed to reduce the necessity of Christ, perhaps we can say that Christ's death was necessary. Not perhaps, we can. It was necessary because of sin and because of anger. It is that this truth that Christ dies this cursed death is true because of sin and because of anger. And this is where we get $2 million theological terms that maybe you're familiar with. Christ's death was necessary first for expiation and secondly for propitiation. Christ's death was necessary for expiation and propitiation. What do we mean by these two very difficult and very uncommon words? You remember in the Old Testament law, particularly in Leviticus, that as God was commanding his people with all of these sacrifices, that there in chapter 16, God commanded that there ought to be a day of atonement. And if you remember this chapter, you know that what Aaron was to do after he had made purification for his own sins is that he was to take two rams from amongst the sacrificial animals. And he was to go, and he was to confess the sins, the people of Israel over those two goats by placing his hand on them and by confessing these sins. Remember that there in the day of atonement that he was to take one of those goats and he was to kill it. He was to take some of that blood and he was to go into the tabernacle and more specifically he was to go into the holy place and stand there before the Ark of the Covenant. He was to take this blood and he was to sprinkle it upon the mercy seat to make atonement or propitiation for the sins of the people. But after he had done this, he was to go outside of the tent, and he was to take the second goat, and he was to confess the sins of Israel over it, and then he was to hand it to a person who would take this goat, and he would lead it out into the wilderness. This goat, unlike the scapegoat, wasn't killed, but he was brought forth into the wilderness, and he was left out there, perhaps to die or to starve or to run wild, and the man would return back into the camp. Leviticus 16 is one of the clearest pictures that we have both of expiation and of propitiation. When we speak of expiation, what we mean is the removing of the offense of our sins. It is that goat that was released into the wilderness. And we see that here in the death of Christ, in the sacrifice of Christ, that it was necessary because we as His people had sins that need to be removed from us. That our problem is that we are sinners who love our sin, and we sin each and every day, and our sins must be taken. They must be removed from us. They must be done away with. And as the New Testament shows that Christ is the fulfillment of these sacrifices, we see that Christ, by His death, removed our sin from us. He died in order that all of our sins might be taken away from us, that I no longer, by faith, bear my sins before the Lord, but they have been heaped upon the back of Christ. And as the psalmist sang in Psalm 103, as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us. And you remember there, as John the Baptist was speaking to his disciples in John 1, that as he beheld Jesus, he said, behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Christ's death was necessary because we needed our sins be expiated. We needed our sins to be removed. Christ's death was also necessary not only for the expiation of sins but for the propitiation of sins. For the propitiation of sins. We needed to explain what propitiation is. It's simply an appeasement. That God, because He is righteous and because He is holy and because He is just, hates and despises sin and sinners. The Lord is angry with sinners every day because we have sinned against Him in thought and in word and in deed. And He is far too righteous and He is far too holy and He is far too good. And God needed to be appeased. He needed to be satisfied. God had to be propitiated. And as this goat in Leviticus 16 came, this one that was slaughtered, and the blood was sprinkled there upon the mercy seat, what it communicated to Israel is that God was satisfied with this blood. And we see far greater, don't we, as Hebrews tells us, that the blood of bulls and goats could never atone for sin, but when Christ came, when Christ died, when Christ took our sins away, He also propitiated, He appeased the wrath and the indignation and the anger and the hatred of God against sin and against His sinful people. And so Christ there upon the cross needed to die. In order that God's anger might be satisfied. That God might have vented his wrath against our unrighteousness. In order that when we come to God we don't have an angry God in Christ. We have a favorable God. We have a God who can be kind and merciful and gracious to us. So why is this doctrine necessary both for expiation and propitiation? We need our sins to be done away with and we need to be brought near to God. John Calvin wrote so famously in book three of the Institutes that outside of Christ there is only an angry God. That picture has been lost on so many people today. Lost that outside of Christ There is no God of grace and mercy and compassion and favor and love, but that God by His holy nature is set against all sin and against all sinners. And what a call it is to those of you who have not embraced Christ by faith, those of you who still walk stubbornly in the rebellion of your heart, to know that outside of Christ There is only an angry God. And yet by faith, and when we embrace Jesus by faith, God's wrath is satisfied and our sins are done away with. We stand to receive grace upon grace. We have the meaning and the necessity, but we also have the influence. What does this truth that Christ became obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross, what is the influence that this ought to exert over our life? Well, again, there is perhaps no other doctrine in all of the Christian religion that ought to influence us as much as the cross. This doctrine will consume all of eternity and we will forever contemplate its meaning and the glories and the joys and the comforts and the graces that flow from this truth that God became man and willingly offered himself up as a sacrifice for our sins. Several points to consider this morning of the influences that the cross of Christ is meant to have on us. The cross of Christ is meant to give us a realistic understanding of God's severe justice. If I can be fully honest here, sometimes, you know, when I read the account of the fall in Genesis 3, I'm a little bit disappointed. Because God had warned Adam and Eve that in the day that you eat of that fruit, you will surely die. We read there in the beginning of Genesis 3 that build up, thinking, oh, what's going to happen? We see that Eve is deceived by the serpent, that she beholds a fruit. It's good for the eyes, pleasing the eyes. It'd be good for food. She stretches out her hand. If you're engaged in this, you're kind of sitting on the edge of your seat going, what's she going to do? And every time you read it, you hope she does something different. But she stretches out her hand, and she plucks that fruit. And you're thinking, oh, this isn't going anywhere good. This is going somewhere terrible. And she takes a bite of it. And Moses records that she gave some to her husband. And you're thinking, are the atomic warheads of God's wrath about to pour down upon these two? And we read, their eyes were opened, and they saw that they were naked. And you go, well, what kind of judgment is that? What kind of justice is that? It seems to be relatively anticlimactic. And how often that's the way that we view our sins. We hear that God's going to curse it. We hear that God despises it. Every time we eat that forbidden fruit, I'm still here. And we look out at the world and we see that sinners seem to prosper in their way. And we seem to think that sin brings us happiness and joy and delight. And like Adam and Eve, it can become very difficult to grasp the enormity of sin and the enormity of God's hatred of it. And it's easy to make light of sin. And yet if we desire to see clearly how God views sin, we only need to go to the cross. We only need to look at the only begotten Son of God in his broken and in his bruised and in his beaten body there on a tree because of our sins. Regardless of how small those sins may appear to be in our eyes, there at the cross, God openly and unequivocally manifested before the world what exactly He thinks about our sin and the severity of His justice and His faithfulness to execute vengeance upon those who fail to repent of their sins. The cross in a very realistic way is an open display of God's wrath and of His indignation. It is a picture of how God feels about our sin, whether it is gossip or slander or idolatry or adultery or whatever the sin may be. How does God feel about it? Look at the cross that He didn't spare His own Son, but that He offered Him up as a sacrifice to be cursed and condemned because of sin. And when we think about that, we ought to tremble. We ought to dare to raise our minds or our hearts against the Lord and transgress His holy commandments. Because this is what God thinks of it. And this is the judgment that must be endured either by Christ or by us. gives us a picture of the realization of the severity of His justice, that we ought to tremble to lift our hand against the just judge of all the earth. Secondly, the cross gives us a demonstration of God's immense love. It's only the cross that can do this, that in one hand it can remind us of the severity of judgment, and with the other hand, it could be a demonstration of his immense love. The cross is not only a sign of judgment and condemnation and wrath, but it's a demonstration of love. The cross both frightens and it comforts. The cross both judges and it consoles. The cross both reminds us of God's anger towards sinners and reminds us of the immense love that he has for his sinful people. But Paul wrote so clearly in Romans 5, verse 8, but God shows his love for us in this, that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. God could have left all of humanity to perish in a state of sin and misery. Could have told Adam and Eve they're in the Garden of Eden, you've consigned yourself and all of your posterity to death. Could have visited against all of humanity and every individual that has ever been conceived in the wombs of their mothers. Consign us to eternal torment and damnation. God would have been no less glorious. He would have been no less righteous. He would have been no less deserving of all praise and worship, even if he had condemned all of Adam's race to eternal and perpetual damnation. The cross shows us the immensity of God's love. God's love for his people was so great. that He gave His only begotten Son for them. That so great was His commitment to His covenant that He thought, we can put it in this way, that the perishing of His people was a far greater agony to Him than the thought of His own Son dying on the cross. And indeed, even as Christ died there on the cross, He was loving His people. As Paul said, husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church and as he gave himself up for her. Christ died on the cross as a sacrifice for sin. But to communicate to us the immeasurable loving kindness of our God. He didn't spare his own son, but he gave him up for us. How can we not sing with the hymn of this love so amazing? and so divine. Thirdly, not only does it point to the severity of judgment and the immensity of His love, but the cross also gives us an assurance of God's glorious salvation. It gives us an assurance of God's glorious salvation. There is no doctrine in all of Christian religion that pours forth as much assurance for sinners like us. as the cross of Jesus Christ and his blood. Writer of Hebrews wrote, let us draw near with a heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. So often in our Christian lives our souls can become so dejected and depressed we can feel the burden of our sin and our guilt and our shame and our unrighteousness. And how often does Satan love to come and to tempt the precious children of God by whispering in their ears, you have sinned and you have done wrong, and don't you see that God is angry with sin and with sinners? And don't you see that you're one of these sinners? And he tempts us to despair, to think, I have sinned a sin that there is no forgiveness and atonement for, and we can so often despair of all hope of salvation. Our souls in different times in our life can be rattled within us and shaken at the thought that what if we are cast off in that day of judgment? What if Christ didn't come to save me? What if God wasn't serious about His grace and His mercy towards sinners like us, so often when individuals come to die, they replay in their minds their sins and the ways that they have sinned against the Lord, and in those final moments of life and breath, they can be given over to despair, wondering, how is it going to go with my soul when I step into eternity and into glory? And in these times, we have only need to fly to the cross and to the blood of Jesus Christ. To hear those words of our Savior upon the cross, it is finished. that there is no more blood to be spilled for those who come to Christ in faith, that there's no more satisfaction to be made for our sins, that my guilt is gone in Jesus Christ, that my sins have been removed from me, that there is only grace and mercy to be found in Him because of His death there upon the cross. And we come and we see the blood of the covenant and the satisfaction of Christ. And we bring his blood against every doubt and against every temptation and against every despair and against every sin. And we say there is more grace in the blood of Jesus than there is sin in my heart. The cross of Jesus Christ. reveals to us the glory of God's salvation. And by faith, we are meant to look up and to see Him there, the one who has made an end of all of our sins. We sing so often the wonderful hymn, It Is Well With My Soul. My favorite part of that hymn is when we come and we sing, my sin, not in part, but the whole, is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord, O my soul. And by the cross, the gates of heaven are opened, an everlasting life is given to those who would come to Christ in faith. And by the cross, we will have a never-ending union and communion and fellowship with Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in glory for all of eternity. So our great hope in this, as Paul reminds us, Christ became obedient to death, even death on the cross. He's not only lived the life that we should have lived, he died the death that we should have died, and so undid the curse as far as it was found. What glorious thoughts and what glorious desires and affections this doctrine ought to stir up in our hearts when we read that he humbled himself. became obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Christ, who is fully God and fully man, is our servant and our sacrifice. Amen. Please join me in prayer. Our gracious and merciful Lord, We come with great hopes of this cross upon this holy ground where Jesus Christ, our Savior, was crucified for our sins in order that we might receive all the blessings and graces of heaven and eternity. We pray, Lord, that you would cause us to hide in the shelter of the cross we would count it our joy to live by the cross that you would remind us of the precious blood that was spilled for the sake of your people we ask this in Jesus name amen as a closing hymn