[0:00] Let's turn back then to the second passage that we read, the book of Exodus, the Old Testament, chapter 24. The book of Exodus in chapter 24.
[0:13] And we can read again at verse 9. Then Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel went up, and they saw the God of Israel.
[0:32] There was under his feet, as it were, a pavement of sapphire stone, like the very heaven for clearness. And he did not lay his hand on the chief men of the people of Israel.
[0:44] They beheld God and ate and drank. Especially these words in verse 11, at the end of verse 11.
[0:55] They beheld God and ate and drank. I suppose if I asked you to name what you think the three most important chapters in the Old Testament are, and then carry out the same exercise in the New Testament, I wonder how many of you would have Exodus 24 and Hebrews 9 among your list.
[1:33] What would you have in the Old Testament? You'd probably have Genesis 3, the chapter of the fall. You'd probably have Isaiah 53.
[1:46] But I wonder what your third choice would be. Anyway, that's a question for you to meditate on yourself. But if you haven't included Exodus 24 in that, then I would suggest that your list is incomplete.
[2:02] And in the course of the next half hour or so, I want to look at the reasons why I think Exodus 24 should be one of your three favorite chapters in the Old Testament.
[2:16] You may, and of course, please feel free, totally disagree with me at the end of the sermon. And that's fine. For each of us, sometimes chapters speak more to us than they do to others.
[2:32] And we all have our own favorite passages of Scripture. But Exodus 24 is a most unusual chapter, and especially the words that we read from verses 9 to verse 11.
[2:46] We need to put the chapter in its context. This is, of course, after having come out of Egypt, having left Egypt, the children of Israel are at Mount Sinai in the wilderness, the desert, probably very close to the Red Sea, although there's still some argument as to which actual mountain Mount Sinai is, geographically speaking.
[3:13] But we know that they were there almost for a whole year at one time. And it is here that various important things happen between the children of Israel and Moses, the leader.
[3:30] And this is what we see at the very beginning of the chapter. We read at the opening of the chapter, Then God said to Moses, Come up to the Lord. And you notice then that it is Moses, through Moses, that all the instructions are given to the children of Israel.
[3:51] That's what we read in Hebrews in chapter 9 and verse 19. We read, Now, that's exactly that passage in Hebrews.
[4:19] The writer of Hebrews, again, we're not sure who that was, although the doctrine is Pauline, the Greek is not. And it may well have been a series of lectures that Paul gave, which were written down by something, either Luke or Timothy.
[4:35] It doesn't really matter anyway. But the letter to the Hebrews is impossible for us to understand unless we are familiar with the book of Exodus and Leviticus and Numbers and so on.
[4:49] Because the things described in the letter to the Hebrews are showing how the Old Testament rituals were a symbol of what was to come in the Lord Jesus Christ.
[5:04] And that's exactly what the writer to the Hebrews says in verse 23. Thus it was necessary for the copies of the heavenly things to be purified with these rites, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these.
[5:22] For Christ has entered, not into holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf.
[5:36] And those of you who are familiar with the letter to the Hebrews will know how in the course of the letter, the various rites and the various rituals of the Old Testament are laid out for us, and Christ is shown to be superior to all these.
[5:57] In fact, as the writer just wrote, as we read, they were copies. They are symbols showing what was to come. And here in this particular chapter in Exodus, we have, in fact, one of these symbols laid out very, very clearly for us.
[6:18] As we read, come up to the Lord. And you notice that the first thing that we see in the chapter is that there is an invitation, an invitation to come and worship.
[6:32] Come up. Come up to the Lord. And you should always remember, we, you and I, should always remember that coming to worship the Lord morning and evening, weekday and Sabbath, is an invitation from God himself.
[6:49] It's not something that we do naturally. Before, before you were converted, before you came to faith, the worship of God, perhaps on a Sabbath day, perhaps in family worship in your home, was something that you found a ritual that had to be perhaps endured rather than enjoyed.
[7:14] But for the Lord's people, the worship is something that should be enjoyed. That is our prime purpose. The chief end of man is to worship and glorify God.
[7:29] And it is because of his particular invitation. He is the one who invites. Come up to the Lord. And you see who is to come.
[7:41] You and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel, and worship from afar. Moses and Aaron, Moses, of course, is the mediator between the children of Israel and God.
[8:00] He is the only one who can approach personally and to whom God speaks, to whom the Lord speaks, Jehovah speaks throughout the whole process of the time in the wilderness.
[8:16] We see that again at the end of the chapter. Moses, in verse 18, Moses entered the cloud and went up on the mountain, and Moses was on the mountain forty days and forty nights.
[8:28] Now, whether that was literally forty days or forty nights, some argue that that's simply a phrase that is used for a period of time that signifies a period of preparation.
[8:41] It doesn't really matter. But it is then that Moses is given the instructions for the tabernacle and for various other parts of the law that he would have to instruct the children of Israel in.
[8:56] So Moses, when we see and we look at Moses, and it would be easy to spend a lot of time on this, Moses acts as the mediator between God and the children of Israel.
[9:13] And you see that that is clear from verse 2, Moses alone shall come near to the Lord, but the others shall not come near, and the people shall not come up with him.
[9:26] There was a prohibition on the people coming too close, even to the mountain. And if you're familiar with what happened throughout Exodus, you will see that there was one or two points where people did approach in a way that they shouldn't have done and paid the penalty for that.
[9:45] So Moses acts as the mediator. And that's exactly one of the things that the writer of the book of Hebrews, the letter to the Hebrews, opens out for us at the beginning of the book.
[10:01] That he sees that as Moses was a symbolic mediator between God and the people in the Old Testament, he has now been superseded by the work of Christ.
[10:11] That Christ is now the mediator between his people and God in heaven. Who else has to come up? Aaron.
[10:24] Here is the Levitical priesthood. Remember, of course, that Moses and Aaron are brothers of the tribe of Levi. Moses and Aaron. But it is through Aaron that the priesthood will be established.
[10:36] And particularly, Aaron as high priest. And again, if you're familiar with the book of Hebrews, you'll know that the writer spends quite a bit of time telling us how Christ is a better high priest than the high priesthood of the Old Testament.
[10:55] Again, to go into that in great detail would take several sermons. But along with them, Nadab and Abihu. Now, Nadab and Abihu were the two eldest sons of Aaron.
[11:11] And one would assume that in the natural order of things, that Nadab would succeed Aaron to the high priesthood once Aaron dies.
[11:22] And 70 of the elders of Israel. Who were those 70 elders? We're not told. Why 70? Well, it would seem most commentators think that this comes from Jethro, Moses' father-in-law in Exodus 18.
[11:40] You remember when Moses was judging Israel that Jethro said to him, it's too much, this is too much for you to do all by yourself. Learn to delegate.
[11:51] And therefore, 70 elders were appointed. Although they're not called elders that early on, but they are now. Who were they? We don't know.
[12:03] But it would be probable that Caleb and Joshua might have been among them. The only two who would come out of Egypt and enter the promised land because of their disobedience of the others when Moses sends the spies.
[12:19] And you'll remember that story. And worship from afar. Now, what's the significance of that? Well, you see the unity of the people there.
[12:32] There are the 70 representatives of the congregation. There's the representatives of the priesthood and the high priesthood.
[12:43] And there is the mediator. All the elements necessary in the worship of God, in the redemption and salvation of his people, all the elements are there in that first verse of this chapter.
[13:00] But they are still to worship from afar. And of course, again, we see that symbolically throughout the whole tabernacle worship.
[13:11] You will remember that only the high priest was permitted into the most holy place. And that was only once a year on the day of atonement.
[13:22] And that he had to enter with blood. And again, I'm sure you're familiar with that. And that would seem to be one particular day.
[13:33] The chronology of chapter 24 is a little bit difficult to work out at times, but it seems that several things take place over various days here. And so Moses comes down and in verse 3, he told the people all the word of the Lord and all the rules.
[13:52] And here you see the function of the mediator again. That he is telling the people, this is how you will worship. This is how what you must do.
[14:04] And you notice all the people answered with one voice and said, all the words that the Lord has spoken we will do. They say the same thing again in verse 7 after he has read the book of the covenant.
[14:22] All that the Lord has spoken we will do and we will be obedient. And it's fascinating, isn't it, that if you read on in chapter 25 onwards as we're told all the instructions that Moses is given in the mount, while Moses is up in Mount Sinai with God instructing him, what is going on down in the camp?
[14:49] You will remember that Aaron is leading the people in the worship of the golden calf. Didn't take long for them to sin. Didn't take long for them to disobey the instructions that they were given.
[15:04] But again, that's another story which you can look at yourself. And you see in verse 4 that Moses wrote down all the words of the Lord.
[15:16] All the necessary elements that you have for worship are given here. It is written in a book. And this is the book that has come down to us as the books of the law, the first five books of the Old Testament.
[15:32] And according to that, Moses writes down all the words of the Lord and then consecrates it. He rose early in the morning and you can see that this is another day.
[15:45] Maybe the next day, we don't know for sure, but another day. And he builds an altar at the foot of the mountain and twelve pillars according to the twelve tribes of Israel. And you see the symbolism of what is being carried out there.
[15:58] the whole congregation, the twelve tribes, are all represented. And he sent young men of the people of Israel who offered burnt offerings and sacrificed peace offerings of oxen to the Lord.
[16:14] And you notice there's two different offerings, burnt offerings and peace offerings. And though one is clearly stated as a peace offering, you might want to look later on when you go home as to what was the purpose of the burnt offering.
[16:29] I'm sure you're familiar with that anyway. And then we read in verse 6, and this is what we saw in the letter to the Hebrews, Moses took half of the blood and put it in the basins and half of the blood he threw against the altar.
[16:44] I don't like that translation, but you may be familiar with it. I much prefer the term that's used in Hebrews, he sprinkled on the altar rather than throwing. Suggests that he just took it with a basin and just sort of threw it in one go.
[17:01] Whereas the idea of the sprinkling is that every single part is actually covered with the blood. And again, you will see the importance of that.
[17:14] Half of the blood in basins, half of it on the altar. And then he reads the book of the covenant and read it in the hearing of the people.
[17:25] And you see how important the reading of God's word is. Again, all the elements of worship are here. The reading of the book and the people say again, all that the Lord has spoken we will do and we will be obedient.
[17:41] And then in verse 8 we read that Moses takes the blood and threw it on. I don't like that either. It sprinkled it on the people. Now, it couldn't have possibly have been on all the people.
[17:52] Remember, of course, that at this point in Sinai in the wilderness there must be over a million and a half, perhaps two million people in the children of Israel.
[18:04] And to have thrown the blood on two million people would have required an increasing, an incredible amount of blood or even to sprinkle it on them. But it would seem that this is on the representatives of the people.
[18:19] But the key thing is there in verse 8. Behold the blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words.
[18:32] And so you have God confirming and making a covenant with covenant promises to his people. And that the covenant, as we read in the chapter to the Hebrews, we saw indeed under the law almost everything is purified with blood.
[18:52] And without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sin. So that all these elements show us the pattern of worship that is to be inaugurated in the Old Testament and continued into the New.
[19:12] And you may ask and think, well, you know, why do we need to know about the Old Testament worship? Surely the New Testament worship is enough for us. Well, there's a sense in which we could say, yes, it is.
[19:25] But there's another sense in which we could say, well, you won't really understand the full significance of the New Testament worship unless you understand the Old Testament worship first of all.
[19:39] The two things dovetail together. One is a forerunner and a symbol of what is to come. And everything points to the sacrifice that will be made on the cross of Calvary.
[19:54] Everything points to Christ. Everything in the Old Testament points to the Lord Jesus Christ. And we often lose sight of that. behold the blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words.
[20:12] And in the same way, you and I behold the blood of the covenant that was made at the cross. That the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ was shed for his people on the cross.
[20:25] And in the same way, when we come to worship every Sabbath, we are remembering his resurrection until he comes again.
[20:36] And so many people say, you know, well, why don't you, why don't you, why doesn't your denomination celebrate Easter in the way that other churches do? That's why.
[20:47] Because we remember Easter every single Sabbath. We remember the resurrection every single Sabbath. the blood of the covenant. It's there and we can't get away from it.
[20:59] We have to there see it all the time. And then we come to this most amazing passage from verse 9 to verse 11.
[21:11] Here is the invitation. Come up. Then Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abi, and seventy of the elders of Israel went up, and they saw the God of Israel.
[21:23] There was under his feet, as it were, a pavement of sapphire stone, like the very heaven for clearness, and he did not lay his hand. Now, that, that means, the meaning of that is that he did not cause them any harm.
[21:38] This is not the laying of hands on in terms of blessing. This is the term, the idea of no harm was done to them. Why was that? Well, bear in mind that God, it says to Moses, when Moses wants to see God, God says to him, no man can see me and live.
[21:58] No man can see me and live. They saw the God of Israel. What did they see? That's the most fascinating question.
[22:12] If God is a spirit, as Scripture tells us so clearly, we are so used to our concept of God being fashioned by the idea of the terminology that's used to describe God in human terms so that we can relate to it.
[22:31] We talk about God's ears and God's eyes and God's hands and so on. But a spirit doesn't have any of these things. They saw the God of Israel.
[22:45] What did they see? Well, we have to remember that the term God of Israel here applies to the triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
[23:01] Now, again, of course, you cannot see the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit was present in the Old Testament, although perhaps not in the same way as we see it in the New Testament.
[23:14] But now the Holy Spirit is present in each and every believer. Know you not that you are the temple of the Spirit, is the way that Paul puts it. And here we see the triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit represented in the term of Jehovah.
[23:35] I am that I am. The words that were spoken in the burning bush. They saw the God of Israel. what did they see? Well, if they can't see a spirit, then they must have seen something.
[23:53] And I would suggest to you that what they see here is what we call a theophany. If you're not familiar with the word theophany, what it means, theos is the Greek word for God.
[24:06] Thany comes from the part that means an apparition, an apparition of God. A theophany is an appearance of the Lord Jesus Christ in the Old Testament prior to his incarnation in the New.
[24:24] Now, this is not the only theophany in the Old Testament. There are quite a number of them. The one that most people will be familiar with is the one when he appears to Joshua at the beginning of the book of Joshua.
[24:37] You remember that Joshua has undertaken the task of leading the children of Israel into the promised land and they're about to go on the attack to Jericho and Joshua is out by himself in the evening probably praying.
[24:54] And you remember the man who appears to him. What does he say? As commander of the Lord's army, I am come.
[25:06] A pre-incarnation appearance of the Lord Jesus Christ. And this is almost certainly what we have here as well.
[25:17] I say almost because we cannot be 100% sure. But what else could they see? They can't see the Spirit, they can't see the Father. These are both spiritual elements, but they can see the Son.
[25:31] and it is through seeing the Son in the incarnation of the Lord Jesus Christ that the whole covenant will be later fulfilled.
[25:44] And a new covenant put in its place, the covenant of grace. They saw the God of Israel.
[25:56] And then we get this amazing description. there was under his feet, as it were, a pavement of sapphire stone. Now, the pavement is blue.
[26:09] And some people, some commentators suggest that the reason that they see this is because they were bowed down with their hands on the ground and their heads to the ground, and that all they could see was the reflection in this clear pavement of the heaven above.
[26:30] Now, whether that's the case or not, or whether there was an actual pavement of sapphire, of blue stone, like the very heaven for clearness, I mean, if it's blue, how can it be clear?
[26:40] There seems to be a slight contradiction there. You can actually sort of meditate on that one yourselves and see what you mean. It doesn't really matter. But they saw under his feet.
[26:52] And again, you see the terminology that's used. Spirits don't have feet. But a theophany, an appearance of Christ, does have feet.
[27:04] His pre-incarnation form. And he did not lay his hand. He did not cause any damage on the chief men of the people of Israel.
[27:18] They beheld God and ate and drank. What on earth did they eat? And what did they drink? And who provided it for them?
[27:34] I don't think there's any question here that the provision is divine. The provision is made by God himself. Almost certainly by the Lord Jesus Christ providing here bread and wine.
[27:49] God now it doesn't actually specifically say that. But I think that that is what is meant here. That this is the same as we see in what we refer to as the last supper.
[28:04] when our Lord celebrates the supper, the Passover meal with his disciples, you will remember that he takes bread and he takes wine.
[28:17] Take, eat, this is my body which is broken for you. And drink this, do this in remembrance of me. The covenant of blood.
[28:28] And this is a covenant meal. This is the first covenant meal that we see in scripture. Some commentators say that it's also the first communion meal.
[28:44] And that may well be so. They beheld God and ate and drank. And that's the final element, if you like, of the jigsaw, the Lord's supper foretold, the sacrament of the Lord's supper foretold in this covenant meal.
[29:09] You see, a covenant was extremely important in the Old Testament. In fact, the phrase that was used for making a covenant in Hebrew was not to make a covenant, but to cut a covenant.
[29:23] And if you go back to the first time we see that, really, and in Genesis 15 with Abraham, you see exactly why the term cut was used. Because the custom was that an animal was cut in half.
[29:38] The two halves were laid, usually on a table or a pile of stones or an altar or something, in two separate places. And both parties to the covenant then passed between the two halves of the animal.
[29:53] death. And the symbolism was, again, that the covenant was made with blood, with the death, and remember we read that in Hebrews, with the death of the animal involved, and we see again the symbolism of the blood and that all the way through.
[30:11] There's so much to meditate on in these things. The covenant is cut, and that's the same covenant that is promised later on.
[30:23] Behold, the days will come, says the Lord, where I will make a new covenant, he says, in Jeremiah 33, if my memory serves me correctly. I will make a new covenant, and it will no longer be a covenant that's written just in a book, but written on the heart, written on the heart of God's people.
[30:45] They ate and drank. The communion meal, the first communion meal that takes place here. And now you can see, I hope, why this chapter is so important.
[30:58] The first communion meal that God has with his people, and it points us to the coming and the communion meal of the Lord Jesus Christ.
[31:12] The Passover had not been celebrated since the leaving of Egypt, up to this point at Mount Sinai, but were pointed forward from the Passover to the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ and the last supper that takes place with the disciples.
[31:32] And you will remember, of course, how in the Old Testament and the Passover, the blood was applied. It wasn't just that there was blood present. The blood had to be applied to the lintels and the doorpost, not sprinkled on, but painted on.
[31:49] It had to be applied. And if the blood is not applied, if the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ is not applied to the person, then it has no effect whatsoever.
[32:02] And again, you can meditate on that yourselves. And then, time is passing quickly, and then the final part of the chapter is obviously a separate occasion altogether.
[32:16] It's sort of condensed into this one chapter. But we see the last part of the chapter is where Moses is summoned again and summoned to be given the tables of stone.
[32:29] The actual commandments had been given in chapter 20, but the tables weren't given until chapter 31, written with the finger of God.
[32:41] And you will remember, of course, that when Moses comes down with them and the worship of the golden calf is going on, these tables are broken. He throws down the tables and breaks them.
[32:54] And the final part of the chapter shows us this whole appearance of Moses with God, where he is given the instructions for the tabernacle.
[33:06] And chapter 25 onwards goes through all these instructions of how they would build the tabernacle, what was it to be made of, etc. Now, there are many amazing things about the tabernacle, but if you look at them particularly, pay attention to, first of all, the materials in its construction.
[33:27] Remember that gold is the most important thing in the interior. And as you work out from the Holy of Holies, which is a perfect cube.
[33:39] You see that reflected again in the last chapter of Revelation as well, in the building of the new tabernacle there. The more, the further out you go from the most holy place, the more base the materials become.
[33:56] The most precious material is in the holy place. The Ark of the Covenant and the mercy seat, pure gold. And you remember that it is on the mercy seat that the blood of the atonement is sprinkled once a year by the high priest alone for the sins of the people.
[34:17] So there are my reasons as to why I think Exodus 24 should be among your top choices of Old Testament chapters.
[34:28] Now, you may on the way out tell me that you disagree. That's perfectly fine. It doesn't really matter anyway. It's up to yourselves. You can see what goes on in the rest of the chapters to come in Exodus 25.
[34:43] If you look, you'll see from verse 10 onwards the Ark of the Covenant and at verse 17 the function of the mercy seat and the cherubins. And all that would seem wonderful, but there's a sad footnote to this chapter.
[35:05] And the sad footnote is in the sons of Aaron, Nadab and Abihu. Nadab, whom we thought would eventually become the high priest.
[35:21] priesthood. They had been first mentioned in Exodus 6 and verse 23. We see them consecrated as priests in Leviticus chapter 8.
[35:33] So they are part of the priesthood. But what happens to them? Well, if you turn forward with me just for a moment or two to Leviticus 10.
[35:45] Leviticus chapter 10. It's not very far away. Just a few more pages further on.
[36:00] Page 104 in this book. I'm just going to read a few verses at the beginning. Now Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, each took a censer and put fire in it and laid incense on it and offered unauthorized fire before the Lord which he had not commanded them.
[36:23] And fire came out from before the Lord and consumed them and they died before the Lord. Then Moses said to Aaron, this is what the Lord has said, among those who are near me I will be sanctified and before all the people I will be glorified.
[36:40] And Aaron held his peace. God's justice is applied in a most severe form to these two.
[36:53] Why? What did they do wrong? Well, we read in the first verse, offered unauthorized fire before the Lord. The censer, I'm sure you've seen it often enough, you see it in the Anglican Church, the Roman Catholic Church, the priest carrying the thing that smoke comes out of, incense smoke and so on, and in order to burn the incense you obviously require hot coals or some kind of fire in the censer.
[37:22] Now that was part of the worship that God had commanded. But what he had commanded was that every censer that was to burn incense had to be lit by coals from the altar of burnt offering.
[37:39] The fire that God himself had sent down from heaven when he inaugurates the tabernacle and when the Shekinah cloud of glory covers the tabernacle.
[37:52] It is by God's command. And that was the only fire that was authorized. And as a result, they are destroyed by fire.
[38:07] Many commentators think, if you look a little further down at verse 8, that the reason that they did this and the reason that they were punished was what it says in verse 8.
[38:19] The Lord spoke to Aaron, and you'll notice that it's to Aaron, not to Moses, to Aaron. Drink no wine nor strong drink, you or your sons with you, when you go into the test of meeting, lest you die.
[38:36] it shall be a statute forever throughout your generations. Many commentators take from that, that Nadab and Abihu were drunk when they burnt this incense before the Lord.
[38:54] And that that is why they were punished. It's not the only instance of God's severity that we see taking place in the Old Testament.
[39:05] We see, for example, in Numbers 15, a man who was gathering sticks for a fire on the Sabbath. And the command from the Lord is that he is to be stoned for Sabbath breaking.
[39:21] We see also the punishment on Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, and those who rebelled with them. In Numbers 16, who rebelled against Moses, what happened? The earth opened and swallowed them.
[39:34] Not just the men who were guilty, but their whole families. You see, the punishment met it out on Achan, when he takes what he shouldn't have done from Jericho.
[39:50] And in the words of Psalm 130, if God should mark iniquity, who could stand? Who could stand? If God was to punish us in severity for every time we break his covenant laws, how many of us would survive the day, even if it's just the amount of Sabbath breaking that we do, and I include myself.
[40:20] Lord, if thou shouldst mark iniquity, who can stand? It's a solemn thing for us to think of these things, solemn to think our country has turned its back on the principles of God's word.
[40:34] And if God were to act in severity with the examples of punishment that we see in the Old Testament, if he were to apply that today, the outcome would be tragic.
[40:50] Aren't you thankful that there is a new covenant, a covenant of grace, that we have a mediator with the Father, an advocate with the Father, as John puts it, that the Holy Spirit intercedes for us, because otherwise none of us would stand.
[41:14] And it is through the shedding of blood that we find remission for our sin. And this chapter in Exodus 24 shows us all these elements, and all these elements point us forward, as the writer to the Hebrews puts it so clearly in chapter 9, to the Christ who was to come, and the Christ who would fulfill all the terms of the covenant, who would satisfy God's perfect justice, and satisfy it because he was the perfect sacrifice that would be offered for each and every one of us.
[41:58] May the Lord bless to us these thoughts this evening. Let us pray. Oh Lord, we thank you for your word this evening. So many wonderful things in it for us to consider and to meditate upon, but we thank you that the covenant of grace is now the covenant that you have with your people, that there is a new covenant, and that there is the blood that cleanses from all sins.
[42:26] We thank you for the Lord Jesus Christ and his sacrifice on the cross. We pray that you would bless these thoughts to us this evening, that you would make the work of Christ so wonderful to us and precious to us in our thoughts each and every day.
[42:45] Be with us now as we conclude our worship and pardon sin through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. Let us conclude by singing verses in Psalm 36 on page 251.
[43:05] Psalm 36 at verse 5. We'll sing the verses marked 5 to 9, four verses, and these wonderful words in this Psalm again reflect what we have been meditating on.
[43:18] Thy mercy, Lord, is in the heavens. Thy truth doth reach the clouds. Thy justice is like mountains great, thy judgment deep as floods. Lord, thou preservest man and beast, how precious is thy grace.
[43:33] Therefore, in shadow of thy wings, men's sons, their trust shall place. And again, remember, the wings there suggest to you the cherubim on top of the Ark of the Covenant.
[43:45] God's presence signified by the wings over the mercy seat. And so on, down to verse 9. Let us sing these four verses in conclusion.
[43:58] Psalm 36 at verse 5. Thy mercy, Lord, is in the heavens. Thy mercy, Lord, is in the heavens.
[44:16] Thy truth doth reach the clouds. Thy justice is like mountains great, thy Johnson's King, Johnson's kingdom.
[44:58] Thy glass Kil sua The orange shadow of thy wings, and sons ever cross shall bless.
[45:21] Save with the darkness of thine eyes, shall be well satisfied.
[45:38] From the rivers of thine treasures, the wealth in truth and provide.
[45:59] If cause of life the founded fury, in sorrow the weary, and in the purest light of the weakly, the light shall see.
[46:36] Amen. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with you all now and forever.
[46:47] Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Pray forēµ Star.
[46:58] God bless you.