Transcription downloaded from https://yetanothersermon.host/_/dfc/sermons/94552/am-exodus-121-13-hebrews-911-22-when-i-see-the-blood-i-will-pass-over-you/.

Disclaimer: this is an automatically generated machine transcription - there may be small errors or mistranscriptions.
Please refer to the original audio if you are in any doubt.


[0:00] Chapter 12, and we're going to read from the beginning down to verse 13.

[0:11] ! It's about the Passover, when God came down to the land of Egypt to free the Israelites from the slavery that they were suffering.! Chapter 12 of Exodus, verse 1.

[0:25] The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, This month shall be for you the beginning of months. It shall be the first month of the year for you. Tell all the congregation of Israel on the tenth day of this month, Every man shall take a lamb according to their father's houses, a lamb for a household.

[0:43] And if the household is too small for a lamb, then he and his nearest neighbour shall take according to the number of persons, according to what each can eat. You make your count for the lamb.

[0:54] Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male, a year old. You may take it from the sheep or from the goats. And you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of this month, when the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill their lambs at twilight.

[1:10] Then they shall take some of the blood and put it on the doorposts, the two doorposts, and the lintel of the houses in which they eat it. They shall eat the flesh that night roasted on the fire with unleavened bread and bitter herbs.

[1:24] They shall eat it. Do not eat any of it raw or boiled in water, but roasted, its head with its leg and its inner parts. And you shall let none of it remain until the morning.

[1:36] Let anything that remains until the morning you shall burn. In this manner you shall eat it, with your belt fastened, your sandals on your feet, your staff in your hand, and you shall eat it in haste.

[1:47] It is the Lord's Passover. For I will pass through the land of Egypt that night, and I will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast, and on all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments.

[2:00] I am the Lord. The blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and no plague will befall you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.

[2:15] This is God's word. We will return to it shortly. First, though, second reading from the scriptures, and that is found in the letter to the Hebrews, and chapter 9.

[2:26] It's on page 1209 of the Pew Bible. 1209. Hebrews chapter 9, and verse 11.

[2:49] Chapter 9, verse 11 of Hebrews. But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent, not made with hands, that is, not of this creation, he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves, but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption.

[3:15] For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer, sanctify for the purification of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God?

[3:35] Therefore, he is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, since a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant.

[3:49] For where a will is involved, the death of the one who made it must be established. For a will takes effect only at death, since it is not in force as long as the one who made it is alive.

[4:02] Therefore, not even the first covenant was inaugurated without blood. For when every commandment of the law had been declared by Moses to all the people, he took the blood of calves and of goats, with water and scarlet wool and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people, saying, This is the blood of the covenant that was commanded for you.

[4:26] And in the same way he sprinkled with the blood both the tent and all the vessels used in worship. Indeed, under the law, almost everything is purified with blood. And without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sins.

[4:44] Amen. May God bless his inspired and infallible word. Now, in terms of a focal text, there are two things.

[5:00] One verse from each of the passages we read, which I think would be highly appropriate. From the New Testament reading, to take this verse here, 22 of chapter 9, Indeed, under the law, almost everything is purified with blood.

[5:20] And without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sins. And from chapter 12, the Passover passage, we read this in verse 13, where the Lord says, When I see the blood, I will pass over you.

[5:43] Now, I'm thinking this morning, as we will soon become very clear, of the necessity for blood sacrifice in the Christian religion.

[6:02] Now, before anyone gets the wrong idea, of course, I'm not going to be recommending that we recommence this practice in the Christian church nowadays for reasons that will become very clear soon.

[6:16] But to say this, that our Lord Jesus Christ, when he made one sacrifice for sins, it was forever. That was it. As it were.

[6:27] To use a common expression nowadays, job done. That was the end of it. When he called out on the cross, it is finished.

[6:37] That means it was completed. It was, it was, it had been finalized once and for all. But without focusing on what he did and without trusting to what he did, then, as having an effect for us, now, there is no value for us in the death of Christ.

[7:03] Just like the Apostle Paul later on went on to say about the resurrection. If Christ is not raised, your faith is futile. You're still in your sins. There are certain things which are non-negotiable and which must always be central to the Christian faith.

[7:20] One, the first one is the death of Jesus and the next is the resurrection of Jesus. But with regard to the death of Jesus, there has been much controversy, particularly in the last few centuries of the Christian church and the Christian faith.

[7:37] For over 300 years, there have been divisions which came to be known simply as, on the one hand, evangelicals and on the other hand, liberals.

[7:50] And it's important for us to know the differences between these and what they believe so that we would not be deceived or misguided in any way, misled.

[8:03] At the risk of oversimplification, I would say that the most important differences between these two groups, evangelicals and liberals, is their view of what the cross of Jesus actually achieved.

[8:18] For it did indeed achieve something. Last year, 2025, was a particularly relevant time to reflect on the differences between these two groups.

[8:30] It's important, by the way, to have a little bit of sense of history about such matters because it marked the 100th anniversary of the publication of a book, a very important book in the Christian world, called Christianity and Liberalism by a man called J. Gresham Machen.

[8:49] Now, Machen was a professor at Princeton University. And just to comfort you, by the way, I'm not going to be speaking in any highfalutin way about giving you a rendition of any of Machen's lectures.

[9:04] But just to focus on this very important thing which is as important for whatever person in the Christian faith, not just those who are at colleges and universities.

[9:16] Machen found it necessary to resign from Princeton University in the USA. He really, he realised that his presence was no longer welcome there because of what he stood by which, it becomes clear, was the Biblical view.

[9:37] Princeton had come, a hundred years ago, had come to believe the Liberal position that Christianity was all about trying to live as Jesus lived and that his cross was simply the supreme example of how to love others unconditionally and sacrificially.

[9:57] Now, you may say, well, what's wrong with those things? Well, there's nothing wrong with those things. It's not what they say that really gives the lie. It's what they did not say about the nature of Jesus' death.

[10:10] what Machen realised and saw very, very clearly was that just simply giving a moral example for our lives does not deal with our sins from the perspective of God's justice and God is a just God.

[10:29] He always does what's right and fair and correct and he would not, he will not let people go off, as we say, scot-free if their sins have not been dealt with.

[10:41] According to liberals, the cross is not necessary to reconcile us to God. There's no need because in their view, we're all God's children anyway and all is needed is more thoughtfulness towards others in the way that we live.

[10:57] But evangelicals like Machen were very, very clear that at the cross something happened, something very important happened that the liberals were not taking into account.

[11:08] Jesus' life was not just a good example, but it was the only sacrifice which could satisfy God's justice and meet the demands of God's broken law.

[11:22] Machen was so strong that liberals had got it fundamentally wrong that he did not entitle his book Evangelical Christians and Liberal Christians, but Christianity and Liberalism to point out that Liberalism was not the Christian faith at all, but a completely different religion altogether.

[11:45] He believed that if we're in error about the death of the Son of God as a necessary punishment for sin, then we're wrong about Christianity completely. We lose the plot.

[11:58] We lose our way completely. And he felt so strongly about this, it was so important, not just to him, but to the Christian faith, that he resigned from Princeton and he co-founded the founding of another seminary to train ministers called Westminster Theological Seminary.

[12:16] You may have heard of it. And it was established on evangelical principles, which were, that is to say, biblical principles. However, outlining a theological debate on a Sunday morning sermon is only useful if it brings us back to the main point.

[12:32] What does scripture tell us about the purpose of the cross? If its purpose is clear, then let's hear it so that we can be clear and determine, the issue can be determined.

[12:47] If the purpose of the cross is debatable or ambiguous, then anyone's interpretation could be claimed as being valid. It becomes more a philosophical discussion than a matter of faith.

[13:00] and that's exactly what's happened in so many churches in this land and other lands too, where churches have become more a kind of social club for getting on and being nice to people in a community.

[13:16] But it does not give people assurance about what will happen to them when they at last face their God and have to look to him.

[13:27] Wherein is their hope? Is it in their own good deeds, their niceness to their neighbour, or is it in what Jesus did for them on the cross? And God's word has always shown us how the cross is so important as at the very centre of our faith, not on the periphery, and not just the New Testament as so many today would have it.

[13:55] So many people today say, no, let's just have the New Testament. We don't need the Old Testament. And there's become a phrase has come into common usage called to uncouple the Old Testament from the New and let the Old Testament go because we don't need that anymore.

[14:10] And that's a very grave mistake because from Genesis to Revelation, what you have is not just two Testaments. We have one story. And it's a unified story which requires all of the parts that we have.

[14:24] And I want to make three points this morning. The first point is that God has always required blood sacrifice for the forgiveness of sin.

[14:36] The second point I'm going on to make is that God prescribed the qualities of the sacrifices. And the third one is that God himself became the blood sacrifice for sin.

[14:51] first of all then, God has always required blood sacrifice for the forgiveness of sin. Even from the dawn of time itself, we see a hint of covering for the guilt of sin in what God did for Adam and Eve after they disobeyed God.

[15:07] Making themselves liable to the death penalty. Our first parents sought to cover their shame by sowing together fig leaves to use them as a covering.

[15:18] However, the Lord knew that was insufficient. That was not the message he wanted them to take from that. He covered, he provided for their shame by making for them garments of skin.

[15:31] And by doing this he showed them two things. Firstly, he was taking responsibility for the sins to be covered. He didn't say to them, go and cover yourselves with something or anything.

[15:46] He himself made for them those coverings. And secondly, for them to live before him, a living innocent creature or more had to bear the consequence by death for those skins to be provided.

[16:00] Not long after that we see their children, Cain and Abel, bringing offerings to the Lord. And Cain brings the fruits of the soil and he offers them without faith.

[16:14] We know that scripture tells us that, without faith. his offerings rejected. Abel brings an offering from the flock which required the death of a lamb.

[16:26] And as we know from Hebrews 11, because Hebrews 11 tells us these things, he offered it in faith and was accepted. When I say offered it in faith, I mean offered it in the trust that this was what God wanted him to do for the forgiveness of his sins at that time.

[16:43] Noah also, as soon as he set foot again on dry ground, sacrificed what? Burnt offerings to the Lord of animals as a pardoned sinner who had found grace in the Lord's sight.

[16:59] Now although Noah, we're told, was blameless before God, that didn't mean to say he was sinless. It meant he did not participate in the practices of that generation, but it also records after the flood, when he made his burnt offerings, the Lord says to Noah, every inclination of the heart of man is evil from childhood.

[17:25] And that included Noah and his family. The Lord was being realistic there. Because for the Lord to say that must have included them because they were the only humans left.

[17:36] The Lord wasn't speaking about those who had perished in the flood, he was talking about those who still survived. Noah, Shem, Ham, Japheth, their wives and their families. Every inclination of the heart of man is evil from childhood.

[17:49] Even Jesus said to his generation, if you then being evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how shall the Lord not give good gifts to those who fear him?

[18:00] So it was not through any merits that these people were accepted in God's sight. It was through sacrifice in every case. And their trust in the Lord that they would be accepted provisionally as righteous, awaiting, as we read in the book of Hebrews, a better sacrifice.

[18:22] And just as Noah had found grace in the eyes of the Lord, so did Abraham and his descendants through Isaac and Jacob. The Lord made a covenant with Abraham through sacrifice.

[18:33] sacrifice. And then after that, his descendants were enslaved in Egypt and the Lord sent plagues to overcome the will of Pharaoh.

[18:44] The tenth plague was to be the death of every firstborn son. And of course, the Israelites too had firstborn sons, not just Pharaoh and his nation.

[18:55] And like the Egyptians, they too were sinners. And the way the Lord prescribed for the Israelites to be protected from the destroying angel we read about in Exodus 12, that a lamb had to be killed at twilight.

[19:13] And its blood had to be daubed on the doorposts and the lintel of their houses. houses. And they were to stay within the protection of that house, that blood daubed house, until the next day.

[19:29] Until the all clear was sounder, as it were. Because the Lord had said, it's when I see the blood I will pass over you. Not when I see that you're an Israelite.

[19:40] Not when I see that you are better than Pharaoh. Not when I see that you've tried to do your very best in your life to please me. None of that. The Lord is not impressed with such things.

[19:52] It's when he saw the blood of the sacrificed lamb. That became the guarantee. That became the assurance, the security that the Israelites would be protected in their houses.

[20:10] A little incidental thing rather. The word Passover can mean two things. It can mean that the Lord passed through Egypt. that he passed over the houses of the Israelites.

[20:22] But that word can mean something else also. It's not just passing over and what you don't do to those houses. It can also mean to protect or to defend. And so when the destroying angel comes through the land, the Lord himself protects and defends the families in those houses which had been shown to be daubed with the blood.

[20:44] when I see the blood I will pass over you. What became known as the Passover set the scene for then the ceremonies of the temple and the tabernacle and temple after Israel received the law at Sinai and then they went into the land and of course they established the worship of God in various parts of Israel and then at Jerusalem and so on.

[21:08] That set up. There was a system of priesthood and sacrifice which continued right to the time of Jesus. And the Lord was very explicit.

[21:23] This is recounted for us in Leviticus 17 11. The Lord says about these sacrifices for sin. The life of a creature is in the blood and I have given it to you to make atonement for yourselves on the altar.

[21:38] He said it is the blood that makes atonement for one's life. And that was the point. The shedding of blood was an indispensable element in the forgiveness process.

[21:53] And that requirement has never changed. What was set forth for us there in Hebrews 9.22 without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sin not only applies to what some would regard as a benighted primitive age of ancient Israel.

[22:13] It applies today. God still requires of every person that they are seeking protection under the blood of a sacrifice that he has accepted.

[22:27] So let me just ask you where is your assurance for the forgiveness of your sin this morning? In which blood sacrifice are you depending? and I'm not suggesting that you go and sacrifice a lamb or a bullock or a goat or any of these things but you still need to seek protection under a blood sacrifice of God's appointing.

[22:55] Otherwise there is no forgiveness for your sins. Secondly, God prescribed the qualities of the sacrifices for sin.

[23:06] Now after the Passover was instituted, as we mentioned a sort of cast of Israelites was set apart from the tribe of Levi to serve the Lord as priests in sacrifices and offerings.

[23:19] You can read all about that in the first seven chapters of the book of Leviticus. There's a great deal of detail from that book but the main things to bear in mind with regard to sacrifice for sin is that the sacrifices came from cattle or sheep or goats, which were accepted as clean animals in ceremonial terms.

[23:41] And generally they were to be male and had to be without any defect. Later on Israel were lambasted by God, criticized heavily because they had sought in the days of Malachi for example to bring to the Lord animals which were lame, had broken bones, animals which were in some way defective and they thought they could just pass them on to the Lord, that they would be good enough for God.

[24:10] But God's requirement was that the animals had to be perfect. For Passover the Jewish people were to choose a lamb on the tenth day of the month, take care of it till the fourteenth day when they would slaughter it at twilight, that's about three o'clock onwards, on the fourteenth day of Nisan as it became known.

[24:30] And that was exactly the time when Jesus died. But more of that shortly. Those four days that they kept the lamb in their house, the tenth to the fourteenth day, gave them an opportunity to get to know the lamb as a family friend.

[24:48] I'm quite sure the children here probably would say yes, if I said to you, would you like to have a little lamb in your house for four days? You could pet it and you could look after it and you could, I wonder if you'd like to have that.

[25:02] Because that's what it was a bit like for the Jews. They got to know that little lamb, but then on the fourteenth day, it died to provide the blood for their redemption from destruction.

[25:15] The apostle Peter reminds his readers in chapter 119 of his first letter, he says, to redeem them, to redeem God's people from their sinful, empty life, it took nothing less than the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.

[25:34] And then he says something remarkable, he says that he, that is Jesus, was chosen as God's lamb from before the foundation of the world. This was always God's plan.

[25:47] And just as the Passover lamb was observed for four days, Jesus was observed for three years by his own people, the Jews. but then he was handed over to be killed by his Jewish brothers who had rejected him.

[26:01] They had ample opportunity to observe his life, to study it, and to notice that he was, as scripture says, holy, innocent, unstained, that's undefiled, and separate from sinners.

[26:15] And it was no accident that Jesus was killed at Passover. As the apostle Paul wrote to the Corinthians, he said, Christ is our Passover lamb who has been sacrificed for us.

[26:29] Peter said in his sermon at Pentecost, he said, this was all part of God's set purpose and foreknowledge. God had planned it this way. And although there were men who had to and will probably yet still take responsibility for the killing of the Son of God, yet God by some remarkable mysterious way, is able to factor into his plan the deeds of evil men, without himself becoming in any way responsible for what they did.

[27:07] It's something which should incite us to worship, not to doubt, that God is so wise, that all things work together after the counsel of his own will, and for our good.

[27:22] if we are his people. Jesus was the only one in all the universe, throughout all time, who possessed, this is the point, the only one who possessed the qualities and qualifications necessary to redeem the human race.

[27:40] As John says in the Revelation, he says, he, that is Jesus, is the lamb that was slain from the foundation of the world in God's purposes. Jesus. And that brings me to my last point.

[27:52] We've thought already of how God required blood sacrifice for the forgiveness of sin since the beginning of time, and how secondly, he prescribed the qualities and qualifications of those sacrifices, and third point is this, God himself became the blood sacrifice for sin.

[28:13] He required it, he provided it in the Old Testament days, and he became it ultimately. So it's clear, it's clear from the New Testament that he was aware of Jesus, it was clear that Jesus knew of the role that he was going to play on this.

[28:39] Some people in our day, again, I may just add, from the liberal camp of theology, try to make out as though Jesus began his ministry optimistically, thinking that the people might just respond to him, and he could help them to build their nation again as a great teacher and leader.

[29:01] I mean, that was the kind of hope that people had on Palm Sunday when he rode into Jerusalem as a leader. That's what they wanted of him. And those theologians I mentioned, those liberals, would tell us, oh, Jesus didn't really realise at the beginning of his three year ministry that he was going to die for anybody.

[29:23] He was very optimistic and that optimism became eroded more and more and more towards the end when he realised suddenly, oh, no, it's going to go very badly for me.

[29:36] Not at all. That was not at all what was the case. Long before Calvary, even at the beginning of Jesus' ministry, we hear John the Baptist, this is the very start of his ministry, John the Baptist points to him and says, look, behold, that's the Lamb of God who has come to take away the sin of the world.

[30:00] That doesn't sound to me like anybody being taken by surprise at what God was going to do through Jesus. That sounds like a very careful and well planned strategy.

[30:16] God knew, Jesus knew, because Jesus is God as well as man, what he was going to do. And to show further his awareness of this, he said, the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.

[30:37] That was always the plan. It wasn't some plan B that Jesus came up with when he saw the nation turning against him. In the understanding of John the Baptist, Jesus was fulfilling the Old Testament sacrifices.

[30:52] But more than that, he was giving the answer to an age-old question. The age-old question was asked, if you go right back, and this is why I said you need the whole Bible, this one story, which we can look forward to and look back from.

[31:09] the New Testament into the Old. What's the saying? The New Testament, the New is in the Old, concealed. The Old is in the New, revealed.

[31:20] One story. And what was the question that God, that was asked rather by Isaac, the son of Abraham? You can read all about this in Genesis 22. That would make a wonderful Sunday afternoon activity for you.

[31:33] Read Genesis 22. God tested Abraham by commanding him to go and take his son Isaac and sacrifice him on a mountain which he would show him.

[31:45] And for your interest, the mountain, his name was Moriah, and that was where later was built the temple area, and the sacrifices, the altar for sacrifice was built there, and also the cross of Calvary was there.

[32:02] So Abraham was being shown something very interesting way before Jesus was ever born. And so he said, I want you to sacrifice your son, Abraham.

[32:16] Now, Abraham didn't understand any of that, but God was going to show him several things. And as he was walking along, Isaac was carrying the wood, and servants with them were carrying the fire for the sacrifice, but the one thing that Isaac noticed that was missing, he says, where's the lamb?

[32:39] Father, he says, here's the fire, here's the wood, which I'm carrying, but where's the lamb for a burnt offering? Abraham didn't know, but he said, my son, God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering.

[32:57] And that's very significant. I mentioned that where they were going, that mountain was the same mountain as where Calvary was, and Isaac was carrying the wood. Remember, what was it Jesus was carrying for the first part of the journey to the cross?

[33:12] He was carrying the cross beam at least of the wood. So that's another thing that God was showing Abraham about what Jesus was going to do. And then we come to the point, we know how the story plays out, at the point where Abraham was about to kill his son, almost to the point of raising the knife, we don't know.

[33:31] But God stopped him and revealed to him that this is a test. Whether or not you're going to obey me. And Isaac clearly was obeying his father because Isaac was a big strapping boy.

[33:49] He wasn't a wee laddie. He was a big strapping boy. Remember, he was carrying that wood. So he had to be very able and much in years, at least a teenager. And in the same way he was willing to listen to his father, which regards what lay ahead of him, what his father was asking him to do, even so, that was also depicting how Jesus was listening to his father.

[34:13] He says, Father, I have come to do your will. And he knew that that will would take him to the cross. So, then Abraham discovers, when God stops him, that there's a ram.

[34:25] Notice a male ram, a male sheep, caught in the thicket by his horns. And it was not an accident that it was a male. Because once again, we're seeing here how the sacrificial system is being played out in advance in symbolic terms.

[34:42] And I would even venture to say that this ram was probably without defect. It doesn't mention that aspect, but it would fit with everything else. The big takeaway from this is we learn that God does not want us to die for our sins, but has provided for himself.

[35:01] As Abraham said, God will provide for himself. Not just for Abraham, but for himself. Because God had an interest in this. It was God's requirement that was being followed through on.

[35:15] And he was taking responsibility to see that it was done. And that's why he provided the ram. depicting our saviour as the lamb who would suffer death for us so that we might be forgiven.

[35:30] And it's often been noted, I hasten to add by evangelical theologians, not liberals, that there's a connection between the Abraham-Isaac incident and the most famous verse in the Bible, which as you know, is God loved the world so much.

[35:47] God so loved the world that he gave his only son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. God now took his son, just like Abraham had taken his son, his only son, whom he loved.

[36:04] That was God's terms. Take now your son, your only son whom he loved. Now God takes his son, his only son, his well beloved son, whom he loves, and gives him up to death for us like a lamb to the slaughter.

[36:19] And this way God himself became the sacrifice. It has often been observed that, by the way, we don't reflect much on this, but we, just like Abraham suffered a great deal through what he thought was going to happen to his son, there is well grounded to say that the father was not unmoved.

[36:42] The father in heaven, God the father was not unmoved by the death of his son, whom he loved. And we maybe should give a little bit more thought sometimes to the sufferings of the father, not physically obviously, because he did not have a body.

[37:01] Jesus took that body that he took to the cross, but the father was not unmoved by what happened to his son. And he gave him up to death for us, like a lamb to the slaughter.

[37:15] And in this way, God himself, as I said, becomes a sacrifice. Years later, writing to the Ephesian elders, we quoted already from the Ephesian letter today to the children, in chapter 20, verse 28 of Ephesians, Paul says to the Ephesian elders, be shepherds of the church of God, which he bought with his own blood.

[37:40] God. It's a remarkable verse because it's the only, it's the only scripture, as far as I'm aware, which links explicitly Godhood and blood.

[37:53] That through Jesus, the son of God, God took flesh, human flesh, and he took it for one main reason, to take that flesh to the cross, and to die there for our sins.

[38:06] So, just to conclude, the scriptures of the Old and New Testament are very, very clear that the death of our Saviour Jesus on the cross was not just an example of how to love others sacrificially and unconditionally, it wasn't just as a good example, and thus, whenever anybody in our day, and for the last 300 years they've been doing this, a certain section, who would call themselves Christians, and yet, who if they're listened to, would mislead us very terribly away from God's one answer for our sin, and it was the atoning death of the only person who could ever save us from our sins, so that we might have life, and have life in all its fullness.

[39:00] That's what Jesus promised when he said, I am the good shepherd, the good shepherd, shepherd, gives his life for his sheep, he knows his sheep, he dies for his sheep, others, they will not follow, they hear my voice, they follow me, and he says, I'm going to lay down my life for them, so that I might take it again, and be their good shepherd for all eternity.

[39:26] If you'd like to ask me anything about anything I've said this morning, please do feel free to approach me at the door. If you've not so far come to know this living Lord who died for us, that we might have life, then we'd be happy to guide you into how you might do that, through drawing near to him.

[39:49] So, in the meantime, let's just bow our heads in prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, Lord, thank you for all that you have indeed done for us, that we might have life.

[40:04] It took the death of the Son of God, and help us to see, Lord, that was no minor incidental feature in what happened to Jesus, but that he came according to a plan which had been laid down, a plan which had been formulated by the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit from all eternity, that Jesus would come, that the Father would send the Son to be our Savior, and that the Son would come freely, and without any compulsion, and in the full awareness of all that that would involve, to be our Savior.

[40:43] And we thank you for that, Lord, and we pray that you will help us to align our lives, as I was saying to the children earlier, with regards to your role as the chief cornerstone, the only cornerstone, that you would help us to not just have faith in you for the forgiveness of sins, but to align our lives with you, alongside you, that our living stones, the living stones which we are, would be aligned with the cornerstone, so that we might live lives which are pleasing to you, and fulfill the works which you have prepared in advance for us to do.

[41:22]  In Jesus' name we pray, Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.