Dwelling on the Mount of Life

Dwelling on the Mount of Life is what we will be considering as we look here in the book of Hebrews, chapter 12, and considering verse 18 through 29 this evening. In John Bunyan's The Pilgrim Progress, Christian, who is the main character of the book, has heard evangelists' message to flee the city of destruction, and he heeds it. While on this journey, we find him seeking to rid himself of the burden which dwells upon his back, and this brings him to meet one who Bunyan describes as Mr. Worldly Wise Man, who instructs him that to find the peace that he seeks, he must ascend Mount Sinai to reach Mr. Legality for help. The story reads, Christian turned out of the narrow way to go to Mr. Legality's house for help, but behold, when he got near the hill, it was so high and it so hung over him that Christian was afraid to venture further, lest the hill should fall on his head. The flashes of fire also came out of the hill which made Christian afraid that he should be burned alive, and Bunyan adds in Exodus 19, 16 through 18 there, and continues to read, Therefore he stood still and did not know what to do. His burden now seemed even heavier to him than when he was in the narrow way. He was so frightened that he trembled with fear.

He now began to be very sorry that he had taken Mr. Worldly Wise Man's counsel, and then Bunyan adds this poem which says, When Christians unto carnal men give ear, out of their way they go and pay for it dear. For Master Worldly Wise Man can but show a saint the way to bondage and to woe. With this in mind, it is my desire that as we look in the scriptures together this evening that we will first bring to light the burden that rests upon those who still remain in the shadow of Mount Sinai. Also, I pray that we might lift the eyes of saints who have burdened themselves by looking back from Sinai which they dwell, or Zion from which they dwell, and look back upon Sinai as though that is where their peace is found. And lastly, I hope to encourage those who so sweetly rest in Zion's mount to fight to remain in that peace with all their might.

I hope to do this as we will break down Hebrews 12, 18 through 24 into two points, and then we will look at the remaining five verses for application as the writer does seem to do so himself. So, if you are here today and you are resting in the goodness of your conduct, I implore you to listen to what God has to say on the matter. And if you are a believer who has ever condemned in your heart as you look to yourself as the ground of your assurance, this message is for you.

And lastly, to all of us who are in Christ, I pray that we might leave here this evening being full of gratitude for the grace of God bestowed upon us in Christ Jesus our Lord. It is in this text that the writer of Hebrews is encouraging these Hebrew believers not to return to the bondage that is found in the law, but to instead look to Zion, wherein Christ has come, completed what we could not do on our own, and has called us unto himself. Today, we will draw a distinction. He will draw a distinction for us.

It is this. Will you have bondage, or will you have freedom? Will you have law, or will you have grace? Will you have Sinai, or will you have Zion?

The choice is laid out before us, beloved. And we will see this first as we consider first the terrible dread of Mount Sinai. As we direct our attention to the first paragraph in our selected text for this evening, we might find ourselves in the shoes of an average Jewish man or woman to behold the terror that is encapsulated in this event at Mount Sinai which took place so long ago. But it is there that we find God's presence being manifested atop of the mount, not presenting a welcoming warmth, but communicating the vast distance between a holy God and fallen and sinful men. We need to understand that the writer of Hebrews is carefully laying out that this was a real physical mount that this took place upon, and we will get back to that later, but notice in verse 18, you have not come to the mountain that may be touched. So he's saying that there is a mountain that may be touched, this Sinai that he is referring to. We need to understand that this is a real physical mountain that this really took place upon. But for now, let us understand that this was a real event that took place at a real place known as Mount Sinai. And what we are told is that it is here that fire, darkness, gloom, storms, trumpet blasts, and the terrifying voice of God are present. This is how it is described as we look in verse 18 to the mountain that may be touched and that burned with fire and to blackness and darkness and tempest and the sound of a trumpet and the voice of words so that those who heard it begged that the word should not be spoken to them anymore.

The scene was so dark, so terrifying, so intense that not a person is recorded to have been present and dwelling there in a nonchalant manner. As a matter of fact, even Moses, their leader, who stood before Pharaoh and said, let my people go. Even he stands before them. It is recorded by the writer of Hebrews that he stood and said unto them, I am exceedingly afraid and trembling. Notice with me, if you will, the recording of the trumpet blast.

As I read Exodus 19, 19, it is there, which Hebrews 12 is referring to. It says that the trumpet blast grew louder and louder as the day went on. As I looked at that text that called me back to high school, as it was back then that I marched for several years and in the band I played the baritone. And it in particular took me back to my senior year. It was my final show of my senior year.

We were marching at state and at that time your lungs are on fire, your calves are burning. You're about 12 to 15 minutes into that show and you know you've got some reserves in the tank there and you're waiting for that last note of the show. It is a soft note, a beautiful concert of instruments that are going to begin very soft and they're going to build up to this wonderful, wonderful climactic crescendo, which is going gradually from a very soft note to a very loud note. For my music people, it was a piano to a fortissimo and you were looking forward to that. And as we were marching through that show, I knew that was coming.

And as I look back on that, I can remember all the emotion as all the years of my music career from sixth grade up to that, that last note embodied, all of it coming to a conclusion as a brass player. That's what comes to my mind as I read this text in Exodus 19, 19. It is a crescendo. It is an intensifying. It is much reminding me of all the intensity of emotion that was poured into that.

This is to me speaking of the intensity of the situation. This communicates the emotion, the power, the greatness of the one who is coming down upon the Mount. And it would seem this correlation between the trumpet and dreadful terror is a recurring theme, as we will find it in the Bible and texts like Matthew and First Thessalonians and Revelation as the trumpet blast. And as katological events are tied together throughout the scriptures. So what I want us to realize is, as G.K. Bill puts it, is that in this text we find the terrible inapproachability of God.

The terrible inapproachability of God. This is so clearly and magnificently described as the writer of Hebrews says in verse 21. If so much as a beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned or shot with an arrow. I want us to imagine ourselves here. I want you to feel your legs trembling as you lift your eyes to see the fire and the clouds. I want you to feel your fingers plugging your ears as you hear the intensifying trumpet blast. I want you to feel your heart pitter pattering as the condemnation of the law settles in upon your conscience, as though it were written and directly distinctly upon you. Feel yourselves at Sinai.

Can you sense its dread, the magnitude of this event? This is the holy unapproachability of God being manifested. This is God making known to us that he is not like the idols of this world. He is distinct.

He is separate. He is higher than we can fathom. He is the inapproachable holy God within whom presence sin cannot dwell lest it be annihilated. This is God.

He is magnifying himself upon this mount. Beloved, this is not merely some experience that we have to reflect upon as though it were an isolated reality some thousands of years ago. But for those of you who are outside of Christ, this is your present reality at this time. You are still at the foot of Sinai.

God's holy wrath and justice have not shifted from that great day. You still sit in this great shadow. It hangs over you.

And much like Bunyan, the further you think you can climb it, the heavier your burden begins to weigh upon your back. Beloved, the law of God condemns you. And you are so far separated from God that his presence is not one of warmth and welcoming unto you, but of terrifying judgment as the God who is an all consuming fire.

Do you disagree? Well, let me ask you, have you loved God with every fiber of your being perfectly? Always placing him above all else with unfailing, unwavering devotion. Have you always sacrificially loved your neighbor with an unwavering commitment? No.

No. And that is to encapsulate the ten laws that God gives us on the mount into one simple statement to love God and to love neighbor. And the reality is, is no, of course not. And this is the case that we too, since this is the case, we too should be shaking in our boots. This is the dread of Mount Sinai. And this is where all who refuse Zion reside. This is where we all resided until Christ so graciously saved us. I'm not done with that paper. Where are you going?

OK. The terrible dread of Mount Sinai. That is what is spoken of here in verse 18 through verse 21. But I want you to look with me secondarily at the delightful beauty of Mount Zion.

The delightful beauty of Mount Zion. Now, lest there be any accusation of antinomianism here amongst us as though we are throwing away the law, we would affirm the three uses of the law. That the law of God is used to instruct man of his sinfulness and to prod him unto Christ. It is used to restrain man in his sinful rebellion. It is used for the believer to reveal unto him the will of God for his life.

OK. So we're not affirming antinomianism here, but as the writer of Hebrews is setting up the terrible dread of Mount Sinai, he turns and creates this marvelous distinction because as he set forth this physical Sinai, he now lifts our eyes to this spiritual great mountain known as Zion. Let us consider secondarily the delightful beauty of Mount Zion as we read verses 22 through 24.

But you, but I love that. But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels, to the General Assembly and church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven to God, the judge of all to the spirits of just men made perfect to Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel. We once dwell beneath the shadow of Sinai, but this is not the case for us all any longer, is it? And as the writer of Hebrews heightens the remembrance of the condemnation wherein we all once lived, he reminds us, he reminds us and these troubled Hebrews that they no longer sit under the dark shadow of the untouchable Mount Sinai, but have now been brought to the city of God. You may recall earlier that I made mention of the physical nature of Mount Sinai in this text. Well, it is here that the writer contrasts this terrifying physical place with the glories of a heavenly Zion.

He's trying to get you to understand as you're tempted to turn back to your reliance upon the law, how much greater the new covenant is, how much greater grace is than law. There is this physical Zion or this physical Sinai, but beloved, look up. There is this wonderful, spiritual, heavenly Mount Zion to run to and to dwell upon. It is here that the writer contrasts the terrifying physical places with the glories of heavenly Zion.

Now Jerusalem and Mount Zion are real places, but that is not where he is referring. He is referring to the spiritual, heavenly Zion, that city of God. And he is not referring to that dreadful mountain which we could not touch lest we die, but he points us to the mount to which we have already arrived. That word you have come to could also be translated, you have arrived at. You dwell upon, you are at the foot of this heavenly Zion. We have come here, he says, to the company of innumerable angels, to the General Assembly and to the Church of the Firstborn who are registered in heaven. The terrible unapproachability of God has now rescinded. And now we dwell in the mount of, as G.K. Bill puts it, the mountain of joyful celebration, of community, and of relational closeness with God himself.

These are two observations, there are two observations that I believe are warranted here. One being the blessings of corporate worship. You see, we have already come to this mount, we have arrived there. Where we remain on this earth, you see, we have already come to this mount.

Yes, it is there we dwell as we abide in Christ. And I would like to say that as we gather every Lord's Day like we have done this morning and tonight, like we are now, we gather in the chorus of believers, both living and dead, and with the innumerable angels to praise the God of matchless grace. With that in mind, I would like to say that what we do in our worship matters. As Baptist, we affirm the regulative principle of worship. The Scriptures dictate what we do in our worship here. And seeing that on the Lord's Day we gather together as believers, both with the believers who are living and who are in the heavens, and we gather together with those innumerable angels to join in lifting up our voices in chorus to praise the triune God, what we do in our worship actually matters.

The church wonderfully disempowered herself when we became entertainment driven people. Second, notice that phrase, of the firstborn who are registered in heaven. In the Old Testament, we become familiar with the concept of the blessing of the firstborn. As a matter of fact, in the paragraph just before we're at this evening, he makes mention of Esau. In the blessing of the firstborn, they were entitled to a double portion of the inheritance of their father's possessions upon his death, and that they were given certain privileges and responsibilities.

They were also known as the strength of the household and the pride of the family. And it is here that we are known as the firstborn who are registered in heaven. Well, in the New Testament, specifically in Romans 829, and in Colossians 1 15, we are told that Jesus is the firstborn of God. This is not meaning that Jesus is a created being.

This is simply their means by which they are elevating Christ to be known as the one within whom the richest blessings of heaven belong. And since Jesus is our covenant representative, meaning we belong in him, if you ever go home and read Ephesians or any Paulinian writing, there are 100 to 110 times Paul uses this statement. In him, we dwell in him, we reside in him, we were chosen in him, we have been washed in him. He is our covenant head within whom we rest, we are in him. And because we are in him, meaning we belong to him, we all receive the blessings and benefits as though we ourselves are the firstborn of God. I don't think it ends here though.

I don't think this beautiful language ends here. In Exodus 20 24, you can turn there, but I'll read it to you. God tells Moses this, an altar of earth you shall make for me, and you shall sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and your peace offerings, your sheep and your oxen, in every place where I record my name, I will come to you and I will bless you. Well, here in our text, we learn not merely about God's recorded name, but we learn about our registered, enrolled, our recorded names of our own names, and where they dwell in heaven. What does Jesus tell his disciples?

Rejoice not that you have powers over serpents and over scorpions, but rejoice that your names are written in the book of life. What I am pulling together here, as I mentioned this, we are also reminded, I believe, of baptism here. What does Jesus command us to do?

To preach the gospel and to baptize them into the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. We are upon baptism stamped with the name of the triune God. As COVID ticked up and everybody was talking about the mark of the beast, beloved, we are the church of Christ. We have been marked with a different mark. It is the mark of baptism wherewith God places his triune name upon his church.

It is the mark of God. We are stamped with it as his true people. And so what I am pulling together here is that we no longer dwell beneath the condemnation of Sinai, but instead we lavish in the heavenly blessings of Zion. God has put his presence upon us and amongst us and put his name upon us, but not only that, but he has written his name, our name, in his presence. His blessing is everywhere around us. We are swimming in. We are lavished by the grace of God and his blessings.

We are given heaven's richest blessings as those who belong in Christ. Do you see the difference here? You were scared. Your knees were just knocking a moment ago. Your fingers were just in your ears. Your heart was pitter pattering, but now it's with a different mode. You were enthralled.

You were thrilled. Why? Because heaven's richest blessings dwell upon you, not because of what you have done, but because you, by grace, have been brought into this heavenly Mount Zion. But why?

How? How could this be the reality for those who bore the responsibility of breaking the law of Mount Zion? The text continues, we have come, I'm adding the we have, just to continue, we have come to the God, to God, the judge of all, to spirit, to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than Abel. Here we find a few things that are the basis of our blessed assurance as we dwell within the city of God. First, we need to notice that phrase.

We are the spirits of just men made perfect. This is what is known as a perfect passive participle. And how we understand these and read these is that they point back.

These perfect passive participles, what does it point back to? It points back to the statement, we have come to God who is the judge. And so as we read this, we understand that God has now looked upon us who dwell and were once in Sinai. God has looked upon us and has now declared he is perfectly righteous.

How can this be? How could this be that God would look upon us and would declare that we are perfectly righteous? It is not by the efforts of our hands or our obedience to the law, but it is because we have come to Jesus who is the mediator of the new covenant, and because we have been sprinkled with his own blood. What is the basis wherewith we are accepted in the city of God? What is the means by which we shall forever more reside there? It is because God has looked upon us law breakers and has said they are perfectly righteous, and we say, how can this be? God reminds us that it is not by our own efforts, but it is by Christ who has been a propitiation for our sins and who has provided us his blood which is within the new covenant dwells, and has sprinkled it upon us. He is our mediator, the one who goes between God and man. That is the means by which we reside in this heavenly Jerusalem. Sprinkled with his own blood.

That is not language that we really hear a lot today. So what does it mean to be sprinkled with his blood? Well, in the Old Testament, actually just after this account, Moses would have taken the blood of animals, he would have slaughtered them, he would have put the blood in a bowl, and after this, the Mosaic covenant is given, and in Exodus 24, 8 we read, And Moses took the blood and sprinkled it on the people and said, This is the blood of the covenant which the Lord has made with you according to all these words.

What does Jesus say at the Last Supper in Matthew 26, 28? It reads, For this is my blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins. So what we see here is Christ, the better Moses and the great high priest, is coming forward and not simply taking the blood of some animal that he slayed, but is instead shedding his own blood, and by his wonderful kindness is sprinkling it upon us to seal us within this covenant which has been made.

This is the matchless wonder of Christ. He is not merely like Moses, he is a higher and greater than Moses. He is not merely a high priest, he is the great high priest. He is not one who merely slays spotless lambs, he is the spotless sinless lamb. He is not one who sheds animal blood and spills it upon us, he is the one who sheds his own blood and sprinkles it upon us. He is the one who says, This is the new covenant and I seal you in it by my own blood.

What do we find here? Christ himself is the means by which we dwell within the city of God safely, and it is not by anything that we have done, but what he has done for us alone. Praise be unto God for his matchless mercy and grace.

It is by his wonderful kindness that he has sprinkled it on us to seal us in this marvelous covenant of grace. We dwell within the covenant of grace. We once were crushed beneath the covenant of works, set to be annihilated, utterly destroyed because of our rebellion against God, but Christ has fulfilled all of the qualifications that we once were demanded to keep and could never do, Christ has done for us. And where he himself alone has borne all of the condemnation belonging to us, it is by this act that we are made just, and it is by this act that we come to Mount Zion. Look with me in verse 24. We have come to Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling.

What does it do? It speaks better things than that of Abel. It was Abel's blood that cried forth for justice, but it is Christ's blood that calls forth for grace. And for those of us who run to Christ, this is absolutely what we will undoubtedly receive this evening. There's an old hymn which says, Glory be to Jesus, who in bitter pains pour for me the lifeblood from his sacred veins. Grace and life eternal, in that blood I find.

Blessed be his compassion, it is infinitely kind. Blessed through endless ages, be the precious stream, which from endless torments did the world redeem. Abel's blood for vengeance pleaded to the skies, but the blood of Jesus for our pardon, Christ. Oft as earth exalting wafts its praises high, angels hosts rejoicing, make their glad reply. Lift within our voices, swell the mighty flood, louder still and louder praise the precious blood. Beloved, where the trumpet of Sinai sounded forth the unapproachable, unapproachable holiness of God, the ever growing choir of saints on Zion shall forevermore sound forth the praises of God's matchless grace. Well, it is this message of grace that the writer uses to encourage these tempted Hebrews to press on in verses 25 through 29. And in that text, you will find that he reminds them and us today that this message is grander than that of Sinai. For while Sinai was spoken on earth, this message is from heaven. And as I read that, I am drawn to one specific event wherein Christ is spoken over by the Father. This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased.

Hear ye him. This is this message that is declared from the heavens. He then goes on in verse 26 to reference Haggai 2 6. And it is there that God is promising the Jews that are returning from exile a miracle wherein he will shake the nations of the world and will provide funds through them to build a glorious new temple. And he gives them that promise as a means of encouragement. But the writer of Hebrews, the writer teaches us that God will judge the world in the presence of wrath. There will be grace and blessing for his people who rest on Mount Zion.

Let me read it to you. See that you do not refuse him who speaks, for if they did not escape, we refused him who spoke on earth. Much more shall we not escape if we turn away him who speaks from heaven, whose voice then shook the earth. But now he has promised saying yet once more I shake not only the earth, but also heaven.

Now, this yet once more indicates the removal of those things that are being shaken as of things that are made that the things which cannot be shaken may remain. The writer of Hebrews here is teaching us that while God is judging the world in the presence of wrath, there will be grace and blessings for his people who rest on Mount Sinai. I am drawn to think about Charles Spurgeon, who says, I have learned to kiss or to bless the ways that cast me against the rock of ages. And it would seem as though the writer of Hebrews is highlighting this great time of persecution which will arise, but he is encouraging you stay on Zion. Stay there with Christ.

He is the greater one. Do not return to bondage. Do not return to the pain. Do not return to the law, but remain on the Mount of Grace. Because we have once dwelled upon the foundations of sinking sands, and our lives and our livelihoods and all of our prides were washed away in judgment, but we rest upon the rock of ages. Beloved, the judgment of God will fall upon this world.

And in some manner, I believe we see four tastes of it already. John Calvin says when God judges a nation, he gives them wicked rulers. Where will our peace come from? Where does your peace reside? My peace rests in the fact that I am safely kept within the city of God. It is my place of refuge and my only means by which I remain there is that I am sealed by his covenant blood.

And in conclusion, I want to give us a few points to walk away with. Also, for you that were in Sunday school with me this morning, thank you for coming back again tonight. I gave you a warning and you came anyway, so God be gracious to you for that. First, if you are outside of Christ, meaning if you have not come to Jesus for the forgiveness of sins and the saving of your soul, the terrible dread of Mount Sinai is still upon you.

Referencing this morning's sermon, God's arrows always find their mark. You will not escape when Mount Zion crashes down around you if you do not dwell upon Zion. You must flee from Sinai and remain in Christ. Look to Christ today and live. If you are within your heart, beginning to argue, I have to prepare myself. Preparationism is heresy.

I am not telling you to go home and to fix your wardrobe or to go online and delete everything that you've posted that's naughty on your Instagram. I am calling you to look to Christ and to live at this moment. The wrath of Sinai lingers upon you at this very moment. Look to Christ and live.

Amen. Second, to the doubting believer, why are you looking to the law for your assurance as though it was by the law you were saved to begin with? Isn't that what Paul says in the book of Galatians?

If you haven't begun by the Spirit, why have you now continued in the law as though that is how you will finish this race? Though Christian and the pilgrims progress was saved in the gate, that wicker gate, the relief of his burns rolled away when he considered the imputed righteousness of Christ. Look to Christ today as it is by his works that you were saved and it is a life lived in light of this gratitude that reaps a reward of fruit in your life. Now hear me here.

Let me let me repeat that one more time. It is by his works that you were saved and it is a life lived in light of this gratitude that reaps a reward of fruit in your Christian life. Or we could say it this way in light of the parables of Christ. It is not fruit that makes a tree alive.

It is a living tree which bears good fruit. Whatever happened to Christians burden in the pilgrims progress? Well, according to our good friend Jim Orrick, he says this. When we meet him, Christian has an enormous burden on his back and Christians burden represents not sin per se, but it represents the shame and the doubt that he feels because of his sin. Christian sins get forgiven and he was justified when he received Christ, which is represented by his entering the wicket gate. But Christ does not, but Christian does not yet understand the basis of his forgiveness, so his conscience continues to bother and burden him. Therefore, what Christian loses at the cross is his shame and doubt caused by sin because his sins had already been forgiven when he entered the wicket gate. Also at the cross, Christian receives a scroll, which he later calls his assurance. When Christian entered the wicket gate, he received Christ. But when Christian gazes upon the cross, he understands the substitutionary atonement and imputed righteousness of Christ. And this gives him assurance that his sins are indeed forgiven.

Beloved, are you condemned today? Look to Christ. Look to Christ.

Stop navel gazing. Look to Christ. The Reformation, like I said this morning, was a recovery of the doctrine of assurance. And in the Council of Trent, they damn all who affirm salvation by grace alone to hell. Beloved, if your doctrine of assurance would be a man by the Council of Trent, you have gotten things horribly wrong.

The means by which we have assurance reside solely in what Christ has done for us. Look to him. Look to him and live. Look to him and live gladly. Look to him and live freely.

And as you look to him with gratitude, fruit will begin to be exuded from every pore of your life. Look to Christ. Third, I'll be quiet.

I've got 10 seconds. Third, for the believer, feels as though their world is falling apart. Look to Christ, who by his own sovereign grace has brought you into his kingdom, because it is his kingdom that will stand after all the affairs of this world fade away. Look with me in the concluding two verses of this chapter. Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom which can not be shaken, let us have grace by which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear, for our God is a consuming fire.

The world may be falling apart around us, but we dwell upon the rock of ages. He is the cleft where in which we hide. He is our unmovable foundation. He is our salvation and our assurance. He is our Lord. He has given us all things in Christ and, beloved, as a matter of fact, all things in the salvation, God himself has granted and done solely in Christ. He has elected us in Christ. He has atoned for our sins in Christ. He has, by the preaching of Christ and him crucified, given us the gift of repented faith, repentant faith to trust in Christ. Everything that we need for life and godliness is found within Christ.

Look to Christ and live. Heavenly Father, we thank you for the mercy and grace that you have given us in Christ Jesus our Lord. I'm reminded of a hymn that we sang back home when I was a young boy, that I shall forever lift my eyes to Calvary.

Let us do that again this day. Yes, indeed, there is use in looking back at the law. It is not useless. It is for instruction of the will of God. It reminds sinners of their sinfulness and prods them to run to Christ.

It restrains us that we might not run astray. But indeed, the freedom that we have belongs in the gospel of grace, that Christ has appeased all accounts on our behalf. Lord, we thank you for that.

We glorify you for that. Today, I beseech you, my most kind and loving Heavenly Father, that if there is one here today who is cowering in fear beneath the shadows of Sinai, that they might find themselves resting in the shade of Zion this day by your grace alone. Lift their weeping eyes to look upon Christ who is gentle and lowly in heart. Lord, for that Christian who is condemned as they wake up day by day as though this sense of self-flagellation is a mean by which they might atone for their sins, may you lift their eyes to look on Christ who bore our wounds for us.

He was wounded for us. May that be our assurance. For that believer who feels like their world is shaking beneath them, may they rejoice to find that they rest upon the rock of ages. We love you, our most kind and gracious Heavenly Father, and I ask that through this sermon preached, we might find our hearts stoked to love you even so much the more. It's in Christ's name we pray. Amen.