Christ's Compassion for the Condemned, Part 3

If you have your Bible, turn with me to Luke chapter 13. Luke chapter 13 this morning, as we look at two verses that help us to understand the entire history and future of Israel.

Two verses that describe for us the character and nature of God, because when you think of Israel, you must think of the character and nature of the Lord God. Let me read these two verses to you.

There are two verses we've covered the last two weeks, we'll cover again today and next week as well. Oh Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those sent to her. How often I wanted to gather your children together, just as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not have it. Behold your house is left to you desolate, and I say to you, you shall not see me until the time comes when you say, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Two verses that describe the past of Israel, the city that kills the prophets and stones those sent to her, that's their past.

It describes their present, behold, I have left your house desolate, in ruins. I've abandoned you, I have left you, and also the future, for you will not see me until you say, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. The past, the present, and the future of Israel. What they did in the past, God showed his compassion, his pathos. How concerned he was, oh Jerusalem, Jerusalem, I wanted to gather you together, you just would not have it. You didn't want it, and you're described as the city that kills the prophets and stones those sent to her.

So, you face my punishment, my condemnation, I've left you, I've abandoned you, I've left you to your own ruin. This is no longer my house, it's your house. Ichabod has been written across it, the glory of the Lord has departed. But, God's not done with Israel, there is a future. For you will not see me until you say, this is the promise, this is the prophecy, this is the conversion of Israel. There's coming a day when you will see me, and you will say, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.

God is not finished with Israel yet, contrary to popular opinion in most churches, where the church has now replaced Israel as the key component in the future of the world, God is not done with Israel. And I think it's so fitting for us to understand that this set of verses tells us about God and his trustworthiness. God is faithful. Will God fulfill his promise to Israel? Will he complete it? Can you trust God to do what he says he's going to do in the life of a nation? Because if you can't, then you can't trust God to do what he says he's going to do in your individual life.

That's important. If God fails on his promise to Israel, you can bank on the fact that he'll fail on his promise to you. But because he's trustworthy, because he is a God who is faithful, he will fulfill his promise to Israel. As we speak, we know that Israel is thinking about how they will strike Iran because Iran is about to build this nuclear bomb that will destroy their enemies. Iran has decided that they want to wipe Israel off the face of the earth. So Israel is in a dilemma. What do we do?

So we as Americans have posed sanctions against Iran, which really doesn't do much anyway. But Israel, as we speak, has decided that sometime between April and June, they will enact their airstrikes against Iran. Well, Iran has threatened back. He's threatened the United States with strikes against us here in America, as well as retaliation against Israel. You see, Israel has nothing to worry about. We do. Israel doesn't. Because God's preserving Israel. He's going to protect them. They will be saved.

There's going to come a national salvation. And they can strike anybody they want to strike. God's going to protect them. Because the plan of the world revolves around that little piece of real estate in the Middle East called the land of Israel. Everything revolves around that. And so God in His sovereignty has designed a plan that runs perfectly according to His own purposes. God's character is at stake. Because that little phrase, until, is a key component in the prophecy of Israel. It's not unless you say, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.

It says until you say, meaning it's going to happen. How do we know it's going to happen? Because God said it would. And if God said it would happen, it will. That's why in 1 Corinthians 10 31, it says that God is faithful, right? God is faithful. That He will not allow you to experience any kind of temptation that's beyond His ability to take you through it. God's faithful. The Bible says in 1 Peter 4 verse number 19, that God is a faithful creator.

So when you suffer difficulty and hardship, you are to entrust your soul to a faithful creator in doing what is right. In other words, that when you face adversity, when you face hardship, all you need to do is entrust your soul to a faithful creator, doing what is right. And God, because He is trustworthy, because His character is on the line, He will make sure you are protected and taken care of because it's about Him, not you. He's a faithful God. That's why when you get worried about your future and the assurance of your salvation, Paul says in 1 Thessalonians 5 24, faithful is he who called you, who also will bring it to pass.

In other words, if He's called you into His presence and into His kingdom, He is faithful to bring to pass that which He's called you to do. He's called you to His kingdom. He's going to present you spotless before the throne of God. He is a faithful God. So faithful that when He arrives in Revelation 19, His name is called faithful and true. He's faithful. He said He was coming back. He will come back. He said He would arrive. He will arrive again. And that's why His name is called faithful and true because what He said is true and He's faithful to what He says.

God's faithfulness surrounds Him as the psalmist says because He is a God who is faithful. When you sin, what guarantee do you have that you're forgiven of your sins? If you confess your sins, He's faithful and just to forgive you of your sins and to cleanse you from all unrighteousness. We know that because the Bible says so and God is true to His word.

The Bible says in Psalm 31.5, God is the God of truth. In Titus 1.2, He cannot lie. Hebrews 10.23, God who promised is faithful. God is absolutely true to His word. We saw last week, He told Israel, if you listen to me and you obey my voice, you will experience my blessing. If at any time you refuse to listen to me and don't obey my voice, you will experience my cursings. And God was faithful to do what He said. They did not listen to His voice. They spurned His law and they are experiencing the cursings of God even as we speak because God is true to His word.

In the book of 2 Timothy, there is what is called a trustworthy statement. There are five of them in 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy and Titus called the pastoral epistles. There were three in 1 Timothy, one in 2 Timothy and one in the book of Titus. A trustworthy statement is a phrase or a truth about the living God that is axiomatic in the early church. They all believed it. They all knew it. They all affirmed it. They all confirmed it. They believed it as true because this is the way their God is. And in 2 Timothy 2.11, it says this is a trustworthy statement.

You can bank on this. This is an ironclad guarantee. Here it goes. If we died with Him, we shall also live with Him. That's true, right? Paul said, I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless I live, yet not I but Christ lives in me. Paul died to Christ. If we die with Him, we shall live with Him. If He did not come to me, let Him deny Himself, take up His cross and follow after me. Because Christianity is the way of the cross. When we are saved, we're baptized and when we are baptized, we go down through water because we are buried in the likeness of His death and raised in the likeness of His resurrection.

Christ says, if we died with Him, we shall live with Him. That's a trustworthy statement. If we endure, verse 12, we shall also reign with Him. And that's true. The perseverance of the saints. We persevere not because we muster up a lot of energy, but because God through His spiritual work in us, through the Spirit of God Himself, energizes us and causes us to persevere even to the very end. That's why we can say that when a man falls, his fall is never final, nor is it full. It's only partial. Because He will persevere to the end because it's God who causes him to persevere.

And so it's a trustworthy statement. If we endure, we shall reign with Him. If we deny Him, He also will deny us. That's a trustworthy statement. Right? If we deny Him, He will deny us. Matthew chapter 10 says, if you confess me before men, I will confess you before my Father who is in heaven. But if you deny me before men, I will deny you before my Father who is in heaven. The characteristic of a believer is not to deny Christ, but to affirm Christ. The character of the unbeliever is to deny Christ, not to affirm Him.

So, if we deny Him, He also will deny us. Verse 13. If we are faithless, He remains faithful, for He cannot deny Himself. And people say, wow, that sure is good because if I'm faithless, He's faithful. That's not what it means. If you're faithless, He's faithful to do what He's promised to do, and that's to deny you before His Father in heaven. Because He cannot deny Himself. See that? He is faithful. He is true to His Word. He cannot deny Himself. So, He is true to what He says He will do. And that's what makes God so great.

You can count on Him. You can trust Him. You can believe in Him. Because everything He says is true. And everything He says, He will accomplish because He's faithful to do it. And in Luke chapter 13, our Lord says, there's a promise of Israel's conversion. And that promise is that you will not see Me until you say, blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord. God is true to His Word. Remember way back in the book of Genesis, there was a covenant made between God and Abraham. Romans 9, remember Romans 9?

We talked about this a couple of weeks ago. Paul talks about the advantages that Israel had. He says in Romans 9, 4, to whom, the Israelites, to whom belongs the adoption of sons, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the temple service, and the promises. Israel received the promises. They received the covenants. Okay? That's why they were so blessed. To whom much is given, much is required. That's why their condemnation is so severe. Because they were given everything, and yet they turned their back on their Messiah.

So way back in Genesis chapter 12, God calls Abraham, and God reveals to Abraham His covenant that He will make him a father of a great nation, and His seed will bless the nations of the world. He will give him a land, a promised land. A land for his descendants to live on. In Genesis chapter 15, He ratifies that covenant. It's reiterated in Genesis 17, and all throughout the book of Genesis to Isaac and Jacob. And they're able to understand this Abrahamic covenant. And in Genesis 15, God ratifies that covenant by taking these animals, cutting them up, telling Abraham to cut these animals up, put them in a line, putting Abraham in a coma, a semi-coma, and then God walking through, by symbolizing a flame and a torch, His promise to Abraham.

That promise included Egyptian captivity for 400 years. It promised the captivity of His descendants for 400 years. But that He'd bring them out of that captivity, and He would give them a land. He would give them a land, and God would bless them. He made a covenant with Abraham. Now in those days, in ancient days, what they did was they'd take the animals, and animals were very important to people in ancient days because they were so valuable. And so to take the animals, and to cut them up, and to sacrifice them, and to lay them out, would mean that this cost you to make this covenant.

It cost you. And yet when God walked through the bloody animal pieces, He walked through by Himself, not with Abraham. Because it's an unconditional covenant. It's not conditioned on Abraham. The fulfillment of the covenant is not conditioned on Abraham. It's conditioned on God's faithfulness to keep His promise to Abraham. And that's why it's reiterated all throughout the Old Testament, what God promised to our father Abraham, our father Jacob, our father Isaac, and so forth. Because it's all about the promises He made.

And that's why in Hebrews chapter 6, these words are given. Hebrews chapter 6, verse number 13. For when God made the promise to Abraham, since He could swear by no one greater, He swore by Himself, saying, I will surely bless you, and I will surely multiply you. Verse number 17. In the same way, God desiring even more to show to the heirs of the promise, the unchangeableness of His purpose, interposed with an oath, in order that by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we may have strong encouragement, we who have fled for refuge and laying hold of the hope set before us.

God made a promise. He could swear by no one greater than Himself, because He is the God of truth. And that promise is dependent upon God and God alone to fulfill. God made a promise. He made a promise to Abraham that He'd have a seed that would bless the nations of the world. And that seed would rain on a soil called the Promised Land. But God was not done because He made a covenant with David, King David. He made a covenant with David in 2 Samuel chapter 7, where He said these words. 2 Samuel chapter 7, verse number 13.

That a son from David shall build a house for My name, and I will establish the throne of His kingdom forever. I will be a father to him, and he will be a son to Me. When he commits iniquity, I will correct him with the rod of men and the strokes of the sons of men. But My lovingkindness shall not depart from him, as I took it away from Saul, whom I removed from before you. And your house and your kingdom shall endure before Me forever. Your throne shall be established forever. So He made a promise to David that there'd be a sovereign that would reign on the soil in Israel.

The sovereign would be the king whose kingdom would last forever. So God makes these covenants. He makes these promises. Israel received the promises. And because they received the promises, God says, you have all the benefits.

You have all the blessings. I've given these specifically to you. And whether or not they're going to be fulfilled or not depends on Me, not on you. Because I am true to My Word. That's the way our God is. They're promised a land. They're promised a seed that will bless the nations of the world. They're promised a king who will rule in that land. That's been a promise given by God to Abraham, his descendants, to King David, his descendants. And God will accomplish His facts. So for that all to happen, the seed has to come.

The Messiah has to arrive. So He does. He comes to the land promised to Abraham. The promised land. He comes. And that's why Luke is so unique because Zacharias brings it all together for us in Luke chapter 1. The song of Zacharias, the benedictus of Zacharias. As He takes us way back into the Old Testament and says that this now is the fulfillment of Abrahamic promise. This now is the fulfillment of Davidic promise. This now is fulfillment of the new covenant that God has promised to His people that He will save us from our sins.

And so in Luke chapter 1, verse number 77, this is what Zacharias says. He says very clearly these words. He says that with the coming of the Messiah, He's going to give to His people the knowledge of salvation by the forgiveness of their sins. Finally forgiveness can come.

There has been sacrifice after sacrifice after sacrifice after sacrifice. Millions upon millions upon millions of animals have been sacrificed. But there has to come a final sacrifice. There has to come one that will remove all sin, not just cover sin. Finally, forgiveness of sins.

Because of the tender mercy of our God with which the sunrise from on high shall visit us. To shine upon those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death to guide our feet into the way of peace. He says in verse number 69 or verse 68, Blessed be the Lord God of Israel for He has visited us and accomplished redemption for His people. That's the theme of Zacharias' song. Redemption has been accomplished. Because Messiah is here. My son John the Baptist is the forerunner to the Messiah. He's going to appoint everybody to that Messiah.

He's going to come. He's going to redeem His people. There will be forgiveness of sins. He will guide us in the way of peace. And finally the sunrise from on high shall rise and the Old Testament promises will be fulfilled.

That's what Zacharias sees with the birth of the Messiah. But He comes and they reject Him. He comes and they despise Him. He comes and they attribute everything He does to Satan. They want nothing to do with Him. And so they end up crucifying their Messiah. Hanging Him on a tree. Which is really a fulfillment of a plan established long, long ago by God. And what they did, accomplished redemption for us and ultimately for them. But at the time all they wanted to do was rid themselves of this one called Jesus.

In their minds a self-proclaimed Messiah. Not knowing that He truly was the Messiah of Israel. And that's why over in Acts chapter 13 verse number 22. Acts 13 verse number 32, excuse me, it says. And we preach to you the good news of the promise made to the fathers. What's the promise? The promise is of a seed. So the promise given to Abraham. A covenant is a promise. To the soil, the land that His descendants would have. The promise to David that there was a sovereign who would rule on that land.

The King of Israel. So He says in verse 32. We preach the good news of the promise made to the fathers. That God has fulfilled the promise to our children. In that He raised up Jesus. As it is also written in the second Psalm.

Thou art my son, today I have begotten thee. And as for the fact that He raised Him up from the dead. No more to return to decay. He has spoken in this way. I will give you the holy and sure blessings of David. Therefore He also says in another Psalm. Thou will not allow thy Holy One to undergo decay. So important. Because all the promises of the Old Testament. Were fulfilled in this one called Jesus the Messiah. In fact if you go back in the Old Testament. You realize that it says that the Messiah will die.

You can read about it in Psalm 16. You can read about it in Psalm 22. You can read about it in Isaiah chapter 53. You can read about it in Daniel chapter 9. Where the Messiah will be cut off. The Old Testament prophets spoke of the death of the Messiah. And so what Peter is saying is simply this. Or what Paul is saying in Acts 13 is simply this. That this is the fulfillment of the promise that God said He would do. And everything concerning His death was a fulfillment of promise. Everything concerning His resurrection was a fulfillment of promise.

And for Israel. They can't get over the fact. Even today. That their forefathers were right. In their minds. They can't get over the hump. That their forefathers would have been all wrong. They can't all be wrong can they? I mean after all. They all wanted to crucify Him. They all wanted to rid themselves of His influence. They all can't be wrong can they? They had to be right. That their priests. That their religious leaders. Spoke against this one called Jesus. They had to be right. But they were certainly and completely wrong.

It's a mystery. It's inconceivable. That their ancestors would make such a monumental mistake. In crucifying their Messiah. After all. How could He be the Messiah when His kingdom didn't arrive? How could He be the Messiah when He didn't have a crown? How could He be the Messiah when He didn't have subjects that followed Him galore? How could He be a King when He didn't have an army of soldiers? How could He be a King? After all we're looking for a Messiah who is the King. And yet. That's exactly what happened.

All the fulfillment of the plan of God of course. God is remarkable in how it is He fulfills His plans. But there is this promise. That Israel will be saved. We have looked at the compassion of our God. And how concerned He is for Israel. How He wants to gather them together. Yet they would not come. We looked at the condemnation of God. Your house has left you desolate. It's in ruins. I've departed. The glory of the Lord has departed. They've been in ruins ever since. 70 A.D. Because that's what Christ prophesied would take place.

According to Luke's Gospel. And that desolation has been Israel's existence until this day. And will be until, until they say, Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord. Meaning they will say that one day. They will. That's a promise that God has given. It's a promise of conversion. It's a promise of Israel's salvation. Turn with me in your Bible to Romans chapter 11 for a moment.

There are people today who say that the church is the new Israel. Well, that's not true. The church is not the new Israel. Israel is Israel. The church is the church. And God promised the curses. If Israel didn't listen.

Did they receive the curses? Absolutely. God also promises the future fulfillment of blessing. And God is true to His word. In Romans chapter 10 verse 21 it says, But as for Israel he says, All the day long I have stretched out my hands to a disobedient and obstinate people. That's Israel today. They haven't changed from the time of Christ till now.

Paul says, I say then, God has not rejected His people, has He? May it never be. No, no, no. It is impossible. For I too am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham of the tribe of Benjamin. God has not rejected His people whom He foreknew. Or do you know, not know, what the Scripture says in the passage about Elijah?

How he pleads with God against Israel? Lord, they have killed the prophets. They have torn down thine altars. And I alone am left and they are seeking my life. Elijah thought he was the only one left. He thought he was the only one left to follow the Lord God. But what is the divine response to him? Verse 4, I have kept for myself 7,000 men who have not bowed the knee to Baal. In the same way then there has also come to be at the present time a remnant according to God's gracious choice. Listen, folks.

There has always been a salvation of a remnant of Jewish people. God's always left it that way. God is not done with Israel. When Elijah bemoaned the fact that he was the only guy left, God says, Elijah, relax.

Dude, you're not the only guy around. There are 7,000 other prophets who have yet to bow the knee to Baal. You're not the only one out there. You're not the lone ranger. There are other ones there. And Paul says, you know what? That's the way it is today. There's a remnant. When Jesus was born, there was a remnant. And we read about him in the book of Luke. Who are they? There's Anna. There's Simeon. There's Mary. There's Joseph. There's Zacharias. There's Elizabeth. There's the wise men, the sages.

There is the shepherds. There is a remnant of people who believe in the arrival of the Messiah and their outline for us in Scripture. Were there more? We don't know. All we know is what the Bible tells us. Right? But there was a remnant. There's always been a remnant because that's the way God works. And Paul says in Romans 11, there is a remnant that believe and that will be saved. Then it says in verse 25, For I do not want you, brethren, to be uninformed of this mystery, lest you be wise in your own estimation, that a partial hardening has happened to Israel until...

There's that word again. Until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. There's a partial hardening in Israel. It's not a permanent hardening. It's a partial hardening. It's going to end. When is it going to end? When the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. When the church is complete. When the church has been established. When the church is done, God then goes back to working with Israel. And thus all Israel, verse 26, will be saved. Just as it is written, The deliverer will come from Zion. He will remove ungodliness from Jacob.

And this is my covenant with them when I take away their sins. God binds himself to his promise. He says, and this is my covenant. This is my promise to them. I will take away their sins. God's made a promise. It will be fulfilled in the life of Israel. The Bible says in 1 Samuel 12, 22, The Lord will not abandon his people on account of his great name.

His integrity is on the line. God's character is at stake. He will not abandon his people because of his great name. So if I can trust God to do what he says he's going to do with Israel, Then I know that what he says he's going to do with me, he's going to do. Because God is true to his word. God never reneges on his promises. God is absolutely trustworthy. And he's the only one who is. So we can bank on the things that he says. We can believe what he says. Back in Psalm 89, it says these words.

Psalm 89, about the covenant that God made with David. He said in verse number 1, I'm sorry, verse number 7, And God greatly feared in the counsel of the holy ones, and awesome above all those who are around him. O Lord God of hosts, who is like thee, almighty Lord? Thy faithfulness also surrounds thee. Verse 30, If his sons forsake my law, and do not walk in my judgments, If they violate my statutes, and do not keep my commandments, Then I will visit their transgression with the rod and their nicotine stripes.

And that's what the Lord God did. But I will not break off my loving kindness from him, Nor deal falsely in my faithfulness. My covenant I will not violate, nor will I alter the utterance of my lips. Once I am sworn by my holiness, I will not lie to David. This is my covenant. This is my promise. I will not lie to David. I will bring his people, my people back. I will save Israel. That's God's promise. That's the way God himself works. He is so kind. He is so compassionate. He is so generous. Listen to the words of Nehemiah.

This is absolutely amazing. Nehemiah chapter 9 verse number 16. As the Levites rehearse the past of Israel. Verse 16. But they, our fathers, acted arrogantly. They became stubborn and would not listen to thy commandments. And they refused to listen and did not remember thy wondrous deeds which thou hast performed among them. So they became stubborn and appointed a leader to return to their slavery in Egypt. But thou art a God of forgiveness, gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in loving kindness.

And thou didst not forsake them. He did not forsake them. Verse 26. But they became disobedient and rebelled against thee and cast thy law behind their backs and killed thy prophets who admonished them so that they might return to thee. And they committed great blasphemies. Therefore thou didst deliver them into the hand of their oppressors who oppressed them. But when they cried to thee in the time of their distress, thou didst hear from heaven and according to thy great compassion thou didst give them deliverers who delivered them from the hand of their oppressors.

But as soon as they had rest, they did evil again before thee. Therefore thou didst abandon them to the hand of their enemies so that they ruled over them. When they cried again to thee, thou didst hear from heaven. And many times thou didst rescue them according to thy compassion and admonish them in order to turn them back to thy law. Yet they acted arrogantly and did not listen to thy commandments but sinned against thy ordinances by which if a man observes them he shall live. And they turned a stubborn shoulder and stiffened their neck and would not listen.

However, thou didst bear with them for many years and admonished them by thy spirit through the prophets. Yet they would not give ear, therefore thou didst give them into the hand of the peoples of the lands. Nevertheless, in thy great compassion thou didst not make an end of them or forsake them for thou art a gracious and compassionate God. Now therefore our God, the great, the mighty and the awesome God who does keep covenant and loving kindness. He keeps his promises. Israel rebelled, they were repentant, they were restored and they rebelled.

They were repentant, they were restored and they rebelled. They were repentant, they were restored and they rebelled again. Over and over and over again. And God because of his gracious, loving kindness and mercy restored them back, restored them back. He forgave them of their sins. Yes, he abandoned them into the hand of their oppressors. Yes, he abandoned them into the realm of desolation. But he brings them back again, he brings them back. He just keeps bringing them back because that's his promise.

He made a covenant to David. He made a covenant to Abraham. He's going to keep his word. That's the way God is. He never lies, he never changes, he always keeps his word. And for us, we come today to celebrate the Lord's table because Christ our Passover was sacrificed for us. And I look at Israel and I know that God's got a plan for them because he said, there's going to come a day when you will say, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.

And when you say that, Israel will be saved because there will be a remnant that's left. And Zacharias tells us that there's one third of Israel which is the remnant, they will be saved.

They will enter the kingdom promised to Abraham. They will have their king on the throne in the city of David on Mount Zion, ruling just as he promised David. It will happen exactly as he said it would happen because God is trustworthy. So I come today, you come today before a table that symbolizes the finished work of Christ for your salvation and mine. Why am I saved? Because of what Christ did. How do I know I'm forgiven? Because he shed his blood for my sins. He bore in his body on a tree, my sins as he bore your sins.

That I might experience the forgiveness of almighty God. The assurance of eternal glory with him. I trust that what God says is true.

I believe what he says is absolutely true. My sins are forgiven. I've been cleansed from all my sin. One day I will go to heaven and be with him forever. I have an ironclad assurance that God is my Savior, my Lord, my Master. He is my Messiah as well as Israel's Messiah. And I will go home to be with him because of what he did on Calvary's cross some 2,000 years ago. That's our assurance. We can trust him, we can believe in him because what he says is true. He does not lie. He has made an oath with himself.

He is completely faithful and trustworthy. Therefore, I know that when he says my sins are forgiven, they are. When he has a place in heaven prepared for me, he does. Because that's what he said. Do you trust him that way? Because you see, the direct opposite is true. That if you don't believe in him and you don't come to Calvary's cross and receive forgiveness, you'll perish in your sins. Because that's what he said. I wouldn't do it that way, but I'm not God. He's a God of wrath as well as a God of mercy.

He's a God of justice. He's a God of righteousness and holiness. His word is completely true. If you're faithless, he is faithful, for he cannot deny himself. If you deny him, he will deny you before his Father who is in heaven. God is true. The flip side, though, is if you believe him, give your life to him, trust him, experience his saving grace, that heaven is yours forever. Let me pray with you.

Father, we thank you for today and the opportunity we have to study your word. And come together, Lord, to partake once again of the Lord's table of the beautiful sacrifice that you gave for us. Our prayer, Lord, is that as we gather together today, our hearts will be right before you. And no one will leave today without experiencing the saving grace of Jesus Christ, our Lord. We pray in your name. Amen.