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You may turn in your Bibles to 
Romans chapter 3. Romans chapter 3. I'll just pick up reading in 
verse 21. But now the righteousness of 
God, apart from the law, is revealed, being witnessed by the law and 
the prophets, even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus 
Christ to all and on all who believe. For there is no difference, 
for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being 
justified freely by his grace, through the redemption that is 
in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation by his 
blood, through faith, to demonstrate his righteousness, because in 
his forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously 
committed, to demonstrate at the present time his righteousness. 
that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has 
faith in Jesus. Where is boasting, then it is 
excluded by what law of works? No, but by the law of faith. 
Therefore, we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from 
the deeds of the law. Or is he the God of the Jews 
only? Is He not also the God of the 
Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also, since 
there is one God who will justify the circumcised by faith and 
the uncircumcised through faith. Do we then make void the law 
through faith? Certainly not. On the contrary, 
we establish the law. Amen. Well, let us pray. Father, 
we ask now for the ministry of Your Spirit. We pray that You 
would encourage our hearts as to what we find in this section 
of Holy We just thank You for our Lord Jesus. We thank You 
for His work accomplished. We thank You for that work applied 
by the power of Your Spirit. We pray that You would cause 
us to be a joyful people as we consider Your redemptive mercies. 
We just ask now, Lord, forgive us for all of our sins and all 
of our transgressions, and we pray through Christ Jesus our 
Lord. Amen. Well, we're going to look specifically 
this evening at that middle section of that beginning section that 
we read versus twenty one to twenty six. Douglas Moo in his 
commentary states that Martha Martin Luther called this paragraph 
the chief point of the whole Bible. This paragraph was the 
chief point of the whole Bible. Now, before we can actually get 
into this particular section, it is good for us to see the 
context, to see what's going on thus far in Paul's letter 
to the Romans. Notice back in chapter 1 at verses 
16 and 17. This is absolutely crucial for 
a study of this book. Paul says, for I am not ashamed 
of the gospel of Christ. For it is the power of God to 
salvation for everyone who believes for the Jew first and also for 
the Greek for in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith 
to faith as it is written, the just shall live by faith that 
serves as an overall thesis to the remaining remainder of the 
book. This is what Paul has come to 
write about the gospel of Jesus Christ. In that gospel, the righteousness 
that God demands and that God supplies is revealed from faith 
to faith. And then, prior to getting into 
the good news or the gospel itself, Paul starts with the bad news. 
Romans chapter 1 at verse 18, he says, For the wrath of God 
is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness 
of man. Before we can present the gospel, 
before we can tell sinners the good news, we need to tell them 
something of the bad news. And that's precisely what the 
apostle does. He begins with God's wrath. revealed 
from heaven against specific targets, those who know the truth, 
but who suppress the truth and unrighteousness. Paul takes up 
this subject in a very detailed manner from chapter one, verse 
eighteen, all the way to chapter three, verse twenty. He highlights 
the universal condemnation of all mankind. All are justly liable 
to God's wrath due to their sin against the Holy God. And that 
then sets the stage of the context for what he says in verse 21. But now, he says, the righteousness 
of God, apart from the law, is revealed. So, we have in chapter 
1, verse 18, wrath revealed. Here in chapter 3, verse 21, 
righteousness revealed. That righteousness that sinners 
desperately need so that they may stand before this holy God 
Most High. As Hodge says, he has shown or 
he has taught that justification was not by works, but by faith 
and entirely gracious. He now comes to show, specifically 
verses 25 and 26, he now comes to show how it is that this exercise 
of mercy to the sinner can be reconciled with the justice of 
God and the demands of his law. So that's what's going on here. 
Justification by faith. In Christ alone does not mean 
that the law has been sacrificed. No, God upholds the law in the 
punishment of his son and in the salvation of his people. 
And that's Paul's point in this particular section in Romans 
three. So we're going to make three 
observations, just a cursory overview. We won't look at every 
particular detail, but I want us to notice, first of all, the 
purpose of the father in this transaction. Secondly, the activity 
of the sun and then thirdly, the demonstration of righteousness. But notice the purpose of the 
father. Verse twenty one. He asserts 
that the righteousness of God has been revealed and it's been 
witnessed by law and profit. That means the Old Testament. 
This isn't a brand new development. The Old Testament pointed forward 
to this great redemptive truth. that the servant of Jehovah would 
come, that he would offer himself up on a cross, and that he would 
redeem his people from their sins. This gospel is witnessed 
by the law and the prophets. He indicates the instrumentality 
by which we come into saving contact with this. Notice in 
verse 22, he says, even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus 
Christ. This section truly stresses the 
instrumentality of faith. It is not by words. It is not 
by our labor. It is not by our merit. It is 
not by what we accomplish. And if we read effectively up 
to this point, we know that it could never be. Look at what 
he says in chapter three at verse nine. He says, What then are 
we better than they? Not at all. For we have previously 
charged both Jews and Greeks that they are all under sin. 
As it is written, there is none righteous. No, not one. There 
is none who understands. There is none who seeks after 
God. They have all turned aside. They 
have together become unprofitable. There is none who does good. 
No, not one. So, when we read through this, 
we need to realize that there's not a one of us who can earn 
our salvation. We can't work for God's favor. 
We can't work for His acceptance. He goes on in verse 13 to say, 
Their throat is an open tomb. With their tongues they have 
practiced deceit. The poison of asps is under their 
lips, whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. Their 
feet are swift to shed blood. Destruction and misery are in 
their ways. In the way of peace they have not known, And there 
is no fear of God before their eyes. You ever start feeling 
proud about yourself? Go back to Romans chapter 3, 
verses 9 to 20. This is an accurate assessment 
of who you are before a holy God. This is an accurate depiction 
of what you are before God most high. If you are to be redeemed, 
if you are to be accepted, if you are to be received from God 
most high, it is through the merit and the mercy of another, 
even the Lord Jesus Christ. And we appropriate those benefits 
through faith alone. Faith plus works, but faith alone. Paul summarizes in verse 19, 
he says, Now we know that whatever the law says, it says for those 
who are under the law that every mouth may be stopped and all 
the world may become guilty before God. Therefore, by the deeds 
of the law, no flesh will be justified in his sight, for by 
the law is the knowledge of sin. So if you find yourself here 
this evening and you think that you're going to go to heaven 
because you're a pretty good guy or girl, because you've never 
done anything really bad. You've never engaged in murder. 
You've never engaged in whatever sorts of sins you think are especially 
heinous. You need to reckon with this 
fact. Therefore, he says, by the deeds of the law, no flesh 
will be justified in God's sight. There is absolutely no way that 
a son or daughter of Adam can work his or her way into God's 
favor. It is impossible. It is impossible 
because of who you are in Adam. and because of the fact that 
you are predisposed to engage in evil and rebellion. Again, 
this is the context. He says that faith is the instrument 
by which we come into contact with this righteousness. He reasserts 
in verse 23 where he summarizes what he's already said in chapter 
3. For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." And 
then he speaks of the glorious blessing of redemption in verse 
24. Notice, being justified freely 
by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. Isn't 
that a beautiful statement? Someone might see our church 
sign and say, free grace? I thought grace by definition 
was free. Isn't it? Isn't grace mean unmerited 
favor? What you're saying is you've 
got unmerited favor, unmerited favor. Free grace, right? This is the text. This is why. This was brought to my attention 
by Pastor Lee McKinnon, by the way. Your name of your church 
is consistent with what Paul says in Romans 3, 24. Being justified 
freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ 
Jesus. Now I'm going to ask you to put 
on your thinking caps. You're back in second grade. 
Remember your second grade teacher would tell you that? Junior, 
put your thinking cap on. I want you to pay attention. 
I want you to follow along. Put your thinking cap on. Strap 
it on and make sure it's not going anywhere. We're going to 
meet with a couple of theological words tonight that I think is 
very good for us to understand the weight, or at least a bit 
of the weight, of these particular words. The first word is redemption. Redemption presupposes slavery. Redemption presupposes bondage. John Murray says redemption contemplates 
our bondage and is the provision of grace to release us from that 
bondage. What a blessed statement! Redemption 
contemplates our bondage and is the provision of grace to 
release us from that bondage. This is what Paul says, verse 
24, being justified freely by his grace through the redemption 
that is in Christ Jesus. Now, notice as well, with reference 
to the purpose of the Father, it is His initiative that we 
be brought into acceptance with God. Look at what it says in 
verse 25. After highlighting that this 
redemption is in Christ Jesus, Paul now says in verse 25, whom 
Christ Jesus, God set forth as a propitiation. We'll unpack 
that word propitiation in just a moment, but look at what Paul 
says. God set forth Christ. Have you ever met people that 
say, oh, the God of the Old Testament is wrathful and angry and vicious 
and mean, and the God of the New Testament is this gracious 
Lord Jesus who has accepted us into his bosom and presented 
us to his Father? Well, the whole scope, the whole 
plan, the whole economy of redemption flows from the father. The father 
sought. It is the father who set forth 
his son. It is the father who sends his 
son on this particular mission. One man says it this way. The 
atonement did not procure, that means get or obtain or receive 
grace. He says it flowed from grace. Got to get this down. This is 
important. We don't have this God in heaven 
that is somehow disunified, or there's some sort of antinomy 
between the person. No, this was the pact of God 
in eternity. The father gives a company of 
miserable sinners into the hand of his beloved son, and his son 
comes on a mission to rescue them. John Scott says it cannot 
be emphasized too strongly that God's love is the source, not 
the consequence of the atonement. God does not love us because 
Christ died for us. Christ died for us because God 
loves us. It's a subtle distinction that 
we need to get. We need to understand that the 
tribe is involved in our salvation. The tribe God has covenanted 
to redeem his people from their sins. Scott goes on to say, if 
it is God's wrath which needed to be propitiated, it is God's 
love which did the propitiating. If it may be said that the propitiation 
changed God or that by it He changed Himself, let us be clear 
that He did not change from wrath to love or from enmity to grace, 
since His character is unchanging. What the propitiation changed 
was His dealings with us. And that brings us now to consider 
the specific activity of the Son. Paul says that God set forth 
Jesus as a propitiation. Propitiation is another one of 
those words that we do well to understand. I'd like to take 
the people that have been here for any sort of time or any distance 
or any length of time rather and ask them what propitiation 
is. This is Mars is smiling at me. I suspect she knows. I hope 
she knows. We've gone over this before. 
This is. Soteriology 101, refresher course. Propitiation. If redemption presupposes 
slavery and bondage, propitiation presupposes wrath and anger and 
fury. Propitiation has to do with God 
the Son. standing in our place, taking 
fully and exhausting wholly the wrath of God for his people. He doesn't do this by deflection. He doesn't do this by sending 
it away. He doesn't send the wrath of 
God to the dark side of the moon, but rather Christ in himself 
takes the full weight, the full brunt of God's wrath. That's 
why we see him this morning in Gethsemane. As he is about to 
drink the cup of God's wrath, he sweats drops of blood. He knows what this cup contains. He knows what the fury of God 
is all about. Now, some of us in the Reformed 
camp often say that the church needs to preach more about wrath 
and fury and anger, because the church is basically drowning 
in these maudlin messages of the love of God. But even those 
in Reformed camps, even those who study Reformed theology, 
those who read the Puritans and the Confessions and all that 
good stuff, have about that much of an understanding of what God's 
wrath against sin really is. Christ understood it, Christ 
sorrowed under the weight of it. That's what he says in the 
Garden. My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even unto death. Why? Was it because of the mocking 
and the tormenting he would receive at the hands of sinners? No, 
it was the cup of wrath that God had placed in his hand to 
drink to the uttermost. Propitiation is, or as Murray 
says, propitiation contemplates our liability to the wrath of 
God and is the provision of grace whereby we may be freed from 
that wrath. It's a great word. I highly encourage 
you to pursue theology. I highly encourage you on a Thursday 
morning, when you don't feel that good as a Christian, when 
you don't feel that holy, or when you don't feel that upright, 
or when you don't feel that close to the Lord, come look at some 
beautiful theology. Come see what Christ accomplished 
on the cross. Come see something of the multifaceted 
glory that is Calvary. Come look at redemption, come 
look at propitiation, come consider the fact that Jesus paid the 
debt, that Jesus suffered in himself the wrath that we deserve, 
so that we will never, ever, ever have to cry out, why hast 
thou forsaken me? bore the punishment for our sin. That's what Paul is setting forth, 
whom God set forth as a propitiation by his blood. Douglas Moos says that God's 
wrath is the inevitable and necessary reaction of absolute holiness 
to sin. It is the inevitable and necessary 
reaction of absolute holiness to sin. When God sees it, he 
is full of wrath and anger and fury. We need to pay the debt. It is Christ who stands in our 
place and receives the punishment of God on our behalf. This rich 
word is used over in Hebrews chapter two at verse 17. This 
word propitiation, a form of the of the word, a form of the 
or at least the noun form of this particular word is that 
statement by the public and when he says, God be merciful to me, 
the center, God be propitious to me, the center here in Hebrews 
12 to rather verse 17. It says, therefore, in all things, 
he had to be made like his brethren, that he might be a merciful and 
faithful high priest. in things pertaining to God, 
to make notice, propitiation for the sins of the people. Very specific sins, very specific 
people, Jesus propitiated it. Taking the punishment that was 
due for us in himself and thus satisfying the wrath and fury 
of God. 1 John, rather, chapter 2, verse 
2. 1 John 2, 1, My little children, 
these things I write to you, so that you may not sin. And 
if anyone sins, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ 
the righteous, and He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, 
and not for ours only, but also for the whole world. Understanding 
the definition of the word helps us to make sense of this particular 
verse. If Jesus propitiated the sins 
for every man without exception in the world, then every man 
without exception in the world would be saved. That's not the 
case, though. The Bible tells us there's a 
real hell. There are real unbelievers. There are those who will be told, 
depart from me, for I never knew you. The whole world in this 
particular context refers to Jews and Gentiles. It refers 
to men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation. Christ 
is the propitiation, the Savior of the world, the one alone who 
propitiates the wrath of God for black men, or for white men, 
or for Asians, or for Americans, or Canadians, or whoever, for 
men, for women, for boys, for girls. There is one who propitiates 
the wrath of God, and that is Jesus Christ our Lord. And then 
in 1 John chapter 4 at verse 10. First John, chapter 4, verse 
10. I want you to see this because 
I want you to see that theology is necessary for the Christian 
life. We can fall prey to this idea 
of a list of practical do's and don'ts. You can take the Beatitudes, 
for instance, and say, well, I need to go out and be poor 
in spirit. I need to go out and mourn over my sin. I need to 
hunger and thirst after righteousness. And well, we do. And well, we 
should. One of the emphases that we focused 
on in our exposition of the Beatitudes. But we mustn't forget theology. We mustn't forget the cross. 
We mustn't forget this commentary on what Christ accomplished at 
Calvary on our behalf. And the New Testament authors 
always and everywhere insert these things for us so that we'll 
be full or so that we'll have the practical, but we'll have 
the doctrinal. We'll have the doctrinal which 
provides the reasons for the practical. 1 John 4, 10, and 
this is love. Not that we love God, but that 
He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our 
sins. Ever just thought, wow, this 
is amazing. Not that I love God. We should 
love God. Right? He's lovely. He's beautiful, 
He's wondrous, He's majestic, He's holy, He's perfect. For us not to love God shows 
us how sinful we really are. For us to not love God demonstrates 
the depths of our depravity. The fact that we don't like to 
retain God in our knowledge, the fact that we turn the back 
to Him rather than bowing down to Him is an indictment of our 
wickedness and the foolishness that is bound up in our hearts. 
The amazing thing in the Bible is not that men love God, it's 
that God loves us. We are altogether unlovely. We are those who have gone astray. We are those who have no fear 
of God before our eyes. We are those who use our mouths 
as instruments of evil to blaspheme his holy name. The amazing thing 
in redemptive religion is that in this is love. Not that we 
love God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation 
for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, 
we also ought to love one another. You see that? Great theology 
as the basis and foundation for our love for one another. You've 
got to get this out of your mind, that theology and those terms 
and the study of those technical things are only for a select 
few in the church. That's foolishness. That's satanic. That's ungodly. You need to examine 
these things. You need to see the richness 
of the vocabulary used, and you need to appreciate how God has 
communicated His great love for us. So the activity of the Son 
is the propitiation for sinners. The means of accomplishment is 
by His blood. It took the death of the Son 
of God to save us from our sins. Ye who think of sin but lightly, 
here its guilt may estimate. Here at Calvary, you can really 
see what God thinks about sin. It pleased the Lord, Isaiah the 
prophet says, to put him to grief. It pleased the Lord to bruise 
him or to crush him, as the New American Standard captures it. 
It pleased the Lord to do this. in the effective accomplishment 
of propitiation by his blood again, the instrument of appropriation 
through faith. See, Paul won't let you stop 
remembering this. It's not by words. Every time 
that Paul says, by faith, he is excluding human effort. He 
is excluding human works. He is excluding any entitlement 
that a sinner may think he has in his acceptance with God. It 
is solely and alone through faith in Jesus Christ, the Lord. In 
verse 21, the righteousness of God is received through faith 
in Jesus Christ. In verse 24, justification and 
redemption are through faith in Christ. And here in verse 
25, this propitiation by His blood is through faith. And then thirdly and finally, 
notice the demonstration of righteousness. Verse 25, to demonstrate his 
righteousness, because in his forbearance God had passed over 
the sins that were previously committed. Now, this is a bit 
of a tricky statement, just a cursory reading, or just a sort of a 
brief look in a short message prior to taking the Lord's Supper. 
But here's what we need to appreciate. I alluded to this this morning. 
When you look at the cross, think mercy. And you look at the cross, 
think love, right? If I asked you, how does the 
cross declare love? You'd say, John 3, 16, God so 
loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. Was that 
just the giving into this world? Yes, but that also involved or 
included his being delivered up for the sins of his people. 
So the cross publishes the love of God. The cross publishes the 
mercy of God. The cross publishes the grace 
of God. The Psalter says that mercy and 
truth, they kiss here. The cross is a multifaceted communication 
of God's glorious majesty. And in this particular section, 
Paul is intent to demonstrate or to show that the cross demonstrates 
God's righteousness. He is at pains to describe how 
in this economy, where one suffers for the many, the righteousness 
of God is upheld. He is at pains to demonstrate 
that God is not relaxed, that God is not now grating on a curve, 
that God is not now somehow winked and turned his eye the other 
way. That's the point in this particular section. The cross 
is a vindication of God in that he there demonstrated his great 
love for sinners to be sure, but there he demonstrates his 
righteousness in forgiving sinners. both in the old covenant and 
in the new. That's what it means when he 
says to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his forbearance, God 
had passed over the sins that were previously committed. See, 
someone could scratch their head and say, well, what about Abel? 
How did he get to have? What about Isaac? What about 
Abraham? Did God just pass over their 
sins? What we need to remember, forbearance 
does not mean forgiveness. God received them into glory 
based on the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. God knew that Christ 
was coming. God knew that he was the Lamb 
of God who takes away the sin of the world. God knew he would 
justify men in this particular way. Far from the cross relaxing 
God's standard, it upholds it in the death of the Redeemer 
for the redeemed. God, in his forbearance, passed 
over the sins that were previously committed. Turn over to Hebrews 
9. I think you'll see this a bit illustrated there. Hebrews chapter 
9. Specifically, in verse fifteen, and for this reason, Christ is 
the mediator of the new covenant by means of death for the redemption 
of the transgressions under the first covenant, that those who 
are called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance. So 
what Paul is saying, in essence, is that the cross casts its benefit 
forward, covers But it also cast its benefit, at least historically, 
backward. It covered all of those saints 
in the Old Testament. They were all justified by grace 
alone, through faith alone, in the same Christ alone. God didn't 
relax, God didn't let down, God didn't sacrifice rather his righteousness, 
but rather the cross publishes that righteousness. Notice in 
verse 26 of chapter 3, it says to demonstrate at the present 
time, his righteousness, that he might be just and the justifier 
of the one who has faith in Jesus. John Murray says, in the provisions 
of propitiation, two things cohere and coalesce, the justice of 
God and the justification of the sinner. I don't feel like 
I did this due justice So if you want to talk to me afterwards, 
I'll probably point you. I don't see any up there. Martin 
Lloyd Jones is a little treatment. The cross, the vindication of 
God explains this section beautifully. But suffice it to say what Paul 
is here at pains to display is that God at the cross is not 
relaxed. God at the cross has not lowered 
the bar. God at the cross has provided 
a way where he may be just and the justifier of the one who 
has faith in Jesus Christ. Christ's mission was not to abolish, 
but rather to fulfill the law. Christ's mission was not to downplay 
the law. Christ's mission was to carry 
it out perfectly, and Christ's mission was to die as a substitute, 
as a sacrifice, so that we might have redemption and propitiation 
through his blood. The cross answers everything. In this particular passage, the 
issue is the wrath of God upon sinful men. Christ at the cross 
took the wrath on behalf of his people. It's a beautiful statement 
there in verses 25 and 26. Never forget this. The cross 
publishes something. of God's righteousness. It publishes 
something of God's perfection, and as we study that cross, it 
ought to encourage us that Christ fulfilled those righteous demands 
of the Father so that God might be just and the justifier of 
the one who has faith in Jesus. Well, brethren, as we look summarily 
at this, A couple of things that I think we ought to focus on, 
and then we close. The first is that we are justly 
liable to God's wrath. And when we have been set free 
from that, when we have been freed from the fury and anger 
of God Most High, I hope that makes us a happy people. I hope 
that as we sing, as we pray, as we worship, as we come to 
the Lord's Supper, as we eat this bread and we drink this 
cup, we remember the Lord's death in this particular aspect, that 
he removed the wrath of God from us. It's a beautiful thing. The 
Bible, Robert Raymond says, plainly teaches the doctrine of the wrath 
of God. It teaches that God is angry 
with the sinner. You've heard that, God hates 
the sin, but he loves the sinner. Not according to the Bible. God 
hates the sinner, according to Psalm 5. And according to Romans 
5. You say, where does it say that 
in Romans 5? Paul speaks about enmity that 
exists between God and men. And in Romans 5, it's not that 
God is our enemy. In Romans 5, it's that we're 
God's enemy. God reconciled us while we were 
still enemies. God reconciled us. You see, you 
can't forget that. We are justly liable to the punishment 
of God. It teaches that God is angry 
with the sinner and that His holy outrage against the sinner 
must be assuaged if the sinner is to escape His due punishment. 
It is for this reason that a death occurred at Calvary. When we 
look at Calvary and behold the Savior dying for us, we should 
see in his death not first our salvation, but our damnation 
being born and carried away by him. Christ satisfies the full 
wrath and fury of God for all of his people. We need to focus 
as well, as we run through these passages, the glorious work of 
Jesus Christ. His work answers to everything. 
We're in bondage. He redeems us. We're liable to 
the wrath of God. He propitiates that wrath. We 
are at enmity with God. He reconciles us. The Son reconciles 
the Father and the children together again. We need justification. Christ accomplishes it. We need 
sanctification. Christ accomplishes it. We want, 
we stand in need of everything. Christ answers to all of it. It's a multifaceted work. We need to study the Bible so 
that we can understand these things. And hopefully it will 
enlarge our hearts in worship and praise. I'm not saying this. 
I want you guys to all learn these, these, these terms saying, 
well, when arguments with Arminians. You know, your Arminian neighbor, 
your friend that believes in free will, go over there and 
you just let them have it. You know, this should promote 
worship. This should promote doxology. 
This should promote praise and adoration when you contemplate 
what God in Christ has done on our behalf. And if you are not 
a Christian tonight, it is not by taking the bread and drinking 
the cup. It is by taking Jesus as He is 
offered in the gospel through faith. That's where the stress 
falls in Romans 3, 21, all the way to 26. All the way through 
chapter 4 is faith. Faith in Christ. Believe on Christ. Look to Christ. Just as Moses 
lifted up that serpent out in the wilderness, they looked and 
they lived. It's the same thing in the gospel. 
Christ has been lifted up. Live and live. I love what Murray 
says with reference to justification. It is, or faith is, extra-spective. It's not introspective, it's 
not looking at what we do and what we accomplish. But the man 
of faith is extraspective. He's looking unto Jesus, the 
author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy set before him 
endured the cross, despised the shame and sat down at the right 
hand of the majesty on high. So tonight, if you are not a 
Christian, do not take bread and wine thinking that they will 
accomplish that task. Take Christ. Believe on Jesus. Eat his flesh, drink his blood. 
In the context of John 6 there, he means believe the gospel. Augustine, the father, he said, 
when we believe, we have eaten. When we believe, we have eaten. So taste and see that the Lord 
is good, come in faith, and he will in no wise cast you out. Well, let us pray. Father, we 
thank you for your word, and we thank you for what the cross 
tells us concerning your character. We thank you for your grace and 
your mercy and your love. We thank you for your kindness 
and your goodness. And we thank you for your justice 
and your righteousness and that the cross satisfied all the demands 
of your holiness. Father, how we praise you for 
Jesus, who is our redemption, for Jesus, who is our propitiation. And we are jealous, Father, and 
desirous that others would know this great news as well. We pray 
tonight for any and all who are here that do not know Christ, 
that you would work a work in their hearts, that you would 
cause them to look to Christ, to believe the gospel and to 
be saved. And we thank you, Father, for 
your graciousness to us. And we just praise you now through 
Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.