LBC Bible Conference 2021

Okay, it's time to get started For our lesson our last session for

if you need a sheet there for the lesson lesson for they're on the table out there.

If you didn't get one, you might run out there real quick and get one.

Also, there's a sign -up sheet out there.

CDs will be available of the whole conference.

But if you want one, you need to need to sign the sheet out there.

And if you don't go to this church, you need to put your address beside your name.

So Just check that out.

And also the book sales out there on the table, too.

Don't forget that and I guess the sessions will be available online

here too for long.

So That's another Avenue.

All right, let's begin this last session.

We're going to turn to Deuteronomy 11.

I'm going to ask you to stand as we read Deuteronomy 11 13 through 21

and

if you will indeed obey my commandments that I command you today To love the Lord your God and

to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul He will give the rain for your land in its season

the early rain and the later rain that you may gather in your grain and your wine and your oil and

He will give grass in your fields for your livestock and you shall eat and be full Take care

lest your heart be deceived and you should and you turn aside and serve other gods and worship them.

Then the anger of the Lord will be kindled against you and he will shut up the heavens so that there will be no rain.

And the land will yield no fruit and you will perish quickly Off the good land

that the Lord is giving you.

You shall therefore lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul and You shall bind them as

a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes.

You shall teach them to your children talking of them when you are sitting in your house.

And when you are walking by the way, and when you lie down and when you rise You shall

write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

That your days and the days of your children may be multiplied in the land that the Lord swore

to your fathers to give them.

As long as the heavens are above the earth.

You may be seated.

And what's a guy got to do to get a compliment around here.

Like pulling teeth to get you say something nice about me.

Turning.

Turn in your Bibles to Numbers chapter 15 verses 32 to 41.

Numbers chapter 15 verses 32 to 41.

We're gonna end in a little bit of Of a different spot we've looked at

some classic passages that encourage us in the Bible and I wanted

to.

I Wanted to end here.

When when I was a junior in college.

This is a very long and painful story and I won't tell all of it.

But as at the tail end of a long and complicated story my college

invited a pro homosexual person who claimed to be a

Christian and argued that the Bible it wasn't just permissive of

Homosexuality but actually argued for it.

So they're gonna have him come speak at the college and Their desire was to have him have a

debate or to Their desire was to actually have a member of the Bible faculty debate him

when he was done with his Presentation and there wasn't a member of the Bible faculty that would do it.

And I said I would do it.

And we come into this meeting and he had this thing where he went through kind of six passages

in the Old and New Testament that that that were told teach against

Homosexuality, but really don't on his view and he called them clobber

passages.

These are the these are the passages that Christians always roll out to Homosexuals to clobber them over the head and

and make them feel bad and make them feel like they're less than.

That was my first introduction to the phrase clobber passages.

I've used that word since then but in different ways so for me a clobber

passage is not that for me a clobber passage is when I'm Reading the Bible and

a passage clobbers me.

I'm like, oh my god.

Has this ever happened to you?

You've been reading the Bible.

You're minding your own business you're in the bowels of the book of Numbers and Wham

right in the face you get clobbered by this text of Scripture and Numbers chapter 15

Verses 32 to 41.

I was reading it a while back and it was one of those clobber passages that couldn't get it out of

my mind and.

In.

Conference we were talking about the practical usefulness and value of the Word of God.

I thought this would be a helpful note to to go out on and what we'll talk about here over the next little bit

are the The results of my having been clobbered by this text of Scripture.

So Numbers chapter 15 verses 32 to 41.

This is what God says now while the sons of Israel were in the wilderness.

They found a man Gathering wood on the Sabbath day.

Those who found him gathering wood brought him to Moses and Aaron and all the congregation and

they put him in custody.

Because it had not been declared.

What should be done to him?

Then the Lord said to Moses the man Shall surely be put

to death.

All the congregation Shall stone him with stones outside the camp.

So all the congregation brought him outside the camp and stoned him to death with

stones.

Just as the Lord had commanded Moses.

The Lord also spoke to Moses saying speak to the sons of Israel and tell them that they shall make for themselves

Tassels on the corners of their garments throughout their generations and that they shall put on the tassel of each corner a cord

of blue.

It shall be a tassel for you to look at and remember all the commandments of the Lord so as to do them.

And not follow after your own heart in your own eyes.

After which you played the harlot so that you may remember to do all my commandments and be

holy to your God.

I am the Lord your God.

Who brought you out from the land of Egypt to be your God.

I am the Lord your God.

Let's pray Father you're the Lord our God and you

speak.

You want your people to listen to? your word.

And not play the harlot with our own hearts.

And so would you help us to do that?

Help us to learn more about what it means to be faithful to listen to your word even now we pray in Jesus name.

Amen.

All right.

So here's the big question you read this and the question is.

It's God cruel.

I mean this Seems a little bit like it, right?

I Mean, here's a guy picking up sticks.

And he's executed.

For it this if you wanted to make an argument.

That God was cruel that God is not a God of mercy and grace and love and to be followed and honored.

This would be as good a passage in Scripture as any you could find as okay.

So we got a dead guy because he's picking up some wood.

It seems cruel seems cruel in my view for at

least Two reasons.

First of all, the crime does seem small.

Picking up a little bit of wood.

Picking up some sticks.

Picking up sticks is not a big deal.

That's what he's doing, right?

While the sons of Israel were in the wilderness first 42, they found a man gathering wood.

On the Sabbath, he's picking up sticks.

It's such a small trivial activity.

They even have this game called pickup sticks, you know fun as a family playing pickup sticks.

This guy's dead for picking up sticks seems cruel he's

doing the wrong thing on the wrong day and That's

actually trouble you could say well it is the Sabbath day.

But that sort of makes it just a little bit worse.

If you think if you're if you're inclined to see the cruelty of God in here.

Having it happen on the Sabbath day sort of makes it a little bit worse the Bible.

No matter how you slice it no matter what kind of Christian you are today.

You probably don't think probably don't think that the Bible enforces the Sabbath regulations at

least the way it did back then this is not at least a preoccupation

with the Bible.

Today as it was in the Old Testament.

Most of us believe that something different is happening with the Sabbath commands in the New Covenant.

Then we're happening in the Old Covenant and even if you hate everything.

I just said no, I know.

Even even if you think we're you know, if you're picking up sticks on on Saturday.

If you think that's wrong today.

Well.

At least at least you probably don't think that in a world with

60 divorce rates and Child predators.

You probably don't think that this is a capital crime.

Just seems like such a small deal.

And then that gets to the other thing that makes us think that it's cruel is that the

consequences seem real severe.

All right, let's grant that he should not have been picking up sticks on the Sabbath.

Okay.

Wrong thing wrong time.

I'll grant it but Verse 34 they put him into custody.

I.

Mean.

God bless you.

I've met I've met some folks with a real libertarian streak around here the last couple of days and You're

putting somebody into custody.

Putting somebody.

I was in my yard On my property picking up some sticks.

You're gonna put me into custody.

Are you for real?

They put him into custody And then he is.

Ordered.

To be executed.

Verse 35 he shall surely be put to death.

All the congregation shall stone him with stones.

Verse 36 all the congregation brought him outside the camp and stoned him to death with stones stoning

with stones.

They stoned him with stones in front of everybody.

Everybody had to pick up a rock and throw it at this guy till he was dead.

That is a horrible way to die.

It's a shameful way to die.

I mean the last thing this guy saw was the people he knew and lived next to

Shaming him and Executing him.

That's a pretty steep penalty, but the Bible says they didn't make this up.

This is not this is not mob violence.

This is not society run amok.

This is a word directly from God.

Moses takes the problem to God and God says execute him.

Bring out all the congregation have them all pick up rocks and keep throwing them till he's dead.

That's a pretty bitter pill to swallow.

Seems Cruel, but is it

is it cruel?

Well the crime seems small and The consequences seem

severe.

But but I actually want to respond to the charge of cruelty in two ways.

First.

Even though our sensibilities might be gripped by the apparent cruelty of the whole thing. There's actually a tremendous

amount of grace.

Here in this account and in the context that surrounds it.

Let's let's look at the grace that the consequences seem huge.

And the crime seems small but don't blow by the grace that's all over the place here.

God did after all.

Graciously warn the people not to do this.

He told him not to do it.

That's grace.

Have you ever thought about the grace of a warning?

The grace of don't do that.

You're gonna get in trouble the grace of don't do that.

You're gonna get hurt.

You it is a lack of care and regard to let people do something that will kill them

without a warning.

It is a mark of grace and care to warn people that the path you're on is going to lead to your destruction and

the commands in Scripture very regularly serve as this kind of

gracious warning.

In Exodus chapter 20 verses 9 to 11.

We get the commandment remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy and then in verse 9 six days used to labor and do all your Work,

but the seventh day is a Sabbath of the Lord your God in it.

You shall not do any work.

You or your son or your daughter your male or your female servant or your cattle or your sojourner who stays with you for in?

Six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth the sea and all that's in them and rested on the seventh day.

Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath and made it holy in Exodus chapter

31.

We get a little bit more in verses 12 to 17.

The Lord spoke to Moses saying but as for you speak to the sons of Israel saying you shall surely observe my Sabbaths.

For this is a sign between me and you and throughout your generations that you may know that I am the Lord who sanctifies you.

Therefore you are to observe the Sabbath for it's holy to you.

Everyone who profanes it shall surely be put to death for whoever does any work on it That person

shall be cut off from among the people for six days work may be done.

But on the seventh day, there's a Sabbath of complete rest.

Holy to the Lord whoever does any work on the Sabbath day shall surely be put to death.

So the sons of Israel shall observe the Sabbath to celebrate the Sabbath throughout their generations as a perpetual

covenant.

It goes on to say it is a sign between me and the sons of Israel forever for in six days The Lord made heaven and the earth

but on the seventh day he ceased from labor and was refreshed.

If you flip over to chapter 35.

Verses 1 to 3 it says then Moses Assembled all the congregations of the sons of Israel and said to them there.

These are the things that the Lord commanded you to do for six days work may be done.

But on the seventh day you shall have a holy day a Sabbath of complete rest to the Lord.

Whoever does any work on it shall be put to death verse 3.

You shall not kindle a fire in any of your dwellings on the Sabbath day and

You might be sitting there going, okay, he keeps reading verses about the Sabbath day.

Why are we doing that?

We got the point, but apparently not this guy didn't.

Over and over and over again.

It's like don't do this.

Don't do this.

If you do any work, you're gonna die.

Don't do it.

Anybody who does any work?

She'll be put to death don't even pick up wood to kindle a fire on the Sabbath day.

Don't do it or you will die.

And this guy walked right out the tent and picked up wood to build a fire.

There is Repeated warnings about this about the commandment.

Don't do it.

Don't do any work.

About the reason for the commandment.

Let me tell you why you don't do this.

I'm the Lord.

I didn't even do any work on the Sabbath day.

So don't you do any work on this if I can make it without work on the Sabbath day says the Lord you can make it.

Without work on the Sabbath day to don't do it.

This is this is a covenant between you and and the consequences three or four times.

We just write you're gonna die.

You shall surely die.

Don't do this or you will surely die.

There are repeated warnings about the commandment about the reason for it and about the consequences of it and that is an act of

grace.

It's an act of grace to do it and this man disregarded repeated

statements about the command.

Repeated warnings repeated explanations for it and repeated statements about the consequences and he

went out and sinned with a high hand.

He went out and did whatever he wanted to do even though God had warned him not to.

So God graciously warned the people about the sin.

God graciously Provided a lesson to the entire congregation about the

sin.

Now listen.

This is what happens after the guy sins.

What happens after the guy sins after he gets in trouble.

God Says to Moses the man shall surely be put to death.

All the congregation shall stone him with stones outside the camp.

So all the congregation brought him outside the camp and stoned him to death with stones just as the Lord had commanded

him.

They received a lesson.

The congregation did and how serious this was.

They.

Received a lesson in fleeing sin in their own life.

Listen on that chilly morning in the wilderness.

Or on that morning in the wilderness when it seemed like some nice warm manna.

Would be better than cold manna.

This guy wasn't the only one.

I Mean there were definitely some Israelites sitting in their tent going.

What do you think honey?

Just a few sticks and build a fire.

What do you think there are people who were tempted?

Well when the congregation has to pick up stones to stone the guy that did they stop being tempted right then I?

Mean this this is a reminder to the congregation.

God is this is actually less about shame for the man and more about a gracious reminder for the congregation.

Don't do this or you're gonna be on the other side of these rocks.

It's not worth it to sin against the Lord it's also a

Powerful lesson to the entire congregation.

About helping others fight sin.

This is again.

This is less about shame and more about the congregation taking responsibility for

them not taking care and accountability and responsibility for their

brother.

Listen, there are people looking out their tent.

Going is that Daryl over there?

What is he doing?

Well, see I thought we were supposed to be inside today.

Is he is he picking up a look at that?

I don't think we were supposed to do that.

I'll be.

I hope nobody sees him do that.

Honey maybe you should.

I'm not gonna tell that's his life.

That's his business.

I'm not.

I'm not getting involved in what Daryl's doing.

Daryl wants to pick up a stick.

He can pick up a stick and then Daryl got in trouble and Then the guy talking about

Daryl had to go pick up a rock and be part of the punishment.

This is a powerful lesson that we're responsible for one another when we are a member of

the people of God and Anybody who looked out their tent or stood there and watched Daryl commit high

treason against the king of heaven and earth.

Realize that they've got to be involved in helping one another.

So this is a gracious lesson for the congregation.

Involved in the punishment after this man sinned.

And also God graciously provides the congregation with a practical way to remember the command.

There's all these commands don't do it.

Here's why it's important not to do it and here's what's gonna happen if you do the guy

Blew past all that and so God shows up after that and is gracious again.

And he says speak to the sons of Israel.

Tell them that they shall make for themselves tassels on the corners of their garments throughout their generations and that they shall put on the

tassel of each corner a cord of Blue.

It shall be a tassel for you to look at and remember all the commandments of the Lord.

Not the ones you think are big.

Not the ones you think are small.

Not not the ones you think are are insignificant or significant.

But all the commandments of the Lord God already decided which ones are the big ones and which ones are the important

ones and those Are the commandments he gave all of them are important.

You remember all the commandments of the Lord so as to do them and not follow after your own heart and your own eyes.

After which you played the harlot so God condescends again.

God extends mercy and grace again.

All right, make make a garment.

Let's make something you can touch and feel.

Something you can rub with your fingers and feel on your back and know That I got to obey the

commands of God and not the desires of my own heart.

God takes another step of grace.

He gets intensely practical.

He makes a garment with Colors and you're supposed to wear it through the generations and there would be people

who would be able to tell their kids.

Let me tell you why we started making these garments because there was a guy Who thought it wasn't a very big deal to follow

the commands of the Lord?

And every time we touch this tassel, we're supposed to remember that when you disobey the Lord.

That's a big deal whether you understand the commandment or not all that

Is in an effort to remember the commandments so that you can avoid the fate of this man so

that you Can avoid the fate of this command?

Of this man Psalm 119 verse 11.

It says your word.

I've treasured in my heart that I might not sin against you.

And every single one of us who encounters the story of this man in Numbers chapter 15 knows the preciousness

of that word.

I Need to treasure your word in my heart this man didn't and he sinned against the Lord and his life was over

because of it.

It's an act of grace.

To tell the story.

Everything about the Bible everything about this passage is a picture of a gracious God trying to

stop this man and to stop us from avoiding the fate that this man met.

We actually we we look at this extension of divine grace and see divine cruelty because

we don't understand the preciousness of the Word of God.

The Word of God came don't do it.

And he thought he had a better idea.

The Word of God came and said put him to death and we are tempted to think we've got a better idea.

But we better be careful because we're guilty in our heart of the same thing.

This guy did we're going down the wrong path.

It's not cruelty.

It's grace.

This gets to two rules for life.

That we got to remember so so I said I want to respond to this thought that it's cruel with two big ideas and the first big one

is What we first read as cruelty because we want to be able to do whatever we want to do is actually

grace and the second Response is to remember that there are two rules of life that are always true.

You can't change them.

You didn't create them.

So you can't change them.

It doesn't matter if you Like them because your opinion was not solicited when the rules were made.

These are two rules of life that never ever change.

They've always been in place and they always will be in place and they help us make sense of this

account.

If we're tempted to think it's cruel.

The first rule is the Lord is God and not us.

The Lord is God and not us

two realities here The Lord is God.

He is the king.

There is a king it is the Lord and that gets to the second reality.

We are not him.

The Lord's God first reality you are not him this

is a problem with this man in numbers chapter 15.

It's a problem with this man.

Because the Lord told him not to pick up sticks and he disagreed.

He didn't care.

That the Lord told him not to pick up sticks on the Sabbath day.

He thought if he wanted to pick up sticks on the Sabbath day.

That was his right to do it if he wanted to and who cares what the Lord thinks.

Won't pick up a stick a pick up a stick.

Except God said don't do it.

He messed up that first rule.

The Lord is God not you.

You don't get to have it your way.

You don't get to make up the rules.

We do this in our house my house my rules, right?

You ever have your kid come to you and tell you that they do it different at the Sanders house than they do at the Lambert's house, you know.

Garrett Lambert's aren't Sanders.

Lambert's do things differently than Sanders do.

Well, but I like it better over there, all right, we'll ask the Sanders if they want to pay for your medical insurance.

If they'll pay your medical bills, let's talk and they're racking up with one of our kids.

The Lord told him not to pick up sticks and he disagreed.

He wanted a different set of rules and it doesn't matter.

No one no no him.

No one gave him the offer or the right to choose whether he got to make the rules and nobody gives that to you and.

Me either.

It's just the way it is in verses 39 to 41.

The Word of God says it'll be a tassel for you to look at and remember all the commandments of the Lord so as to do Them

and not follow after your own heart and your own eyes.

He's getting he's getting to the very heart and soul of the temptation of what it means to be a human

being.

I want to follow my own heart my own soul and my own eyes.

I don't want to hear somebody else telling me what to do.

I'm gonna do it my way.

Verse 40 says so that you may remember to do all of my commandments and be holy to your God.

Verse 41.

I'm the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt to be your God.

I am the Lord your God.

Listen, you don't have to be a Hebrew scholar to understand that.

God's concern here is that you understand that he is the Lord your God.

I'm the Lord your God.

It's like he's shaking it like I am the Lord your God.

What are you doing?

What are you thinking?

You don't even get to pick up a stick without permission.

I'm the Holy One of Israel.

And who do you think you are?

It's not your world.

It's not your rules.

Nobody asked you.

Psalm 100 verse 3.

Know that the Lord himself is God.

It is he who made us and not we ourselves.

We are his people and the sheep of his pasture.

Every single soul in hell never learns that lesson.

It's me.

It's my world.

It's my heart.

It's my eyes my desires.

God who cares?

Well.

You'll care soon enough.

Rejecting the Lord as God and exalting yourself as God

Didn't work for this man.

It's never worked for anybody else and That's the first rule

the Lord is God and not us.

The second rule is all sin earns a death sentence.

The prophet Ezekiel says the soul that sins shall die.

The soul that sins shall die.

There's there's no coda on the end of that verse.

The Apostle Paul says the wages of sin is death.

If you want to sin you're gonna get paid for it.

You're going to die when you wind up in hell as an unrepentant sinner.

You will have earned your spot there the good old -fashioned way.

It's it's what you get.

It's the desserts.

It's the payout of sin.

We.

Seek cruelty in this text because that inextricable Rule of life

that the wages of sin is death that all sin earns a death sentence.

We want reality to be something other than what it is and it will never be.

We send he sinned I've sinned and you've sinned following our own heart instead of the command of God.

And now we want the consequences to be something different than what they are.

Well.

Big surprise it never works out that way once you make the decision to sin.

Once you make the decision to do that you lose the right to determine any of the consequences.

Don't you see this all over the place?

Now you see it just time after time after time.

Everybody thinks they can sin and do what they want and they'll control it and manage it.

And as soon as you start to do It you realize the consequences of sin quickly explode.

Beyond what you think you can control.

It's not Cruelty on God's part that that's true.

It's insanity on our part where we are insane

sinfully crazy.

That we think it should be different than that that we think it would ever would be different than that.

The.

Man in this text and violated those two Inalterable rules that day in the

wilderness and we do it every day.

This is the reason we think it's cruel.

Because we're doing the same thing.

And we want to be treated differently than he was.

We don't pick up sticks on the Sabbath.

Actually, we probably do.

But again.

Where we're dealing in a different situation with the Sabbath now, we do the same kind of thing.

You hear this all the time.

It's not a big deal.

Everybody looks.

Don't they then everybody look.

I don't think God minds if we look.

I've heard that I'm just quoting people I've heard.

I don't think it's a big deal.

What I imagine of it.

Look but don't touch.

No big deal.

A little bit of lust.

No big deal.

Just pick up a few sticks.

Nobody will care.

Gossip.

Gossip with your mouth gossip with yours.

It's no big deal.

Somebody let me let me tell you this thing here real quick.

I mean cut me some slack.

Okay.

Well, let me listen real quick.

Cut me some slack.

All right, I want to hear.

It's no big deal.

Just talk just a little text message.

Just a little Facebook post.

Nobody worry.

It's not a big deal.

I I had a church member one time tell me I think God Understands when we worry just a little bit.

I think God's okay with a little bit of worry.

I think God knows that means we care.

Except in Matthew chapter 6 Jesus says don't worry.

Don't worry.

Don't worry.

The Apostle Paul says in Philippians chapter 4 be anxious for a few things.

No, be anxious for nothing.

I Think God's okay when we worry.

Skimping on your taxes my money anyway.

Grumbling

hate this pastor.

Not this one.

I'm the one I hate.

Just a little bit of grumbling.

Except the Bible says do all things without grumbling and complaining.

We treasure these little sins in Our heart all the

time.

Just like the man in numbers 15 picking up sticks on the Sabbath day.

We think it's cruel.

Not because God's cruel but because we're just as guilty as homemade sin.

We want the rules different for him.

Because we want the rules different for us.

The spirit of the man in the wilderness picking up sticks.

Is the spirit that resides in our hearts too and we deserve to die.

The soul that sin shall die.

The wages of sin is death.

Listen, do you think there weren't people ready to make signs in the wilderness in the ancient world?

No more deaths by stoning.

Get on the right side of history.

We got to pick up sticks and start fires or we're gonna die.

Organization of the United Brotherhood of men who pick up sticks on the Sabbath.

What's going on with these crazed lunatic fringe fundamentalists who think we ought to kill people for picking up

sticks?

Listen, if you don't think they weren't talking about in their tents, you don't understand the human spirit.

It was true then it's true now and the problem is I don't like what the Word of God says.

I Want to do what I want to do.

I believe I am God not him.

We deserve to die.

But what we need to do.

If we're going to avoid death is not Question the way life works.

We can't undo these two rules the Lord's God not us.

That's not going to change.

All sin deserves a death sentence.

It's not going to change so you can grumble and complain about it all you want and you'll do that forever and ever and ever and

ever in miserable pain.

What we need is not to grumble and complain about the way life works.

What we need is mercy.

Because in and through and over around and under those two rules for life is a God

of mercy.

He never changes the rules, but his mercy reshapes our experience of those

rules and his mercy comes

to us chiefly in Jesus Christ and John

chapter 19 verses 16 to 18.

The Bible says so he then handed him over to them to be crucified they took Jesus.

Therefore and he went out bearing his own cross.

To the place called the place of a skull which is called in Hebrew Golgotha.

There they crucified him with him two other men one on either side

and Jesus in their place.

Pilot also wrote an inscription and put it on the cross.

It was written Jesus the Nazarene the king of the Jews.

That says it says That

numbers 15.

Isn't the last time in biblical history that a man was executed for picking up wood.

The next time a man is executed for picking up wood.

It's Jesus Christ the king of Jews the king of Kings the Lord of Lords and he does it

on his own will in obedience to the Father and When he picks

up wood He doesn't do it so that he can have just any old thing.

He wants he does it for us.

He does it to pay the penalty for all of the times and our hearts when we do little things that we think are no Big

deal, but the wages of sin is death and that's true.

Except Jesus is the one who receives the payment instead of us.

And what we have to do is we have to stop demanding that it be different.

We have to stop fighting to sit on the throne of God in heaven.

And we have to realize that the Lord is God and not us.

The wages of sin is death and that is true in all cases

but when we repent of our sins and Trust in Jesus Christ we can trust that he picked up wood for

us that he paid our penalty and we'll know the infinite God of

grace infinitely and forever.

Not because our sins are no big deal.

Even the small ones are of eternal significance because Jesus pays for all of them.

Let's pray Father we need the help of Jesus Christ and we

don't need to grumble and complain.

We need to be thankful That your rules are your rules.

You are the king of heaven and earth.

But instead of giving us what we all deserve, which is a summary execution You lay

the punishment and the guilt of our sin onto Jesus Christ who takes up wood on our behalf.

I Pray that you'd give us the gift of faith to believe in who he is and what he's done.

I pray that you would show us our sin and When we see it, we don't have to run from

it.

We don't have to complain.

We can be thankful for your mercy.

The mercy of Jesus that covers all of our sin in his blood.

We pray in his name.

Amen.

So ends our annual Bible conference.

I want to thank Keith for his faithful ministry of the Word of God.

And I hope that the Lord used him in your life to challenge you and not just to leave here

Saying what a great preacher rather.

What a great God.

What a marvelous word.

So, let's stand and we'll be dismissed in prayer shall we

Father if you've used your servant to minister your word to us to serve it to us and we thank you for

that.

Now father our deepest desire is that we would not

as the Lord accused the people of Israel Through the prophet that they went about saying

wow, we've heard someone great today.

But rather that we would say we've heard the Word of God and we need to obey Help us

by your grace and because of your grace To think greatly of your word

and to seek to order our lives all of our lives by that word.

Thank you again for your faithfulness to us and giving us your voice.

And we pray this in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Dismissed.