They Gave Him Wine Mingled with Myrrh

Introduction to the Communion Meditation and Scripture Reading

0:01 The following sermon was delivered on Sunday evening, May 6th, 2001, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey, and is a communion meditation.

0:14 Turn with me, please, to Mark chapter 15, the 15th chapter of Mark. Our scripture reading was taken from Mark 14, but here in Mark 15, as Mark, by the guidance of the Holy Spirit, continues to describe those events which eventually brought our Lord Jesus bleeding, his face contused, the crown of thorn upon his head, and he carries his cross to the point of stumbling and exhaustion, and they compel a passerby, Simon of Cyrene, verse 21 of Mark 15, to bear the cross. The transverse of the cross on behalf of our Lord, and then we come to verse 22, and they bring him unto the place Golgotha, which is being interpreted the place of a skull, and they offered him wine mingled with myrrh, but he received it not, and they crucify him and impart his garments among them, casting lots upon them, what each should. Take, and it was the third hour, and they crucified him. Well, let us again pray and ask God by the Holy Spirit to shine upon the face of Christ

1:41 crucified, that we may see him with fresh understanding and love him with increased love, and for some, that you may come to trust him for the first time. Let's pray. Our Father, we have together in the language of our most recently sung hymn, pleaded that you would send your Holy Spirit upon us in unction and in power, and we would now again make that petition before you, pleading that you will attend the teaching and preaching of your word in the demonstration and power of the Holy Spirit. We look to you, our Father, to make Christ precious to our hearts. To give us a new and an expanded appreciation of all that he bore on our behalf. So we look to you for your blessing upon our meditation together, and we ask for these mercies in his worthy name. Amen.

The First Question: What Was in the Cup?

2:49 Now for our communion meditation, I want us to think together concerning this cup of wine mingled with myrrh. That our Lord refused to drink. And as we attempt to think our way through the passage, we're going to ask three very basic questions. I have read in your hearing that when our Lord was brought to the place Golgotha, which is being interpreted the place of a skull, they offered him wine mingled with myrrh, but he received it not.

3:34 The biblical writers, are very spartan in giving details concerning aspects of the physical suffering of our Lord. We've read in the subsequent verses, no great details about what happened when they crucified him. It simply says, and they crucify him. No details about the stretching out of his hands and all of the intricacies of what went into crucifixion.

4:05 The biblical. The biblical writers, I say, are very reserved in focusing upon the physical trauma of our Lord Jesus. And therefore, when they do give us any details, there must be spirit-intended significance in those details. And here in this passage, we are given some of those details with reference to this cup or vessel of wine mingled with gold.

4:36 The first question we ask of our passage is, what was in this cup or this vessel that Jesus resolutely refused to drink? What was in that cup? Well, according to our passage, it was a mixture of wine and myrrh, a combination of these and possibly some other ingredients. It was a mixture of wine and myrrh, a combination of these and possibly some other ingredients, which were intended to act as an analgesic, a narcotic, a sedative.

5:15 In the parallel passage in Matthew 27, 34, it is described as wine mingled with gold. It had a bitter taste. And the best we can discern from the biblical commentators and those who have sought to study the circumstances of Roman execution by crucifixion, is that the wine that Jesus offered to Jesus was an analgesic, a narcotic, a sedative that was offered to our Lord. Furthermore, in the Greek text of Mark's account of this, we are told they offered him wine mingled with myrrh, but he received it not. And the verb used for offered is the imperfect tense. They were continually offering. They were continually offering.

6:05 They were continually offering. They were continually offering. This wine mingled with myrrh, but he, an aorist tense, resolutely refused it. And so they were seeking to press upon our Lord this that apparently was standard practice in conjunction with crucifixion.

The Second Question: Why Was the Cup Offered?

6:25 Question number two, why was this cup offered to our Lord? Why was this cup offered to our Lord? Pay alimony. Why wasn't it offered to the Lord?

6:44 Question number three, what Moses ate in it? What was theуждary worksuar but Jacob's loss?

6:57 Question number four clear without crackers. Things happened without losings. We кровcrucifiied. In some of the Jewish directives, in Proverbs chapter 31, we read in verse 6, Give strong drink unto him that is ready to perish, and wine unto the bitter in soul.

7:24 Let him drink, and forget his poverty, and remember his misery no more. And we are told in Luke chapter 23 and verse 27 that there were devout women from Galilee who were present in the circumstances surrounding our Lord's crucifixion. They were weeping profusely, and the Lord said to them, Weep not for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children. So this could have been an expression of genuine devotion to and concern for our Lord Jesus, by some of these devout women.

8:03 They could have, according to rabbinic tradition, have brought the drugged wine to the place of execution and asked the soldiers to administer it to our Lord just prior to his crucifixion. The other possibility is that it was something that was concocted by the soldiers and was given in order to make their job an easier job. We know from history. We know from human observation that no matter how weakened a man may be, when faced with grave danger, at times superhuman strength can be manifested.

8:42 And no doubt the soldiers had many times, when seeking to crucify felons, found them possessed of tremendous strength. And in their fighting against the effort to impale them upon the cross, they found it helpful to administer this sedative, this narcotic, to dull their senses, to weaken their ability to respond and to resist being crucified. If so, then this was administered to our Lord by the soldiers, not as an expression of compassion, but simply to make their wretched job easier. Let's drug him up a bit so crucifying him will be a bit easier task. So we've looked briefly, then, at these first questions. What was in the cup our Lord refused to drink? It was a sedative.

9:36 Why was the cup offered to him? It could have been an expression of devotion, a sensitivity to our Lord's needs on the part of these women, most likely since the text indicates that it was the soldiers who were pressing it upon him that they were doing so in an effort to make their job easier so their mothers could be saved. Their motive would not be compassion, but selfishness. Now we come to the third question, which really brings us to the heart of the passage.

The Third Question: Why Did Jesus Refuse the Drugged Wine?

10:12 And the third question is this. Why did Jesus resolutely refuse the drugged wine? The text is clear that he received it not. Matthew tells us that when he tasted it, he refused it.

10:30 Why? Why did our Lord refuse the drugged wine? As they continually pressed it upon him, that pressure from the soldiers was met with an inflexible resolve of our Lord Jesus. Now we can say what we know the reasons were not.

10:52 Our Lord was not infected with the philosophy of Stoicism, the notion that it is a noble and virtuous thing to endure pain without flinching. To be Stoical is to show austere indifference to joy, to grief, to pleasure, and to pain. No matter what stimuli are coming in from the outside, the Stoic remains baseline, even keeled in his emotional responses. Our Lord was not a Stoic.

11:26 The Scriptures record for us that he rejoiced in spirit. We read in Matthew, and in the parallel passage in Luke, we read that our Lord wept. We read of our Lord expressing disappointment and grief. And all of these human emotions were clearly manifested in our Lord.

11:48 So his refusal was not an indication of some strain of Stoicism in his thinking and in his whole perspective with respect to grief. So his refusal was not an indication of some strain of Stoicism in his thinking and in his whole perspective with respect to grief. So his refusal was not an indication of some strain of Stoicism in his whole perspective with respect to grief. And certainly, our Lord was not a Masochist the person who gains pleasure from suffering physical or emotional pain.

12:11 And surely, our Lord was not an aesthetic. Some might suggest, well, there was wine and our Lord certainly would not imbibe any alcoholic beverages. Well, we know from the Gospel records, this is not true. In fact he so enjoyed the full Deputy Pretty Stoic course meals in Ben Quesjat and the wine that his detractors said, Ha! Wine-bibber! Glutton! Friend of publicans and sinners.

12:39 And it was our Lord Jesus whose first miracle in Cana of Galilee was adding to the joy of an extended wedding feast by bringing adequate wine into that feast. And those who were connoisseurs of the wine said to the head of the feast, You've saved the best until last. So these could not be reasons that in any way entered in to our Lord refusing to take the drugged wine. Let me set before you two things that I believe from the analogy of Scripture we can say answer the question, Why did Jesus resolutely refuse the drugged wine?

Reasons for Jesus' Refusal: Voluntary Suffering and Full Sensibility

13:22 And the first is this. To demonstrate to all the absolute voluntary nature of his subsequent sufferings and his death. To demonstrate to all the absolutely voluntary nature of his subsequent suffering and death. No drug was needed to calm or to subdue Jesus.

13:51 The prophet Isaiah has said, As a lamb before her shearers is dumb, as the lamb is led to the slaughter, in those ways so our Lord would make it evident that everything pertaining to his death he underwent voluntarily. You remember how he made this very plain according to John's account when he was apprehended or they were about to apprehend him in the garden. He comes forth from the garden and says to the cohort of soldiers and the representatives of the chief priest and the scribes and the elders, and Judas in the midst, Who are you seeking? And they say, Jesus.

14:35 And he says, I am he. And for some reason undisclosed to us it is said they fall back to the ground. Whether there is a temporary bursting forth of something of his inherent majestic glory, whether they are stunned that he so obviously, voluntarily, without any resistance, presents himself, we do not know. But one thing is clear.

15:01 When the question is asked again and Jesus allows himself to be bound and carried off to the high priest and then to the Sanhedrin and then to Pilate and up to Herod and back to Pilate and eventually is driven out to Golgotha carrying a cross under which weight he staggers until it's passed on to this passerby Simon that all that transpires transpires because he has chosen this path of suffering and of death.

15:37 And therefore these soldiers need not fear that this particular felon whom they are authorized to crucify is going to fight and to strain against them. Our Lord is saying by his actions, you need not drug me. You need not in any way dull my faculties and powers. My hands will be stretched out on that gibbet because...

16:02 I choose to have them stretched out. You will do to me what you're about to do to me with the full and unreserved consent of my own will. And by refusing the drugged wine anyone looking on would see he is not being put upon that cross because he's drugged and his senses are dulled and he's halfway into never-never land of unconsciousness. In spite of the brutality of the scourging he received and it was only this past week in doing some fresh study in the Gospel of John that I discovered there's a good case to believe he may have received two scourgings.

16:48 And in the harmonizing of the Gospel records and there is in the approved and standard history of Roman practice there would be at times two scourgings a lesser and a greater. And often people died from the greater scourging. The loss of blood and the trauma was such and our Lord had definitely received that greater scourging. And yet in spite of all of the weakness a night without sleep pushed from pillar to post from one mock trial to another our Lord is saying to all who look upon him I lay down my life.

17:30 No man. Takes it from me. And the refusal of the drugged wine was eloquent testimony that all of his sufferings were sufferings voluntarily undertaken on behalf of his people. Then secondly and probably in even a more dominant way he refused the drugged wine to ensure his complete sensibility to all of the realities of the consummate suffering of the next three hours.

18:09 He refuses the drugged wine to ensure his complete sensibility to all of the realities of the consummate suffering of the next three hours. We read that they bring him to Golgotha there they offer him wine mingled with myrrh. Then they crucify him and our Lord knew that in those hours he had much work to do though his face is contused the crown of thorns has been pressed upon his brow his blood is mingled with the mocking spit his back lacerated impaled upon the cross our Lord is saying I have much work yet to do in these remaining three hours six hours from nine to twelve and then the three dark hours from noon till three in the afternoon and our Lord is committed that he would accomplish that work think of those words spoken from the cross how often especially during the Passion Week have Christians gathered together and had a group of preachers come in and each one bring a twenty or thirty minute devotional on the seven last words of Christ precious words that our Lord speaks from the cross who would give credit to the words

19:36 of someone half drugged and insensitive to the world of reality the mind in the fog that some of us know what that fog is like we're lying there in the operating room and the sodium pentothal begins to take effect and we're halfway between this world and some la la land elsewhere and then when we're coming out of surgery and we're being brought into the recovery room and the stupid babblings that come out of us at times at least out of me one of them I remember so distinctly fighting that horrible sense of being in never never land I remember being wheeled down the hall and seeing a clock and saying to the nurses or whoever it was wheeling me down I am perfectly coherent it is eleven minutes after the hour of eleven I was determined well there's something in us that fights and resists that sense of fear that sense of the loss of control I've never been able to figure out why people could get hooked on drugs to me it's a frightful thing not to have the full use of all of my faculties I've never been drunk I've never been high and I thank God for that but I do know what it's like to be in never never land with anesthesia and this would be a kind of anesthetic it would be a narcotic the wine mingled with gall and our Lord refuses it why? because he had sober declarations

21:03 to be made from the cross upon which his people would hang tremendous weight in the coming centuries until his return there was a sinner he had to save do you think that that thief who began with his buddy to mock our Lord and cast the same reproach in his teeth would ever have seen in Jesus crucified the messianic king and have boldness to say remember me when you come in your kingdom if his previous words had been the slurred words of a half drunk man upon the cross he had a sinner to save and he would save him and pronounce his absolution and his assurance of grace in the full possession of all of his mental faculties furthermore he not only had blessed words to speak from that cross he not only had a sinner to save he had a conquest to be undertaken according to Colossians chapter two in the unseen world of spiritual reality the powers of darkness were let loose to assault our Lord upon the cross and Paul tells us in that passage that our Lord made an open show of these principalities and powers triumphing over them

22:29 in his death but above all he had another cup to drink this cup of drugged wine he refuses for all of these reasons I've already given but supremely because it was another cup it was the cup presented to him in Gethsemane that dark foreboding cup filled to the brim with the Father's pure unleashed fury against the sins of those for whom Christ is about to die and he's already encountered that cup in the garden and his initial response is he draws back from that cup oh my Father if it be possible let this cup pass from me and he goes back again and staggers like a drunken man the Greek is vivid in Mark's account it's the picture of a man who rises to his feet and staggers and rises like the prize fighter who's gotten a good ride and he's a good rider to the John at the count of eight he gets up and he's staggering he's hit again and he goes down gets up again that's the picture our Lord is staggering before this cup the third time he says if this cup cannot pass away except I drink it not my will but yours be done and when our Lord had wrestled through

23:57 on that issue he conducts himself with the dignity of a prince from that point on into the garden in staggering in recoiling from the cup the Father will set before him he comes out of the garden in noble dignity to do what? to do exactly what he consented to do in the garden and he knows if he is to drink that cup the cup that is filled with the wrath of God against the sins of mankind that he will be he must not drink the cup of the drugged wine he must consciously drink into his soul the full fury of the wrath of his Father it must be evident that he does so voluntarily and willingly so that when the cry is rung from his soul my God, my God why have you forsaken me? none could ever suspect that these are the half-coherent moans of someone drugged with the stuff that was in the cup of wine mingled with gall our Lord has the full use of all of his mental faculties in the midst of all of the physical torture

25:27 of the lacerated back in the confused face and the thorn-crowned brow and all of the rest so that when he cries out under the pressure of the felt abandonment from his Father all of us could sit here tonight and know that that cup that he confronted in Gethsemane he drank to the full he drained the last dark drop let me state it this way he refused the second cup the cup of drugged wine that he might drink the first cup the cup of the wrath of God filled to the brim without mixture now having sought to answer those three very basic questions what was in the cup he refused to drink why was the cup offered to him and why did Jesus resolutely refuse it what are we to say to these things as we contemplate the simple gospel record of the cup that Jesus refused well let me give three lines of exhortation and application as we bring our meditation to a close first of all

Application for Believers: Immerse in Love, Confirm Confidence, Drink God's Cup

26:55 child of God we need to immerse ourselves anew in the ocean of love that Jesus has to his own we need to immerse ourselves anew in the ocean of love that Jesus has to his own his physical agony was great it is about to be heightened as he's going to be impaled upon the cross in what many regard to be the most cruel and painful death ever invented by fallen man and yet and yet as these physical pains are about to be intensified already he's begun to be dehydrated because of the long night's and the loss of blood he will yet cry out I thirst but his thirst for your salvation and mine was greater than any thirst for the alleviation of his pain he refuses the cup of drugged wine because having loved his own he loved them unto the end may God help us as we come to the table my brothers and sisters to plunge afresh into the ocean that is the love of Christ that love that Paul says is a love that passes knowledge

28:23 but then secondly children of God I exhort you confirm yourself anew in the confidence that there is no unsatisfied wrath or unrequited justice towards your sin confirm yourself anew in the confidence that there is no unsatisfied wrath or unrequited justice towards your sin one of the most wonderful statements in all of the Bible is Romans 8 in verse 1 in which the apostle says concerning the people of God there is therefore now in the present no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus you see what he's saying you see what he's saying for the person in Christ the day of judgment has condemnation that's legal language that's the language of the judge with respect to the accused and the apostle says here and now no condemnation why? verse 2 for the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus made me free from the law of sin and of death

29:52 for what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh God sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin condemned sin in the flesh and as our blessed Lord was bearing our sins in his own body up to the tree the language of 1 Peter chapter 2 he refuses that cup of drugged wine that he might in the full consciousness and full possession of all of his faculties drink and drink and drink until in a way not revealed to us the father makes it plain to him that every last drop in that cup has been drunk and then the father takes the cup and smashes it grinds it to powder and sends it into the abyss of nothingness

30:54 child of God coming to the table remembering our Lord Jesus and the blood that he shed it is our privilege may I say it in a way that will shock you it is our duty it is our duty to be confident that the work of Christ on our behalf is such that there is no unsatisfied wrath or unrequited joy or justice toward your sins the sins of yesterday the sins of today the sins of tomorrow there is no unrequited justice there is no unsatisfied wrath there may be many a stripe of fatherly chastisement for whom the Lord loves he chastens and scourges every son whom he receives there may be many a bitter inward crushing of the soul in shame and grief for sin that right now even rises in your consciousness sins that may yet be committed until you are taken home or the Lord comes again in glory and power to receive us to himself but Christian confirm yourself anew

32:21 in the confidence that any of God's dealings with you concerning you concerning sin have nothing to do with the court of law they have to do with the father's administration of his family not the judge's administration of justice that dealing was exhausted in your substitute confirm yourself anew in that confidence and if you sit there and say well if I believe that then I'd live like the devil it shows you've never believed in the Lord for there is no power like the power of knowledge of sins forgiven to break the love of sin to whom much is forgiven the same loveth much and loving the one who drank the cup because he refused the first cup our love to him binds us to him with desire to please him and to turn from the things that grieve him and to turn from the things that grieve him and to choose the things that delight him so child of God I exhort you in the light of our Lord's refusal of the drugged wine immerse yourself anew in the ocean of the love of Jesus to his own it was love that brought him

33:51 into the garden it was love that brought him before the high priest love that brought him before the Sanhedrin love that brought him before the Sanhedrin love that brought him to Pilate and to Herod and back to Pilate and out of the city walls into a place called Golgotha it was love that caused him to say to the cup of drugged wine no thank you no thank you not for me until they accede to his refusal and fully conscious of all that it would mean to pour out his soul unto death our Lord is concerned with us that we are constrained by love Christ loved the church and gave himself for it immerse yourself anew in that ocean of his love confirm yourself anew in the confidence that there is no unsatisfied wrath or unrequited justice towards your sin and then the third exhortation to you God's people is this To drink in submissive faith whatever cup God places to your lips.

35:10 Commit yourself anew to drink in submissive faith whatever cup He places to your lips.

35:21 You see, Christ's death is not only substitutionary. It is also exemplary. Peter says that. He died leaving us an example to follow His steps.

35:34 He is fundamentally, and I've already addressed, the substitutionary nature of His death that forever settles the issues in the court of heaven as far as wrath and justice are concerned. But Christ is our great example. He refused immediate alleviation for long-term dividends. Would the cup of drugged wine have brought some relief from the searing pain that He already experienced?

36:07 Yes. Would it have dulled some of the nerve endings and the signals to His brain as He's about to be crucified? Yes. But the price would have been an incomplete salvation for sinners.

36:26 And the writer to Hebrews says, Our Lord, to whom we are to look, is the one who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising its shame. The joy set before Him enabled Him to push away the cup of drugged wine. He would not, He would not have present alleviation of His suffering at the price of forfeiting the long-range dividends of our salvation.

37:00 He fully drained the cup of divine wrath. All of the cups God puts to our lips, they don't have a drop of wrath in them. They are nourishment. As the old writers would say, they may be purgatives, they may be a good spiritual laxative, or they may be a nice hyperdose of high-vitamin, high-protein drink.

37:25 But whatever cup He puts to our lips, there's no wrath in it. And it is always with the larger concerns and the long-range view that He does no chastening for the present seems joyous. But afterward, afterward, afterward, it yields. It yields.

37:45 And as the people of God, we need to be like our Lord. Our Lord was not a Stoic. He did not face what He was facing, seeing those rough nails and knowing that they're going to be pounded most likely into His wrists. He had all the nerve endings of any normal human being that you and I have already.

38:10 The searing pain in His back and on His brow, and His bruised and contused face, our Lord was no Stoic. Surely there was an attraction in that cup for the immediate, but who for the joy that was set before Him said no thank you to that cup. We must see in our Lord Jesus not only our perfect substitute, but our perfect example. And when God brings cups to us that are cups that pinch our flesh and cross our fondest designs.

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39:24 I embrace the path of disappointed hopes, of shattered dreams. Oh, Lord Jesus, accomplish your purposes in me. Make me more like yourself. Perfect your image in me.

39:41 It's beautifully captured in that hymn, number 94 in our hymn book. The third stanza captures this very perspective that I'm trying to articulate. What e'er my God ordains is right. Though now this cup in drinking may bitter seem to my faint heart, I take it all unshrinking.

40:04 My God is true. Each morn anew sweet comfort yet shall fill my heart, and pain and sorrow shall depart. It's a wonderful thing when you have submissively embraced God's darker dealings in the confidence that sweet peace shall yet fill your heart. It's a wonderful thing to have a good conscience in the midst of the searing pain of a spiritual discipline brought to us in the will of God.

40:37 Small comfort you can have from eased nerve endings if the price you pay is a bloodied conscience.

40:47 And if you're a true Christian, you know the reality of that. There is no pain to the child of God like the pain of a conscience that is bloodied because of sin and defeat. There is no peace and sweetness like that that comes to a conscience at rest in the presence of God. Though every other faculty of the mind and the heart feels the searing pain of God's discipline to be able to look up with tear-filled eyes and say, O my Father, Thou knowest, and I am your child.

Exhortation to Unbelievers: Stop Drinking Drugged Wine

41:27 Do with me what seems good in your sight. Well, as we come to the table, dear people of God, may we be encouraged to immerse ourselves afresh in the ocean of His love, confirm ourselves anew in the confidence that there's no unsatisfied wrath, and may we submit afresh to drinking in submission whatever cup God brings to us, refusing whatever cup of drugged wine seems to be the promise of immediate release and relief from the pain. of God's Cup. And I close with this word to you who are not in Christ. There's a sense in which you may sit here tonight and you know what you're doing? You're drinking your cups of drugged wine, you are doing everything you can to dull the voice of your conscience. Doing everything to shut down all of the nerve endings of your soul that constantly remind you in your quiet moments and remind you with the help of God With a thundering voice when you sit under preaching, that you were made for something more than feeding your body and finding pleasure at your nerve endings and doing that for a

42:51 few years and dying and rotting in a grave. You know better than that. What is your drugged wine? Is it your headset and your music?

43:03 That's your drugged wine? That's the thing by which you seek to cauterize the screaming nerve endings of your soul? My friend, the time is coming when that drugged wine won't accompany you. You will have the full alert use of all your faculties when you join those who weep and wail and gnash their teeth.

43:29 There's no drugged wine in hell. That's why Jesus refused it when he took our hell upon the cross. What's your drugged wine? Your music?

43:42 The abuse of alcohol? Drugs? Fun and games? Sensuous pleasure?

43:47 Ambition? Money? Prestige? What is it?

43:51 What is it with which you drug your soul so that you won't feel the impulses of the nerve endings of your soul telling you you're made for something more than what you're living for? Oh, my unconverted friend, I pray the Holy Spirit will show you that in this Jesus who comes the epitome of a loser, that's what he is. This is the scandal of the cross. He's the epitome of a loser.

44:22 Look at him standing there, soaked in his own blood, hung up on the cross. All his followers forsake him. The religious leaders taunt him. Both criminals in the beginning are taunting him.

44:41 They come by and they say, if you're the son of God, come down from the cross, strut yourself. But my friend, it was only a short time when there was an empty tomb just a little way from where he was crucified. And a few days later, there were parted heavens, and eyewitnesses saw him go up into the cloud. And they heard two men in white apparel saying, you men of Galilee, why stand you bug-eyed gazing up into heaven?

45:16 The same Jesus that is taken up from you into heaven shall so come in like manner as you've seen him go into heaven. When the Spirit of God enables you to see in that one who has all the vision of the visage and the appearance of a total loser, your only hope of life and salvation, you throw yourself upon him in whole-souled, unreserved abandonment of your being to Jesus, that he will save, he will forgive, he will break the chains that bind you, that he will become your life, your light, your salvation. I plead with you, I entreat you, I beg you, as the language of 2 Corinthians 5, that you be reconciled to God. I beg you in Christ's stead, be reconciled to God. Take seriously what Jesus did on the cross for sinners. All that he did is offered to you in him.

46:16 If you will have him, all that he did for sinners is yours. If you won't have him, nothing that he did for sinners will be yours. God grant that as we plunge afresh into the ocean of his love. Amen.

46:33 Some of you for the first time will plunge and say, now I understand, let's pray. Our Father, what can we say when we try to gaze upon the mystery of our Lord's dying, the just for the unjust, the well-beloved of your heart, who had dwelt from eternity in your bosom, yet in time took to himself a true human soul and body? How, O Father, you could abandon your own Son, yet we thank you, how we thank you, that the blood of Jesus, your Son, cleanses from all sin, that we need not fear the day of judgment because those of us who are in Christ, we thank you, that day has come and gone. We bless you and praise you. And we pray that this night, some who have never known Jesus, we may be able to see him. We pray that this night, some who have never known Jesus, we may be able to see him.

47:38 We pray that this night, some who have never known Jesus, we may be able to see him. We pray that this night, some who have never known Jesus, we may be able to see him. Bless your people as we gather to the table. Ravish our hearts with your love.

47:52 Bind us more tightly to your heart. O Lord, open up the fountains of our own inner being that we may love you and seek you and serve you as we have never done before. Thank you, Lord Jesus. Amen.

48:09 refusing the cup of drugged wine that we might drink of your love and your forgiveness and all of your grace so freely extended to us. Receive our thanks. Amen.