The sermon begins with a reading from Mark chapter 14, setting the scene for the events surrounding Jesus' passion. The narrative highlights the plot by the chief priests and scribes to kill Jesus, juxtaposed with the anointing of Jesus by a woman with expensive perfume, symbolizing his preparation for burial. The speaker emphasizes the significance of the Passover, drawing parallels between the sacrificial lamb in Exodus and Jesus as the ultimate Passover lamb who rescues humanity from the bondage of sin. The sermon explores the religious leaders' hypocrisy and fear of man over God, urging listeners to fear God and recognize Jesus as the savior. It concludes by contrasting the betrayal of Jesus by Judas to the story of Joseph's betrayal in Genesis, underscoring the divine plan for salvation through Jesus' sacrificial death.

I'll ask the congregation to stand as we now read from God's Word, Mark chapter 14, beginning in verse 1. Now the Passover and unleavened bread were two days away. And the chief priests and the scribes were seeking how to seize him that is Jesus by stealth and kill him. For they were saying, not during the festival, otherwise there might be a riot of the people. While he was in Bethany, at the home of Simon the Leper, and reclining at the table, there came a woman with an alabaster vial of very costly perfume of pure nard, and she broke the vial and poured it over his head.

But some were indignantly remarking to one another, why has this perfume been wasted? For this perfume might have been sold for over 300 denarii and the money given to the poor. And They were scolding her. But Jesus said, let her alone. Why do you bother her?

She has done a good deed for me. For you always have the poor with you, and whenever you wish, you can do good to them. But you do not always have me. She has done what she could. She has anointed my body beforehand for the burial.

Truly I say to you, wherever the gospel is preached in the whole world, what this woman has done will also be spoken of in memory of her. Then Judas Iscariot, who was one of the twelve, went off to the chief priests in order to betray him to them. They were glad when they heard this and promised to give him money. He began seeking how to betray him at an opportune time. May God bless the reading of His Word.

Amen. Amen. You may be seated. Our passage this morning leaves the setting of the temple, which we've been in for three chapters now, from chapters 11 through 13, we leave the setting and the theme of the temple and its promised destruction, the judgment of the temple, and we enter into a new setting this morning, a new theme. That new setting and new theme is the Passover and the Passion.

Do you see it there in verse 1 of our passage? Now the Passover and unleavened bread were two days away. Now of the Passover, and 11 bread were two days away. Beginning in chapter 14, you're supposed to have the theme, the thought, of the Passover in your heart and mind, so that as you see the events that occur in these next two chapters, you understand them rightly. Chapter 14 and chapter 15 of Mark's Gospel detail the passion of Jesus Christ.

And when we say, when your pastors say the passion of Jesus Christ, what we don't mean is that Jesus had these barely controlled emotions. It's not what we mean by passion. It's not that kind of passion. No rather that word passion refers to the sufferings of Jesus Christ. In chapters 14 and 15 of Mark's Gospel detail that passion, the sufferings of Jesus Christ as the Passover lamb who was led to the slaughter, who was, as Isaiah prophesied in Isaiah 53, 7, led to the cross as like a lamb silent before it sheers.

That's what you're supposed to think of when you enter into these chapters, when you read the first sentence of chapter 14. The Passover lamb. You're supposed to think of the Passover lamb, and Mark make sure you do just that by beginning chapter 14 with these words now the Passover. The Passover. What was the Passover celebrating?

Why did God institute the Passover in the Old Testament? We need to have that question answered before we can go on. Well here's the answer. The Passover was to be a memorial and celebration of what God did in rescuing his people out of bondage in Egypt and into the promised land. You remember that?

The people of God were slaves in Egypt and God set them free. But what did it take for God to do that? What did it take for God to rescue His people out of their bondage in Egypt and set them free? It took a sacrifice. It took a sacrifice.

In Exodus chapter 12, the Lord came down upon Egypt with a final plague to kill all the firstborn, both man and beast. All the firstborn would perish in every home unless, all of the firstborn would perish unless a lamb had been sacrificed and the blood of that lamb covered the door so that the households covered by the blood would be saved from the wrath of God that had come. For those covered by the blood of the sacrifice, the wrath of God would pass over them. They would be saved. They would be set free.

That's what's supposed to hit you when you start this chapter and chapter 15. The Passover. A lamb slain. A lamb sacrificed so that those covered by the blood of the lamb are rescued and made free from their bondage to sin and made free from the wrath of God. And beloved, you very much, you very much are one of those Israelites in the bondage of your Egypt called Sin.

You very much are one of those Israelites that needs rescuing. Me too. And you have that rescue in the Lord Jesus Christ, who has come in this chapter and in the next chapter as the Passover Lamb who came to die and cover you with His blood and take away your sins and take away the sins of the whole world. Let me read just that in these chapters, chapters 14 and 15. That's the celebration of the Passover and the festival of unleavened bread, which the Israelites ate on their way out of Egypt, out of slavery.

Such was the quickness of their rescue that they ate unleavened bread. The Passover and the feast of unleavened bread. This is a celebration and a reminder of God's rescue. And it's no mistake that Jesus' passion is now center stage as Israel as an entire nation, as an entire people in this passage, is remembering the rescue of God. Because Israel needed a far greater rescue than what had happened in Egypt.

Israel needed a rescue from their sin. And I'm just going to say it again, and friend, you need that rescue just the same. You sin. You transgress the law of God because you are a sinner. You are at enmity with God because you come from the first Adam.

By nature, he is your covenant head and from him you have inherited depravity. And therefore, you are by nature a rebel against your Creator and by nature you are a hater of God I didn't say that God did That is who you are in the first Adam, a rebel, a hater of God, an enmity with God, dead and depraved in the first Adam. But Glorious it is that the second Adam came as the final Passover lamb to rescue his people His name was Jesus. He died for your sin He died for your law breaking and your disobedience and He was raised up for your justification, and He was ascended so that the power of sin in your life would be severed, and the penalty for that sin would be dealt with and put away forever. In the second Adam, in the final Passover lamb, in Jesus Christ, you have that rescue that you desperately need.

And that's reason for celebration. And that's what we do each Lord's Day. We celebrate that rescue right here at this table. Where represented is the body and blood of Jesus Christ offered on the cross for you to satisfy the wrath of God, to set you free from the power and penalty of your sin, to rescue you. We celebrate that here every Sunday.

That's what should be going on in your mind when you read the first three words now, the Passover. If you at all get that, you should be saying, get on with it, come on! So that's what I'll do. I want you to have that setting firmly fixed in your hearts and minds, the Passover and the Passion. If you don't keep the Passover in your heart and mind, the Lamb must be slain.

The Passover Lamb must be slain. You're going to miss it all. It's what's itch. We should be in your heart and mind. The Passover Lamb must be slain.

The Passover lamb must be slain. You're going to miss it all. It's what's itch. We should be in your heart and mind. The Passover lamb must be slain.

The Passover lamb must be slain. And so it should come as no surprise then that you see in verses one and two a plot to slay Jesus. A plot to slay Jesus. I don't know why it says the promised judgment, just ignore that. Let's look at verse one.

Let's look at verse one together. Now the Passover and unleavened bread were two days away, and the chief priests and the scribes were seeking how to seize him, that is Jesus, by stealth and killing. For they were saying, not during the festival, otherwise there might be a riot of the people you have the chief priests and the scribes which would also then include the Pharisees and these are the religious leaders of Israel these men represent Israel and they represent the Sanhedrin the religious judicial authority over the Jews. And what are they doing? Well, they're seeking to kill Jesus, to seize Jesus and kill him.

And we know why, don't we? You've had to have your head under a rock in Mark's Gospel not to on some level understand why they want to do away with this God-man. Is this a new thing for these men, by the way? Have they finally got to the point where they're like, that's it, that's enough? Now this has been going on since the beginning of Mark, hasn't it?

You'll remember that even from Mark chapter 3, Jesus heals on the Sabbath day, and Mark chapter 3 verse 6, immediately the Pharisees went out and began to conspire against him with the Herodians as to how they might destroy Jesus. That's at the beginning of Mark's Gospel. And then again in Mark chapter 11 verse 18, Jesus cleanses the temple. He tells these religious authorities that they've turned the temple of God that was supposed to be a place of prayer for the nations, a place that the Gentiles could come and worship. No, no, you've turned that into a robber's den.

And what was the response of those men? Sackcloth and ashes? A rending of garments? A beating of breasts crying out, God be merciful to us a sinner. Was that the response in Mark chapter 11?

No it wasn't. No rather the chief priests and the scribes heard this and began seeking how to destroy Jesus. For they were afraid of him, for the whole crowd was astonished at his teaching. This is no new thing in the hearts of these men. And again, in chapter 12 of Mark, Jesus tells a parable about the vineyard and the tenants of that vineyard and how the tenants are evil and how they will eventually kill the very Son of God.

What do we see at the conclusion of that parable in Mark chapter 12? Chapter 12 verse 12, knowing the parable was spoken against them, they the Pharisees and the scribes sought to seize Jesus and yet they feared the people. Again this is not a new development in the hearts of the Pharisees and the scribes and the chief priests. This is simply a continuation of the hypocrisy that Jesus has called out time and time and time again in this gospel. And that hypocrisy is more and more coming to the surface for each of us to see.

More and more, the rot within is starting to break out on the skin of these men who represent Israel. And so Time after time, we have read of how they want to destroy Jesus. They want to kill him, but they won't. Why is that? Why have these men been slow?

Why have they not done away with Jesus already? And the answer is right there in the text, they fear the people. They fear the people. There might be a riot of the people. Friends, I just want to pause here for just a moment.

Brothers and sisters, what a dreadful thing to fear creation more than the Creator. To fear man more than to fear God. The text does not say that what was staying these men's hands from shedding innocent blood was the fear of God. It was not the truth that the shedding of innocent blood is an abomination to the Lord that held these men's hands back from murder. No, it was the fear of man.

Oh, how hell is full of man-fearers and man-pleasers and God-haters. Fear God, friend. Fear God. And may that fear of God drive you to the Christ who is the fountain of all wisdom and all life. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, the Bible tells us.

And these men are fools. Let it not be written of you, dear brothers. Let it not be written of you, dear sisters. Let it not be written of you, dear brothers. Let it not be written of you, dear sisters.

Let it not be written of or spoken of by your children that you cared more what your fellow creature thought than what God thought. These men are fools. They do not have the beginning of wisdom. They do not fear God. And so they plot to kill Jesus in secret.

But they're held in check by the fear of men and the fear of a riot. Now, I want to point something out to you by way of structure of this passage. This is really neat. What are verses 1 and 2 dealing with? If you're taking notes, you really got to write this down.

What are verses 1 and 2 dealing with? Verses 1 and 2 are dealing with the plot to destroy Jesus. Got that? How about verses 3 through 9? Verses 3 through 9 are dealing with the anointing of Jesus.

And then go down to verses 10 and 11 in the text. In verses 10 and 11, what does the narrative return to? The plot to destroy Jesus. We'll see if you see this. Plot to kill Jesus up here.

Plot to kill Jesus down here. And the anointing of Jesus in the middle. You see that? Mark puts the anointing of Jesus in between the plot to put to death Jesus the Christ. That's a sandwich.

That's a chiasm. So what does that mean? I've been looking at a lot of these kinds of structures in Mark's Gospel. What does that tell you, beloved? It means that if you get the middle, if you get the anointing of Jesus, you understand the plot to kill him.

If you don't get the anointing of Jesus, you don't understand the plot to kill him. Get the middle, you'll get the rest of the sandwich. Mark wants you to understand what the Pharisees and Judas are doing in light of what this woman does in anointing Jesus before he's put to death. Here's his death plot, death is being plotted, and there's a woman anointing him for his barrier so that in getting the anointing you're gonna get the killing and understanding the anointing of Jesus you were going to understand without any doubt why he was put to death okay the plot to kill Jesus the plot to kill Jesus, and suspended between them the anointing of Jesus. So you really need to understand this part.

John's Gospel tells us that this anointing of Jesus in verses 3 through 9 occurred four days earlier. You can find that in John chapter 12 And so this text in mark is telling us while the Pharisees are scheming While they're plotting to kill and destroy Jesus while that villainy is going on Something wonderful is happening in the midst of it Here's the villainy and Something wonderful is happening in the midst of it. Here's the villainy, and something wonderful is happening in the midst of it. Jesus gets anointed. Jesus is honored by this woman, where here and here he is very much dishonored.

And it completely changes the way we are to view the plot that surrounds this passage. Look in verse 3. While Jesus was in Bethany at the home of Simon the leper, and reclining at the table, There came a woman with an alabaster vial of very costly perfume of pure nard and she broke the vial and poured it over his head John's gospel again if you want to get a More fuller view a more full view of what is going on here go home read John chapter 12 John's Gospel tells us that Lazarus and Martha and Mary were also here with Jesus at the home of Simon the Leper. And this Simon the Leper is most likely a man that Jesus healed of his leprosy and so just think of the crowd you've got a man that was just raised from the grave with his sisters you got a man that was leprous outside the camp Now he's been welcomed back into his home. This is quite a crew, isn't it?

And you got that idea of Roman soldiers coming and banging on their door. Hey, we're going to kill you if you keep following Jesus. Come on. Come on. I just got rid of the leprosy.

He just died and came back. What are you going to do to us? And so this picture here is Jesus is coming to this man's home. This man, Simon the leper, with Lazarus, has been restored back to society from being a leper. And So he's with his friends, he's with his family again, he's with Lazarus' sisters, and probably more.

The text seems to indicate perhaps a big crowd. It's just an incredible thing to picture this outcast, a day before, outcast, now reclining with his loved ones and reclining with the one who healed him, Jesus the Christ. And while reclining at the table, a woman barges in. John tells us it was Mary who barged in. This was the same Mary who in Lazarus had died, fellow Jesus' feet weeping.

This Mary barges in. And all commentators agree, well I probably shouldn't say all, the ones I read. At least the ones I read agree that this would have been highly unusual. It would have been highly unusual for Mary to approach Jesus and these men in this way. While he's at Simon's house reclining with Simon and Lazarus and perhaps many other men, this was not usual etiquette for a woman to barge in like this.

Which means that Mark intends for that to jolt you. Oh, this isn't expected. Now this is a very important event. It must be. This is out of the ordinary for Mary, a woman, to come in and do this thing to Jesus.

So what does she do? She takes an alabaster vial, a very costly perfume, pure nard, and she breaks it and pours the perfume over Jesus's head. She anoints Jesus with this perfume. Our text tells us that this perfume was very costly. Not just costly, very costly.

How costly? Well, go down to verse 5. Verse 5 tells you it was worth over 300 denarius. 300 denarius. If one denarius is one day's worth of work, then just how expensive is that little vial of perfume?

300 days of work! That is a year's worth of wages! This isn't Walmart perfume! I looked! This is supposed to be very shocking.

A woman comes barging in. Mary comes in. Oh! You're supposed to say. And then she pours a year's worth of wages on the head of Jesus.

And whoa! Is what you're supposed to say next. This thing that is happening in verses 3 through 9, let you see that what is going on in verses 1 and 2 and 10 and 11 is not an ordinary murder plot. This man Jesus, who these evil men will put to death, he's not merely a man. He is the anointed one of God.

This is no ordinary death. This is no ordinary murder. This is the sovereign plan of Almighty God to rescue those in bondage to sin. To set them free. This man, the God man, will have to die.

And he is especially anointed for it. I'm going to point something out that I don't think is a coincidence. Please listen carefully. Jesus is at the home of a what? The home of a leper.

A leper who's been made clean. Mark wants you to know that detail, that Jesus is at a former leper's house. Do you know what God said about a leper becoming cleansed? In Leviticus chapter 14, do you know what God declared when a leper was pronounced clean? How to make him clean?

How to pronounce a leper clean? Do you know what God said in Leviticus chapter 14? For a leper for one put outside the camp for the outcast to be pronounced, cleansed, and to be welcomed back in. Do you know what God required? A sacrifice and an anointing.

A sacrifice and an anointing. That's Leviticus chapter 14, God's law. A lever cleansed, an outcast restored, you want that? You have to have a sacrifice and an anointing. And here is And here is Jesus in the house of a leper being anointed for what?

A sacrifice. That's pretty good! God's amazing! And surrounding this event, surrounding this jolting moment of Mary barging in and pouring out casi perfume on Jesus, surrounding this anointing for sacrifice, what do you see surrounding it? What's the bread of the sandwich?

Leprosy. Leprosy, the disease of sin, the leprous sin that covers Israel, that makes Israel unclean. Above and below this passage you see the rot of Israel coming out. Murder in their hearts. Murder in the minds of those who represent Israel.

The chief priests and the scribes, Israel is a leper. And Israel so desperately needs the Savior to cleanse her and here he is here he is Jesus in the house of the leper, being anointed for the sacrifice to come, for the sacrifice that these men in verses 1 and 2 and 10 through 11 are unwittingly planning. Here is Jesus in the house of a leper being anointed for the sacrifice to come on the cross the sacrifice that cleanses the vilest and the filthiest The sacrifice that can cleanse you, friend. It can cleanse you. If it can cleanse me, it can cleanse you.

Oh friend, Apart from Jesus Christ, you are diseased. You are rotten within. You are desperate for the great physician to forgive and heal you. You desperately need this Savior, the Lord Jesus, the Anointed One of God, who gave Himself as a sacrifice, as the Passover lamb, to pardon all your iniquities, to heal you of your greatest disease, sin, to redeem your life from the pit. You desperately need this Savior Jesus, the Anointed One of God, to take you who were far off, to take you who were unclean and far off, to take you out of your bondage and slavery to sin, to take you out of the pit of condemnation and despair, and through His righteous life and His substitutionary death and His justifying resurrection and ascension in power, taking you out of the pit, he would crown you with loving kindness and compassion.

And renew your youth like the eagle. You desperately need the one who can come and make lepers clean. And Mark is showing you with an almighty jolt by the actions of this woman. That Savior who you need is He who is being anointed right now. It's Him.

You don't need some self-help book. You don't need a life coach. You need Jesus the Christ and his church. Mark is showing you this is the one you need right here. This Jesus is the God man, truly God, truly man who is the Passover lamb for the sins of the world.

You are to be amazed. You are to trust him, beloved. You are to pour out your life for him, like this perfume. A life poured out before him is a life that will never be wasted. You know the disciples think that Mary has wasted the perfume and so the disciples they rebuke Mary.

They are indignant it says in verse 4. They scold her in verse 5. But they don't understand who Jesus is. Mary does. They don't understand that far from being wasted, you could not have possibly used this perhaps family heirloom of a perfume.

You could not have possibly used this 300 days worth of wages in any better way than pouring it out on Jesus, the anointed one of God, the Christ, the promised one. You could not have used it in any better way than to anoint the Lord before his burial. And Jesus said so. Let's read in verse 6. Jesus said to these men scolding her and being indignant Let her alone Why do you bother her?

She's done a good deed for me for you always have the poor with you And whenever you wish you can do good to them, but you do not always have me. She has done what she could. She has anointed my body beforehand for the burial. Truly, I say to you, wherever the gospel is preached in the whole world, what this woman has done will also be spoken of in memory of her. What's Jesus saying there?

Jesus says to them, stop bothering her. Don't you see the enormous gift that she has bestowed on me? She has given perhaps her most valuable possession as a gift that shows you, all disciples, my true worth. That's what Jesus says. He says, she has exchanged the riches of physical perfume for eternal riches, so that 2, 000 years later, in a town called Erlem, when my people talk about sin and forgiveness, the need to be made right with God through the Passover lamb and being cleansed of all their iniquity for a leper of sin to be made cleansed, they're going to talk about what this woman has done.

Sure enough. Yes. You know, I think it's important to point out that Mark has just recently talked about another woman who gave all the chiel. None of these things are coincidences, brothers and sisters. Here is Mary who gives, if not all she owned, a great deal of it.

And there was another woman. Do you remember her who gave all that she had not very long ago in Mark's Gospel? The woman at the temple? All of these wealthy people putting in large sums in Mark chapter 12. The disciples booing and I'm, whoa, look at that, that guy had like 13 bags, look at that.

And then you've got this woman gives two cents. You can hear just the tiny little boom. And not a word from the disciples. They're still caught up on money bag guy. But Jesus says something.

Not a word of commendation from the disciples, but commendation from Jesus. That woman gave to the old temple and great was her reward. We're still talking about her 2000 years later. And now here is another woman giving, anointing the new and true temple. This woman gave to the old temple, this woman is giving to the new and true temple, Jesus the Christ.

And great is her reward. This is not a coincidence, brothers and sisters. Jesus is anointed. This is the Passover lamb. This is the new and true temple.

This is the lamb slain for the leprous of heart Slain for sinners. Here is the anointed one of God the Passover lamb of God who will pay the penalty and Satisfy the wrath of God due to your sin, all of your sin. Jesus is anointed. If you think, at the beginning of his ministry, what happened to Jesus? Jesus was anointed in his baptism in Mark chapter 1.

And now here at the end, Jesus is anointed before the baptism of his death. And after this anointing, Mark immediately brings the narrative back to the plot to kill Jesus. And who has become a key player now? Judas. You see here at the other end of the sandwich, again the narrative returns to the plot to kill Jesus.

In verse 10, then Judas is scared. It was one of the 12 went off to the chief priests and ordered to betray him to them. They were glad when they heard this and promised to give him money. And he began seeking how to betray him at an opportune time. The disciples had rebuked Mary for wasting the perfume, even though there was nothing, there could be nothing further from the truth, right?

It's not a waste when perfume is spent on Jesus. And again, I just want to pause here. Let that be a lesson for each of you young people in this room. You hear me? A life poured out and spent on Jesus, a life lived in obedience to Christ, will look like a waste to the world.

But for eternity, it will be known that the only wasted lives were those who spent it on trinkets and vanities rather than the business of the Lord Jesus Christ. You want your life to count young people? You want your life to count? Pour it out on Christ's kingdom. Read your Bibles.

Confess your sins. Get on your knees and pray. Give yourself to the service of His kingdom in this local church and in your family. Give yourself to the service of His kingdom in your workplace, in the neighborhood, to the nations. And yours will be a life not wasted, poured out for Christ.

It's a life not wasted. Well, the disciples, again, they're upset about this wasting of perfume. And so the apostle John tells us in his gospel, in John chapter 12, that when the disciples had rebuked Mary for wasting the perfume, wasting, that Judas had actually been the ringleader of that. Judas had been the vocal one. Judas was in charge of the money bag, John tells us.

And John says that Judas had been stealing from that bag, we don't know for how long, but for some time. And so when he was scolding and yelling at Mary about the poor, that was all actually a facade. He was the poor thief who, because of Mary's generosity, had less money to get his own hands on. So John also tells us that not long after this event with Jesus and Mary that Satan himself entered Judas. And Judas is doing exactly what Judas wants to do.

And Satan is along for the ride, patting Judas on the back, encouraging him as he goes along in this murder. So it's not surprising then that when we read here in Mark's gospel that Judas goes and betrays Jesus. Shouldn't be surprising to you. What was the response of the religious leaders? Verse 11, they licked their chops.

They were glad. The leaders of Israel, the covenant heads of Israel, licked their chops for blood. Satan had entered Judas, and these scribes and chief priests conspired with him. Who did they ultimately conspire with? Satan.

That's a fig tree that is rotten from the roots up. That's depravity. That's disease. That's rot. That's leprosy that needs to be cut off and cut out at the root.

And the one that Judas is betraying is the only one who can do that kind of cleansing. He's the only one that can do that kind of surgical removing of rot. Judas goes and betrays. The scribes and the chief priests are glad, and so they promise to give Judas money. And we learn from Matthew's gospel that what Judas was given was a bag of silver.

30 pieces of silver. Did you know that that was the standard price for a slave? According to God's law and Exodus, the price of a slave being replaced, standard price, It fluctuated based on age, but the standard price was 30 pieces of silver, 30 shells of silver. Jesus was betrayed for the standard price of a slave. Do you remember another character in the Bible getting betrayed?

Do you remember Joseph getting betrayed? He was traded also for a bag of silver in Genesis chapter 37. Betrayed for a bag of silver to be a slave in Egypt. Betrayed for a bag of silver, just like Jesus, to be a slave in Egypt. Go back to the beginning of this sermon.

What's the setting and the theme that runs throughout the next two chapters. The Passover. And what's the Passover? A celebration and remembrance of what? God's rescue from slavery in Egypt.

And just like Joseph, what his brothers meant for evil, what Judas and these men mean for evil, God meant it for good. In order to bring about this present result, to rescue those in bondage, to bring them out into freedom, what these men meant for evil, God sovereigned for your salvation, friend, for your rescue, Christian. God sovereigned this work for your liberation from your sin and its power over you and your allegiance to the dominion of darkness. And God did this through his son Jesus the Christ, being the Passover lamb slain for the remission of your sins, so that you who were once a slave and a leper, bound, alienated, cast away, would be redeemed and Brought near by the blood of the Lamb, all by grace through faith, repentance and faith in this Jesus the Christ. And we celebrate that here this morning at this table in just a few minutes.

This day and every Lord's day, a remembrance, a celebration of what Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior accomplished, betrayed for a bag of silver, sold into slavery for the salvation of His people. This is the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And if you do not know it, I pray this morning that you would bow the knee of your heart and say, God be merciful to me a sinner. And this right here, and this right here is evidence He will be. Let's pray.

Oh Father, I ask that in light of what has been said, oh that you would please reveal sin in the lives of those who have not confessed. You would grant eyes to see for those here who are lost, that they need to stay here, that you would grant them repentance, a turning away from sin, a trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ who is pierced for our transgressions and crushed for our sins so that by His wounds we are healed, that by His wounds we're forgiven, and made yours forever. Oh Lord, impress that upon my children's hearts. Impress that upon the children's hearts here, young and old. Bring them to faith.

Bring them to repentance and faith. And Lord, for all who name the name of Christ, that we would do as Mary did, we would offer up our lives in obedience to your son. We would be a people that trust in you at all times, pouring out our hearts before you. For you, God, are a refuge for us. And we are the sheep of your pasture when we deserve the exact opposite.

Wow. We thank you for your great mercy. We thank you for this passage that shows us that he can make the leper clean, even me and make me once a slave, now a friend, once a slave, now a child of God. We thank you. Cause us to celebrate now, for Jesus sake and our joy in Him.

Amen.