The Crucifixion

[0:00] Please, to the 23rd chapter of the Gospel of Luke. And in the 23rd chapter, we'll be looking at verses 33 through 46.

[0:19] When they came to the place called the Skull, there they crucified him and the criminals, one on the right and the other on the left.

[0:39] But Jesus was saying, Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing. And they cast lots, dividing up his garments among themselves.

[0:56] And the people stood by, looking on. And even the rulers were sneering at him, saying, He saved others, let him save himself, if this is the Christ of God, his chosen one.

[1:13] The soldiers also mocked him, coming up to him, offering him sour wine, and saying, If you are the king of the Jews, save yourself.

[1:31] Now there was also an inscription above him, This is the king of the Jews. One of the criminals who were hanged there was hurling abuse at him, saying, Are you not the Christ?

[1:48] Save yourself and us. But the other answered, and rebuking him, said, Do you not even fear God, Since you are the same sentence of condemnation?

[2:05] And we indeed are suffering justly, For we are receiving what we deserve for our deeds.

[2:17] But this man has done nothing wrong. And he said to him, Truly I say to you, Today you shall be with me in paradise.

[2:38] It was now about the sixth hour, And darkness fell over the whole land until the ninth hour.

[2:49] Because the sun was obscured, And the veil of the temple was torn in two. And Jesus, crying out with a loud voice, said, Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.

[3:09] Having said this, he breathed his last. I have taken precaution To write out some things that I want to relate to you By way of propositions, Before we look at the scripture text From which we'll be working, That parallels what was just read from Luke's gospel, Only we will be in Matthew's gospel.

[3:44] And the reason that I have written out these things Is because It troubles me greatly Over the possibility of misspeaking While we are dealing with such an incredibly important subject.

[4:00] And I am striving for as much accuracy as possible. So I've carefully written out some things, And I've gone over it several times. And that's what I want to share with you now.

[4:15] The magnitude And the strategic necessity Of what occurred On Mount Calvary some 2,000 years ago Simply cannot be overstated.

[4:29] The crucifixion of Jesus of Nazareth, Also known as the Son of God, Remains the most important seminal event Ever to occur In the history of the universe.

[4:43] It was there On that old rugged cross That the merger Between deity and humanity Reached its objective.

[4:54] For the eternal creator God Having become flesh Engaged in an event Which is the way Of all flesh While upon that cross He died.

[5:16] God as it were Who cannot die In our estimation of death Nonetheless In that part of him That had become flesh Did die.

[5:29] Death Death is not a cessation Of existence. Death for human beings Does not mean Our existence ends But simply that It is transferred.

[5:44] This is because We are not only material Or physical In our body Because we are also Immaterial Or spiritual In our total being And death While not a cessation Of being Is rather a separation Or a parting Of our immaterial spirit From our material body It is this separation That makes death What it is.

[6:15] Our human Immaterial Non-physical spirit Is separated From our human Physical body The apostle James In his epistle In chapter 2 Made that so very clear With just a brief Simple statement That he made Saying For the body Without the spirit Is dead This is one of the deaths That Jesus died While upon the cross It was that physical death And there is another death With which his second death was And that is as real As was his spiritual death And that is his spiritual death Was as real as his physical death So Jesus died two kinds of deaths One for the body One for the spirit And this too Involved a separation In Jesus' spiritual death

[7:16] His human spirit Was separated From the source Of spiritual life Namely His God and Father Jesus evidenced This separation This abandonment That he described As being forsaken By God Thus In the deaths Plural that is In the deaths That Jesus died A two-fold separation Occurred One physical And one spiritual It's just another way Of saying That Jesus' death Was as full And complete As it could possibly be But there is still Another aspect Of these two deaths That Christ died That is largely overlooked By the world As a whole And it is this aspect That makes what we said About the magnitude

[8:17] And strategic necessity Being incapable Of being overstated In its importance And that is this The deaths That Jesus died Both of them Were clearly Substitutionary That means Jesus died In the place Of others Who should have died Instead of Him He in His own Singular person As the eternal Son of God Made flesh Died those deaths For the sins Of the entire world Jesus died For you And me And every other Human being Who ever lived Or will yet live And here Here Is that vital Strategic Necessity Overlooked By much of the world Often unheard of By much of the world

[9:17] And even often Ignored By some segments Claiming to be Christian In their faith But how is it That Jesus As one person Could accomplish Something To be applied Or substitutionary For the billions Of all the world How does that work?

[9:40] Well it was only Because of who He was That He was able To undertake And complete Such a transaction Because there On that cross Was one Who was so Much more Than a Galilean Peasant carpenter So much more Than a good Moral example And so much more Than a wise teacher There In that Tortured Emaciated And flesh Torn body Dwelt Deity Godness Itself All of that Which makes God the Father God Also dwelt In Jesus God's only Son He As eternal As his Father As significant As his Father As at one

[10:41] With his Father And the eternal Spirit He in his own Body Bore our sins Upon the tree So it was only Because Jesus Was who he was That he could do What he did And what he did Was so strategic And important Because of who he was You miss This You miss This And you have Missed the very Essence Of what Christianity Truly is It was the Father who Sent the Son To be the Savior of the World It was the Father who Delivered up His Son To die for Our offenses And then to be Raised for our Justification And it was The Son Who was Willing to be Given To die Both of those Deaths Solely Out of a Love for you And for me And there Wasn't a one Of us That deserved That payment

[11:41] Or that Expression Of love And what Would it be That some Humans Did not At that scene Recognize The magnitude Of it all What would It be That would Signify Something Otherworldly Was transpiring In this Central event Of all Times It would Be Created Nature Itself That would In its Own way Reveal Its Recognition And its Repulsiveness Of that Very scene That was Taking Place Nature's Protestations To it Are all Recorded In Matthew Chapter Twenty Seven Beginning With verse Fifty And if you Would turn To that Please I would Appreciate it Matthew's Gospel Chapter Twenty

[12:41] Seven And while You're Turning There We are Dealing Also With what We might Call The law Of proportionate Value How it Is that One person Could actually Make an Effective Payment That would Satisfy The creator Make an Effective Payment For all The people Who ever Lived And we've Already Told you He could Do that Because of Who he Was And the Law of Proportionate Or relative Value Is something With which We can Identify With maybe A simple Illustration And it Is this This is the Time of year When ants Come crawling Out of their Little Huddles We've even Had to deal With a few In the kitchen That show up Every spring Looking for Sugar And looking For water And looking For something Sweet And as Best we Can we Dispatch Them They've got Chemicals

[13:41] Now called Raid And other Kinds of Chemicals That get Rid of those Pests that Are unwanted And if You've ever Looked outside At a Giant Ant hill And there Are just An innumerable Number of Them Do you Have any Idea how Many ants There are All over The world Now the Question I Would pose To you Is this How many Ants does It take To equal The value Of one Human being It's a No brainer Isn't it I guess We would Say there Aren't enough Ants in All of the World Put together That could Begin to Equal the Value Of one Human being And why Is this So It is So because Of the Nature The character The content The makeup Of a human

[14:41] Being As opposed To that Of an Ant While Ants are Creatures Of God Humans And humans Alone Are fashioned In the Image And likeness Of God We don't Begin to Fully Understand That either But to The extent We do We appreciate It And we Have respect For that Created In the Image Of God I've often Said at Interments Over which I have Presided An innumerable Number over The last Fifty years I've often Made the Comment that Out of all The biological Life forms That God Has created It appears That man Is the only One that Buries Is dead Why is That Because There is Something Special And sacred About the Human Body It bears The very Image And likeness Of God And no Other biological Life form Can say That And because Of that

[15:42] That gives The human Body A sphere Of dignity And value And worth Inherently That none Of the animal Kingdom Shares So the Hypothetical Question is There isn't Any amount Of ants That would Begin to Equal The value Of one Human Being Then let Me ask You this How many Human beings Would it Take to Equal The value Of the Creator God You see This is That's why That's why He was That's why He was able Because the Value that Was vested In him As the Eternal Creator God So greatly Surpassed In an Infinite Way The value Of all Of the Corporate Numbers Numbering In the Billions Of human Beings Who have Ever Lived Are living Now Or ever Will Live Because you And I Can be Made We can be Created But God

[16:42] Can't create God He's the Only one And he As being Who he Is Has A value That is Infinite Attached to Him We can't Even begin To describe It I've often Looked upon Him And referred To him As the Being Without Limitations Of any Kind And that Which separates God the Creator from His creatures Is a Distance that Is so Incomprehensible So infinite It is greater Than that Which separates Us from The common Ant And yet It is this Species Alone That he Vested With his Image And his Likeness And that Gives You And me A value Worth Dying For Isn't That Something As wretched

[17:46] And as Sinful And as Miserable As we Humans Are capable Of being At some Times Yet While In our Sin God Loved Us You Know It's One It's One Thing For you To love Somebody That's Lovable But it's A real Chore To love Somebody That's Unlovable And And even May May Defy Your Love And Attention And yet He loves Us Anyway Never Gotten Over That As I Told you John Newton Wrote a Song About it He called Amazing Grace When Jesus Died on That cross If you Look at Matthew Chapter 27 And Verse 50 All Of God's Creation Was Rebelling At what Was Taking Place There Was Repulsive To What Was Taking Place There And

[18:46] We Read In If you Look At Chapter 27 Beginning With Verse 50 When Jesus Cried Out Again With A Loud Voice Yielded Up His Spirit That Was Probably Tetelestai It Is Finished It's Over It's Done That Which He Came To Accomplish Was Now A Fact It Was Over He Died Shortly Before He Went To The Cross As He Was Praying He Was Talking To His Disciples Also And He Says What What Shall I Pray What Shall I Do Shall I Say Father Save Me From This Hour I Can't Pray That It's For This Very Hour That I Came Into The World And Time And Again Scripture Records That Jesus Said Mine Hour Is Not Yet Come Mine Hour Is Not Yet Come There Were At Least Three Or Four Occasions When His Death Could Have

[19:46] Been Prem To The Cross But He Was Destined To Die On That Cross Not At The Hands Of Those Who Would Stone Him Not At The Hands Of Those Who Would Throw Him Over The Cliff His Former People There In Nazareth But He Had An Appointment With The Cross And That Had To Be The Way He Was Going To Exit And There At The Last Supper As He Gathered His Disciples Together And They Broke Kidron And Up The Other Side To The Mount Of Olives Jesus Rose And Said The Hour Is Come Time Is Now They Didn't Have A Clue They Didn't Know What He Was Talking About But He Knew That It Would Be Just A Matter Of Hours And They Would Be Coming For Him To Arrest Him Take Him To The Kangaroo Trials That Would Be Held Conducted By Caiaphas And Annas The High Priest And Then On To Pilate

[20:47] And Then Pilate Would Bounce Him Over To Herod And Then Herod Would Examine Him And Jesus Would Be Unresponsive To Him And He Would Send Him Back To Pilate And Pilate Was Manipulated Into The Crucifixion Of The Lord Jesus And After He Had Breathed His Last Father Into Thy Hands I Commend My And Verse 51 Says And Behold We Don't Use That Word Very Much Anymore Do We It's An Old English Word Behold It's Found In The Bible A lot Particularly In Your King James But It's Just Another Way Of Saying Look Look Behold The Veil Of The Temple Was Torn In Two From Top To Bottom Now What That Means To Most People Is Absolutely Nothing It Just Just A Fact What So

[21:47] Important About That Was A Great Deal Important About That Because This Was In The Jewish Temple And This Veil Separated The Holy Place From The Most Holy Place Priests Could Go Into The Holy Place And Minister Like For Instance Zacharias Did When The Angel Confronted Him And Told Him About The Birth Of John The Baptist And In This Holy Place There Were Items Of Furniture That They Used The Table Of Showbread And The Golden Lamp Stand And Things Like That And Then There Was This Huge Curtain And We Are Not Given The Exact Dimensions Of The Curtain In Scripture But Josephus Who Was Contemporary In The First Century Was Contemporary Of The Lord Jesus He Was A Jewish Historian And It Was Josephus Who Said That The Veil And The Temple That Separated The Holy Place From The Most Holy Place Was 30 By 60 Feet And It Was Four

[22:47] Inches Thick That Is Some Piece Of Material Interwoven Probably Very Heavy And This Veil Hung Down From The Ceiling And Separated The Most Holy Place From The Holy Place The Most Holy Place Was Where The Ark Of The Covenant Was Kept And On It The Mercy Seat With The Overarching Angels Situated On Top The Mercy Seat Was The Lid Of The Ark Of The Covenant And Inside The Ark Was Aaron's Rod That Budded And The Tables Of The Law And The Golden Pot Of Manna They Were Stored There In That And God Told The Nation Of Israel That He Would Meet With Them There On The Mercy Seat Once A Year It Would Be The Day Of Atonement The Jews Called At Yom Kippur The

[23:47] Day Of Atonement And On That Day The High Priest And The High Priest Alone Was The Only One Allowed Into The Most Holy Place Where The Ark Was Anyone Else Were Venture In There Or Even If The High Priest Went In There At Any Other Time He Would Be Stricken Dead Immediately A High Priest Once A Year On The Day Of Atonement Would Go In With Blood In A Basin And A Scepter And He Would Sprinkle Blood Animal Blood Animal Blood On The Mercy Seat For The Purpose Of Atonement And The Sins Of The Nation Of Israel Were Atoned For For One Year And Then Next Year On The Day Of Atonement Yom Kippur He Had To Go Back And Do The Same Thing All Over Again

[24:47] That Continued Day In And Day Year In And Year Out On The Day Of Atonement And The Jews By The Way To This Day Still Celebrate Yom Kippur Of Course They Can't Do It In A Biblical Fashion Because They Don't Have A Temple And They Certainly Don't Have An Altar And They Don't Have The Ark Of The Covenant But They Do What They Can To Remember That The Text Tells Us That When Jesus Died And Said It Is Finished And Gave Up The Ghost That That Veil Was Torn From The Top To Bottom Now We Note In This Very Same Passage Of Scripture In The Context We Are Told That There Was Also An Earthquake And Some Say Well Maybe The Earthquake Was Responsible For Rending That But Those Who Know More About Science Than I Do Say That If The Earthquake Had Done It The Curtain Would Have Been Rent From The Bottom To The Top Or

[25:48] If Man Would Have Done It It Would Have Been Rented From The Bottom To The Top But Can You Imagine The Tearing The Renting In Two Of A Garment That Is Four Inches Thick And Thirty By Sixty Feet This Thing Was Massive The Picture That Comes To My Mind Is Just As If There Were Giant Hands That Reached Down From Heaven And Tore That Veil In Two And In Doing So God Was Saying I'm Finished With This This Is Over No More Animal Sacrifices Why Because That One Final Supreme Sacrifice To Which All Of The Animal Sacrifices Pointed Was Now A Reality It Was Complete No

[26:48] More Days Of Atonement No More Mercy Seat No More Sprinkling Of The Blood That's Over And Done With And If You Will Look Keep Your Place Here In Matthew And Come Back If You Would For Just A Moment To Hebrews Chapter 10 Very Insightful Passage The Writer Of Hebrews Has Not Been Conclusively Established Although I Personally Think That It Was The Apostle Paul And We Read In Verse 19 Of Hebrews Chapter 10 Since Therefore Brethren We Have Confidence To Enter The Holy Place By The Blood Of Jesus By A New And Living Way Which He Inaugurated For Us Through The Veil That Is His Flesh Think Of That It Is The Body Of Christ That Takes The Place Of The Veil The Veil Is Now His Flesh And

[27:49] What This Means Is If You Want To Come To God You Don't Come Even The High Priest Through That Veil To The Holy Place You Come Through The Person Of Jesus Christ And This The Rending Of That Veil And The Opening Of The Ark Of The Covenant Putting It On Display That Anybody Could Look In There And See At At Least Any Of The Priests Was An Unthinkable Thing And Yet That Is Exactly What Happened There Must Have Been Absolute Chaos When That Earthquake Occurred Darkness Settled On The Land The Veil Was Torn Into The Pandemonium That Had To Have Taken Place There Is Something That We Cannot Begin To Imagine But Here We Have All Of Nature That Is Rebelling At This And There Are Several Things That Are Taking Place In We Don't Know How Extensive Or Broad It Was Or Whether It Was Limited To The Land Of

[28:49] Israel But I I've Never Well Yes I Have I Have Been In I Guess You Couldn't Call It An Earthquake That Was Tremors You Know Just Tremors Wouldn't Even Hardly Register But You Could Feel It But There Are Those Who Have Been In Earthquakes Of Great Magnitude Like Seven One Of The Most Terrifying Things You Could Ever Experience It Just Feels Like The Whole World Is Coming Apart And In Connection With This Earthquake We Are Told That The Rocks Were Split Now It's Interesting That Matthew Is The Only One Who Mentions This The Rocks Were Split Asunder Rocks Were So Handled By That Earthquake By The Force Of It That They Were Breaking And Cracking All Over The Place And People Could Hear Them And See Them That Is Until 12

[29:50] Clock And We Don't Know The Exact Timing Of These Events But At 12 Clock Got Dark Got Really Dark Scientists Today Look At That And They Say Well You Know That Is Just An Eclipse Of The Sun That Is What Happens The Earth Goes Dark Yes But For How Long Does It Go Dark When We Have An Eclipse Of The Sun We Are Told By Astronomers That Is Usually Between Seven And Seven And A Half Minutes And It's Over This Is Three Hours This Is From 12 Noon To Three O'clock In The Afternoon What Is Taking Place One Of The Hymn Writers And One Of My Very Favorite Hymns Called At The Cross At The Cross Where I First Saw The Light One Of The Lines Goes Well Well Might The Sun His Darkness

[30:50] Hide His Brightness Well Might The Sun His Brightness Hide And Shut His Glories In When Christ The Mighty Maker Died For Man The Creatures Sin Wow What A Hymn What A Truth Here Even Nature Is Just Aghast At What Man Is Doing To The Son Of God On That Cross The Earthquake And Now The Darkness Over The Whole Land Can You Imagine The Pandemonium The Confusion That Set In We Aren't Told What These People Were Thinking But Everybody Knew That Something Extraordinary Was Happening And It Was Timed Precisely To The Time Our Lord Died Twelve Noon You see Jesus Was Only On The Cross For Six Hours He

[31:52] Was Affixed To That Cross Nails And His Feet And Hands Approximately Nine O'clock In The Morning And After Three Hours The Sun Refused To Shine The Earthquake Occurred And That Darkness Is Going To Last For Three Hours Well By The Way One Other Thing That Was Supposed To Take Place Because You Know This Was The Day Of Preparation This Was The Preparation For The Passover This Was The Day That In Every Jewish Home The Passover Lamb Was To Be Slain And The Family Would Partake Of The Lamb And The Things That Went With It And The Woman The Wife The Mother Of The House Was Supposed To Go All Throughout The House In Search Of Leaven What Is That All About What Is Leaven Leaven Is Yeast Leaven Is

[32:52] What Makes Bread Rise When You Put Yeast Into The Dough It Permeates The Dough And Makes It Rise Gives Fluffiness To It And Puts Air In It And Throughout Scripture Leaven Is Described As A Type Of Sin It It It's Just A Metaphor That Is Used For It And Paul Refers To This In First Corinthians Five When He Addresses Them For Not Having Disciplined Or Chastened The Man Who Was Cavorting With His Father's With His Father's Wife Second Wife And Paul Said You Should Have Disciplined This Man You Should Have Put Him Out From Your Assembly Don't You People Know That A Little Leaven Leavens The Whole Lump That's Simply Another Way Of Saying That If You Do Not

[33:52] Deal With Sin When It Surfaces It Has A Way Of Taking On A Life Of Its Own And It Expands And Grows And Multiplies Just Like Leaven Does When You Put It In Bread So The Israelites Were Commanded To Search All Throughout The House For Every Bit Of Leaven That You Can Find Problem Is How Are You Going To Find Leaven When It's Pitch Dark Because The Sun Isn't Shining And Everything Is Dark Oh I'm Sure They Had Their Lamps And They Probably Lit Them And They Probably Tried To Figure Out What Was Going On But How Can You Find Leaven When It's Dark Like It The Reason They Couldn't Find Any Leaven Was Because All Of The Leaven Was Right There On The Cross Huh The Leaven Of The World As It Were Was Settled Down On Jesus Christ When He Who Knew No Sin Was Made To Be Sin

[34:53] For Us That We Might Be Made The Righteousness Of God In Him That's Where The Leaven Was It Was On The Cross We Are Told That The Graves Were Opened Revealing Desecration And That Meant Everything Was Unclean Because You Couldn't You Couldn't Have Open Graves Like That If You Know Anything About Jewish Ceremonial Law That Would Contaminate The Whole Land And Here In Connection With The Earthquake It Also Resulted In Graves Being Open Now Doesn't Say Anything Yet About Those In The Graves It Just Says The Graves Were Open They Were Exposed I Guess These Were Tombs And They May Have Been Similar To What Jesus Was Buried In Or They May Have Been Above Ground Tombs With Slabs On Them For A Lid But They Are Opened And That Desecrates The Land And The Jews Were Very Fastidious About That This Is Why They Insisted On Getting The Body

[35:53] Of Jesus Down Off The Cross As Soon As They Could Because The Sabbath Was Coming On And With Sunset So They Had To Get Him In The Tomb And That's Why They Could Only Do A Hurry Up Job And Partially Prepare The Body For Burial So That The Women Had To Come Back Later After The Sabbath Was Over And Finish The Job And All Of These Things Are Taking Place Simultaneously Or One Other Thing Can You Possibly Attribute It To Coincidence That At The Very Time Jesus Died On That Cross Three O'Clock In The Afternoon Was The Traditional Time That Each Family Was To Slay The Passover Lamb Now You Put All Of These Things Together And Try To Convince Yourself What An Amazing Coincidence Well I Just Don't Think It Will Fly For Any Reasonable Person

[36:53] God Almighty Is At Work Here And The Son Is Being Poured Out In Death For Your Sins And Mine And The Only Question That Each Of Us Needs To Ask Ourself In Connection With All Of This As We Bring It To A Close Is What Do You Make Of It Personally Question Is Have You Ever Personalized What Took Place There On That Cross Well How Do You Do That How Do You Do That You Do It This Way You Look In Your Mind's Eye At Jesus There On The Cross And Do You See Him In A Substitutionary Way Dying For Just Some Vague Impersonal Other

[37:53] Worldlings Of This Planet Or Do You See Him Being There On That Cross For You Personally You Know Who All Was In In That Death Well Judas Was Pilate Was The Roman Execution Squad Was The Father Was It Was The Father Who Delivered Jesus For Our Offenses And Raised Him Again For Our Justification It Was God Gave His Son And Do You Know It Was Jesus You Know He Was Responsible For His Death He Said I Lay Down My Life Of Myself No Man Can Take It From Me I Have Power To Lay It Down And I Have Power To Take It Up Again

[38:53] And That's Exactly What He Did So Jesus Gave Himself The Father Gave The Son And He Was There Because Of You Me He That's That's The Meaning Of That Old Spiritual That Came Out Of The South Years And Years Ago The Slaves Used To Sing Out In The Cotton Fields Were You There When They Crucified My Lord That's Another Way Of Saying Are You Identified With Jesus Christ Because If You Are God Counts You As Having Been There On That Cross With Jesus And We Say Well I Wasn't Even Thought Of Then How Can That Be Listen We're Looking At This From God's Perspective And From God's Perspective Jesus Was The Lamb Of God Slain Before

[39:54] The Foundation Of The World Before There Was Ever A Calvary That Was Already Determined That Was Already Decided Slain Before The Foundation Of The World We Are Seated With Christ In The Heaven And Our Response To That As Practical Individuals Is Well Thank You I'm Just Seated Right Here In The Auditorium At Grace Bible Church I Don't Know What You're Talking About We're Looking At This From God's Perspective That's The Way God Sees It And That's The Way God Saw His Son On That Cross As A Substitute For You And The Way You Personalize This Is Simply By Saying To God In A Bumbling Stumbling Prayer Oh God I Never Really Thought Of Myself That Way But I

[40:54] Do Now Because This Is What The Bible Reveals I Believe That I Too Am Guilty Like Everyone Else I Made Of The Same Stuff That Everyone Else Is And Jesus Loved Me And Gave Himself For Me Personally And I Want To Appropriate Take To Myself The Payment That He Made For Me And I Want To Do That By Putting My Faith My Confidence My Trust In Him As My Savior And My Substitute If You've Never Done That Before Dear Friend This Can Be Your Moment And I Cannot Tell You How Pleased I Am To Be Able To Give You This Information And This Is What The Bible Calls The Good News There's Never Been Better News Than This Would

[41:55] You Pray With Me Please Loving Father We Realize That In What We Have Been Addressing There Is Great Simplicity And Great Profundity That Escapes All Of Us We Cannot Begin To Enter Into That Incredible Father Son Connection Relationship That Contrived Together This Marvelous Thing Called The Plan Of Redemption Surely It Is Something That Man Would Have Never Ever Devised No Matter How Long He Had But We Are So Grateful That It Was In Your Great Omnipotent Omniscient Mind To Give The Son And For The Son To Be Willing To Be Given We Cannot Imagine That Transaction That Contract That Agreement Between The Father Son Who Was Offered Up

[42:55] Then Down By By In The One We Rest In The Truth Of Scripture Though There Are Many Things About What We Talk About That We Simply Don't Understand But We Do Understand That Those Who Call Upon The Name Of The Lord Shall Be Saved And our prayer for anyone who may be here right now, boy or girl, man or woman, who's never made that decision, we pray that they will have the commitment, the honesty to look inward, to listen to what has been expounded from the scriptures and be willing to say, Lord Jesus, there's much about this that I still don't understand.

[43:33] But I do know that I've often displeased you, I've often disappointed you, I've often disappointed myself.

[43:44] And these disappointments and mistakes and failures, we're reluctant to call sin, but that's what you call them, because they are an offense to you. So I acknowledge my sin.

[43:59] I repent of my sin. I want to change my mind about my sin. And I want to transfer whatever it is I was trusting in before to the Lord Jesus Christ to be my Savior, because he's the only one who is entitled to wear that name, Savior.

[44:23] As best as I know how, I want to deliver myself to him for his salvation even now. Lord Jesus, here's my life, take it, make it what you want it to be.

[44:34] I want to put my faith in you. Thank you for your forgiveness. Thank you for that incredible price you paid in giving yourself. And thank you that you satisfied the demands of a Holy Father who was then justified in raising Jesus from the dead.

[44:55] In that we glory and rejoice. In Christ's wonderful name. Amen. Amen. Well, dear friend, if you made that decision or if you contemplate making it, please talk to me or to someone else, because there are those here who really care about you and love you and want to see you enjoy the same forgiveness and salvation that they do.

[45:17] God bless you. You are dismissed. God bless you.