If you would, turn in your Bibles to the book of Luke, chapter 23. Luke, chapter 23. I'd like to read a portion of this chapter and then focus our attention on one particular verse. A verse I'm sure that is familiar to us all. Of course, the circumstance or the context in which we are reading is the The reality of our Lord Jesus Christ having been handed over to Pilate for judgment, after he faced Pilate and his judgment, found no fault with him, he went to Herod and again faced judgment there and again was found with no fault. Then we find him taking the place of Barabbas, Barabbas being delivered as the opportunity of them to have one prisoner delivered. Now we come to verse 26, where I would like to begin our reading, and this is the time when our Lord Jesus is taken right to the cross. Now read through verse 49. Verse 26 of Luke, chapter 23. Now as they led him away, they laid hold of a certain man, Simon, a Cyrenian, who was coming from the country. And on him they laid the cross, that he might bear it after Jesus. And a great multitude of people followed him, and women, who also mourned and lamented him. But Jesus, turning to them, said, Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children. For indeed the days are coming in which they will say, Blessed are the barren, wombs that never bore, and breasts that never nursed. Then they will begin to say to the mountains, Fall on us, and to the hills, cover us. For if they do these things in the greenwood, what will be done in the dry? There were also two other criminals led with him to be put to death. And when they had come to the place called Calvary, there they crucified him and the criminals, one on the right hand and the other on the left. Then Jesus said, Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do. And they divided his garments and cast lots, and the people stood looking on. But even the rulers with them sneered, saying, He saved others, let him save himself, if he is the Christ, the chosen of God. The soldiers also mocked him, coming and offering him sour wine and saying, If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself." And an inscription also was written over him in letters of Greek, Latin, and Hebrew. This is the King of the Jews. Then one of the criminals who were hanged blasphemed him, saying, If you are the Christ, save yourself and us. But the other, answering, rebuked him, saying, Do you not even fear God, seeing you are under the same condemnation? And we indeed justly, for we receive the due reward of our deeds." But this man has done nothing wrong. Then he said to Jesus, Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom. And Jesus said to him, Assuredly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise. Now it was about the sixth hour, and there was darkness over all the earth until the ninth hour. Then the sun was darkened, and the veil of the temple was torn in two. And when Jesus had cried out with a loud voice, he said, Father, into your hands I commit my spirit. Having said this, he breathed his last. So when the centurion saw what had happened, he glorified God, saying, Certainly this was a righteous man. And the whole crowd who came together to that sight, seeing what had been done, beat their breasts and returned. But all his acquaintances and the women who followed him from Galilee stood at a distance, watching these things. What the Apostle John wrote in John 1, verse 10, certainly are true. When he said, he was in the world and the world was made through him and the world did not know him. The Prophet Isaiah wrote so many years ago concerning him at this particular time that we have just read. He is despised and rejected by men. He is despised and we did not esteem him. But man saw no beauty in the Lord Jesus Christ. Again and again he has faced his enemies' attempts to destroy him, and now their desire has been given to them. Following a mock trial in which the judges found no fault in him, he was finally given over to those who hated him and wanted him to be crucified. It was a cruel act. Cruel act. And his death was not an ordinary death, but it was a death of intense suffering and shame. They nailed him to the cross. They nailed him to the cross. And in our text there, we see him hanging there on the cross by those nails. But while he is hanging there, He begins to speak. What is he going to say? What would he say? Would he ask for pity? No. That's not what he asks. That's not what he says. Would he bring curses upon those who had crucified him, nailed into that cross? No. No. What does he say? He is praying for his enemies. In this place, on that wicked, cruel, painful cross, nailed there, Our Savior prays for his enemies. Verse 34, we find the words. They had crucified him, verse 33, and now Jesus said, and have the words, Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do. I'd like us to spend a few moments in consideration of that particular text as we look at the Word of God tonight in our worship. The first thing he says on the cross is a prayer. A prayer. Now, understand, he is nailed to the cross. He cannot touch the sick and heal them like he has done before. He cannot. He's nailed to the cross. He can't move to another place to show some needy soul some help and comfort and healing. He can't do that. He's nailed to the cross. He can't teach his disciples anymore because they've left him. And in this place of suffering, he prays. What a lesson. What a lesson for us who sometimes suppose that we cannot serve God in his kingdom. What a lesson for us when some of us feel the inadequacy or the helplessness of our weakness of our own flesh. And I say this sometimes when we are sick. Certainly it takes away from us a spiritual emphasis. But our Lord, when he was suffering, prayed. He prayed for sinners, even in his last hours. Here also is an example of how we are to treat our enemies, and this certainly has to come to us as a exhortation. When we find ourselves in the context of having some who have persecuted us and some who hate us, And we find the antagonism of their bitterness against us. What do we do? Build up within us a tension and some way in which we can expose our bitterness to them and prick them or hurt them. Jesus' enemies had nailed him to the cross and he prays for them. What an example for us. What do we do when someone has wronged us and someone hates us? Have you ever thought of times when you have said you're going to stop praying for this person? This man, this woman, this child is so far away and so hopeless that I'm going to stop praying for them. They seem to be beyond the reach of divine mercy. Remember the cross. Here they crucified Him. They have put Him to death. And Jesus is praying for them. And He says, Father, forgive them. Well, they do not know what they do. Do we find an answer to that prayer? Well, let me just refer you back to the passage that Tom read to us early in the book of earlier in the book of Acts chapter 3 and verse 17. The apostle Peter is speaking to the people and he is making reference to the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus Christ as the Savior and in reference to him, he says that they did it in ignorance. Even the rulers that had the important part in putting him to death. He said they did it in ignorance. Now that corresponds, that ignorance corresponds with they do not know what they are doing. Peter's preaching to them resulted in 3,000 people that were saved. Do you think that was Peter's eloquence? The work of the Spirit in saving them? Or do you think it was the answer to the Lord's Prayer? So we see our Lord Jesus on this time praying for his enemies. Now there's some lessons, some points I want us to draw from this. First of all, I want us to see our Lord did what he said he would do. Our Lord did what he said he would do. Now we do not have before us in this particular passage, in this circumstances in the life of Christ, in this most important circumstance in the life of the world, we do not have before us mere chance that happened. Mankind has recorded that to which there is no parallel in reference to the history given to us in the Word of God. What we have before us in this passage at this particular time in the crucifixion of Christ is the completion of the predicted place of God's salvation for sinners. All that had been given to mankind before in the prophets, through the prophets, in the prophecy of the Word of God, is now being fulfilled at this very time. in the scripture that we just read and are looking at. Isaiah, again and again, so many hundreds of years before, made reference to this particular suffering Savior. And in particular, in Isaiah 53, we find reference specifically to this occasion. And he did what was said he would do. Do you remember some of the prophecies that Isaiah gave? Isaiah said that he would be despised and rejected of men. We saw it, and we see it. Isaiah said that he would be a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. He was. It's clear. Isaiah said that he would be wounded, that he would be bruised, and that he would be chastised. And it has occurred. Isaiah said that he would be led without resistance to the slaughter. And he was. Isaiah said that he would be a sheep, silent before its shears. And he was. Isaiah said that he would not only suffer by man's hands, but he would be bruised by the Lord. And thank God he was, for our sake. Isaiah said that he would give himself up to death. He did. Isaiah said that he would be buried in a rich man's tomb. And we know, a little later on, that's exactly what happened. Isaiah said that he would be numbered with criminals, and he was, two of them, one on each side. And Isaiah said that he would make intercession. That means he would plead on behalf of others. He would make intercession for transgressors, and that's what we have in our text. He is making intercession for transgressors. He thought of his murderers when he was on the cross. He pleaded for his crucifiers for their forgiveness of sins when he was on the cross. Our Lord Jesus, in doing what was said he would do, now identifies himself with his people. Prior to this time, our Lord did not ask for the Father to give forgiveness to others. He didn't. You know the Caucasians, many of them. He forgave their their sins himself. He didn't ask the father to do it. He said your sins are forgiven you in Matthew 922 or 92. That was the man was paralyzed in Luke 748 to the woman who washed his feet with her tears. He said your sins are forgiven. But here he asked the father to forgive instead of pronouncing forgiveness himself. Well, the Jews were right in saying only God can forgive sins. Now, our Lord Jesus Christ was God, and as God, he forgave sins. But our Lord Jesus was not only God, he was also man, and as man, he came for the express purpose of offering himself as a sacrifice for sin. And here, he is on the cross, identifying himself with our sins. He is acting as our substitute and as our representative. He is not in a place of authority like he was before. Now he is in our place. He takes the place of a supplicant before the Father, just like you and I must do. And in this place, he identifies himself with us, his people, and he intercedes for sinners, just as we must do. So in doing what he had to do on the cross, in his praying for others, praying the Father to forgive them, he was identifying himself with us. And secondly, in doing what he said he would do, our Lord shows the true measure of sin and its certain blameworthiness and guilt. In the truth that is revealed to us in the Old Testament, the Old Covenant, God required in atonement was to be made for sins of ignorance. Leviticus 5 verses 15 and 16, numbers 15, 22 and 25 through 25 record to us specific atonements or specific sacrifices that were made for sins of ignorance. David in Psalm 92, excuse me, Psalm 19 verse 12 says, cleanse me from secret faults. That's what you don't know about. You see, sin is always sin in the sight of God. We don't see it, and therefore we think it's not there. But here there was the need for the forgiveness of sins of those who were ignorant in doing what they were doing. They didn't know they were sinning. What our Lord is doing here is showing to us the reality of the true measure and the blameworthiness and the certainty of the horribleness and the guilt of sin. Praying for the forgiveness of those who did not know what they were doing. You see, the sin that man commits before the eyes of God is sin whether we are conscious of it or not. Sins of ignorance, unintentional sins need atonement just as surely as sins that we are conscious of. God is holy and he will never lower his standard of righteousness to the level of ignorance because we don't know it. Some of us, and it is certainly the consciousness of those who are ignorant of their sins, go on with life and have no recognition that they are sinning before a holy God and an account must be made. They don't know it. And those sins have to be atoned for. And here, our Lord is showing to us the true measure of sin that even in sins of ignorance, they must have an atonement. Being ignorant. Not knowing. is not an excuse for innocence. We think so, don't we? I didn't know I did that wrong. Policeman stops you. I didn't know it was going that fast. You don't need to give me a ticket. I didn't know it. This is the conscious thought that we have. Because somehow we didn't know it, we're not guilty. Not in the eyes of God. And our Lord is pointing out to us here in this prayer for these guilty sinners who were ignorant of the knowledge of the greatness of their horrible sin needed to be forgiveness. And it's important for us all, all of us here, if we are in any way conscious of the reality or unconscious of the reality of our sins, sins must be atoned for. Your sins must be atoned for. You're going to do it or it's going to be placed under the blood of Christ. Sins must be paid for. The fact of the matter in reference to the ignorance of the sins of ignorance is being ignorant is more serious now because God has revealed to us his word completely. We have such revelations, such truth that has been given to us that now ignorance, ignorance is a condemnation of our laziness and our unbelief. Men know better. There are rules and laws that have come up into our nation, come out of the Word of God, which reveals sins. And men know that, and yet they sin consistently. It's laziness. It's an unbelief in the truth of the horribleness of sin. And yet, isn't it true that still there are many of us who are ignorant of our sins? There are many who are ignorant of sin. And the fault and the blame for our sins is ours. Even though we don't know it. We don't know the sins. This ignorance does not minimize the enormity of the guilt that that sin has before a holy God. And we must know how high God's standard is. We must know how great our need is. And this teaches us. When he says, Father, forgive them for they do not know what they, they needed forgiveness. You need forgiveness. You don't think you're a great sinner. You're ignorant of your sin, but you need forgiveness. And there's a day coming when the holiness of God and the demand for a payment to be paid and atonement to be given has to be there. And you're going to do it. Or it's going to be Christ. And when we have something of a sense of the high standard of God, and when we see something of the greatness of our need, then we praise him for the atonement of the infinite sufficiency that has been given to us in Christ. You see, Christ's blood cleanses us from all sin. Those sins that we deliberately did in our repenting of and turn from and hate and despise that we've even done that, he forgives those. And those sins that we didn't even know we're doing. But in God's eyes, they're horrible. He forgives us of those all. Here's our Lord. He did what he would do. Now, secondly, our Lord also reveals to us in this portion the blindness of the human heart. Notice again, he said, They do not know what they do. Now, this certainly does not mean that they did not know or were ignorant of the fact of the crucifixion of Christ. They knew that they had called out, crucify him, crucify him. The great crowd had done that. They knew they did that. That's not what it's talking about. They knew that he was now being crucified. They knew that. They saw him nailed to the cross. So when they, Jesus said, they did not know what they're doing. It's not referring to the fact that they were, he was being crucified and they had done it. What our Lord meant here was that he did not know, they did not know the greatness of their crime. They did not know that it was the Lord of glory that they were crucifying. The emphasis is not that they did not know, but they did not know what they do. They should have known. They should have known. They had the Old Testament prophecies. And very clearly in the Old Testament, He was identified as the Messiah. They should have known. His own teaching, His own person was unique. The enemies of our Lord Himself said, no man ever spoke like He did. He stood out to them as someone unique. They should have known. He had a perfect life. There was never a sin that could be accused of the Lord Jesus Christ. He was the perfect man, the only one. He was the perfect man. They should have known. They should have known. He lived totally for God and not for himself. God the Father stamped his life with approval by speaking audibly and said, this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. They should have known. There was no excuse. It only shows the blindness of their hearts. Their rejection of the Son of God is very clearly seen. Their carnal mind, their enmity against God, the reality of the natural heart is clearly revealed. in our Lord Jesus. Now, this terrible tragedy is still being seen today. A terrible tragedy that men should have known. And those of you who are not believers in Christ, you don't know what you are doing when you neglect God's great salvation. You do not know how awful is the sin of slighting the Lord Jesus Christ. You don't know how awful the sin of turning away from the invitation of his mercy to come unto him. You don't know how awful that is. You don't know how deep is the guilt that is in the act of refusing to receive the only one that can save you from your sins. You did not know the horrible crying of declaring, you will not have this man reign over me. You did not know. what you are doing. What you're doing is considering this vital issue in cold indifference. I hear that. I've heard it. So what? What difference does it make? Listen, all of us have something to do with Him. He's the eternal God. And He is the judge of the earth. And we shall all one day stand before Him And our only hope before the eternal judge is our relationship to Jesus Christ as Savior. Has his blood been applied to you because you believe in him? You see, you must do something with him even now. It is either despise and reject him as you're doing right now by not being a believer in Christ, or you must trust him as your Savior and your Lord in your life. But to some, it seems a very small, insignificant thing. Something of little importance. Not that important. And you have resisted this truth for some time now. You probably have heard this message before. Come to Christ. Why is it that you consider it so light and insignificant? Why is it? Probably is because You just don't feel anything for this. You don't have something within you that says this really is important. It's your feelings aren't there here intellectually, but you're not feeling that way. Some of you. Some of you may say it has something to do with what I want to do, and this would interfere. There's some pleasure, there's some things that I know that I cannot do if the reality of my relationship to Christ as my Savior. is mine. And so it's a significant thing. You've closed your ears. You've closed your ears to every appeal that comes to you. You shut your eyes to the beauty that is in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. You don't know what you're doing. You are blinded by insanity. You are blinded to the terrible sin, and yet you have no excuse. Let me say this, you can be saved now. In light of what you have done in the past, in light of the lack of excitement and the indifference and the coldness that is in your heart in reference to the gospel of Christ, you can be saved now. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. That's the promise of the Word of God. Our Lord here reveals to us the blindness of the human heart. Now, first of all, he shows us in the blindness of the human heart that our Lord gives us an example of his own teaching. He taught his disciples to love his enemy. You remember Matthew chapter 5, verse 44, where the Lord Jesus says, Bless them who curse you. Do good to them who hate you. Pray for them who despitefully use you and persecute you. You see, our Lord practiced what he preached. The only one who ever did. He not only taught the truth, he himself was the truth. And here on the cross, he perfectly gives an example of his teaching. No, he did not personally forgive his enemies. He didn't. He does what he taught them to do. He prays for them. And notice what the scripture teaches concerning forgiveness. In your Bibles, if you have it open to Luke chapter 23, turn back to Luke chapter 17. In verse 3 of chapter 17, notice the words. Our Lord says this, take heed to yourself. If your brother sins against you, rebuke him. And if he repents, forgive him. And if he sins against you seven times in a day and seven times in a day returns to you saying, I repent, you shall forgive him. In the scripture passage elsewhere, we are taught that there is forgiveness of sins to those who have obeyed the condition for forgiveness. A condition must be met by the offender. before the forgiveness is pronounced. First, he must repent. What does repent mean? You hear the word? We hear it often preached. It's a theological word. What does it mean practically? What does repent mean? If God says repent and we have any interest, what do I mean? What do I have to do? What does repent mean? Well, let me just give you a very simple definition of repent. Repent. A man who repents is a man who judges himself for his wrong and says, I'm guilty. He says, I am guilty, and then he gives evidence of his sorrow over that sin. That's repentance. And our Lord is saying, if a man repents and that condition is met, then there is forgiveness that is given. Forgiveness comes only after repentance. In our treating an offender ourselves, we must be very careful that forgiveness comes after his repentance. But we must not hold hard feelings against him, or we must not have hatred and hostility in our hearts against him. But yet, at the same time, he is to be treated not as somebody who has not done wrong, because that would simply condone his sin. But he needs to come with repentance for forgiveness. Does God give forgiveness where there is no repentance? No. John 1.9 says, If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. In Acts chapter 2, verse 38, Peter, the apostle, was preaching in the first sermon in Acts, and he said to the people when they responded, he said, What shall we do? He says, Repent and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and be baptized. He said, Repent. In verse 41, the response to his command to repent is, They gladly received his word, and three thousand souls were saved. They repented. Our Lord here reveals the blindness of the human heart, and in showing us the blindness of the human heart, our Lord gives to us an example of his own teaching. And secondly, in showing us the blindness of the human heart, our Lord declares men's great and primary need. The first thing, and the lesson he gives to us, is that we are all sinners. We are all sinners. We are unfit for the presence of God. You may be dressed up in your Sunday best. You may have a thousand dollar suit on. You may have your hair perfectly set. All your makeup. You may be most beautiful. But you are not acceptable in the eyes of God. Because of sin. Because of sin. We are all sinners. We are all unfit for the presence of God. Our best deeds, now we talked about the character, we're talking about the characteristics, our best deeds, our choosing out the good ideals of life, our setting before our minds valid resolutions of what is good to do in accordance to the Word of God, setting down excellent rules to live by. They're all useless unless the sin question is answered. our primary need has to do with our reality of our sins. We are not accepted before God. Our attempt to have an acceptable character and aim to do what would be approved of God in his sight, while sin is between him and us, is useless. A lot of people like to do that. And a lot of people, and it's our natural thing, says, well, I'm going to get myself I'm going to make myself better. I'm going to do what's right. I'm going to change myself. I'm going to make myself acceptable. I've not got very far to go, as some of us think. I just need to do a couple of things. It's not true, because there's sin that has to be settled. And even if you did do those resolutions and you were obedient right to the T, unless that sin question is settled, it has no value at all. Let me illustrate by this simple phrase. What good are glasses to a blind man? Useless. Your deeds and your goodness are useless. Unless that sin problem is settled. The area of forgiveness of my sins is basic. It is fundamental. It is vital. It does not matter how highly you are respected by your friends, how much people think of you, how highly you're respected by Christian men. If you still are in your sins, you can be a good person. And there are some good people in the characters that we see around the world. Their sin problem has to be answered. It doesn't matter how successful you are if you do not have pardon for your sins. What will matter at the hour of death is, have your sins been put under the blood of Jesus Christ? So first of all, that great important lesson is that we are all sinners. Secondly, the second lesson is how forgiveness of sin is obtained. This is a good question. How do we obtain forgiveness of sin? What is the ground of a holy God for our forgiveness of sins? What's the ground for it? Now here, we must notice a vital difference between God's forgiving sins and man's forgiving sins. You see, generally, man's forgiveness is a matter of leniency and laxity. And that is nothing less than forgiveness at the expense of justice. In the human court, when one is guilty, the judge must decide to either enforce the penalty of the law upon him or disregard it. The one is justice, the other is mercy. The only way to enforce both justice and mercy is for a third party to suffer the penalty of the convicted. Justice is met. and mercy is met. This is God's way. This is what God does for guilty sinners. This is the ground in which there is found forgiveness of sins. God does not exercise mercy at the expense of justice. God as judge will not set aside the demands of His holy law. He won't. They've got to be met. And yet God would show mercy. How then? Through one who makes full satisfaction of his broken law. Jesus Christ did that. His own Son, in the place of those who believe, He bears their sin on the tree, on the cross, and then God is just and yet merciful. Merciful and just. This is the righteous ground on which God can be just and the justifier of those who believe. In Luke chapter 24, turn with me there, if you will, just a page or just a chapter before us. Luke chapter 24 and verse 46, the Lord Jesus says this, Thus it is written, and thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day, and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem." In Acts chapter 13, you don't need to turn there, I'll read it. Therefore, let it be known to you, brethren, that through this man is preached to you the forgiveness of sins, and by him everyone who believes is justified from all things from which you cannot be justified from the law of Moses. Where is the forgiveness of sins, or how is it obtained? It is obtained because of the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ. If your hope is not there, entirely there, you don't have any hope for sins being forgiven. Forgiveness, again, is the very root of their need. Here, in this passage, in this truth, we have our Lord's redeeming love revealed. We notice the context again. What we have in verse 33, we have the alignment with criminals. He was a criminal in the context of this passage, being judged as a criminal. He was in the place where judgment for sin was met as he was on the cross. Of course, what we realized there, not only was it the judgment in man's eyes, which was false on him because he deserved no judgment, but in God's eyes, God took the sins of every believer and put it on Christ. And God poured His wrath on His Son, paid everything demanded by His wrath, by His law, by justice, paid for it all on Jesus Christ. And every believer in Him, every one by God's grace, have come to the place of faith in Jesus Christ. Every one of those Has their sins forgiven? What a blessed truth. That's the message of the gospel. And here, what we have here is our Lord's redeeming love revealed to us in his crucifixion. He was aligned with criminals. He was punished in the place of judgment. We find the depth of the human heart's hatred displayed to us in the crucifixion of Christ, this just man. He was a wicked man, wicked men who dared to crucify, crucify the Lord of glory. He realized he was the Lord of glory. He willingly gave himself and his redeeming love for us. You see, our Lord could have called down an awful condemnation and judgment upon them. He could have. He was God. He made this world. All powers in this world were His. But what did he do? He could have let go of his righteous wrath on them and he could have caused the earth to open up and swallowed them alive and caused them to fall into the very pit of hell for eternity. But he didn't. He rather revealed his redeeming love in dying for us and praying for us. In his unspeakable shame, that's what he endured, unspeakable shame and suffering, excruciating pain despised, rejected, hated. He said, Father, forgive them. They know not what they do. That's redeeming love. Now consider this. Consider how dreadful it must be to oppose the Lord Jesus Christ and his truth knowingly. to knowingly oppose the offer of salvation in Jesus Christ. Consider how dreadful that is. How would we even dare stand before God and say, I turned my face against the gospel of Christ and said no. Dreadful. Now, these men did not know what they did. But listen, now you do know. You may not know it clearly. It could have been said better, perhaps. But now you know. Jesus Christ is the Savior of sinners. And you're a sinner. And you need a Savior. You know from what has been declared to us in this passage here, you know that you need Him. And you should make Him the Lord of your life. And make Him your first and last concern to glorify Him. Be warned. be warned. We must answer to that. What a dreadful thing it is to oppose the gospel that is offered to us as sinners. Your danger is great if you deliberately turn from Him, if you deliberately turn from the only One who can save you from your sins. How dreadful If you sin willfully after you have received the knowledge of the truth, there remains no sacrifice for sins. This is it. You can't go anywhere else. This is the only one the Word of God reveals. You can search it and search it. This is the only sacrifice. It is the one. And my dear friends, it is the most blessed gospel. We cannot comprehend the beauty, the preciousness of redeeming love. The Son of God would die for guilty sinners. How do we dare not respond with saying, Yes, Lord, I take you as my Savior. I believe on you. I want you as my Lord and my Father. How do we dare not? What a precious Savior. He died, and on that very cross, he prayed, Father, forgive them, redeeming love. And I would urge you whatever condition you're in, with whatever knowledge and conception you have of your own sin, turn to Him now. Turn to Him now. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Recognize His beauty. One day, those who are believers are going to see His beauty for eternity. And that same day, those who do not see Him and know Him as Savior are going to never see His beauty, but only the horribleness of the judgment that He endured for believers on themselves. Your sins must be atoned for. Here is redeeming love. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and be saved. May God help us to believe. Let's pray. Our Father, we thank you for giving to us your Son. And our Father, we thank you for the revelation of him that you have given to us when you spoke of him. And our Father, we pray that as your Word is declared to us, something of his precious, in His hanging by those nails on the cross and praying for sinners. Lord, may we be moved by Your Spirit to say yes to Jesus Christ, to say, I must have this Savior. Oh, God, help us, we pray. Stir our hearts, move us with a greater compassion and love to sense the beauty of so great a Savior. Bless us now, Father. Minister to our hearts and the various needs that we have, we ask in Jesus' name. Amen.