Matthew chapter 27, verses 45 through 54. You ought to know this by now. You ought to be able to speak this by now. We've got 10 powerful verses. We've got two statements that we looked at closely. We continue to look at them as we talk about the miracles. And we're talking about seven miracles that happened during this darkness. John MacArthur relates hearing a radio preacher on a good Friday morning talking about that very special day that it was. He said it was a day in which a certain man, the radio preacher said it was a day that he was speaking about in which a certain man, listen carefully now, everybody get up here, okay? We'll get through stirring here in a minute, okay? It was a day in which a certain man was persecuted, prosecuted, hung for crimes he did not commit, an innocent man that was sentenced to death. The radio preacher was talking about our Lord and Savior. He spoke of the inspiration that can be received from seeing a person that dies for something they really believe in while disregarding the consequences. Now, MacArthur says the speaker probably was well-meaning, but he missed the true meaning of Jesus' death. He did not die to set an example. He didn't die because he thought he was dying for a good cause. And MacArthur said he's like most Americans. Most Americans. He knew some of the facts of the crucifixion, but knew little more than an injustice had been done in killing an innocent man. All right, so we sang a song about the blood. We had a class this morning on the sprinkling of the blood and the education of the children. And Jeannie's gonna teach the same thing to the women. Listen, the blood of Jesus Christ and his death on the cross is the center of Christianity. It's the center of who we are. Now listen to this, this preacher, that was preaching was not even convinced that it was more than a myth or more than maybe just a biblical legend. He wasn't convinced of its validity. And he gave no mention of divine purpose. I'm telling you, Jesus came here with a divine purpose in mind. And that was that his blood might be shed and we might be forgiven of our sins. In the process, he did all those other things. Some 30,000 Jews had been crucified by this time. Listen to this now. By this time, the Romans had crucified 30,000 Jews. Now, they were mostly crucified because they were rebelling against the Roman government, which Jesus wasn't doing, but that's what he got accused of doing. Now, don't you figure that out of the 30,000 that were crucified, there were several of those men that were innocent. Okay? But there's only one man mentioned. And that's none other than our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. He's the only man mentioned. So how'd this happen? We got to go back all the way back to Genesis to get the answer. Y'all ready? What happened? Yeah, tell me about Adam and Eve. They ate of the fruit. Amen? Adam and Eve falling into sin. And when Adam and Eve, look here, y'all watch this now. A sinkhole or a whirlpool in the ocean or in the river that sucks people under. Okay, so Adam and Eve, Adam and Eve fell and we all go headlong after them. That's what happened. Okay, so keep that in mind. They drug the entire human race as well as creation itself into corruption. Romans 8, 19 through 22, you have this. Now listen to this, for the creation, I'm talking about the earth. Okay? Waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God, for the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth since Adam and Eve until now. And we will continue in that until now, until Christ returns. So that's where we're at. After the fall, listen, the fall no sooner than happens in chapter two and chapter three in particular, that God begins to reveal, are y'all ready for this? His plan to redeem creation. So it probably should give you a little hint. Something significant has happened, but immediately there is a plan. And we've already figured out in Matthew, we've surely figured out this was no man-made plan. This was a divine plan that was figured out. Listen to Genesis 3 15. This is called the, oh, it's not gonna come to me, evangelical, Anyway, most people began to believe that Genesis 315 is the first mention of Jesus in the Bible. I don't see it that way, but that's okay. It's close, okay? It says in Genesis 315. So God says, I will put enmity between you and the woman. So God says, I'm gonna put, there's gonna be an enemy that stands between the devil and mankind. Enmity. And between your offspring and her offspring. He says, he shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel. And there's clearly evidence here that he's talking about Jesus. Jesus would come as the seed of the woman. He would be bruised by Satan, but Jesus would fatally wound Satan. Satan wounded Jesus, but Jesus put to death the devil. Now it's happened. His work to do that is done, but it yet has not yet come to a consummation. Also, quickly after verse 15, we talk about an enemy. We talked about the fall of Adam and Eve. Look at what happens in Genesis 321. And the Lord God made for Adam and his wife garments of skin and clothed them. I'm talking about, this is one of the most powerful verses, and I'm talking about lost people. I'm talking about rough lost people. Okay? Can see from this verse that we are sinners and we need a sacrifice. And we can't even provide our own sacrifice. Genesis 3.21, and the Lord God made for Adam and his wife garments of skin and clothed them. Shortly after Adam and Eve sinned, shortly after Genesis 3.15, God provided Adam and Eve with clothing to hide their nakedness or to hide their sins. Now, I want you to see what we're seeing here. We have no capabilities to provide a sacrifice for ourselves. And so God has always been in the process throughout time to provide what is needed for his people's salvation. And we really don't have anything to contribute to this salvation except our sins. Everything good to do with our salvation is nothing but a free gift of God. So we start right here in Genesis 321. In other words, Jesus began to reveal to mankind that He would provide them a sacrifice. Now look. I'm telling you folks, we got it going on. We're looking back at the cross. We're looking back at that sacrifice. Adam and Eve had to look ahead 3,750 years before the cross. I've never seen it. I just have to tell you, I would have never seen it. Praise the Lord that I didn't come at that time, I came when I did. Then as we move on a little further, we find God. You remember Abraham and Isaac? God challenged Isaac or Abraham to go out and offer your son up, right? He goes out and he builds the altar and he puts him on the altar and straps him too. He's got all the, he's just ready to raise the knife and persecute or kill him before he lights the fire. And lo and behold, what does God provide? A sacrifice. So God's always been in the business, y'all listen to it, look at me now, of providing what we needed and what we couldn't provide for ourself. God clearly revealed in Genesis, listen carefully now. I wanna read the Genesis, Abraham and Isaac scripture. You can have it there, I don't wanna pass it up. Matter of fact, I've added Isaiah 22, eight. I think it's in yours, it's not in my notes. Isaiah 22, eight, listen to this. I said Isaiah, didn't I? Genesis 22, eight. Genesis 22 and eight. Abraham said, God, listen, This is what you can tell your children, that God has provided. 22.8, Abraham said, God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son. So they went both of them together. So in 22.13, we see it happening. Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked and behold, behind him was a... ram caught in a thicket by his horns. And Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son." Wow. God does what? I think it's one of the names of God. Jehovah-Jireh, God provides. And all of us said, amen. God provides. that man could not provide that sacrifice and that God would always provide the sacrifice. The first sacrifice for the closing of Adam and Eve was the first sacrifice looking ahead to the last sacrifice, the Lord Jesus Christ. Have you seen that? What would you call it? That secession of sacrifices? Thousands of animals. all pointing to the Lord Jesus Christ. So God's showing us and scripture's showing us and Moses' writings and all that's going on. And then we get to the prophets, Isaiah 53, 5. Now, let me just ask you, who's this talking about? And I'm so thankful to see young people with their Bibles open and looking at them and following along with the scripture. So thankful. Because I want to tell you, and I learned this in preparing for the blood of the sprinkling and teaching about the Passover. Let me just tell you, I don't care what age your child is, they have way more capabilities to grasp spiritual things than you think they do. So they need to hear early on, you need a sacrifice, You need a savior and only God can provide that. All right, so here we are, Isaiah 53, five. But he was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace. And with his wounds, we are healed. How many years was that before the sacrifice of Christ on the cross? 700 or so? A few years, amen. Galatians 3, 13, Paul begins to get in on it. Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, but becoming a curse for us, for it is written, cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree. Peter gets in on it, 1 Peter 3, 18. For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit. Christ is our sacrifice. The writer of Hebrews gets in on it. Hebrews 9.28, so Christ having been offered once to bear the sins of many. Listen, if your sins have been paid for, if your sins have been taken care of, it's because Christ Jesus died on the cross and took away your sins. So Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin, but to save those who are eagerly waiting for Him. I am eagerly awaiting that moment in which I leave this world or till Christ returns again, because I see Him as my Savior, as my sin-bearer. I see His blood is washing away my sins. And if His blood didn't wash away my sins, my sins have no way to be forgiven. There's no other way. Revelation 13, eight. John says, and all who dwell on earth will worship it. Everyone whose name is not written before the foundation of the world and the book of life and the Lamb who was slain. So the Lamb of God, Jesus Christ, is the Lamb that was slain. So we began to look at seven miracles. And last week we looked at the first two. We looked at supernatural darkness and we looked at divine separation when Christ was literally separated from God. And this morning we look closely, a little more closely at the voluntary death of Jesus Christ and the veil in the temple being torn in two. We're looking at miracles second, at the third and fourth. And so I want to go through the scripture just again with you quickly in case you missed some of it. Maybe we'll pick up on it. So verse 45 says this, now in the sixth hour, there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour. So from noon to three o'clock in the afternoon, it was entirely dark. So dark you couldn't see your hand in front of your face. And so what we're talking about is what happened during that time. Verse 46 through 49 kind of tell us about that. And about that ninth hour, Jesus cried out with a loud voice saying, Eli, Eli, lemus sabbatithani, that is my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? So we learned a lot from that. He didn't whimper with a voice that was trailing off into death. He said with a loud voice as a soldier being victorious in a hard battle, he cried out with a loud voice. and said, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? So there were bystanders around hearing it and said, this man is calling Elijah. And one of them ran at once and took a spline filled with sour wine and put it on a reed and gave it to him to drink. And the other said, wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to save him. So now what was Christ saying? In my time of need, where are you father? And so at that time of need, God the Father was still the Father and the Son was still the Son, but because at that moment in time, Christ had taken on our sins, He was out of fellowship with the Father. So that's what was going on. He wasn't out of fellowship because of anything He had done, but because our sins had been placed upon Him. These words were expressed to leave no doubt. Listen, Jesus Christ was our substitute. He took our place. And in the godly home meeting that we looked at this morning and that women will look at at noon, this is not a doctrine to be put on the back burner. This is a doctrine that must be front and center of who we are. If the shed blood of Christ and His death on the cross is not front and center of a church, it's not a church. Without the blood of Christ, there is no forgiveness of sin. Front and center. We ought to be engrossed in talking about the shed blood that washed away our sins. And so what Spurgeon's teaching in the godly home about the springing of the blood and the children is, listen, this is a doctrine that a three, four, five-year-old that's been brought up in the church that watches you do the Lord's Supper every Sunday, this is a doctrine that they can understand. And what he's saying is, it's your responsibility when they ask questions. What was the question, Lewis? You told me, you said this morning. Oh, yeah. Yeah, so they're in that homes and all this is going on outside and they can't go outside the door. And so they're hearing people rushing back and forth. And then they began to hear the wailing. And so they turned to their dad or their mom and they're scared. And what's he going to tell them? He's going to tell them what's happened. He's going to tell them about the Passover lamb. He's going to tell them why the Passover lamb was slain and his blood was shed and you've got nothing to worry about. We followed up with this message. Look, if your kids haven't asked you about dying yet, they're going to. And you don't need to back off from it. You need to tell them they don't need to die without Christ. You need to tell them that Christ died for them so they don't have to worry about death. They especially don't have to worry about eternal death. You gotta be ready. That didn't happen but once in that house that night. That was the only time in the life of that family that happened. So when that opportunity comes and that question comes, we got to have the answer. That's why we all gotta study. Then it says in verse 50, he yielded up his spirit and Jesus cried out with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit. I got a little ahead of myself while I go. Listen. We found out early on in this process about the arrest and when he was gonna die and when he wasn't gonna die. We found out who was in charge here. Remember they said nine days and Jesus said, no, two days. He determined when he was gonna die. He determined how he was gonna die. So even in his dying, even in his dying, he has authority over his destiny. Christ did. Then it says, after being on the cross for about six hours, Jesus died. He expired. And when that happened, verse 51 says, and behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom and the earth shook and the rocks were split. I thought about this and maybe somebody has got this fact right on their lips this morning. So this is, this is magnificent guys. And we looked at this and we're not gonna, we're not gonna look, spend a whole time, a lot of time looking. But that highest point of this roof is 24, 25 feet. It's not as high as you would think it is. This room in this temple was three times that height. And in that room going all the way across the width of it, 30 feet and 60 feet high was a curtain. And how wide was it? Eight inches, 12 inches? I didn't get those numbers, but it was thick. It was intertwined. I mean, you could have hooked two semis to this thing and they couldn't have pulled it in two. But all of a sudden, from top to bottom, when Christ died on the cross, that curtain was split. At the exact moment that the Passover lamb was being slain, and the priest goes in past this curtain to the Holy of Holies, and he's in there offering the blood, and all of a sudden this huge veil was split in two. at the exact moment in time that it was supposed to. And then I'm so excited about looking at these verses next week. The tombs were opened. Old Testament saints. And maybe some that had been saved during Christ's ministry. It doesn't tell us any facts. And many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised, and coming out of the tombs after His resurrection, when He went back into the holy city, they went with Him. And look, this is not a lack of the resurrection of Lazarus. Lazarus was resurrected, but what did He do again? He died, okay? But this is a resurrection. They didn't die again. We don't know, but the speculation is when Jesus ascended, they went with him. Wow. This is all happening in these 10 little verses. Verse 54, and when the centurion and those who were with him, keeping watch over Jesus, saw the earthquake and what took place, they were filled with awe and said, truly, this was the Son of God. Now I will tell you, that's the seventh miracle, and that's the one you can really pray for me that I'll have wisdom about how to preach that. Because there's a whole lot in there and I hadn't figured it out yet. I do believe there's a miracle there and hopefully before next Sunday, I'll be able to articulate that to you. So you understand what was happening? These soldiers, these soldiers, this is not their first crucifixion. I'm sure the 600 soldiers that went to arrest Jesus, in the garden, you with me? And brought him to the high priest and brought him before the governor. These guys were continually on duty. And when they were on duty, they executed people. But this centurion and the soldiers with him knew that there was what? Something different about this guy. Significantly different about this guy. And they ended up saying, truly this was the Son of God. So two verses, I'm sorry, 10 verses, two statements and seven miracles. Today, we're looking at a voluntary death and the veil torn in two. These two statements, I love them. I don't think we could ever spend too much time in these two statements. And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit. That's a powerful statement. And then the statement that was not in one of the two, but the statement for us to look at today is this, and behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. So I want you to look in verse 50 at the two words or three words, four words right at the end of verse 50. And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice. And what are those words? And yielded up his spirit. He gave it up. He wasn't physically expired yet. We talked about this. You know, and it probably changes with technology and medicine all the time, but there comes a time, many times in the death of an older person that they finally run out of every drop of strength and every ounce of energy and no more strength to take another breath or for the heart to beat and they expire. Well, if you've been around that, some of you more than I have, you've got to get down like this just to hear what's coming out of their mouths, to hear their last words. That was not the case, okay? He yielded up his spirit. We find out in the other statement, and he cried out with a loud voice. Listen, this is what it's telling you, young people. He voluntarily died for you. Absolutely voluntary. And so you go back to that scripture in Romans, we read it all the time. You know, we skipped this one. In Romans chapter five, it says, I'll just have to read it to you. Sometimes they don't come right off the top of my mind into my lips. So listen to this. Y'all all know it all, but I want you to listen to this. Because every time I read this, I don't ever read these verses, but I think about it, and I'm especially thinking about it right now. For while we were still weak at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly. So we're weak, we were ungodly, okay? So we don't ever read verse seven, we go on to verse eight that said, even while we were yet sinners, He died for us. And then we go on to verse 10 and it says, not only we were sinners, we were enemies of God. Yet with being weak and ungodly and sinners and enemies of God, what was He willing to do for us? Die on the cross for our sins. And then I'm thinking about you young people. I want you to understand this. It might have, it would have been understandable If Christ just died for the good guys, that would have been understandable. Well, let me just give you this rocket science information. Spiritually speaking, there ain't no good guys. We are all desperate sinners in need of a Savior. We were vile. evil thoughts, sexually perverts, immoral, illegal, stupid, liars, thieves at hearts. That's who he died for. Aren't we glad? I don't know where those 13 vices, you are with those 13. For it's what is in a man that makes a man unclean. For within, out of his heart, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, arrogance, slander, folly, all these evils are in this." I don't know which one of those get you. A bunch of them get me. You know what? I could be all of those. But by the grace of God, His hand has kept me. This is one of those paradoxes. And every time I come to this paradox, matter of fact, it is in men's fraternity that we looked at this paradox for the first time. Luke 9, 23 through 25. So here's what I'm... Christ, by yielding up His Spirit, did exactly what the Father had Him sent here to do, right? Okay, okay. So it looked to human beings that he just gave up his life. But he gave up his life, he had to give up his life for glory. It's kind of a paradox. The thing that we would think the last thing he'd wanted to do led him to what? To glory. All right, look at Luke 9, 23 through 25. And he said to all, if anyone would come after me, let him deny who? And take up his cross daily and follow me. That is, it's a paradox. Young people, oh, I don't even, I'm not even sure I fully grasp this. I surely don't expect you to grasp this. The best thing that can happen in our lives, and the younger the better, when it quits being all about me and it becomes all about Him and all about you. Because when it's all about me, I'm going to make some bad decisions. He said, if anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. Now listen to this, for whoever would save his life, See, Jesus could have saved his life. Somebody say amen. But if he had done what he wanted to do, he would not have been doing the will of the father. And which was far greater? Somebody tell me which was far greater, what he wanted or what the father wanted? It's what the father wanted. For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself? So I'll just tell you, you seek after the world and the things of the world, you seek after gratifying the lust of the flesh and the desires of the heart, it won't be a good ending. So Jesus gave himself up like no one else ever gave themselves up. And what was his reward? Glory. We got to die to go to glory. And listen, if he gave us the grace to live, he's gonna give us the grace to die. I'm telling you, death is an awful thing, but there's been a bunch of people that died. I just wanna die for God's glory. I would like to think I've somewhat tried to live for his glory. I wanna die for his glory. Mark 15, 37, and Jesus uttered a loud cry and breathed his last. Luke 23, 46, then Jesus calling out with a loud voice said, Father, into your hands, I commit my spirit. Well, you may not ever, I had no, I thought about you Friday night. I went to bed with a headache. And so usually I go to bed with a headache and wake up in a couple hours, it's gone. But I woke up at 1030, it was worse. I mean, it was bad. So I took two Advil and thanked the Lord that that turned the trick. But you know, you got a headache like you've never had before and you think, is this the big one? And I want to be at the place when it's happening that I can say, Lord, here I am, only by the grace of God. I wanna be at the place that I can yield up my spirit. If you're done with me, I'm done. Take me to glory. And if I go to glory, it's not about anything I've done, it's everything about your son and what he did. I wanna have the faith to die like that. Now, I'll tell you, there's some good things about sudden death. You don't have time to meditate on that. But you know, you just think about Bobby Keister. He had all kinds of cancers and man, he walked it out great. And there's a guy right now, Kurt Bell's got cancer and it is bad. And there's not going to be a good income to that. You've got time to think about those things. But you know, during those, you're going to work through a lot of things. You know, you meet that semi on the interstate. Don't have much time. Listen to me, if you're not ready to die, you need to fix that today. Bob kind of talked about it. And the only way you fix this with the blood of Jesus and what he did on the cross. Remember, his yielding up his spirit was not a defeated, abused person. This was a triumphant soldier that had seen the victory. He was beaten. He was scourged. He was crowned with thorns. He was nailed in both hands and feet. He hung in subpension and agony for six hours. He did not just fade away like old people fade away. We see that he is not at the point of utter exhaustion. He had the resources to go on if he had wished to go on. But what did he say? He said, it is finished. What you sent me here to do is finished. And he yielded up his spirit. His first words were, it's finished. And he bowed his head and gave up his spirit. And his last words were at Luke 23, 46, then Jesus calling out with a loud voice said, father into your hands, I commit my spirit. And having said this, he breathed his last. The word yielded up. is aphemi, yielded up, a letting go, a sending away. In other words, this was an act of his own will and volition. This is something he did. He gave up his life. It wasn't taken from him. And let me tell you, he did it for you. He gave up his life so you might be saved and have eternal life. He surrendered up his spirit. It was a conscious act in perfect obedience to his father and of his own will. John 10, 18, no one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have no authority to lay it down and I have in order authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my father. His ability to speak boldly proves that even though his body had been racked, He was not yet at the point of death unless he'd given it up. But I do tell you, it's obvious he died quicker than those two soldiers did. So he was spared some of the agony. They didn't have to break his legs. Now, why didn't they break his legs? Because it was not God's will and the prophet said, he'll be pierced, but no bone broken. You remember Joseph, we're going to see it in a couple of weeks if you don't remember, Joseph of Arithamea. Did you know there was another guy with Joseph? He'd only come around a couple of times when it was dark. Joseph of Arithamea and Nicodemus showed up to get the body. Okay, so we'll look at that. So Joseph came to get the body and they said, oh, he's not dead yet. They said, oh yeah, he's dead. And so they had him go out and check, and then he gave the body to Joseph of Arimathea. Remember, they broke the two soldiers' legs so they'd die quicker, and Jesus was already dead. So what's this all proving? He gave up the Spirit. He did it willingly. So it's the most glorious surrender that was ever given. He didn't have to, he surrendered willingly. And he gave himself up for all those who would believe. All right, so that's the voluntary death. Are you convinced he wasn't made to die for you? That will make it sweeter. Come on now, he didn't have to do what he did for you. But remember why he did it, that's what the father had sent him to do. Veil torn, verse 51a, and behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. So you know something about the temple area. There was the outer courtyard. That's where they did all the dirty work. And then there was a place called the Holy of Holies. I'm sorry, the holy place. And then there was a curtain and in the back part was the most holy place. And that's where they took the blood offering once a year. And in between there was this huge curtain. I don't know how they did this. I'm not sure they didn't weave this thing from top to bottom. I mean, they don't have cranes. They didn't have cranes. I don't know. I need to do more history. Some of you history people. How much did this thing weigh? How'd they get it up there? How was it split from top to bottom? Because if man had done it, where would we have started? Bottom up. So we know God did this, amen? So this was an entry curtain, but the curtain to the inner sanctuary, the Holy of Holies where God dwelt in His symbolic presence, this is what we're talking about. I've already told you something about its physical enormity. It was a huge curtain. that separated the Holy of Holies from the rest of the temple. Once a year, the priest went in there to sprinkle the blood. And I haven't figured out that yet, how they got the dust out of there, you know, and kept that place nice and clean. Hadn't figured that out yet. But they went in there once a year with this blood sacrificed. And I personally, if I'd have been a priest on duty, I wouldn't have been tearing. I went in there and done my business and got out. God's presence was there, but it was only symbolically there, just as the offering was symbolic, waiting for the offering of the Lord Jesus Christ. It was repeated every year, looking to the time. What was it looking to? It was looking to the time when Christ would do what? Make a one-time offering. And hallelujah, that time came. Look, just like that time of death for Christ came, y'all listen, this is a word for you. He's coming again. My only question is what took you so long? He's coming again. When Christ gave up His Spirit, The one-time offering was made and the need for a veil was no longer needed. Once Christ gave up the Spirit, that veil separating us from the holy place was torn down and that offerings and that curtain was no longer needed. We have been brought near to God by the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. By coming to the Son, mankind now has direct access to the Father. Listen, you don't need a preacher. You don't even need a priest. You don't need a sacrifice because Christ is all of that. So the veil was torn from top to bottom. That barrier separating has been forever removed in Christ for those who have embraced him and his sacrifice and his shed blood on our behalf. It was forever removed. So what God was saying is this, the death of my son and his shed blood gains access to God and to heaven for all time for those who believe in Christ. Hebrews 4, 16, and Lewis kind of talked about it this morning. What do you need to tell your children about dying? Well, if they're followers of Jesus and they've confessed their sins and they believed in the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, if He made Him Lord and Savior, You can look at Hebrews 4.16, show it to them. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace. How can we die with confidence? Because we put all our faith, hope, trust, and confidence in Christ's life, His death, and His shed blood. That's how we can have confidence to die, without fear. that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in time of need." So what are we to do? It happened when the temple was... Listen, it was filled with worshipers. Many priests and worshipers who were celebrating the Passover, they were everywhere around. And at that moment in time, the sacrificial system was no longer of any value. It was no longer of any use. because the real sacrifice had died on the cross. So I want you to think about this. At that moment in time, all the sacrifices was passed. There's only one sacrifice, and that is sacrifice to the Lord Jesus Christ. So I want you to think about this. So now keep this in mind now. Brother Bob could surely expound upon this. Now the ceremonies and the priestly functions that were routinely going on in the temple, they continued until the temple was destroyed in AD 70. They went on till then, but their purpose, listen, It's kind of like, there's a lot of things going on in America that don't need to be going on anymore. They don't have a purpose anymore, but they're still trying to perpetuate themselves by coming up with more and more things that they might do, okay? Let me tell you this, listen carefully. The purpose and the significance of all the Old Testament sacrifices ended with the death of Christ. No purpose, no need anymore. Because the one time sacrifice has been what? Offered. So Bob, Bob got real close this morning. What have you done with the fact that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God? All. As a sinner, Where are you looking for a sacrifice? What have you done with Christ? And I'll just tell you, if you've done anything of significance with Christ, your life will reflect it. Jeremy? If Christ has become a significant part of your life, your life will reflect that. If there's no reflection of Christ in your life, there's no love for Him, no love for the Father, no love for His church, no love for His Word, no love for His people. Young people, if there's no love for your parents that the Lord gave you, you don't know Christ yet. Who is Christ? Who are you? Man, I mean, I wish I could run and get in line right behind Paul of the New Testament as the chiefest of sinners. That's who we are. In our own little world, we're the chiefest of sinners. What did he do? I got good news for you. I can tell you what he's doing right now. He's praying for you that today your eyes would be open and you'd come to believe in Christ. I love you. You've been very patient. And I pray that God would bless the reading of his word and the preaching of his word.