[0:01] Well, with the Lord's help, let's turn back to Romans and chapter 3, and we'll read from verse 23 again. So Romans 3 and verse 23.
[0:19] For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith.
[0:41] And the gospel, in many ways, it is a simple message, isn't it? It's a basic message. The gospel tells us that the Lord Jesus Christ died on the cross for the sins of his people to save his people.
[0:57] And in order to partake of that salvation, we are to put our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. So when we put our faith in Jesus, we are saved.
[1:08] But what exactly does that mean? In what way are we saved? What actually has the death of the Lord Jesus Christ achieved for us?
[1:23] Well, the truth of scripture testifies to us that the Lord Jesus Christ and the atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ achieved a lot for us.
[1:33] It achieved an awful lot for us. And there's a sense in which we can never fully grasp the sheer enormity of the atonement and everything that the atonement has done for us and everything that the atonement has achieved for us.
[1:50] It is a vast thing, the atonement of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. But thankfully, God in his word, he uses imagery and language which we are familiar with from almost everyday surroundings.
[2:09] And he uses that language and he uses that imagery to teach us about exactly what the Lord has done for us. Exactly what the atonement of Christ has achieved for us.
[2:20] And here in verse 24 and 25 of Romans chapter 3, Paul uses three different words here to describe what the death of Christ has done for those who have put their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
[2:36] Three words. And these are the three words that I want to look at. I'll highlight them in a second. But each of these words that we're going to look at tonight, they all picture for us a scene.
[2:49] Each of the words that we'll look at paint before us a setting. And there are three very different scenes and three very different settings as well.
[3:00] So, for example, the first word that we're going to look at is justification. And that word is from the scene of the courtroom, isn't it? That's a courtroom word.
[3:10] And you see it there in verse 24, being justified freely by his grace. So, that's the first scene, the first setting that Paul takes us into here.
[3:21] This courtroom setting. And he does that with that word justification. And then secondly, after being in the courtroom, then Paul conjures up an image from the scene of the slave market.
[3:35] So, then he goes into a totally different scene. Paul very often uses language which is full of imagery. And you can visualize it. And that's exactly what he's doing here. So, we come out of the courtroom having thought about justification.
[3:48] And then we come into the slave market. And we do that through this reference to the word, again in verse 24 here, redemption. So, we have justification in the courtroom. And then you have a redemption here in the scene of the slave market.
[4:02] And then thirdly, in verse 25, you have a completely different setting altogether. Again, in verse 25, you have this scene of a temple sacrifice.
[4:15] And we have that from reference to the word there, propitiation. Propitiation is the language of sacrifice and the language of the temple. So, in a few words there, in three words there, Paul has taken us into three very different scenes.
[4:34] Three very different settings. And what I want to do with the Lord's help for a few moments tonight is essentially to walk into each one of these scenes.
[4:48] Each one of these settings, I want us to walk into the scenes and I want us to look around the scene that's painted for us. And by doing that, I hope we will learn something of what the atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ has actually achieved for us.
[5:04] So, I want to really walk through this in, I suppose, a very visual way. And I'll try and do that as we go through the passage. So, we'll go into the courtroom and then we'll go into the slave market and then we'll come into the temple itself.
[5:19] So, that's our three scenes that we want to kind of walk in and out of here this evening. But before we do that, we need to understand our problem.
[5:31] And our problem is laid out for us very clearly by Paul in the letter to the Romans. And our problem is, of course, sin, isn't it? And we have a good summary of it here in the passage that we read in verse 23.
[5:46] Verse 23 there is really, I suppose, a summary of everything that Paul has said up to that point. For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
[5:59] Paul's whole argument so far up until now has been trying to prove this point. He's trying to prove that everybody is a sinner. Absolutely everybody is a sinner.
[6:11] No matter who we are. No matter what our background is. No matter how religious we might think we are. Or no matter how irreligious we might think we are. Everybody.
[6:22] Every single person comes under this banner. All have sinned. We have broken the law of God. So that really explains to us everything he's been doing up to that point.
[6:34] We're all sinners. There's no question about that at all. And not only have we all sinned. But he says a wee bit more. He says we fall short of the glory of God.
[6:46] You see, we were created in the image of God. And we were created in the image of God for a purpose. To reflect the glory of God.
[6:56] But because we are fallen. We haven't lost the image of God. It's still there. The image is still there. But it's marred. It's marred to an extent now that as we live.
[7:09] We fail to reflect this glory of God. We fall short of living in a God glorifying way. So we're all sinners. And every one of us has fallen short of the glory of God.
[7:22] We don't reflect God's glory as we should. Now, some people might say, no, no, no, no. I'm not a sinner. I don't have anything to do with your God. I'm not accountable to him at all.
[7:36] I don't go to church. I have nothing to do with the gospel. Never heard the gospel. You can't call me a sinner. I don't relate to this God at all. I haven't broken his law. How can I break the law of a God that I don't actually acknowledge?
[7:49] And some people will say that. But Paul here in his argument in Romans, he's saying, no. There's absolutely no excuses. Ignorance is not an excuse. Everyone is a sinner.
[8:02] And others might take the opposite tact. And they might take, I suppose, the opposite extreme of that. And they might say, well, I am very religious. I am not like the atheist.
[8:13] I'm very religious. I attend church all the time. I was baptized in the church. I tithe. I read my Bible. All these things.
[8:24] Surely I'm not a sinner. But again, Paul is saying in this epistle here, now, it's good that you do all these things. It's good that you are attending church and all these things.
[8:36] But I have no doubt about it. You're a sinner. Every one of us. No matter how religious. No matter how irreligious. We are all sinners.
[8:46] Greeks, Gentiles, Jews. All of us are sinners. So that's really what Paul is saying there in those opening sections. So now that we know our problem, we all know our issue.
[8:57] We're all sinners. So that's described every one of us in here. All sinners fallen short of his glory. Now, what I want us to do is to walk into these three scenes that are painted for us here in these verses.
[9:09] So I want us to walk into the courtroom, the slave market, and then the temple. And when we go into these scenes, I want to really highlight two main things.
[9:20] And the two things I want to highlight is the effect of our sinfulness. What our sinfulness actually means for us. But perhaps more than that, I want us to see the different aspects of the salvation, which the atoning death of the Lord Jesus Christ achieves for us.
[9:39] So these two things, the effect of our sinfulness and what the atonement of Christ achieves. So that's the two things that we want to look at as we go into each of these scenes.
[9:49] So as we go through the version in verse 24, the first scene that Paul takes us to here is the courtroom. So we enter into this courtroom.
[10:01] And as we walk into this courtroom, we look up and we see a judge. There's a judge there. And the judge is, of course, God himself. God is there seated on the judgment seat.
[10:12] And as we walk into this courtroom, we notice something on the wall. There's something hanging there on the wall. And we can't tell what it is, so we go closer. And we have a look.
[10:23] And lo and behold, it's the two tablets of stone. The two tablets of stone with the commandments and the law of God that are hanging there on the wall in this courtroom scene.
[10:36] And then the judge, he turns to us and the judge tells us to take a seat. Take a seat, not in the background. He says, take a seat in the dock. I want you to take a seat in the dock.
[10:47] So we take heat. And we walk. And we take a seat in this dock. And before us, there is a table. And on this table, there's two things.
[10:58] On this table, there is a document. And as well as a document, there is also a book. So there's a document and there's a book.
[11:09] And the first thing we do is we turn to this document. And we begin to read this document. And the document is a charge list. It's a charge list of every time we have broken the law of God.
[11:26] And we go through it and we read it. And as we begin to read this list, we begin to feel this weight of guilt and shame upon us. And we're reading it.
[11:36] And the list is very long. It's exceptionally long. And there's things on that list, perhaps, that we expected to see. But there are other things on that list that we didn't even know were sins.
[11:47] But they're there. And there are other things that we thought were completely private and hidden from everyone. Thoughts of the heart. And again, there they are in black and white in this document. And you see it there before you.
[11:59] And you're reading through this document. And the more you read, the more you're being convicted of your sin. And you're looking around you as well. And remember those two tablets of stone that were so small that you barely noticed them when you came in.
[12:13] All of a sudden, those tablets of stone are getting very big. It's as though they're getting bigger and bigger and bigger. The more you're reading down this list of how you've broken them. And you feel very much the weight and guilt of sin bearing down upon you.
[12:29] And then you put the document down. You can't even finish it. You put it down. And you realize, well, I'm guilty. I am guilty. There is absolutely no doubt about it.
[12:39] This document makes it crystal clear. I am guilty. And then your mind turns to think about what sentencing might await you. What's going to be my punishment for this? And that's when you turn to the book that's in front of you.
[12:53] And you open this book. And you read these words. The wages of sin is death. And that hits you hard. And that causes you to have this kind of terrible sinking feeling within you.
[13:08] And you're panicking at this stage. You're panicking as you try and think your way through this situation that you've found yourself in. And you're trying to figure out how to acquit yourself.
[13:19] How can I get out of this? Is there anything that I can do to get out of this? Can I come up with any arguments that I can put forward to try and clear my name? But there's nothing.
[13:31] You can't think of anything. There's nothing at all. There's nothing you can do. You might think, well, what if I come forward with all the good things that I've done in my life? But that won't work.
[13:42] That's not how justice works, is it? You can't undo the guilt of lawbreaking by doing something good. And you realize there is absolutely nothing you can do to take away the guilt of these offenses.
[13:57] And in that moment of despair, when you think there's no hope and you feel like the walls are very much closing in on you, we read the words of Paul.
[14:07] And he tells us here in verse 24, If we put our faith in Christ, we will be justified by his grace as a gift. Paul is saying here, if we put our faith in Christ, we will be declared innocent.
[14:24] We will be declared righteous. Yes, that's exactly what being justified is. And, you know, talk about good news. That's the best possible news you could ever hear in that particular situation there.
[14:40] Because when you are entrapped by this sense of the conviction of your sin, when you feel the walls of God's justice closing in on you, and you realize, you feel as though perhaps there's no hope at all, and then you hear words like this, the words of Paul here, you cannot but leap for joy at that.
[15:00] You cannot but leap for joy. If I put my faith in Jesus, I'll be acquitted. I will be declared innocent. And that is wonderful news. Wonderful news for anyone in that kind of situation.
[15:13] You know, sometimes you see news feeds, videos of people in court. You don't see it of people in court in our country. We don't really see videos.
[15:23] But certainly in other countries, you see videos of people in court. And sometimes you see news feeds of people who have been declared innocent, not guilty. And there are occasions where you see that sheer relief, and that sheer joy in their faces to know that they are acquitted.
[15:40] Well, that is nothing compared to the joy that the believer experiences when we hear from our Lord that we have been justified. Because we know the extent of our crimes, the extent of our sins.
[15:54] And yet, when we put our faith in the Lord, he says, we are justified, we are innocent. And you wonder to yourself, how can I be justified?
[16:05] How does this even work? How can I just be declared innocent just like that? It doesn't make sense. That is not how justice works. But at that point, Christ comes.
[16:17] And he, as it were, walks beside us in the dock, and walks beside us at this table. And he opens that book beside us. And he points to that verse which says, the wages of sin is death.
[16:29] And he says to us, I have died that death for you. I have taken the just penalty on the just punishment of your sin.
[16:41] I have taken that for you. That is how you can be justified. And then he takes that document that is beside us, the list of charges, and he just wipes it clean.
[16:52] Erases it just like that, as though there was nothing there. Deletes every single charge. And then the judge of heaven and earth, he stands to make his verdict.
[17:03] And the whole courtroom stands at that point. And you await the verdict of this judge. And he says, My justice has been satisfied by the death of my son.
[17:17] And because your faith is in him, and because you are connected and united to him by faith, I will take his death as the just punishment for you of sin.
[17:33] And he declares us righteous. He declares us innocent. He declares us justified. If our faith is in the Lord, that's exactly what we experience.
[17:45] But then, maybe you think to yourself, Well, that sounds a wee bit too good to be true. Surely all this comes at a cost. Surely, surely God wants me to do something first.
[17:57] Surely he's not just going to gift me this justification just like that. But, we read here that it is God's free grace. And in verse 24, We are justified by his grace as a gift.
[18:10] Nothing to do with what we have done. Nothing to do with what we could do. Nothing to do with us ourselves. It is a gift. It is a gift from our Lord.
[18:22] A gift to us. And a gracious gift at that. And we walk out of this courtroom. And we're justified. We're innocent. Righteous. And that's a wonderful thing to experience.
[18:34] After that sinking feeling of being guilty. Just a few moments ago. And then, we see Paul in these verses.
[18:45] He takes us to another scene. So, we leave the courtroom. And we go to another scene now. And again, he takes us into this scene to, again, teach us something about what salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ actually achieves for us.
[18:59] And this time, we enter into the scene of the slave market. You notice there in verse 24, he speaks about redemption. And that's very much the language of the marketplace.
[19:09] And particularly, the language of the slave market. So, that's where we're going into now. We're in the slave market. We've left the court behind us. And as we walk into this scene, again, we notice the effects of our sin.
[19:25] Because we feel something on our legs. And we look down at our feet. And we are in chains. We are in chains. There are chains right around our legs. We are in some kind of a bondage here.
[19:37] And we look up. And we see two masters. Two very different masters. Two masters of two very different kingdoms. One master from the kingdom of darkness.
[19:49] And another master of the kingdom of light. And we're aware that we're chained to one of them. And we look down at our chains. And we follow. We follow where these chains are actually going.
[20:02] And we find that we are being bound firmly and securely to the kingdom of darkness. We are in bondage and in chains to sin.
[20:13] We are in bondage and in chains to the master of the kingdom of darkness. The devil. The Satan himself. Just like, remember Israel?
[20:25] When they were in bondage to Pharaoh back in the Old Testament. Remember, Pharaoh there, he forced them into serving Egypt's interests. Didn't he? He forced them to serve Egypt's interests.
[20:39] And in the same way here, we are by nature slaves of an evil master. And these chains enslave our desires. They enslave our ambitions.
[20:51] And they enslave these things to sin. We're dragged towards sin. Our desires and our ambitions. Everything dragged and drawn towards sin and sinfulness.
[21:03] So, in the last scene, we saw the way in which our sin made us judicially guilty. But in this scene, we see the way in which we are slaves to sin.
[21:14] We are chained up to sin and chained up to the kingdom of darkness itself. And when we come to a realization of that, when we realize our chains, we try and do everything we can to escape.
[21:27] We try and break them. We can't. We can't. We try and break them, do everything we can, but they're unbreakable. There is no escaping from the grips of these chains here.
[21:37] And we feel like we're stuck here forever. And again, sinking feeling very much sets in. But then, Paul reminds us, as he does in these words here in Romans 3.24, where he tells us that if our faith is in Christ, we are redeemed.
[21:58] You see, the idea of redemption is to buy someone's freedom. So, a slave could be purchased. His freedom could be bought, and it would be bought at a price.
[22:10] And here, Paul is saying, when we put our faith in Jesus Christ, the moment that you come to faith in him, he redeems you. You are redeemed.
[22:21] He purchases you. And those chains of sin that were entangling you all around, all of a sudden, they drop off you. They drop off you. They come away. You don't have to break them.
[22:32] The Lord redeems you and frees you from these things. And you are released from that bondage to sin and that bondage to the kingdom of darkness. But that's not all.
[22:45] There's actually more to it than that. Because it's not just that we are let loose. We aren't just let loose and freed and just free to wander wherever we want.
[22:57] That's not the image at all. You see, once we've been freed from those chains, we make our way out of this kingdom of darkness. And we head towards the exit. We head towards the gate.
[23:08] And as we approach the gate, and as we say goodbye to the kingdom of darkness and Satan himself, we come to the gate and there is another master there waiting for us. There is another master.
[23:20] Because in redemption, we have been redeemed from serving one master to serving another. And as we come to the gate, we are face to face with our new master.
[23:31] And as we see our new master there, we can perhaps ask ourselves, I wonder what he's going to be like. What's our new master going to be like? Is he going to be kind?
[23:42] Is he perhaps going to be severe? Is he going to be loving? What's our new master going to be like? And at that point, someone turns to us and tells us what our master has paid.
[23:55] The price our master has paid to redeem us. And then when we hear that, we realize the love that this master has for us. Because what did he give to buy our freedom?
[24:09] He gave his only begotten son. He sent him to suffer and to die to secure our release.
[24:20] You have been redeemed by none other than the blood of the God-man. That's remarkable. You want to know how precious you are in the eyes of God?
[24:30] This is how precious. This is how precious you are in the Lord's eyes if you are a child of God here tonight. So precious that he would purchase your freedom with the blood of his own son.
[24:43] Now, you cannot possibly envisage an act of greater love than that. You can't. That's a remarkable act of love. And it shows us the kind of master that we now serve.
[24:56] So, in this scene of the slave market, we see the tremendous love of God in redeeming us from this bondage to sin.
[25:07] And bringing us into this service of a loving and heavenly father. Not merely a master. A loving and heavenly father. So that's what happens in our redemption.
[25:18] So, we walk away from the slave market now and we have been redeemed. So, we know something about what the Lord has done through the atonement in our lives in redemption. And then, thirdly, Paul takes us into one final scene.
[25:34] And that's in verse 25. And you have there the scene of the temple. And you see that with his use there of the word propitiation. In verse 25 there.
[25:44] Christ Jesus whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood. So, propitiation. That's the language of sacrifice and the language of the temple.
[25:58] So, a propitiation is a sacrifice that turns away the anger and the wrath of a holy God against the sins of his people.
[26:10] So, propitiation is to do with turning away the wrath of God against the sin of his people. And what I want to do here as we walk into this scene is I want us to visualize the Old Testament temple of God.
[26:27] So, we're in the Old Testament temple of God. And we're walking up to the Old Testament temple of God. And as we walk up to this temple there's a great degree of noise. There's a lot of hustle and bustle.
[26:38] It's a very busy place. There would have been a lot of noise in terms of the noise of people. Maybe even the noise of animals as well. And in the outer courts of the temple there's that hustle and bustle.
[26:50] And then you make your way forward. You make your way into the central part of the temple. And as you do that you notice something. Because things get a wee bit quieter.
[27:02] Things become a wee bit calmer. And then you walk into the holy place itself and then there's complete stillness. There's utter stillness there. Very different to outside.
[27:13] All the noise and all the people. Now there's nobody here. It's completely still. And you see the curtain. And inside the curtain, of course behind the curtain is the Holy of Holies.
[27:24] And behind that curtain there's an arc. The arc of the covenant. And inside that arc there are two tablets of stone.
[27:38] And then you realize why it is that there is nobody in here. Because the tablets of stone within the arc, they are a reminder of the fact that we have broken the law of God.
[27:51] They are a reminder of the fact that we have sinned. And then it dawns on us why there's nobody in here. Because of our sin, not only have we no longer any access to God.
[28:05] But it's actually more than that. It's not just that we don't have access. It's that the anger and the wrath of God has been unleashed.
[28:15] And it has been unleashed against the sins of his people. The wrath of God is kindled. And no one can just waltz into the presence of God in that context.
[28:28] Nobody can walk into the presence of an angry God. A God who is angry with sin. A God whose anger is raging against the sin of his people.
[28:42] And you know that's not a popular topic in today's church. The idea that because of our sin that we are somehow objects of God's wrath and anger.
[28:54] People don't like that idea. But is that not what scripture teaches? When we come perhaps especially to the Old Testament, it becomes very clear. It's in the New Testament as well of course.
[29:04] But it's there. This picture of the anger and the wrath of God being unleashed against the sin of his people. If we don't see that, I would suggest we're not reading our Bibles properly.
[29:17] It seems to me that it's absolutely crystal clear. It's not just that God doesn't like to look at sin. It's not just that somehow sin displeases God.
[29:32] Or that sin disappoints God. Sometimes I think that's how we view sin. As though when we sin, God is just a wee bit offended by our sin. We've got a very low view of sin.
[29:45] And I think that's how many of us think. Especially in today's church. A very low view at all. As though sin was just something that in some way slightly disappointed the Lord.
[29:58] In some way slightly displeases Him. But that's absolutely not the case. His wrath burns hot against the sin of his people. And we need to understand that. We need to understand that.
[30:09] The wrath of God burns against the sins of his people. He is angered by sin. And that is why sacrifice is such a big part of the temple worship.
[30:24] Because there an animal is sacrificed. And when the animal is sacrificed. The blood of the animal is taken. And the high priest enters into the Holy of Holies.
[30:35] And he enters in with the blood of that sacrifice. And he scatters that blood on the mercy seat. And now that blood soaked mercy seat becomes a covering.
[30:47] It becomes a covering over those broken tablets of stone inside. And that action of covering our sin. That action turns away the wrath and the anger of God.
[31:03] God's wrath is appeased. And that's really what the Old Testament sacrifices symbolized. That's what they symbolized. It's as though when an animal was sacrificed and their blood was taken.
[31:19] It was as though the wrath of God against the sin of his people. Rather than being poured out on his people. Was poured out on the sacrifice. That's very much what the blood symbolized.
[31:31] Well one of the things that the blood symbolized. But of course a mere animal was never going to be enough. The writer to the Hebrews tells us that. The blood of the animal was never going to be enough.
[31:44] An animal was never an adequate substitute for the sins of God's people. Not an adequate substitute at all.
[31:54] And that's where Christ comes in. Because Christ is a perfect substitute. Christ is the perfect sacrifice. He is uniquely qualified to bear the wrath and the anger of God.
[32:09] He is uniquely qualified to appease the wrath and anger of God. You see as we're in this temple. Even if we don't understand much.
[32:22] We must understand this. As we're in this temple. We see. That the wrath of God. Means that. The wrath of God against sin. Means that blood must be shed.
[32:35] The temple was a bloody scene. Wasn't it? A bloody scene. And if we see nothing else. We must see that. The wrath of God against sin. Demanded blood be shed. That is crystal clear.
[32:46] And here. In Romans 3.25. We read. The blood of Christ becomes. Our propitiation. Propitiation. Not the blood of an animal. But the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.
[32:57] He endures. And he appeases. The wrath of God. By offering. His own blood. So that. We will never have to endure that wrath. You see.
[33:10] In this picture here. As we stand. In the temple scene. We know. We've got no right. To go into the Holy of Holies.
[33:21] And we know. That God is angry. With our sin. We know that. But then it's as though. We see Christ himself. As the high priest. And he walks in.
[33:32] He walks in there. The high priest. And he has an offering. And he has an offering. In his hand. And it's blood. And it's not the blood of another. It's his own blood. It's the amazing thing about Christ.
[33:44] He is both the offerer. And the offering. And he goes in there. And he goes in there. And he scatters. His blood. His own blood. On the mercy seat.
[33:54] Of God. And by doing that. He turns away. The anger. And he turns away. The wrath. Of God. Directed towards the sins.
[34:05] Of his people. He turns it away. And he only does that once. He doesn't have to go in there. Every year. He doesn't have to go in there. Time and time again. Goes in there once. He scatters that blood.
[34:16] And the anger of God. Is turned away from his people. And then he turns round to us. And we see him there. From inside the holy of holies. And he beckons us in. And he says to us.
[34:27] God's anger has been appeased. It's been appeased. By my blood. And now I invite you in. To the very presence. Of the holy God.
[34:39] Himself. And we walk in. We walk in. Freely. No anger of God. No wrath at all. It has all been taken. By the Lord. Jesus.
[34:50] Christ. Christian. Friend. You see. In these three. Words. Here. We find. Three.
[35:01] Very different. Scenes. And three. Very different. Elements. Of what the Lord. Jesus Christ. Has done for us. In dying for us.
[35:11] In the atonement. Three different things. There are of course. Many. Many more. The atonement. Is multifaceted. It is multidimensional. But. Here are three things. Three scenes.
[35:22] And three truths. About what our Lord. Has done. From the language. Of the courtroom. You are justified. Justified. Declared. Righteous. Because the penalty.
[35:33] Of your guilt. Has been taken. By Christ. From the language. Of the slave market. You are redeemed. Freed. From slavery. Purchased. At a price. The highest possible price.
[35:44] The price. Of the blood. Of the God. Man. And from the language. Of the temple. God's wrath. Towards us. Has been. Propitiated.
[35:56] God. Jesus. Rather. Has endured. The wrath of God. How? By giving. His blood. By shedding. His blood. As an offering. And now.
[36:06] That anger. Has turned. Away. From. Us. Justification. Redemption. Propitiation. And who is this. For?
[36:17] Who is this. All for? It's for those. Who put their faith. In the Lord. Jesus Christ. And that offer. Is made. A new again. To you. Tonight. In the gospel. Put your faith.
[36:28] In the Lord. Jesus Christ. And you will receive. That justification. You will understand. And receive. That redemption. And your sins. Will have been propitiated.
[36:39] You will receive. That propitiation. Yourself. Put your faith. In the Lord. Jesus Christ. And receive. These things. Let's pray. Heavenly Father.
[36:57] We give you thanks. For. The atonement. Of our Lord. And we give you thanks. For all. That the atonement. Has achieved. For us. And we confess. That. The atonement.
[37:08] Is so vast. And what you have achieved. For us. Is so great. There is an element. In which we can say. That the gospel. Is simple. But there is another element. In which when we.
[37:19] When we open up. As it were. The bonnet. Of that engine. Of the atonement. It is. It is complex. And there is so much. Going on. And we give you thanks. That you explain.
[37:29] These things to us. In images. And in language. That we can relate to. And that we can understand. And help us. Even as we have walked. Into these three scenes. Tonight.
[37:40] Help us to understand. A little more. About what you have done. For us. In dying. For us. On the cross. And we pray. Most of all. That every single one of us.
[37:52] Here. Tonight. Would receive. Those things ourselves. Those wonderful benefits. Of the atoning work. Of the Lord Jesus Christ. In whose name we ask it.
[38:03] Amen. We're going to conclude. Our service now. By singing to God's praise. In Psalm 85. In the sing psalms.
[38:14] Psalm 85.
[38:26] And we're going to. That's page 113. And we're going to sing verse.
[38:37] 1. To 9. In times past. Lord. You showed favor. To your own beloved land. Prosperity of Jacob. You restored.
[38:48] By your strong hand. You forgave. Your people's trespass. You were pleased. Their sins to hide. You withdrew. All your displeasure.
[38:59] And note. What it says next. From. Your wrath. You turned aside. And you turned aside. Through the blood. Of Christ. God. Our savior. Now restore us.
[39:10] From us. Turn away. Your rage. Will your anger. Burn against us. Will it last. From age. To age. Will you not again. Revive us. That we may rejoice.
[39:21] In you. Show us. Lord. Your covenant. Mercy. Your salvation. Grant in you. I will hear. What God the Lord says. To his saints. He offers. Peace.
[39:31] That peace again. That comes to us. Through the blood of Christ. But his people. Must not wonder. And return to foolishness. Surely for all those. Who fear him. His salvation.
[39:43] Is at hand. So that once again. His glory. May be seen. Within. Our land. And that is indeed. Our prayer. This evening. So we'll sing those verses. There. To the praise of God. In times past.
[39:59] Lord. You should favor. Your people's trespass.
[40:27] You were pleased. Their sins. To hide. You withdrew. All you.
[40:38] His flesh. Should. From your wrath. You turn aside. God.
[40:49] Our Savior. Now. Restored. Us. From us. Turn away. Your rage.
[41:00] Will you. Your anger. Burn. Against us. Will it last. From age.
[41:10] To age. Will you. Not. Again. Revive us. That we may. May. May. May.
[41:20] May. Rejoice. In you. Show us. Lord. Your covenant. Mercy.
[41:31] Your salvation. Grants. At you. I. Will hear. What God.
[41:42] The Lord. Says. To his saints. He offers. Peace. But his people.
[41:53] Must not wander. And return. To foolishness. Truly.
[42:03] For all those. Who fear him. His salvation. Is at hand.
[42:14] So that once again. His glory. To be seen. Within. Our land.
[42:29] Please be seated. While I give you the few notices. Justice. Thanks. As 1-1. To the Lord.
[42:45] Status. Out. To the Lord. This time.
[42:57] This. This time. This time.