Blood of Sprinkling That Speaks

Introduction: The Better Things of the New Covenant in Hebrews 12

0:01 The following sermon was delivered on Sunday evening, April 1st, 2001, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey.

0:11 And now we come to the Word of God in Hebrews chapter 12. And I want to read in your hearing verses 18 to the end of the chapter, verse 29.

0:23 Just to give us a sense of the flow of the overall argument, many of you will know that the book of Hebrews was written primarily to Hebrew Christians who, having embraced the gospel and having at least professed to see in Christ all of the better things of the new covenant, were now under the pressure of persecution and opposition from those who did not see the realities of gospel truth as they saw them. And they were tempted to go back. And so throughout...

0:57 Throughout this letter, the writer of the letter sets out the better things of the new covenant. The key word is the word better. A specific Greek word used 13 times in this epistle. And you have these cycles of setting out the betters of the new covenant.

1:15 Christ is better than the angels, better than Moses, better than the Aaronic priesthood, better sacrifice, better priesthood. And here in this...

1:27 In this portion that I will read in your hearing, and from which we will extract just a brief section and make the focus of our meditation, it's as though the writer gathers all his arguments together in this final contrast between the circumstances surrounding the giving of the old covenant or the giving of the law and that which we now have in the gospel or in the new covenant. And the key words in this paragraph, are found in verse 18 and in verse 22. Verse 18, You are not come. Verse 22, But you are come.

2:09 And so there is the contrast. You are not come. And then a description of all of the circumstances surrounding the giving of the law when Moses was the earthly mediator between God and his covenant people. And this contrast of that to which we...

2:27 We do come with Christ as our mediator of his people, the new covenant community. So you have this contrast brought to a grand climax. Follow then as I read, starting in verse 18. For you are not come unto a mount that might be touched and that burned with fire and unto blackness and darkness and tempest and the sound of a trumpet and the voice of words, which voice they that heard entreated that no more words should be spoken unto them.

3:04 For they could not endure that which was enjoined. If even a beast touched the mountain, it shall be stoned. And so fearful was the appearance that Moses said, I exceedingly fear and quake. But you are come unto Mount Zion and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to the innumerable host of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better than that of Abel. See that you refuse not him that speaks. For if they escape not, when they refused him that warned them on earth, much more shall not we escape who turn away from him that warns from heaven, whose voice then shook the earth. But now he has promised, saying, Yet once more will I make to tremble not the earth only, but also the heaven.

4:22 And this word, yet once more, signifies the removing of those things, that are shaken as of things that have been made, that those things which are not shaken may remain. Wherefore, receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us have grace whereby we may offer service well-pleasing to God with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire.

Prayer and Focus: The Blood of Sprinkling That Speaks

4:57 Now let us again pause and ask the Lord to help us, by his Spirit, to profit from the ministry of his word.

5:06 Our Father, we do thank you for the great realities of which we have just read, that we are not gathered around Mount Sinai with its fire and thunder and smoke and terrorizing presence, pleading that your voice would not speak directly to us, but that you would speak through a human mediator. But we thank you that this night, we gather to Mount Zion, we gather to that company of your people, the General Assembly of the Church enrolled in heaven, how we thank you that we gather to Jesus, mediator of the new covenant, by whom we draw near to you. O Lord, be pleased to magnify your Son and the perfection of his sacrifice in our moments of meditation together, meet with us, we plead, in Jesus' name, Amen. Amen. Now, in seeking to prepare our hearts for coming to the Lord's table, I want us to meditate for a while upon that particular statement found in verse 24, that we, in the new covenant, come to Jesus, mediator of a new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better or better, or better things than that of Abel.

6:37 Now, as I've already indicated, these words come to us in the midst of a paragraph of stark contrasts between the circumstances under the old covenant, or the giving of the law through Moses, and those of the new covenant mediated by the Lord Jesus. And the contrast, as we've already seen, focuses on the fact that the new covenant, which is upon the words of verse 18 and verse 22, you are not come, and then he describes the circumstances surrounding the giving of the law there at Sinai, and that covenantal administration through Moses, and that which we now come to under the new covenant. And beginning then with verse 22, he describes these realities to which we come in the new covenant. And then, as both the capstone, and in a very real sense, as the foundation of all those blessings, he moves from our coming unto Mount Zion, city of the living God, heavenly Jerusalem, innumerable host of angels, as the culminating blessing of the new covenant, the capstone as well as the foundation, he says in verse 24, and we come to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant,

8:03 and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel. And there he concludes the contrast, and then in verse 25, he brings a sober exhortation and warning in the light of that contrast, in the light of the greater privileges, and the more glorious revelation under the new covenant, a warning is issued that we turn not away from the voice of him, that is God, that speaks. And so we want to focus our attention upon that which is the crowning and the foundational blessing of the new covenant, that to which we come when coming to Jesus, according to verse 24, we come to the blood of sprinkling that speaks. We come to Jesus as mediator of a new covenant. That is when saving faith goes out to Jesus as revealed in the scriptures, it does not go out to him primarily as friend, companion, sustainer, upholder, all of these things that he is to his believing people. But saving faith goes out to Christ essentially and primarily in his role as mediator of a new covenant.

Question 1: What is the Blood of Sprinkling?

9:26 It goes out to Jesus as the Savior, Savior by being, Savior by virtue of mediator of a new covenant, and when faith lays hold of Christ crucified for sinners, in that embrace of faith we come to the blood of sprinkling that speaks. And so I want us to ask three simple questions of this phrase, the blood of sprinkling that speaks. In coming to Jesus, you have come to that blood, and there is no way to come into the virtue of that blood of sprinkling without coming to Jesus. They are inseparable realities. Question number one, what is the blood of sprinkling? Now remember, the writer is writing to people steeped in old covenant ritual worship, and they would immediately identify the blood of sprinkling, with the blood of an animal sacrificed, as that blood had been spilt in a violent death of the sacrifice, and then it would be sprinkled upon people or things. And it was the sprinkling of the blood that took the typical virtue of the sacrifice and applied it to the worshipper.

10:54 Now according to the scriptures, that blood, back in chapter 9, was not only sprinkled upon the people, but it was sprinkled upon the book of the law, it was sprinkled upon all of those things that were part of the enactment of the old covenant. And when the blood was sprinkled, it was symbolizing that the typical virtue of the sacrifice was now effective with respect to the person or thing upon which it was sprinkled. So that the blood shed as an expiatory sacrifice, that is a sacrifice of an innocent victim, the blood being shed to pacify the wrath of God, the expiatory sacrifice becomes effectual by its sprinkling upon the person or upon the object. And these people steeped in Jewish ritual thought would have well understood, when they read these words, you are come unto Jesus, mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel. They would have known that the writer to the Hebrews was referring to the blood that Christ shed

12:20 as a sacrificial offering, an expiatory sacrifice. One to remove guilt and to turn away the wrath of God. In this text, that blood of Jesus is nothing other than the blood of the mediator of the new covenant. Blood voluntarily poured out in the violent death of the cross.

12:46 Blood shed to satisfy divine justice. Blood poured out to appease divine wrath against human sin. Blood spilled in order to be applied to sinners that they might know that their guilt has been removed and they are accepted before God. Hence, the writer to the Hebrews could say in chapter 10, having therefore, brethren, verse 19, boldness to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, by the way which he dedicated for us, a new and living way through the veil, that is to say, his flesh.

13:28 And having a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in fullness of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience. What is he saying? He is saying when by faith we lay hold of the virtue of the blood of Christ shed as a sacrifice for sin, that our consciences, our consciences are cleansed, our consciences no longer tremble under the thought of deserved wrath for our sin and our guilt before God. So the blood of sprinkling ties together these two realities.

14:09 The blood of a sacrifice shed that sin might be removed and the virtue of that sacrifice applied to the one who appropriates it. That's the significance of the blood of sprinkling. That's why in the opening words of Peter's epistle to Gentile Christians who have a responsibility to think in terms of Old Testament type and symbol, Peter writes to those elect sojourners and he identifies them as those who are elect according to the foreknowledge of God, 1 Peter 1, 2, in sanctification of the spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ. One of the identifying marks of the true people of God is that they have been chosen in the foreknowledge of God unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus. That is the virtuous application of his blood to that sinner that his guilt is removed and his defilement is removed and he is set apart unto God in virtue of that precious blood. So question number one, what is the blood of sprinkling?

Question 2: How Does This Blood Speak?

15:36 It is the blood of the appointed sacrifice, its virtue now being symbolically conferred to the worshipper in sprinkling. And what was conveyed symbolically in type and ritual under the Old Covenant we now have in reality under the New. Question number two, how does this blood of sprinkling speak? Look at our text.

16:04 You are come unto Jesus, mediator of the New Covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better or better things than that of April. It is the blood of sprinkling that speaks. And here the writer uses a very ordinary word for speaking, for talking, for saying something, and he uses the form of a present participle of laleo. And he writes that there is a blood that is speaking.

16:42 And in coming to Jesus as mediator of the New Covenant you come to the blood of sprinkling that speaks. Now that immediately raises the question in my mind having answered what is the blood of sprinkling, how does that blood of sprinkling talk? How does it speak? How does blood speak?

17:05 What becomes its tongue, its larynx, its diaphragm, its lips and teeth, all of the instruments by which we frame vocables, words that convey thought? Well obviously it's a figure of speech. There is no actual audible sound, but it's a figure of speech. And again, it is rooted in the Old Testament long before the giving of the law.

17:32 Because you'll note in this passage it is blood that speaks better things than that of Abel. So it's a blood that speaks in some way connected with Abel's blood that also speaks. And when we turn back to Genesis 4 we see the concept here in Holy Scripture. Most of you children remember the story.

17:59 Chapter 4 begins with the account of the birth of Cain and then subsequently the birth of Abel. And they went into different fields of endeavor as they grew up. One was a tiller of the ground and Abel was a keeper of the sheep. And as Adam and Eve passed on to their sons that the God who placed them perfect in the garden against whom they rebelled and sinned and who had come and torn away their fig leaves of attempted covering and clothed them with the skins of an animal.

18:36 Many believe and I share that belief that that was the institution of blood sacrifice as a covering for sin. And they no doubt had instructed Cain and Abel and the time came perhaps a given Sabbath. And I won't go into the technicalities of the language that point in that direction. But when they bring their offerings Cain brings an offering of the fruit of the ground.

19:01 Abel brings a blood sacrifice. And God shows his favor with respect to the blood sacrifice and his disfavor to Cain and to his sacrifice. And rather than sorting out the matter with God and getting right with God Cain gets angry with his righteous brother and in cold-blooded murder he commits the first act of fratricide that is one member of a family killing another. So Cain spills the blood of his brother upon the ground in an act of cold-blooded vicious murder.

19:41 And then God comes into the scene to deal with Cain. We read then in verse 9 And the Lord said unto Cain Where is Abel your brother? And he said I don't know. Am I my brother's keeper?

19:56 How cheeky can you get? He lied and then he speaks as though he has no responsibility to his brother. And he said what have you done? The voice of your brother's blood cries unto me from the ground.

20:15 What a vivid figure of speech. Cain rises up and in some way with a stone or with a sharp instrument pierces his chest or bashes his head. And his brother lies there bleeding with the ground soaking in his blood. And God comes to deal with Cain and says that blood that has been spilt at your hands has a voice that reaches all the way up to my throne in heaven.

20:45 And it cries out to me the voice of your brother's blood cries unto me from the ground. That blood had a voice and that voice was crying to God the judge of all that God would take vengeance upon this vicious murderer. So Abel's blood spoke and what Abel's blood said was O righteous judge of the universe avenge me. This man has murdered me.

21:20 He has taken my life in a wanton, willful, wicked way. So his blood speaks to God as judge and as righteous administrator of his law and calls for Abel's I'm sorry for Cain's judgment. Now the writer says the blood of sprinkling the blood shed by Jesus mediator of the new covenant speaks better there's our key word again speaks better than that of Abel. Please turn this cassette over to continue the message.

Question 3: What Does the Blood of Sprinkling Say? (To God)

22:01 Better, there's our key word again speaks better than that of Abel. And I want us to meditate for a few moments as we consider what it speaks to God what it speaks to those of us in Christ and what it speaks to us and what it speaks to those who are outside of Christ. We've considered what is the blood of sprinkling secondly how does the blood of sprinkling speak thirdly what does the blood of sprinkling say and what it says is a better message than that of Abel. First of all what it speaks to God. Abel's blood cried to God for vengeance. We sing about that. Abel's blood for vengeance cries out to the living God.

23:00 Both Abel and Jesus were slain by wicked hands. Abel's blood stains the ground in that place where the two of them were living. The blood of Jesus stains the ground at Golgotha. Both Abel and Jesus were slain by wicked hands.

23:21 Abel and Jesus slain by wicked hands. Their blood stains the ground and their blood cries to heaven. But there the similarity ends. All of the rest is contrast.

23:36 Abel's blood cries to the God of justice that he will wreak vengeance upon the one who spilt it. Christ's blood speaks to God that he can now justly, righteously pardon sinners and apply to sinners all of the virtue of the blood of his own sinless Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. God does not need to round off any of the sharp edges of his holiness and his justice in pardoning sinners in the light of that blood. That blood that speaks. 1 John 1.9 says that if we confess our sins he is faithful and righteous to forgive. Righteous to forgive?

24:37 We generally associate righteousness in the face of sin with judgment. But we are told he is faithful and righteous to forgive. Why? Because there is blood that speaks to God.

24:54 Blood that speaks in the ear of God that says this blood was spilt by me the innocent Lamb of God as both priest and offering, as sacrificer and sacrifice. And because that blood has been spilt and the life of Jesus poured out in the violent death of the cross under the curse of God, that blood speaks to God saying, that he can be both just and the justifier of the one who believes in Jesus. And that blood though its physical properties have long since been absorbed into some plot of ground in Palestine in the mind and before the face of God it's as though that blood were still glistening and dripping from the veins of his own dear son this is put again in a present tense it's a present participle it is blood that continues to speak in the presence of the living God. And therefore we the Lord's people can sit here tonight without in any way trying to remake God into a being who is less than fully just, fully righteous, unstained in his holiness who will by no means clear the guilty. We can embrace from the heart all that God is

26:23 in the right angles of his pure justice and righteousness and yet rejoice that our sins are forgiven. Why? Because there's blood that speaks and it speaks in the ear of God and says nor let that ransomed sinner die nor let that ransomed sinner die. But then it not only speaks to God and that should be our great comfort and joy as we come to the table but it speaks to those of us in Christ.

What Does the Blood of Sprinkling Say? (To Believers)

26:56 It speaks to us a word of expiation propitiation those are big words but they are biblical words and vital concepts. That blood shed for us which our Lord said we are to take the fruit of the vine and we are to connect what we see in that cup with that blood of the new covenant this blood this is the new covenant in my blood do this in remembrance of me and we are to hear the voice of that blood as we take the cup the symbol of that blood shed for sinners and in a sense we are to put that cup to our ear and listen to what it says not only to God but what it says to us and it speaks a word of complete expiation and propitiation that is that blood has turned away the wrath of God from us because in the shedding of it Jesus exhausted the wrath of God against the sins of his people he has redeemed us from the curse of the law why? being made a curse for us not by persuading God to somehow retract the full measure of the curse because of our sin but by absorbing in his blood himself the full weight of God's unleashed justice

28:25 against sin being made a curse for us and so it speaks to us this word of propitiation wrath turned aside on the basis of an adequate sacrifice it speaks a word of reconciliation and restored relationship between God and man Christ died for us Peter says the just that he might bring us to God we have a blood sealed entrance into communion and fellowship and restored relationship to the living God and it speaks a word of cleansing if we walk in the light as he is in the light we have fellowship one with another and the blood of Jesus God's son goes on cleansing us from all sin all sin first John one nine again if we confess our sins he is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness as we take the cup let's hear its voice not only reminding us that wrath has been absorbed in our substitute but a relationship has been restored we have been reconciled restored to personal familial relationship with the living

What Does the Blood of Sprinkling Say? (To Unbelievers: Invitation and Warning)

29:54 God and then it not only speaks to God speaks to us the people of God but it speaks as well to those of you who sit here tonight yet in unbelief it speaks a word of joyful invitation in Luke chapter 24 a passage alluded to this morning in another connection in the adult class our Lord has said to his disciples the disciples verse 44 and tells them verse 45 that thus it is written that the Christ should suffer and rise again from the dead the third day and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name on to all the nations beginning from Jerusalem the evangelical duty of repentance and faith is to be preached in his name God's saving work in Jesus Christ. And therefore, the blood that was spilt, the blood symbolized in the cup containing the fruit of the vine, it speaks a word of joyful invitation to you who are not in Christ. This is why Paul could say in 1 Corinthians 11.26 to believers, as oft as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you literally preach forth.

31:24 Not just show forth, but you preach forth the Lord's death till He come. And what we preach as we sinners who are helpless and vile and weak, what we say when we take that cup is that there is a fountain filled with blood drawn from Emmanuel's veins. And sinners plunge beneath that flood, and they will not lose all their guilty stains. And how did we come to enter in to the virtue of that blood?

31:56 Where did we come as sinners who had somehow discovered our election? No. We came as sinners, conscious that we deserve the wrath and judgment of God. Did we come as sinners who could say, Oh God, receive me for Christ's sake and on the basis of His shed blood for sinners, because Lord, I really feel I am soundly and thoroughly awakened to the depth of my danger.

32:23 No, we just came and said, Oh God, have mercy on me. Oh God, have mercy on me. Oh God, have mercy on me. Oh God, have mercy on me.

32:26 Oh God, have mercy upon this sinner. We didn't come as sinners who knew their election, who were soundly and thoroughly awakened. We did not come as sinners who asked God to look upon the depth of our grief and anguish for our sin. We came as plain, and that's the way we continue to come.

32:47 You don't just sing on the threshold, just as I am without one plea, but that thy blood was shed for me, and that thou bidst me come to thee, oh Lamb of God, that I come. That's how we live. This passage says, uses a perfect tense verb, in both of the contrast, you are not come, that is come and continue to remain in relationship to the stuff of the old covenant, but you are come, a perfect tense. You have come and you remain in the posture of coming to Jesus, mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks, present participle, better things than that of Abel. We came as sinners, just as we were, and that's the word of joyful invitation that comes to you from the blood that speaks better things than that of Abel. It says to you, young, old alike, you who know very little, you who know altogether too much to remain unconverted, it says, this joyful invitation, you who know very little, you who know altogether too much to remain unconverted, it says, this joyful invitation, you who know very little, you who know altogether too much to remain unconverted, it says, this joyful invitation, the virtue of that blood has not been exhausted, and the promise of God in Jesus Christ is to you. It is that all who come unto him will be received.

34:14 It speaks a word of joyful invitation, but then it also speaks a word of solemn warning, and I would not be faithful to this passage in Hebrews did I not sound this note. Notice that he no longer has the word of joy. Notice that he no longer has the word of joy. Notice that he no longer has the word of joy.

34:30 Notice that he no sooner lays out the wonderful things to which we are come in the new covenant, but that a sober warning is given beginning in verse 25. See that you refuse not him that is speaking. Well, in verse 24, we are told that it's the blood of sprinkling that is speaking. Now we are warned, see that you refuse not him that speaks.

35:00 Well, is it the blood that speaks? Or is it the living God who speaks? Well, it's not either or. It's not impersonal blood.

35:09 It is the blood of God's only begotten Son, God's final message to men. This letter began with these words, God who at times past spoke unto the fathers, in the prophets, in different ways, hath at the end of these days spoken unto us in a son. And God has spoken. And God has spoken. His final word is spoken unto us in a son.

35:32 His final word to sinners. Until the day when he shakes not only the earth, but the heaven. And God will speak again, audibly into your ears, as you and I are resurrected to stand before him. Don't refuse the God who speaks.

35:52 Who speaks now a word of invitation and pardon. Who says in the person and work of his Son, I've provided a sufficient and adequate, and powerful, and willing Savior in my Son. Don't refuse my word. That you believe on him.

36:12 That you cast the weight of your guilty soul upon him. In the language of Hebrews 2, how shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation? A salvation having been spoken at first by the Lord, the writer says. Confirmed by his apostles, with salvation, signs and wonders, now embodied in the scriptures, and preached and taught to you.

36:38 Week by week, day by day, how shall you escape if you neglect so great salvation? This passage says, the greater privileges and light of the new covenant bring with them a frightening and greater judgment. See that you refuse not him that speaks. If they escape not when they refused him that warned them on earth.

37:04 If those who treated the law of Moses in an indifferent way, and framed their life by their own whims and desires, and sinful passions, if they did not escape who refused him that warned them on earth, much more shall not we escape who turn away from him that warns from heaven. Dear people, who sit yet in your sin, this blood that speaks, not only speaks a word of joyful invitation, but it speaks a word of solemn warning. Christ Himself is God's final word to sinners. Treat that with scorn, with indifference, with unbelief, and you leave yourself exposed to the fierceness of the wrath of the God who is a consuming fire. You see, Calvary did not change God. You see, Calvary did not change God. You see, Calvary did not change God. You see, Calvary did not change God.

38:05 into just a nice big fuzzball. This whole passage concludes with the words, For our God is, not was, at Sinai a consuming fire. And now the new covenant in Jesus and the blood of sprinkling have turned God into an innocuous fuzzball whom we can trifle with. That's the concept many have.

38:34 God have mercy on them. God have mercy on the people that traffic in so-called contemporary Christian music. I've been listening to it, bought it, that I might know what it is. And much of it is fuzzball God.

38:52 That's all it is. Much of it. I'm not saying all, but much of it turns God into a fuzzball, not a consuming fire.

39:03 God have mercy on those who traffic for the same. God have mercy on those who take of money and having their picture on the front of an album and propagate trivia in the name of Christian music. I'm studying the lyrics. Most of them are trivial, truncated views of God.

39:24 Now don't go out and say, Pastor Martin, blanket condemned all contemporary Christian music. I didn't do that. And if you're tempted to say that, it's probably because you're listening to the fuzzball God kind of contemporary music and I've touched a raw nerve. One man said, I care not who writes the constitutions of the nations.

39:44 Give me the ballads. Give me the ballads, what people sing, what they listen to others singing, and I'll have the nation. You young men and women, don't just say it's my kind of music. The devil will float low views of God into your soul by whatever means he can find to do it.

40:05 Don't let him do it because it's, quote, your kind of music. You'll end up with that kind of God. And you'll sit under this kind of preaching and go skipping on your way, saying that's just an old man living in another age.

40:22 Don't do it, dear young people. Don't sell your soul to people who have no real concern about Jesus and the blood of sprinkling and the God who is a consuming fire. We come tonight to the table. Dear people of God, let us ask God, to clear the wax out of our ears, our spiritual ears, that we might hear afresh what is being said to us in the cup that represents the blood of sprinkling, in the loaf that represents the body of that perfect sacrifice, a body you have prepared me.

41:07 Jesus' last words as he leaves heaven, that's how I like to think of those words in Hebrews 10. Wherefore, when he comes into the world, he saith, Sacrifice an offering you would not, a body you have prepared for me. Jesus' words when he leaves heaven to come to Mary's womb. And now we're privileged to take a loaf of bread and say that represents his body because he said, I want it to represent my body.

41:35 Given up in a violent death for us, blood shed, blood that now speaks better things than that of Abel. May we hear its voice and rejoice. May some of you hear its voice and for the first time believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved. Let's pray.

Conclusion: Hearing the Voice of the Blood

42:03 Our Father, we would remind ourselves that you are a consuming fire, that in your presence even now those who have no stain of sin worship with awe and wonder. And we pray that you would heighten our hearts, our sins, of that reality of who you are. But we praise you. We thank you for the blood that speaks and that it speaks better than that of Abel.

42:35 And where Abel's blood cried for vengeance, we thank you. Blood has been shed that cries for mercy and pardon and forgiveness and cleansing to sinners who deserve nothing but your wrath. O Lord, may your word find root. In each of our hearts.

42:55 And may we find joy and fresh delight as we remember the Lord Jesus in the way of his appointment. We ask in his name. Amen.