[0:00] Christians, I'm sure, the second part of verse 20 is our motto, if I can put it that way. But I'm going to read from the beginning of verse 20. So Galatians 2, verse 20, I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. And then I think many of us, all of us, would take up these words. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. As I said this morning as we began our worship, the Christian life is something very personal. It has to do with the very me, my. It must be to do with, as Paul says here, the Son of God who loved me. Unless we know that Christ loved me and gave himself for me, then we can have no part in that salvation. We can believe in our heads that Jesus died. We can believe in our heads he's the Son of God. We can believe all sorts of things about him, but unless it becomes personal, and so I can say I live by faith now, it's not just something that happened when we were a child or a teenager or however old we were, but I live by faith now in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me, which is clearly the cross that we're thinking about. I hope that's our experience. I hope that's the reality of what we are about together.
[1:23] Otherwise, we are into something which is dead, mere intellectual acknowledgement or acceptance, a type of religion, but as Paul speaks of the Jews in another part, lacking the power. It's the power that comes through personal faith in Christ that makes all the difference. And it's in this Jesus, whose name is the most glorious and wonderful name, that we come to worship. 165, join all the glorious names. Bring them all together, every title, every possible conceivable honor. None of them come close to giving to Jesus the worth and the worship that he deserves. So let's stand and sing. 165.
[2:03] Don't do not speak for many people. Don't do not sing. 175. May all the glorious names of other people appear on earth in the rooftop состояниE O The names of wisdom, love and love That ever brought us in And angels ever won All out to thee To speak his word to thee To send my Saviour for Together from God's word And we're going to read from Romans and chapter 5 Reading from Romans and chapter 5
[3:09] And we're going to read the first 21 verses Which is actually the whole chapter But chapter 5 of Romans Reading through from verse 1 Therefore, since we have been justified through faith We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ Through whom we have gained access by faith Into this grace in which we now stand And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings Because we know that suffering produces perseverance Perseverance, character And character, hope And hope does not disappoint us Because God has poured out his love into our hearts By the Holy Spirit Whom he has given us You see At just the right time
[4:09] When we were still powerless Christ died for the ungodly Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man Though for a good man Someone might possibly dare to die But God demonstrates his own love for us In this While we were still sinners Christ died for us Since we have been justified by his blood How much more shall we be saved From God's wrath through him For if when we were God's enemies We were reconciled to him Through the death of his son How much more having been reconciled Shall we be saved through his life Not only is this so But we also rejoice in God Through our Lord Jesus Christ Through whom we have now received Reconciliation Therefore Just as sin entered the world Through one man And death through sin And in this way death came to all men Because all sinned For before the law was given
[5:09] Sin was in the world But sin is not taken into account Where there is no law Nevertheless Death reigned from the time of Adam To the time of Moses Even over those who did not sin By breaking a command As did Adam Who was a pattern of the one to come But the gift is not like the trespass For if the many died By the trespass of the one man How much more did God's grace And the gift that came By the grace of the one man Jesus Christ Overflow to the many Again the gift of God Is not like the result Of the one man's sin The judgment followed one's sin And brought condemnation But the gift followed many trespasses And brought justification For if by the trespass of the one man Death reigned through the one man How much more will those who receive God's abundant provision of grace And of the gift of righteousness Reign in life through the one man
[6:10] Jesus Christ Consequently Just as the result of one trespass Was condemnation for all men So also the result of one act Of righteousness Was justification that brings life For all men For just as through the disobedience Of the one man The many were made sinners So also through the obedience Of the one man The many will be made righteous The law was added So that the trespass might increase But where sin increased Grace increased all the more So that just as sin reigned in death So also grace might reign Through righteousness To bring eternal life Through Jesus Christ our Lord Praise God Please turn with me if you would To Romans and chapter 5 Particularly the first half Of that chapter That I want us to be Considering and thinking about This morning The reason I'm preaching On the subject I am
[7:11] As I'll introduce in a moment Is because last Sunday morning We were looking at Jesus The good shepherd And went through Some of the aspects of Jesus' Wonderful ministry And salvation towards his sheep And a few folk mentioned to me One particular aspect of that Where Jesus says I lay down my life For my sheep And the importance And the necessity Of us understanding Who Jesus died for And so that gave rise To me thinking about this subject And to bringing us To this matter today Hope there's none of you here Who suffer from haemophobia Anybody know Anybody suffer from haemophobia here?
[7:57] You do Fear of blood The fear of blood So if you ever watch things Like Doc Martin He had that haemophobia So that he kept sort of Fainting whenever he saw blood Not very pleasant I hope nobody here Is a haemophiliac If you are That's somebody who If you cut yourself The blood won't clot As it should And you keep on Bleeding Because of an inherited condition I hope that your Haematocrit Level is good Haematocrit level All you doctors All you nurses So many nurses here Should all know all of this I'm most satisfied You don't know these things Haemocrit That word I said No, no Not haemoglobin It's about haemoglobin It's the measure of your haemoglobin In your blood See how thick it is If it's too thick Then that's not good That's a haematocrit And What we're going to do tonight Is we're going to have
[8:58] Some haematology Okay We like ologies Don't we So we're going to have Some haematology Study of blood Well The blood of Christ That we Have sung about Thought about Prayed about Is something which Is Everywhere As it were The pages of scripture Are blood red With With The blood of Christ Those who wrote The New Testament In particular Over and over again Speak of Christ's blood Paul in Ephesians 2 You who once were far away Have been brought near Through the blood Of Christ Peter 1 Peter chapter 1 You who have been chosen According to the foreknowledge Of God the Father Through the sanctifying work Of the Spirit For obedience to Jesus Christ And sprinkling By his blood And John the apostle His first letter If we walk in the light As he is in the light We have fellowship With one another And the blood Of Jesus his son
[9:58] Purifies us From all sin If we take a look Into heaven If we were able to Look into heaven This evening Or eavesdrop into heaven This evening What a wonderful thing That would be And there we would find That the theme Of worship That the angels And the saints Bring to The Lord Jesus Christ The Lamb Is concerning the blood You are worthy Revelation 9 To open the seals Because you were slain And with your blood Purchased men for God From every tribe And language And people And nation The song of heaven Is the song Of the blood Of the Lamb Now I think it's Inappropriate For us outside Of the church To go up to people In the street And ask them Are you washed In the blood Of the Lamb That may have been good Back in the Victorian period When the Salvation Army Would have done that But I think as Christians There is nothing more Important to us Nothing more Which catches Our imagination Which draws out
[10:59] Our praise and worship Than to think about The blood of Christ And so I don't want this To be some theological Intellectual sort of Debate or discussion Or lecture But I want us to consider The very love Of God Revealed In the shedding Of the blood Of Christ That's how Paul Seems to bring it out here When he speaks about Verses 6 Through to 9 He speaks about The fact that Though very rarely For anyone To die For a righteous man Though for a good man Someone might possibly Dare to die God demonstrates His love for us In this In this way In other words Why were sinners Christ died for us And therefore He says Since we've been Justified by his Blood It's the accomplishment Of divine love Towards sinful men And women That we're thinking about And when we are Thinking about And dealing with The blood Of Christ Therefore we are Dealing with that Which is the most Precious The most costly
[12:00] The most expensive Item In the whole universe Because it is Of course The very blood Of the Son of God There in verse 10 If when we were God's enemies We were reconciled To him through The death of his Son And those of us As Christians believe And of course know That the one who Hung upon the cross Was truly And fully And completely God As well as Fully and completely Man 100% God 100% man The world of course Around about us Attaches great value Doesn't it To even perhaps Very worthless things Simply because They were the possession Of or associated With a celebrity Or somebody important You think of Something like Lady Diana Princess of Wales Her dresses When they were sold Some years ago Fetched huge fortunes Even letters Written by her Can sell and exchange Hands for vast amounts Of money Just bits of paper And ink But because of
[13:00] The association Because they are Connected with Somebody famous They have much More value But the blood Of the Lord Jesus Christ Is of infinitely More value And importance Than anything In the world Because here We're talking about The immortal God And the shed blood Of the sovereign Everlasting Lord God And as we begin Immediately We have to confess That we are Dealing with Wonderful Glorious truths Which are beyond Our comprehension We can't plumb The depths Of what it meant For the Son of God To die for us We can't fully Take it in When we sang Some of that hymn Oh to see his face Even if we could See his face Even if we'd been Like John And his mother And stood at the Foot of the cross And seen Christ die We would not have Been able to take On board Or comprehend What it meant For him to die For us Nor to fully Comprehend All that he Accomplished For us there as well
[14:01] This incredible Mystery that we're Dealing with That God should die The creator of all Things should be Crucified That the life Giver should have His life blood Shed And again When we come to The New Testament We see that there's An acknowledgement And a recognition That when we're Dealing with the Death of the Lord Jesus Christ We're dealing With something Unbelievable Acts 3 Verse 15 You killed The prince of life 1 Corinthians 2 8 They crucified The Lord of glory Just the very thought That Christ should Die for us Is enough To make us Stand in awe And wonder And praise For all eternity And it's no wonder That in heaven The songs of worship Centre upon the Saviour The Lamb Who died In our place The only Innocent person Who has ever Lived The only one Of complete purity And obedience To the law Who ever graced This world With his presence It's this person
[15:03] It's this person His blood That we are talking About And therefore Ultimately As we've already Been saying We have to recognise From the very start And acknowledge From the very start That the blood Of the Lord Jesus Christ Is of limitless value Of limitless merit And power Because it belongs To the infinite God Your blood And mine You may be able to I think in America You can sell your blood At the blood donors Here they don't give you Anything but a rich Tea biscuit And a cup of tea But there you can sell it But your blood And mine Is of limited value But the Lord Jesus Christ His blood Is of limitless value Limitless power Limitless efficacy So when we're talking About that The blood of the Son of God We have to acknowledge From the start That here In the blood of Christ In the death of Christ We have
[16:03] What would Everything that's necessary For the salvation Of every sinner In the world And a million worlds Besides Okay In the blood of Christ There's enough merit There's enough value To purchase the salvation Of every single person Who ever sinned In this world And a million worlds Beyond a limitless amount Because he is limitless There is no limit To the value Yet No less than the blood Of the Son of God Had to be shed For just one sinner To be forgiven Because one sinner Sin is against An infinite God And therefore Calls for infinite Redress And infinite punishment So as sometimes We might say If I was the only Sin in the world Christ still would Have had to die For me To save me Because my sin Calls for An eternal Everlasting punishment
[17:04] Because it is against The eternal Everlasting Infinite Holy God But I want us To move on From that Because I want us To ask ourselves What has God's love Accomplished And secured Through the blood Of Christ We recognise It is of infinite value We recognise That it is Enough More than enough For all sin But What has The blood Of Jesus Christ Accomplished Here in Romans 5 Is where we're Going to look And we're going To look in Other places As well Because here Paul is writing To the believers In chapter 5 He's seeking To encourage Them of course In their faith Assuring them Of their salvation Assuring them Of course That it all Rests upon The work Of Christ At the cross And so When we go Into the second Half of the chapter We have this Great contrast Between the one Act of Adam The sinful Act of Adam And the one Act of Christ
[18:05] The obedience Of Christ Adam taking And eating Breaking the law Christ dying In the place Of sinners Fulfilling the law The contrast And how one Lost so much One gained So much Paul is writing There because He wants us To see that In the cross God was performing And accomplishing The redemption Of sinful Men and women A price Was paid At the cross For our deliverance A ransom Was paid To deliver us From the captivity Of sin And death And hell And though the word Redemption Isn't used here And the word To redeem We still use it A little bit Use this voucher To redeem Something We see that It's clear That what Paul Is thinking about Is indeed This sense Of redemption And of one Paying the price Of another There in verse 6 At just the right time When we were still Powerless
[19:05] Christ died For the ungodly They're the same people They are powerless And the ungodly And there in verse 8 God demonstrates His own love For us In this way In this way Why were sinners Christ died For us There's this Substitutionary work Going on Jesus acting On our behalf Carrying out For us His death To bring to us Redemption And Paul Has remarked This Again And again Here But Peter Makes it more Clear in that Wonderful passage In 1 Peter And in chapter 1 Where he says this For as you know You were not Redeemed With corruptible Things From the empty Way of life Handed down From your fathers Such as silver And gold But With the precious Blood of Christ As of a lamb Without blemish And with spot You were redeemed With the most Precious thing Not all the gold In the world Not all the silver In the world Not all the Not all the good deeds
[20:05] In the world As it were Could redeem us And rescue us But the precious Blood of Christ The lamb without Blemish Could and did And so this Phrase redemption It's not something Again that we're So familiar with But it has A really A covering It's an umbrella Word for all That Christ has Done for us In his death On the cross It comes out There in chapter 5 and verse 1 And later on In verse 9 That word Justification And being justified That is that we Are pardoned From sin Somebody has put it Simply That's not exactly Correct but it's A helpful thing Just as if I'd never Sinned And that is Really what Justification is It is God Not only forgiving Our sins But more than That but Making us Righteous in His sight So yes you can Forgive somebody's Sins but it Doesn't make you Righteous Doesn't make you Acceptable Even if you
[21:05] Forgive them But God not only Forgives us And says no The slate's Wiped clean But rather he Declares that we Are righteous God looks on us As the judge Looks upon a Felon A prisoner In the dark And says The crime You've committed Is cleared But also Every other Climb as well And I accept You as being Righteous Declare you As being Righteous We are acquitted In the court Of heaven From all our Lawbreaking And yet God's Justice is not Diminished It's not that God takes our Sins and brushes Them onto the Carpet or turns A blind eye to Them His justice And righteousness Is not undone Because in Christ The punishment Is paid The crime Is paid for In full Here's that Wonderful phrase In 2 Corinthians 5 21 God made Him Jesus Who had No sin To be sin For us So that in Him We might become The righteousness Of God This wonderful Exchange The great Exchange Christ
[22:06] Had no sin But he had All righteousness He takes Your sin And mine To himself And in exchange Gives us His righteousness Amazing isn't it Dies on the cross Bearing the punishment That we deserve In our place The second Thing that we See here Is that not Only Is redemption A matter of Our justification Our standing Before God And our forgiveness But also It is Propitiation Now sadly The word Is not included In the NIV It is one of It is one of It is one of It is one of It is one of It is one of It is one of It is one of It is one of It is one of It is one of It is one of its failings But it is clear here that what Paul is saying Since we have Verse 9 Been justified By his blood How much war will be saved From God's wrath Through him Paul does use the word Propitiation Though it is again Not in the NIV Earlier on In Romans Chapter 3 Verse 25 He says this God presented him Christ As a Sacrifice of atonement Says the NIV Propitiation
[23:07] Through faith In his blood What on earth Does that mean I can understand Why perhaps The NIV And other Translations Don't use Propitiation Because it is not A word that we Understand It needs to be Explained It means simply This Someone who Turns aside God's anger God's wrath God is not God who looks Upon sin And says Oh dear What a shame God is That person Who is so holy When he looks Upon sin It makes him Furious He is angry With sin The scripture Says he Is angry With the sinful Every day So there is As it would We might say The outpouring Of God's anger Against sin Which is truly Justified But Christ Turns it away By taking it Himself You might put it A bit like One of the Bodyguards For the president Of the USA They have to Take the bullet For the president When somebody Is angry with the President Or wants to Kill the president They fire and Shoot them They have to Put their body
[24:07] In the way And take the Bullet themselves That's what Jesus did He took my Bullet He took yours Everything in God's nature Hates sin And he's not Willing To allow sin To escape His anger Nor anyone Who has sinned So in the cross Of Jesus We understand That the full Wrath of God Was meted out On him For us Isaiah 53 We have that Incredible description Hundreds of Years before The cross Of Christ Describing What was Going on In the cross And what Do we read We esteemed Him stricken Smitten by God And afflicted Verse 6 And the Lord Has laid on him The iniquity Of us all So the blood Of the Lord Jesus Christ Has brought us Justification But also Acted as Propitiation So that We do not No longer Enemies of God As Paul says There in verse 10 For if we went For when we were
[25:08] God's enemies That's the incredible Work of Christ We were enemies Now we are Children of God Now we are Friends of God Now we put in The family of God Once we were His enemies And thirdly In redemption We can think about This wonderful matter Of reconciliation There it is In verse 10 For if when we Were God's enemies We were reconciled To him Through the death Of his son How much more Having been reconciled Shall we be saved Through his life That's the sweetest thing If I can put it that way The most wonderful aspect Of the work of Jesus And the blood of Jesus Not just that our sins Are forgiven Not just that we are Declared right In that forensic That sort of courtroom way Not just that the God Is no longer angry with us And that we no longer Come under his wrath But marvelously Reconciliation means We are brought Into his embrace So we go from Being enemies And we go from Those who are Who are hateful to God To being those Who are right with God
[26:08] Those who he is No longer angry with To those who are now Dear and precious to him And brought into A living relationship With him Isn't that marvelous Through the blood Of Christ on the cross And that's what we see here Peace with God All enmity removed Between God and us And us and God Let me say this to you Dear friends God cannot And shall not Ever look upon you And I With a frown He can't do it Because we've been Reconciled to him He looks on you And he looks on me And what does he see He sees the wonderful Work of Christ On our behalf And he cannot help But smile There's this lovely phrase Isn't there In Isaiah Where he rejoices Over his bride As a groom A bridegroom Rejoices over his bride So he rejoices Over you Israel So he rejoices Over us his people The blessings That issue From our reconciliation Are seen in that We have fellowship With God And nothing can break that
[27:10] And take that away So there we are Here's the blood of Jesus He's brought to us Justification It's brought to us Propitiation It's brought to us Reconciliation Or those shuns But they're important Aren't they But then we come To this great question This serious question But it's so vitally important Because of what We've been saying Who has Jesus Accomplished all this for Jesus' blood was shed And it has such merit And it has such power And it has such Such preciousness That it is enough To save the whole world And a million besides But that's not The question here The question is What was the purpose Of Christ's death Upon the cross Well who has he accomplished This wonderful Redemption work for Notice how Paul As he writes this letter Over and over again Uses those phrases Those who are in English language
[28:10] Will tell me what they are But he says We and us Notice there God demonstrates His own love for us While we were sinners Christ died for us Since we have now Been justified by his blood How much shall we be saved He does not say here At any point Them Or all Does he He uses that generalization The ungodly But it's again As we've seen Linked to the powerless When we were still powerless Christ died for the ungodly That's our problem We weren't godly We're ungodly And therefore we were powerless Because of sin Clearly it seems That Paul means Those who put their faith In Christ Those are the ones Who've entered into this blessing We Himself And the believers in Rome They are those Whom God has planned And purposed to save Through the blood of Christ Just as we read there In verse 6 You see at just the right time
[29:12] Whose time God's time Galatians 4 says the same thing In the fullness of time Christ was born of a woman Under the law To redeem those under the law When God had planned And determined Christ came His birth into the world Was not some Just happening Just God sort of If I can put it And I don't mean to be Frivolous in this way But almost as if Jesus Was like somebody With a parachute In the plane Getting ready for the green light To go No It was already planned And prepared It was already set Exactly And so God Not only determined The time that Christ Would come But He determined And planned exactly Who Christ was coming To save Ephesians chapter 1 For He chose us In Christ Before the creation Of the world That we should be Holy and blameless In His sight This may be a struggle For some Christians
[30:12] To set their heads around And it's not easy for us In that sense We can't say We understand all things But it's very clear Again and again In the New Testament That Jesus died For those Who will put their faith In Him Those that He chose Before the creation Of the world To save As we saw last week John 10 15 I lay down my life For the sheep You see there's a distinction In the teaching of Jesus Between the goats And the sheep Acts chapter 20 Verse 22 The church of God Which He has purchased With His own blood Ephesians 5 25 Christ also loved the church And gave Himself For it His particular Redemption That Christ died For a particular Group of people Is not only Biblical and scriptural It also makes sense That Jesus died For those Who will come to faith In Him And them only Is what the Bible teaches But it makes sense as well If not
[31:13] How can God On the day of judgment Punish sinners For their sins If Jesus Had already been punished For their sins You see How can He do that That would be unjust God cannot punish sin Twice over So if Jesus has Born the punishment For the sin Of every single person Who's ever lived And ever will live Then those who will be Punished on the day of judgment That's unjust But Christ hasn't He's died for those Who are His people Who put their faith in Him He has not died for those Who will bear that judgment And punishment For their sin On that day That's why it's imperative Dear friends That we make sure That we have put our faith In Jesus Who died for me Now Because if He hasn't Paid for my sin Then I must pay for my sin God is not unjust That He will demand Two judgments of sin And two punishments Secondly If Christ has died To accomplish
[32:14] The redemption Of every single person In the world Then ultimately He becomes A very poor saviour Who has failed In His saving work If Jesus died For the salvation And the rescue Of every single person Who's ever lived What about those Who are lost?
[32:31] He's failed to save them What about those Who go to their deathbeds Without faith in Him Without salvation? He's failed in rescuing them We empty the cross Of its power If we say that Jesus died For every single person And not every single person Is saved We make His blood Of little value It means that Some of His blood Was shed needlessly Pointlessly If it's only that He made it possible For forgiveness If Jesus only made it possible For us to be forgiven Then that means That we have to Contribute something To our salvation If Jesus only made it possible For us to be right with God Then we have to do something More than the cross To make it possible For us to enter in And secure that salvation But Scripture declares clearly That Jesus doesn't just make Salvation possible By His blood But He actually
[33:32] Guarantees it And completely accomplishes salvation So that all those For whom He died Will be saved Look at verse 10 For if when we were God's enemies We were reconciled to Him Through the death of His Son How much more Having been reconciled Shall we be saved Paul is not sort of Unsure isn't he How much more Shall we have the hope That we might be saved Or the dream That we might be saved Or the possibility That we might be saved How much more Shall we be saved There's confidence In what he's saying There's absolute guarantee In what he's saying Is this confidence In himself?
[34:13] No Is this confidence In the Roman church? No Who's this confidence in? Well we know it is In the Lord Jesus Christ As he writes That wonderful chapter Just a few chapters later Romans in chapter 8 And he says this In verse 32 He who did not spare His own Son But gave Him up For us all How will He not also Along with Him Graciously give us All things What God has purchased For His people Through the high price Of Christ's blood He will not allow To be neglected Or lost Will He not also In saving us Through the blood Of Christ Bring to completion And fulfillment All that Jesus Purchased to have So that everyone Will be brought in For whom He died Here's Jesus Himself Speaking in John chapter 6
[35:14] Very powerful And wonderful words And He says this John chapter 6 Verses 37 to 39 All that the Father Gives me Will come to me And whoever comes to me I'll never drive away For I came down From heaven Not to do my will But to do the will Of Him who sent me And this is the will Of Him who sent me That I shall lose none Of all that He's given me But raise them up At the last day For my Father's will Is that everyone Who looks to the Son And believes in Him Shall have eternal life And I'll raise him up At the last day I said at the outset That this Hematology This understanding Of the blood of Christ Has implications Upon us personally In our faith But it has implications As well About how we live And how we react In the world Three Four simple things The power of Christ's blood To accomplish our salvation
[36:16] And the salvation Of all that He's chosen To save Means that we have assurance That all our sins Are once and for all Atoned for and forgiven That there's no question Of doubts Hebrews 9.14 Jesus Paul The writer Says this How much more then Will the blood of Christ Who through the eternal spirit Offered himself Unblemished to God Cleanse our consciences From acts that lead to death So that we may serve The living God The blood of Christ Is the guarantee And the assurance That your sins And mine are forgiven If Jesus again Only made it possible Then how can we be certain If Jesus only Made it The way As I can put it To be saved But not that He did Everything for us And has done everything For us Then there is A way For us To doubt But there isn't And it means
[37:17] Not only that all our sins Are forgiven Once and for all In the past But also that our salvation Is and always will be secure We are as saved As we ever shall be saved Nothing in hell or earth Can stop us Gaining the full inheritance That has been willed to us By Christ In Revelation chapter 12 We have a peek Into what's going on In the heavenly places And there we're told About those believers Who have faced the attacks And the assaults Of Satan himself And we're told this They overcame By the blood of the Lamb How do we face And live the Christian life How can we be sure That we shall get to heaven How can we be certain In spite of the The ferocity Of the enemy's assaults In this day and age That we shall not lose Our salvation Because we shall overcome By the blood of the Lamb We shall not overcome By our own faithfulness We shall not overcome By our own wisdom Our own knowledge But only by the blood of Christ Who has triumphantly Victoriously defeated Satan And it means this
[38:20] Dear friends We have confidence And boldness To preach the gospel Of God's redeeming love To all people Knowing that there are Amongst the people In every nation In this world Those for whom Christ died We have confidence To preach the gospel That those for whom Christ died Must and will Come into salvation Because he's accomplished Their salvation In spite of our feeble efforts In spite of the fact That we get it wrong In spite of the fact That we don't pray As much as we do In spite of the fact That our faltering lips Stutter out the gospel Christ must and will Save those For whom he died Even through us That's why Paul himself Only preached the cross Didn't he?
[39:08] 1 Corinthians For the message of the cross Is foolishness That blood should be shed It's all sort of gory And it's all a bit macabre And it's all a bit Old Testament No, for the message of the cross Is foolishness To those who are perishing But to us who are being saved It's the power of God We have confidence To preach the gospel Because the power of God In the cross Has been unleashed And is at work In this world And those for whom Christ died Will come in And lastly Finally dear friends We can joyfully And with content hearts Give all the glory And the honour To Christ alone For our salvation When we say We recognise As Paul did The life I live In the body I live by faith In the Son Who loved me And gave himself for me Then we can give All the glory to God And you can say Lord I have no glory To take to myself It's nothing that I have done Nothing that I've contributed It's all by the blood Of Christ The Saviour That I am here
[40:09] And that's why As I said before The very worship Of God's people In heaven Is just that The very start of Revelation This is what John has to say To him Christ Who loves us And has freed us From our sins By his blood And has made us To be kings And priests To serve his God And Father To him be the glory Forever and ever Amen And we echo Amen to that Well let's sing Our final hymn Dear friends It's a hymn Of great confidence And assurance Arise my soul Arise Shake off Your guilty fears As we recognise And realise And rejoice In the fact That Christ Has done everything For us And that we are Saved By his Precious Blood May the God Of peace Who through The blood Of the eternal Covenant Brought back From the dead Our Lord Jesus That great shepherd
[41:09] Of the sheep Equip you With everything Good For doing his Will And may he Work in us What is pleasing To him Through Jesus Christ To whom be glory Forever and ever Amen Amen