[0:00] Especially the words you find there in verse 2 and also into verse 3. Having begun the chapter by an encouragement or exhortation to run the race that is set before us.
[0:15] He now comes in verse 2 to say, looking unto Jesus, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.
[0:33] Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself. We've been looking for two or three weeks at verses that contain reference to the cross or to the death of Jesus in anticipation of the communion coming up shortly.
[0:53] And as we come to this particular passage, we notice that it contains again a reference to the cross and Jesus and his enduring of the cross.
[1:07] We've just seen, most of you I'm sure, the European Championships, where various disciplines took place, swimming, athletics, a whole lot of different sets of events, and where these different events were participated in by many hundreds of athletes.
[1:32] There is, however, one common feature in all of these events, a feature common to all of those who participated, and that common feature, despite all the variety that you find in it, the common feature is, of course, perseverance or endurance.
[1:49] And it's something which is very evident, particularly in the long-distance events, where you find the endurance of the athlete coming to the fore when the strain of running, or whether it's swimming or whatever discipline it is, when you find the strain beginning to tell, and when you find the effort required increases to keep going, well, the endurance is then obvious.
[2:14] And endurance, in that respect, is such a significant part of what characterizes those athletes, those people in these events.
[2:26] And in this passage, the writer here is drawing the imagery for us of an event where there is a race, which appears to be more of the long-distance type, which fits in with the Christian life, very aptly, where you find him describing here, this race that is set before us, let us, he says, run with endurance.
[2:48] And he talks here about a great cloud of witnesses surrounding them, those he was writing to here in the letter to the Hebrews. And the practice in those days, following on from the Greek games on into Roman times, was that in these good events, when following on from the Olympics as they were first established, practice would have been that those who had run in the races, or engaged in the various events of these athletic games, would actually, in finishing their discipline, their race, would take their place in the crowd with those who had been watching.
[3:23] And the awards were not given out until the final race, or the final event had taken place, and then the awards ceremony followed, where everybody who had achieved a medal or a prize, or it would have been a wreath at that time on their heads, would have been given their awards.
[3:40] And that fits in so well with what he is saying here, about the Christian race, and about our being surrounded by, so great a cloud, a crowd of witnesses. He is talking about the previous chapter, and the list in the previous chapter, that cloud or that crowd of witnesses to the life of faith.
[4:01] And the imagery, of course, follows in that, as we live our lives, there are those who have gone before us, that you can picture as a crowd, as it were, surrounding us, as we are pursuing in our race, in our Christian race, in running the life of faith.
[4:16] And the very fact that we can refer to them, and know something of them, and have, especially those who have left prominent records of how they were able to live for Jesus in their own particular generation, that account, and the fact that they are there, as those who have gone before us, they are, as it were, shouting out encouragement to us.
[4:39] It's really, in a sense, like being surrounded by a crowd who have gone before us. They've taken their place in the stand now. They've finished their race. But they are, as it were, shouting out the encouragement to us to keep going, to reach the finishing tape, not to give up and not to slacken, not to be put off, not to be diverted from running the Christian race and the life of faith.
[5:02] And yet the main focus is not so much on the crowd that's surrounding, but on the Jesus that they are to set their eyes upon. Because that is really what he's saying most of all.
[5:13] Lord, surrounded by this great crowd, this cloud of witnesses, let us run the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus. However important it is to have witnesses, to have people who have gone before us in the race, to have them, as it were, shouting the encouragement to us to keep going.
[5:34] The main emphasis is on keeping our focus on Jesus himself, or keeping Jesus in focus. And it's Jesus not just in a general fashion, but as the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, despising the shame.
[5:55] In other words, Jesus, as he's described there, as the founder and perfecter of our faith. You can take that in various shades of meaning. It certainly means that the life of faith is grounded in him.
[6:08] He is the one in whom our life is anchored, or grounded, or founded. But there is also the emphasis there, or the element there of meaning, which really emphasizes that Jesus is the pioneer, a pioneer of living this life that looks to please God, and to bring glory to God, and is now seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
[6:37] Not only has he opened up a way for his people that they can follow, and they follow him in that way of running by faith, they also regard him as the primary example of what it is to live to the glory of God.
[6:52] And that too is an element in what is set before us here as we come to focus on Jesus and his enduring of the cross.
[7:03] He is our pioneer. He is our primary example. He is the ground of our acceptance with God. He is our example as to how to live in a way that lives in the service of God to his pleasing.
[7:20] So firstly, let's look at his endurance of the cross and something of what that means. Secondly, we'll look at his two considerations in enduring the cross as they are brought before us here.
[7:32] We're just focusing on the two that are mentioned. First of all, the first consideration for him was the joy that was set before him. And the second one was in despising the shame of the cross.
[7:45] He endured. He endured for the joy that was set before him. He endured despising the shame of the cross until he accomplished the death of the cross.
[7:56] And then having been raised from the dead, he is now seated at the right hand of God. So his endurance of the cross and then his two considerations in enduring the cross.
[8:07] And finally, our response to Christ's enduring of the cross. that we too have to run the race that is set out for us by God and do so as we follow the Lord himself.
[8:24] So first of all, his endurance of the cross. You can see this in reference to Jesus in verse 3 as well. It's interesting, of course, and significant that the writer here simply mentions the cross.
[8:37] He goes on to speak about the shame of it and the hostility of sinners against himself. Very often you find in the New Testament writers that they mention the cross and those that are receiving these letters of the New Testament know exactly what is meant by the cross.
[8:54] They know exactly something of the meaning of the cross. Something of what the writers meant by the cross as the death which Jesus died and the sufferings or some of the elements that were involved in the death that he died and why he died that death.
[9:09] So he's saying here, he endured the cross. And in verse 3 amplifies that a little. He says, consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself.
[9:21] The cross is really the climax, if you like, of the hostility against Jesus. The hostility that he was party to since he came into the world. Hostility that was evident even in Herod's attempt to put him to death as an infant child.
[9:36] The hostility that was against him in terms of words and actions. Hostility from the forces of hell, from the devil.
[9:47] Hostility from the world. And as he puts it there in verse 3, hostility from sinners against himself. Hostility from the world. Hostility from the world. Hostility from the world.
[9:57] The setting the Lord came into as he came into this world was a setting marked by hostility at all times. He had made this world.
[10:11] He had created human beings. John tells us in his opening verses of his gospel, nothing that was made was made without him. He was himself the creator as God.
[10:25] And he came into this world that he had created, a world that was now in a very different condition to the condition in which it had been created. Now under the curse of sin, human sin.
[10:41] And sinners themselves, as sinners so different to what God had created in the first place. And you'll find other places in the Bible, especially in John's gospel, where you find at the death of Lazarus, Jesus came to the sepulcher where Lazarus had been laid, his body had been laid for four days.
[11:03] And we read in John's gospel there a description of Jesus as he came, as he approached that sepulcher. He came groaning within himself. The words literally mean that he was so moved within himself, brimful of agitation.
[11:20] And indignant indeed. It's not simply that he was moved as he was indeed with sympathy for Mary and Martha, the loss of their brother. There's more than that too.
[11:31] There's a deeper movement in the soul of Jesus than that. He was moved with with this emotional and this spiritual anger, if you like, at death, at what sin had caused to the human beings that he had created.
[11:50] Perfect. Where is that human being? He's now confined to a sepulcher. Sin has done that, or you could say, we have done that to ourselves.
[12:03] Sin is meaningless as an entity in itself, but this is what Jesus was indignant at. At death. At death now characterizing human beings that had been created for life, and life with God, and life in fellowship with God.
[12:20] This is where they are, subject to death, vulnerable, under the wrath and curse of God, in common with the creation around them. Well, that hostility, Jesus is aware of as soon as he comes into this world.
[12:37] That's the setting. Himself perfectly sinless, and remaining sinless, and always sinless, in thoughts, in actions, in words.
[12:48] Never is there a trace of sin on his lips, or in his thoughts, or in his attitude. And while we can't understand that we believe that his own perfect holiness, would have made that environment of this world far more painful to him than even for the holiest human being who has been redeemed by God.
[13:14] It's the entire opposite of all that he is. It's marked by hostility against him, by what the AV calls contradiction and the part of sinners.
[13:27] And you know, it is even something that, as we'll see, that God himself is involved in as Jesus comes to bear and came to bear the sin and the guilt of his people.
[13:41] Well, here is the setting for the endurance of the cross. Here is the cross itself. Here is the environment in which Jesus is placed, in which the Son of God willingly placed himself so that he would secure our redemption.
[13:56] And what he says here, he endured the cross. Now, that word endured is the word that links Jesus here with those people that are called on to run their race with endurance.
[14:07] You see the word endurance there at the end of verse 1. It's also now here in regard to Jesus enduring the cross. You find it in verse 3 as well, consider him who endured.
[14:17] And as we'll see it there in verse 7, it's for discipline that you have to endure. What does the word endure actually mean there in respect to Jesus first of all and his enduring of the cross?
[14:28] Sometimes we use the word endure with the sense of just putting up with things or just being patient under particular sufferings or circumstances. Well, there is that, but there's a lot more than that, particularly in reference to Jesus.
[14:43] He endured the cross means he persevered victoriously despite the sufferings, against the sufferings, despite the hostility of sinners against himself.
[14:55] He endured the cross. He didn't just put up with it. He wasn't just patient in acceptance of it. As he came to know the unfathomable sufferings of what was involved in his death and his bearing of sin, he endured, he persevered victoriously.
[15:18] He continued in his race and he crossed the tape victoriously. Remember his words on the cross, it is finished.
[15:29] Father, into your hands, I commit my spirit. Everything that required to be done by way of the cross was now accomplished. And he could leave that scene of time in that spot in the history of this world, knowing that he had accomplished all that the cross was meant to achieve.
[15:54] And he's our primary example because of that, of what it is to run our race to with endurance. You can see similarly with Moses how in chapter 11 and verses 25 to 27 there, he refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin.
[16:20] He considered the reproach of Christ greater than the treasures of Egypt for he was looking to the reward. By faith he left Egypt not being afraid of the anger of the king for he endured a seeing him who is invisible.
[16:40] Many people will tell you nowadays that we believe in fairy stories. That we believe in things that cannot be verified rationally. Well yes, there are many things that you cannot fully explain rationally.
[16:55] It doesn't mean the gospel is irrational. It doesn't mean it contradicts in every sense with human reason with the faculties that God has given us. And it certainly doesn't mean that it contradicts with faith because faith as chapter 11 begins is in fact the evidence of things that you don't see and the assurance of things that you don't see.
[17:18] By faith verse 3 we understand the universe was created by the word of God. By faith we understand. It doesn't say we understand things and then we come to believe though there is a measure of knowledge and of understanding towards placing our faith in God.
[17:34] but it's really saying that by faith we understand. In other words we don't just use our understanding on its own. That's what the atheist and the secularists rather contradicts by their attitude by telling you you believe in things that you've never been able to verify.
[17:52] How can you believe in God whom you've never seen? How can you believe in miracles? How can you believe in all the things that the Bible tells you that you can never actually establish and verify in the way things are usually verified by human beings?
[18:07] We believe. We've been given the gift of faith. And by the gift of faith as Moses so we consider certain things and in considering certain things we actually endure as seeing him who is invisible.
[18:29] That certainly seems a contradiction. How can you see what is invisible? Isn't that an impossibility? Isn't that a contradiction? Well, of course, he means seeing spiritually, seeing with a spiritual sight, seeing with a knowledge of God that you cannot explain fully to others but that you know is real.
[18:51] You see God through your faith when you read the Bible, when you hear the gospel, when you accept the teaching of Scripture itself as God's word, God's truth.
[19:04] I actually see something of God in that. I accept what I'm reading, what I'm hearing, because I know it's God's truth. Here is Jesus who himself endured the cross and how that relates to our enduring.
[19:20] We'll see more fully in a minute our enduring of running race that is set before us. So his endurance of the cross. But there are two, secondly, two considerations mentioned that Jesus had in enduring the cross.
[19:33] First of all, the joy that was set before him. For the joy that was set before him, he endured the cross. Some translators or commentators will say that you could translate this that instead of the joy that was set before him, you might say the joy that was his as the son of God, he replaced that with the endurance of the cross and its sufferings.
[20:00] And the word that's there in the text does have that possibility of meaning. But it fits in with the context better than we take it in the sense that is translated here and in the A.V.
[20:11] as well, for the joy that was set before him, he endured the cross. What was the joy therefore that was set before him, taking it on that understanding? Well, it was first of all an entry into the reward that was promised to himself.
[20:31] Even for the Lord, there was an incentive to finish the race that he had been given by God the Father to run. How often he says, especially in the Gospel of John, how he said to those who were listening to him, that the Father had given him this particular mission to complete, words to that effect, that he had to complete it, even to the point of laying down his life, that he might take it again, this command I received of my Father.
[21:00] And there was a reward promised him. The Lord was very familiar with the Old Testament Scriptures. And from his birth into this world, in familiarizing himself with the Old Testament Scriptures, he found himself in them.
[21:18] And in finding himself in them, he found the promises that were given to the Messiah. promises that included how he would be raised from the dead, how he would come to return, as he put it himself in John 17, in that great prayer.
[21:35] Father, glorify thy Son, that the Son may glorify thee with the glory which I had with you before the world was.
[21:47] The consciousness of Jesus, of where he had come from, who he was, where he was destined to return to, what lay in between in his death on the cross and his resurrection.
[21:59] He had himself a reward to enter into, and he kept that before him through his running of his race as the servant of the Father.
[22:11] And that of course relates to our race as well. Take Romans chapter 8, for example, and verse 18, just as one example, for he says, Paul says there, I reckon, he says, that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared to the glory which shall be revealed in us.
[22:28] And he talks there then afterwards of the creation itself, waiting in anticipation for the revelation or the unveiling of the children of God, of the glory of the children of God.
[22:42] And how here Jesus himself had that consideration then of the joy that was set before him. And how it fits with him being the example for us.
[22:55] There's one element of the incentive that God is giving to you and to me tonight to finish the race of faith, to finish, to persevere, to endure. He wants us to focus on Jesus primarily.
[23:12] Think of what's waiting for those who finish this race. Think of the glory that awaits. Think of the destiny for God's adopted children. Think of living with God in eternity.
[23:25] Think of as far as we're able of something of that wonderful state of glory shared with all of God's redeemed people and in the presence of God with no trace of anguish, of affliction, of tears, of pain, and eternity of blessedness.
[23:47] He's saying that's what's ahead of you when you finish your race. So keep on running. Don't be deflected.
[23:57] Don't be diverted. Don't be put off. And the second thing that was his consideration was despising the shame of the cross.
[24:09] He endured the cross despising the shame. We cannot possibly measure the shame of the cross. What we tend to do is to somehow lessen the shame of it in our thinking.
[24:30] We cannot possibly measure the shame that it was for the Son of God to come into this world and be exposed to the hostility that he was exposed to.
[24:41] And that reached its apex in the cross. Despising the shame.
[24:54] Shame of crucifixion. What did it mean for him? How was it shame? What were the elements of his shame?
[25:06] Well, firstly, by what was removed from him. Secondly, what was applied to him. See, all the way through the Lord's life on earth, he was being deprived of things that, in the usual sense of it, would have been his right to enjoy.
[25:29] He was deprived even of the cross itself in carrying it. And some people might say, well, surely that was a mercy, surely that was kindness to him. when he was carrying this heavy piece of wood towards the place of his crucifixion, surely it was a mercy to him that he was able to carry it, that he would be able to carry it, and at least be able to look back on it and say, well, at least I managed that.
[25:53] Oh, they took the cross off him. The one who had himself as God, the authority to requisition anything for his own use, that he had the right to requisition and choose for himself.
[26:07] Yet he's deprived even of carrying his cross. As he reached Calvary, he could not even say, well, at least I managed to do that.
[26:20] He's deprived of comforts. As he said himself at one stage, birds of the air have nests, foxes have holes, the son of man does not have a place in which to lay his head.
[26:33] his deprivations, what was removed from him when he came to the cross. First of all, when he was examined, they stripped him of his garments and put a purple robe on him.
[26:47] It appears, although we don't have the detail, that on the way to the cross or at the cross, having put his own clothes back on him, nevertheless, when he came to the cross, they stripped him once again.
[27:00] And as they stripped him and attached him to the cross, we assume from that that he was stripped of all his garments, that the Lord's nakedness was part of his shame.
[27:19] You see, when you find pictures or paintings of the cross, you find them, Jesus portrayed, we're not saying we're in every way in favor of that, but portrayed even in some of the masters that portrayed the cross in artistic fashion, there's always a covering on his lower parts.
[27:43] We think it's somehow becoming, and in a sense it is, to think of Jesus like that, that they surely wouldn't have deprived him of all his garments.
[27:57] You see, there's nowhere as shameful as the cross. You cannot inoculate it and make it easier on the eye than it is.
[28:12] You cannot choose to cover over some of its grotesqueness. You cannot lessen the shame of it out of concern for human decency.
[28:24] There's nothing decent about it. Shame of the cross. Bearing shame, scoffing rude, in my place, condemned, he stood.
[28:41] You know, the shame of it extends even beyond that. The shame of having his garments taken from him, and the shame of his physical nakedness is exceeded by the shame of being made a curse.
[29:00] Everlasting shame, the shame of hell, the shame of damnation. That's what's applied to him, as surely as anything taken from him.
[29:13] Every aspect of his dignity, everything there is taken from him, and applied to him. Even as heaven itself is involved, as Isaiah long ago prophesied, surely he has borne our griefs, carried our sorrows.
[29:34] We did esteem him, smitten, stricken, smitten, smitten of God and afflicted. But he was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace was upon him, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
[29:52] And we owe it to the Apostle Paul to use that language that no one else would have used had it not been inspired. That he redeemed us from the curse of the law by being made a curse for us, for it is written, cursed is everyone who hangs in a tree.
[30:12] My friends, tonight, he endured the cross despising the shame. And what does it mean that he despised the shame? The shame that we can never measure in his fullness.
[30:25] The shame, the depths of which we can never plumb. And incidentally, it's not an accident that the word shame is fast disappearing from the vocabulary of our land.
[30:42] The word pride is exalted, but the word shame is buried. And the less you appreciate the shame of the cross, the more likely you are to do that.
[30:55] He despised the shame of the cross. What does that mean? Well, to despise it means not that he didn't suffer the shame of the cross, not that he didn't actually come to experience the depth of that shame, which only he knows the depth of.
[31:12] Despising the shame means, in keeping with the context, it did not make him withdraw from what had to be done. The shame of the cross did not put him off, finishing this work until it was done.
[31:28] The joy that was set before him was a consideration in his thoughts, in his perseverance, in his endurance of the cross. But the shame of the cross, as he knew it and as he felt it, nowhere did it put him off from finishing what God had given him to do.
[31:49] When he came out of the garden of Gethsemane, having prayed that the Lord, if it were possible, might remove this cup from me, nevertheless, not my will, but thine be done.
[32:04] And when an attempt was made by Peter to come to the protection of the Lord, as he left the garden, and as Peter rashly used his sword and cut off the ear of one who was present, what did Jesus say?
[32:22] Put that away, the cup which my Father has given me, shall I not drink it? Shall I not finish it? He came out of that garden strengthened for the finishing of this great work of the cross, and he did it despising the shame, setting the shame aside, wasn't a consideration at all on his part, he wasn't deflected in any way by it.
[32:54] So his endurance of the cross, his considerations in enduring the cross, I should have said there that as well as his own reward of salvation of his people, was a consideration, was part of the joy that was set before him, that salvation was his joy, you might say, as he focused upon that, as he was doing this for their sake.
[33:18] A great passage in John 17, again in verse 13, where Jesus again in praying to the Father is saying that as he spoke about the disciples and his people, as he prayed for them there in chapter 17 and verse 13, you remember his words there, where he said, now I'm coming to you and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves.
[33:47] One possible way of taking that, even though we accept the complexity of the language, is that the joy of Jesus, Jesus' own joy, reaches its ultimate realization in the joy of his people, in the salvation of his people.
[34:07] Similar to what Paul says in 2 Corinthians 12 of our weakness and our sufferings, where Paul had, with a thorn in the flesh, desired or prayed three times that God would remove it, and God said, my grace is sufficient for you, for my strength is made perfect or made complete in your weakness.
[34:29] Isn't that a staggering thought? God, that the almightiness of God, while certainly complete, of course, in itself, as God, nevertheless, in the other sense, it reaches its completeness in the way that he deals graciously, powerfully, with his people in their need.
[34:54] The same with the joy of Jesus. is never detached from the salvation of his people and from their joy in him. But what, thirdly, of our response to Christ's enduring of the cross?
[35:08] Well, let me just turn over to chapter 13, if you just briefly turn over with me, and verse 13 of chapter 13. Here's another reference back to the Old Testament, where he says in verse 12, in keeping with the animals that were, in verse 11, they brought by the high priestess a sacrifice for sins, their blood is used, and they are burnt outside the camp.
[35:33] So Jesus also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through his own blood. Now that's the imagery there of Jerusalem, and him crucified out with the walls of Jerusalem, outside the city, here referred to as the camp, if you like, to fit in with the Old Testament imagery of the camp of the people.
[35:54] And where outside of the camp, outside of the city, Jesus is crucified, where there he suffers outside the gate.
[36:08] And then the application of that is, therefore let us go to him outside the camp, bearing the reproach he endured.
[36:19] for we here have no continuing city or lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come. Now briefly, just in closing, what's it saying to us there? Well, think about it. There is Jesus enduring the sufferings of the cross.
[36:33] He endured the cross, despising the shame. Where is it situated? It's situated outside the gates, corresponding to the Old Testament sacrifice, where the blood was shed for sin.
[36:49] What are we to do? We are to go out to him. In other words, we are to forego comforts of the world or being part of the world.
[37:01] We are no longer to be seen as attached to that world that crucified him, that still crucifies him in the sense of seeking to be rid of him and every vestige of testimony to him.
[37:15] Let us go to him outside the camp and bear the reproach that he endured, or bearing his reproach. The shame, the reproach, the same thing.
[37:28] He is saying to us, we need to associate with Jesus to the extent that we go out and come out openly on his side and be seen to be his people and testify to being his people, even if that means, as it will mean, in a measure at least, a reproach for him.
[37:48] Not just a reproach for Jesus, but a reproach like his. His reproach was reproach for being true to God, for being faithful to God, for following and serving the Father.
[38:06] And so is our reproach too akin to his in that respect, though our sufferings, of course, pale into insignificance compared to his.
[38:18] Tonight, you're here and your thoughts are on leaving the camp, coming openly to be known as one of Christ's.
[38:31] That's your desire. That's what your mind and heart is set upon. But you're afraid. There are things that you know will be associated with that.
[38:47] There will be a reproach to bear. Well, think of Moses, as we saw in chapter 11. He considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking forward to the reward.
[39:05] What is the reproach of Christ? Christ, it's a badge of honor. Easy to say that, I know, in a pulpit.
[39:18] But we all have to bear a measure of reproach if we're going to be true to the Lord. And as you've considered Jesus tonight, not deflected from what he had to do, by anything he had to suffer, by anything he met with on the way, by the hostility of sinners against himself, by the reproach that he had to bear, by the shame of the cross.
[39:44] So now that passes to you and to me. You want to do this for him? Go out. Come out.
[39:56] Be his. Be his clearly. Don't let the devil persuade you otherwise. Don't give him the victory in your thoughts or in your actions.
[40:08] Whether it's by coming to other meetings where the Lord's people gather, weeknight meetings, fellowship meetings, other worship meetings, the Lord's table, the Lord's supper, all of that involves going out to him, to him, for him, and being true to himself who went out for us.
[40:44] So in verse 3, consider him who endured such hostility. And as you consider him, do this for him.
[40:58] Let's pray. Lord, our God and heavenly Father, we thank you for the way in which you gave your Son to what you knew yourself from all eternity would be the shame of the cross.
[41:15] We thank you, Lord, that you came willingly into this world, that you gave yourself to such suffering and shame, and the suffering of such shame. we thank you for the way in which you applied yourself to finishing the work that you came to complete.
[41:33] We thank you for your success, for the way that you have achieved all that you came to do. We thank you that you are now set at the right hand of God. We thank you that you have sent your spirit into the hearts of your people, that you abide by that spirit in your church.
[41:52] We thank you tonight for the knowledge and experience of these great blessings. Lord, help us, we pray, to be true to you. And as our mind is set on leaving the camp and going out to the cross, taking our place beside the crucified Christ, and being aware that the reproach associated with that is a privilege for us, Lord, help us to do so, and enable us to know the blessing that you promised to those who do.
[42:23] Receive our thanks now we pray for Jesus' sake. Amen. Now we're going to conclude our service by singing in Psalm 31.
[42:35] Psalm 31 on page 243. The tune this time is Lingham. So that's from verse 21 to 24.
[42:46] All praise and thanks be to the Lord, for he hath magnified his wondrous love to me within a city fortified. These verses are Psalm 31 on page 243.
[42:58] The tune Lingham. That's all praise and thanks be to the Lord. All praise and thanks be to the Lord, for he hath magnified, for he hath magnified his wondrous love to me within a city fortified, a city fortified, a city fortified, a city fortified.
[43:45] For from the night God hope I am high in my haste I said high in my haste said my voice yet bears the wind to thee with Christ my moan I made with Christ my moan I made with Christ my moan I made with Christ my moan I made O love the Lord all ye who sins because the Lord doth guard because the Lord doth guard the faithful hand he plenteously proud to earth doth reward proud to earth doth reward proud to earth doth reward proud to earth doth reward be of good courage and his strength unto your heart shall send unto your heart shall send all use hope and confidence doth on the
[45:24] Lord depend doth on the Lord depend doth on the Lord depend doth on the Lord depend I'll go to the side door to my left this evening now may the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ the love of God the Father and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you now and ever more Amen