1 John

Some of you know about dusting a house. Others have got no idea what dusting even means, but, you know, those of you that dust You can spend a whole morning, can't you dusting a room and vacuum cleaning and polishing and looking for every bit of dust you can to get rid of it. And then you sit down. You have a cup of co coffee or a cup of tea and admire work. And then the sunlight comes into your room.

What do you see? You see dust floating everywhere. It's more of a mess than when you started. Now imagine your neighbor comes around And perhaps, he or she has been doing exactly the same as you. They spent all morning dusting.

They've come around for a cup of tea and coffee to celebrate. And, you talk about, you know, dust and cleaning and all of that sort of stuff, and they say to you, I wanna tell you that my room is completely dust free. There is no dirt or dust anywhere. What do you conclude from that? You conclude that the sun hasn't come into their room.

Your neighbor is still in the darkness. Now, John is about testing us to see if we are authentic Christians. And here's 1 of the tests. Do we walk in the light? And if we do walk in the light, we will see that we are sinners.

When the light comes into our room, it only exposes us It shows us the dust. A Christian is someone who walks in the light and therefore sees their sin. A Christian loves purity definitely, but sees sin. The person who isn't walking in the light will not see any dust, will not see their sin. Or they're trying to reason that away sin or excuse sin or cover it up or hide sin or say something like Well, I'm not that bad or I'm not that dirty and I'm not as bad as him or her or it's really just a no no big deal thing that what I'm doing.

I I don't see it as sin. Or, this is what I am. I I found the real me and I don't see this as sin. But those who have had the light shining into their rooms and have the light shining into their lives, They realized they can't hide. They can't cover up because god is light, and he shines in all the places.

And as they walk with god who is light, they own up to god about their sin. They come out of hiding. They see the dirt. They confess their sin. I mean, look at look at verse 9 of 1 john 1.

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. It's such a wonderful thing. Now, how does this purifying take place then? Well, you have this fantastic little phrase. In verse 7.

At the end of verse 7, look, the blood of Jesus, his son purifies us, from all sin. An authentic Christian walks in the light, and that light not only shows sin, and dirt and dust. It calls us directs us to the place where we can be purified, where we can be cleansed. And so that's really what I want us to do this morning. I just want us to revel in this in this wonderful sentence.

And this is my first point, the blood of Jesus. The blood of Jesus. Just look at verse 7 again. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with 1 another, and the blood of Jesus, his son, purifies us from all sin. It's an amazing sentence.

I just want us to revel in this. See, we try to avoid blood these days. It it's does it doesn't really sort of feel right talking about blood. It doesn't really sound nice, particularly in a sort of age of veganism that sort of preached to us, you know, that the blood of Jesus. I mean, there used to be a lot of hymns and a lot of songs about the blood of Jesus.

And now, well, we're talking maybe about his death, but the blood is a little bit sort of gory, isn't it? But actually, you can't really read the Bible or understand the Bible without something to do with blood, you know, without understanding something blood. Here are 2 verses that in some ways, sum up a whole bible teaching about blood. There's just 2. We could have chosen quite a few.

1 is from the Old Testament part of the Bible, Leviticus. And it's it's a book that is telling us how we get right with god. How sinful people can be made right with god. Or atoned for. This is Levictica 17 and verse 11.

Listen to it. For the life of a creature, is in the blood. And I have given it to you to make atonement for yourselves on the altar. It is the blood that makes atonement for one's life. It is the blood that makes atonement for one's life.

And then if we go to the New Testament part of the Bible, and to Hebrews chapter 2 verse 22. In fact, he says, the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood. And without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness. Without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness. Actually, you could go right back to Adam and Eve, and that whole first story of our first parents The word blood isn't used in this in this event, but it helps us understand what what blood is about.

So you may know the story. You've got Adam and Eve. They're created to walk with god. They're created to walk in the light with god who is light. But they they disobeyed and they rebelled and they they turned from truth to believe a lie.

They ran from the light, if you like, and scurry away like insects of the night to hide and cover up their shame in darkness. But we're told that god came to them. God came to their hiding place, calling out to them, and there and there's this this fantastic first question that's ever asked of a man asked by god. Adam, where are you? Where are you?

Of course, god knows where they are, but he's trying to show them, you know, where's this got you? Let me let let me let me read it. So they've sinned. They've rebelled against god. They've ran into the darkness.

They've tried to cover themselves up by sowing fig leaves together and they're hiding amongst the trees. This is this is how the story goes. It's in Genesis chapter 3 verses 8 to 10. Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the lord god as he was walking in the garden in the cooler of the day, and they hid. From the lord god, among the trees of the garden, but the lord god called to the man, where are you The man answered.

I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid. Because I was naked, so I hid. Then I told there's an interaction with god. And basically, what god does, he comes to their hiding place, here they are in the dark hiding, covering up, and he he he basically exposes them. You know, like, like the the sunlight exposes their sin, and then he tells them of the consequences of their sin and the judgment on their sin.

So the question is, how would Adam and Eve ever be able to stand before god again? Now god gives a promise that there was going to be a serpent crusher. There's going to be, this 1 that's going to come, this promised messiah, this promised rescuer who had come. But in the meantime, this is what god does for them. Verse 21 of Genesis 3, the lord god made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothe them.

Garments of skin to cover them. In other words, if you're gonna make garments of skin, something has to die. Blood has to be shed. It's not enough for them to be covered with their fig leaves. They need god to provide a covering.

And without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness. You see it? Now we gotta get this because forgiveness is not cheap. Without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sin because forgiveness is just not a cheap thing, and I think we know that. If someone's done something against you, it's hard to forgive.

It costs you. You have to battle with forgiveness. Don't you? I mean, you might be doing alright 1 day, and then you wake up in the morning and remember the crime against you and how you were treated. And it's quite hard to forgiveness always costs, and it costs to forgive sin.

Why? Because sin is so utterly serious. Sin is not just messing up a bit. Sin is not just this this sort of naughty but nice thing. Sin is fundamentally an attack on truth sin is fundamentally a walk out of the light deliberately walking into darkness.

Sin is fundamentally wooing and pursuing death and killing life sin is in the front to the whole of creation. Sin is cutting away. From the place of life, sin is divorcing god serving him good divorce papers, saying I want nothing to do with you. I'm out of this relationship. Sin is a sickening breaking of the covenant of love.

Sin is serious. You only have to look around the world to see the consequences of sin, to see that sin is serious. See, the trouble it the trouble is, we often think the things we do, you know, it's not a great deal. It's only a little sin you know, but the problem is you let that sin grow, you let it blossom. You find that there's pollution in the pollen and itself sends out seeds and grows more and before you know it, you've got thorny weeds choking to death people.

A little lie. Doesn't really mean much to us, does it? It's just a little lie. It's easily done. It's not that big.

It's not that big. But as someone said, lies go around the world before truth has got his boots on. That's what happens, isn't it? Just a little lie, but it spreads. Well, it's like the, you know, the, the, they talk about the butterfly effect, don't they?

You know, there's a butterfly in patagonia or somewhere, and it it's only a little butterfly, and it flapped its little wing, and and that little tiny sort of flap of air can grow and grow and grow and turn into a storm. Now, I doubt if that's true with a butterfly, I don't think it is. But with sin, it is true. Just a little lie. Just a little exaggeration.

Just a little bit of flattery, just a little bit of put down, just a little bit of gossip, doesn't really seem much to us, but the butterfly effect. There are storms around the world and distractions and murder and sin is such a violent assault of light and love and life that the only way that it could be atoned for is that a life be laid down. Here those verses again. Without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness. It is the blood that makes atonement for one's life.

The lord god made garments skin for Adam and his wife and clothe them. The lord god did that. That's what it takes. The blood and the blood alone will put away and cover sin. That's the thing that can bring you into this glorious walk with this glorious and holy and pure god of light.

Now, by the time we get to the to the new testament, we see very clearly that all the pictures in the old testament, the blood of animals, the skin of animals, The blood of bulls and goats or lambs cannot atone for the sin of humans. They can't do that. There are only pictures to show us our need. What we need is the the lamb of god that takes away the sin of the world. And who is that?

Well, when John the Baptist, the cousin cousin of Jesus, sees Jesus coming towards him, he points and he says, look, Look. The lamb of god. He's the 1 that will take away the sin of the world. All those pictures of lambs and sacrifices and animals and skins and the blood of animals and bulls, they're all pictures. Of the 1 who is going to really do it.

So back to that wonderful little verse in 1 John 1 verse 7, The blood of Jesus, his son, that's god's son, purifies us from all sin. Gosh, that's amazing. That is what cleanses me from all sin. Blood of bulls, blood of goats, blood of lambs, Not even the blood of man, a blood of another human could do it. It takes the blood of the very son of god to die.

It is the blood that he shed. And it's that blood that purchases us and pardons us and forgives us and reconciles us to god and opens the door to heaven and brings us into friendship with god and we walk in the light. It's actual. It's real blood. It's not appearance.

It's the blood of the unique son of god. The 1 who has always been, we're told, who created everything, now made flesh. Why? So that the flesh could bleed and die for us. I mean, look at 1 John 1 versus, you know, the first few verses of 1 John 1.

We've we've looked at these already, but it's an amazing look. There's describing Jesus, that which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched this we proclaim concerning the world of life. The life appeared. We have seen it and testified to it and we proclaim to you the eternal life which was with the father and has appeared to us. This is the 1 who took on flesh.

He's the 1. Or if you go to John's gospel, John chapter 1 verse 14. The word. That's the very word of god. This is this is the this is the word that created all things including you sitting here.

God created you. The word. The very word, breath of god. The word of god became flesh. He became flesh so that he could bleed and die for us.

The word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the 1 and only son who came from the father full of grace and truth. Oh, here's another verse. From acts chapter 20, verse 28, here is Paul talking to leaders of a church, and he said, be shepherds. He's saying to the leaders, you gotta be shepherds.

Gotta be shepherds of the church of god, then listen. You gotta be shepherds of the church of god, which he bought with his own blood. God bought with his blood. The amazing doctrine that as Jesus was and is the son of god. It was the son of god who died on a cross and shed his blood.

Wonder of wonders, isn't it? Marvel of Marvelous. Even as he was dying, He's the eternal son of god, and it's that blood. It costs that much for sins to be forgiven. Here's another verse.

It's the book of Hebrews again found in the New Testament chapter 9 verse 14. Oh my goodness. This is such an amazing sentence. Just listen to this. How much more then will the blood of Christ who through the eternal spirit offered himself unblemished to god.

Cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death. So that we may serve the living god. My goodness. The blood of Christ can cleanse the very inner part of me. My consciences my conscience, the guilt that's lying in there, cleansed.

Here's a here's another verse. So there's so many of them. They're so wonderful aren't they? Revelation 1, verse 5, last book of the whole Bible. Listen to this.

Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, the firstborn from the the dead, the ruler of the kings of the Earth. Here is the 1 who rules the kings of the Earth, you know? He's not he's not just elected for months or a few years. He's the ruler of every king of the year. He's the ruler of the universe.

Listen. What do we say about him? To him who loves us. And the ruler of the universe, loves us, and how has he loved us and has freed us from our sins by his blood and has made us to be a priest, a kingdom, and priests to serve his god and father to him be glory and power forever in our men. Amen.

He's freed us from our sins by his blood. There's only 1 way where people can be saved and reconciled and come to walk with the god of light, and that is by the shedding of the perfect blood of the perfect son of god. The blood of Christ delivers us, cleanses us, purifies us from our sin and gives us a right standing before god. So an authentic Christian then is a sinner. They know they're a sinner because god shed light on their sin.

But an authentic Christian knows there's forgiveness. Because of the blood of the lord Jesus Christ, because of the blood, because of that perfect sacrifice of Jesus God's son. Because of that, we can stand in the light because of his finished work, but will work that is finished but continually pleading our case. There's hope. Outside of the blood of Christ, there is no hope for forgiveness of sins.

Under in, cleansed by the blood of Christ. There is hope and even praise. Here's Revelation again, you know? We're back in the courts of heaven. Listen to what they're singing.

Hear the hope and the joy here, and they sang a new song. So here's the new song saying, you are worthy to take the scroll and open its seal. In other words, you're the 1 who's worthy to explain the whole of all the seals and all the plans of the universe. You're worthy to open them up. Why?

Why are you worthy? Because you were slain and with your blood. You purchase for god persons from every tribe and language and people and nation. You have made them to be a kingdom and priest to serve our god in their reign on the earth. This way is so wonderful.

Authentic Christian sinner, then I'm talking to you. Authentic Christian sinner, you stand in the light. We're covered by the blood. We're purified by the blood. All our iniquities have been washed away.

All the lies you've ever told. All the falsehoods you've ever believed in or or tolled out, all of the murders, all of the gossip, all of the theft, all of the adultery. Wash away washed away by the blood of God. No matter how many or how horrible the sins that you have done. Do do you get this?

Who whatever you have done, and whatever you've become, and however many lives you've ruined, the blood of Jesus washes you away. God's son purifies us by his death on the cross, all of it, everything, everything. Think of whatever it is. Think the worst thing you can think of about yourself, the thing you don't want anyone in this room to know. Christ knows, and he can wash that away by his blood.

Extraordinary is Think of the things that you lock down in your conscience or you'll repress. God can open up the door and look in the stinking dungeon of your heart. And he can bring the flood of the blood of Christ to cleanse it all. All of it. All of those little things in your closets.

But not just the big things. I mean, you know, in some ways, we can hear that and think, yeah, okay. Well, you know, god can forgive a murderer. Because I it doesn't sort of really touch me. I don't I don't see myself as a murderer, but think of all of those little flaps of the butterfly wings that you've done.

Hundreds of them flapping here flap flap flap flap. And all the consequent are the tiny little things that you've done. All of them can be forgiven. You know, you've been flapping and excusing yourself Oh, I need to flap to keep alive. I need to do this sin to keep alive.

I have to flap here to find a mate. If I don't do this, I won't be anything. I've gotta open up my wings and see what a beautiful butterfly I am. I want you to talk to be about me. I need to put people down, whatever it is, flap, flap, flap, and it goes around the world before truth has got its boots on.

All of those can be forgiven by the blood of the lord Jesus Christ. Though your sins says the Bible, though your sins may be as a Scarlet, though your sins may be a Scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. You have no beauty in yourself. But under the blood of Christ, you're beautiful. You're beautiful.

God has covered you. The lord god made garments. To make you acceptable before him, to cover you. He made garments to make you beautiful. That's my first point.

The blood of Jesus, amazing, ain't it? Isn't it? Here's my second point. I want you to see strange, really. Second thing I want you to see is my dear children, my dear children.

Do you see that in chapter 2 verse 1? My dear children. It it it's it's a wonderful word, my dear. It's a word of endearment and love and relational my dear children, John, John loves these people. And he wants the this isn't a letter written at a hate.

He loves it. My dear, my dear family, my dear children. Please, would he get this? Oh, that is so lovely. My dear children, I write this to you, so that you will not sin.

But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the father. Jesus Christ the righteous 1. My dear children, will you get this? Says this old man John? Towards the end of his life, my dear children.

See, there's a problem, and he knows that. He knows that. The blood of Jesus, yeah, we've just seen, cleanses me from all my sin, but I find myself sinning. So is is a Christian someone who I was being cleansed and walks in the light, and their sins been cleansed, and But then if they sin, they go back into the darkness. In in other words, is is it this?

Has has god done his bit, if you like, in in cleansing me and bringing me from darkness to light by the blood of Christ, but If I fall, because it's now over to me, if I fall and slip, do I go back into the garden and the answer is a big no, and we gotta get this. It's no. The Christian is 1 who, by definition, is someone who walks in the light. Even though he may now fall over, but when he falls over, he falls over on the path of light. That's what's going on here.

It's it's you gotta get this because Christian isn't someone who, you know, 1 minute is walking in the kingdom of life, and then sins, and then he's in the kingdom of, you know, in the kingdom of darkness, so he confesses his sins, so he's back down into the the kingdom of it doesn't go like that. He's walking or he's, you know, got 1 foot in the kingdom of darkness. So it doesn't work like that. The Christian doesn't spend their life going in and out of different kingdoms. No.

We walk in the light, and it's the light that shows us our sin. And so when we fall, we fall in the light. And so we confess our sins in the light. Now, of course, the devil will come because that's what he does. And say you're not a Christian.

You can't be a Christian. Look at you. You're full of guilt and all of that sort of stuff. But the glorious answer is that there There is an assurance for me even when I fall in sin, and that is the blood of Jesus cleanses me from all sin. It's done its job.

All once and for all. That sacrifice has cleansed me from all my sin. So I'm aware, because I'm walking in the light of my sin, it doesn't mean to say I'm thrown back into the darkness. My standing as an authentic Christian because of the blood of Christ is that my sin is forgiven. But what do I do if I sin?

Well, back to that dear children things. I I love I just love the way he does. It's so pastoral. I genuinely hope this is what we're like as as as Cornerstone as well. Because he really understands there's an utter compassion here.

So look what he says, my children, I write this so that you will not sin. So don't sin, you know, see what sin does. Be a horrified. Don't dare sin, he says. Yeah?

But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the father Jesus Christ the righteous 1. Don't you dare sin? Don't you treat sin lightly? Don't you say it's alright when it isn't alright? Don't you say that wrong is right?

Don't you say that? But if you do sin, Do you see that? I I hope we have those 2 sides here at Cornerstone. I really do. I I want us to be don't dare.

Don't too dare do that. But if you do, and both of them look at Christ, isn't it? You know, we we gotta keep look at look at Christ, see his love for you, see how he died for you, So don't sin, but if you do sin, look at Christ, see how he loves you and died for you. But it leads me to my third point. And the word is advocate.

Advocate. Do you see what he says again? Look look at chapter 2 verse 1. My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the father.

Jesus Christ, the righteous 1. Now, what is an advocate? Well, the Greek word for advocate is paracletos, It's it's actually the same word that Jesus uses for the Holy Spirit who will come, he says, the comforter. It's a compound word. That means you could bring, you know, 2 words together to make 1 word.

Now, le listen to the Greek, New Testament dictionary explanation. It says the first part of the word, means close and beside. And the second part of the word means make a call, make a call. I remember the New Testament Greek dictionary goes on and says, a legal advocate is someone who makes the right judgment the right call because they are close to the situation. So it goes on and says someone giving evidence that will stand up in court.

Or 1 who pleads another's another's cause before before the judge. So that's what we've got going on here, the advocate. It also can mean, actually intercessor. So That's what an advocate is. Who is our advocate?

Well, we're told Jesus Christ, the righteous 1 is our advocate. The 1 who can stand in court in his own right, he doesn't have to confess any sin or be cleansed himself because he's the righteous 1. So my dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin, but if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the father Jesus Christ righteous 1. This is the word we need if we sin in the light. This is what Christian people need when their conscience, you know, shows them their sin, and the light of god shows their failure, and they feel unworthy.

The devil will come. He constantly you know, he's present and he's he's he's goading us and laughing at us. And he says you have no right to go back to god. Look at you. You should stay in the darkness, what a rotten person you are, and what we need to do is to go to the advocate.

We shouldn't really answer the devil We should say we've got a lawyer. We've got an advocate. We've got someone who pleads our case. We've got an intercessor. You can talk to him.

Let him answer you. Satan. So when there's the guilt and I can't go to god, you need to go to the advocate. But we gotta get this because we must we we must never think that this means that Jesus Christ is sort of pleading for us before a sort of unwilling god, an unwilling judge. Trying to twist god's arm to forgive us.

I mean, that wouldn't be righteous. That would not make him the righteous 1 if he was doing that. So it's it's definitely not that. But we've also gotta be careful. We don't go the opposite way.

It it's possible for us to sort of have this idea of god the father just sort of applying what Christ has done on the cross, like sort of drawing it from the bank, you know, that that sort of thing. No. There's something really personal here. And I I just absolutely love this. See, it's Jesus Christ, the righteous 1 is an advocate.

In other words, he is doing a job. He does a job. This is how personal it is. So in Hebrews, in Hebrews chapter 7, we read that Jesus is always alive to make intercession for us. So you see, Jesus is doing a job He's alive.

He's in heaven, and he's always doing his job of of intercession. So we we've gotta we've gotta get that. So he's actively involved. And so here as an advocate, he seems that he's actively involved in his blood. He's actively involved with his followers.

Like he was, you know, when he walked the earth, he was ax actively involved and close with his his disciples. Well, he's still actively involved with us and he he's pleading our case. He's interceding for us. So when we fail and our prayers are are poor, he he adds to our prayers. He transforms our prayers.

He He supplements our prayers, if you like, our feeble prayers. He he he blesses, those prayers, if you like, and brings them before the father. We have an advocate. And then and then it says, this is an amazing thing. It says, we have an advocate with the father.

Do you see that? We have an advocate with the font. That little word with is a very intimate, again, relational word. It means face to face. So here is Jesus face to face with the father as an advocate.

This is what I want you to see how personal this is. This isn't just direct debit, is it? This isn't god just drawing out from the Bank of the Cross, if you like, from the Bank of the Blood of Christ. No. It's it's it's much more intimate.

It's It's Christ presenting his finished work to the father. That's what's going on. It's almost like he's presenting the blood. And if you can get this, so if you sin, don't you sin, don't sin, out of love for Christ, but if you do sin, which you will. If you sin, yeah, then right at that moment.

There's a face to face lawyer for you, an advocate pleading your case praying for you. Bringing your poor confessions and and prayers of forgiveness to father It's so intimate. So beautifully, personally, you see that. You, whom Christ has died for and shed his blood and, and you sin. And there's the advocate saying to the father.

It's an amazing thing. And what does What does Christ the advocates say to the father on our behalf? What's what's if you like his line of defense? Does he say, well, father, you know, these people are pretty pretty innocent, you know? Well, that would be a lie.

You're not innocent. And the light shows up your guilt. Does he does he try to excuse our sin, say, father, you know, they're extenuating circumstances, you know, you know, wasn't quite fair. Does he try to plead leniency? You know, they they were ignorant.

They didn't really understand what they were doing. Does he try to say, you know, sort of, you're trapped in your sin and You know, they it was their upbringing and the way they were born, or or they didn't have the privileges of other people. All of that's just nonsense. And that brings me to my last point. Propitiation.

It's a funny old word, isn't it? Propitiation, or sacrifice of atonement, our version says. So look at chapter 2 verses 1 and 2 again. My dear children, I I write this so that you will not sin. But if anyone does sin, We have an advocate with the father Jesus Christ, the righteous 1.

He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins. And not only for ours, but also for the sins of the whole world. Now this word, propitiation, or a sacrifice of atonement takes us right back to the lamb again, the whole lamb imagery. Of the old testament that Jesus is the lamb of god. See, what what happened is that the sacrifice sir, the person who knows that they've sinned and need to make atonement before god, would bring the lamb to the temple.

He would bring an unblemished little lamb, And what he would do is, at the entrance of the temple, he, not the priest, not anybody else, but he would lean his whole weight on this little lamb. He'd put his whole weight on the lamb. Because that lamb was representing his whole weight in other words all of him, including all his sin. It was representing him. And so he would take the lamb and put his whole weight on it, and then he would pull the lamb's head, little bleating lamb.

And he would take a knife. Not the priest. He would do it. And he would cut the throat of the lamb. I mean, it was a gruesome, bloody, horrible thing.

The poor little lamb would bleed. The blood would spurt. I mean, it's quite horrible, and the life would go out of the lamb. It's it's violent and revolting, but without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sin. And what this is saying is that you should have died like that.

That the anger of god for your sin should have come upon you, but it's been diverted to the lamb. A just god that has to punish sin, punishes sin on the lamb. Jesus is the lamb of god that takes away the sin of the world. It's wonderful. And that happened once and for all on the cross.

The day of atonement, our sin has been propitiated. The anger for our sin has been dealt with once and for all. It's done. And that's what Jesus pleads for us. That that you don't have to kill him again.

It's done, but it's eternal And it's eternally personal. It's eternally personal for all your sin to be purified so you can stand before god. It's wonderful, isn't it? I was at a funeral this week. It was an old lady that died, and, she had a fantastic hymn.

A fantastic hymn. And, in that hymn, there was a there was a verse that I have never sung before, at least I can't remember it. In fact, most, hymn books and, you know, hymn sheets and lyrics and stuff that you get on this hymn, miss this verse out since it's stored and reversed. I'll get to it in a minute and I'll show you how extraordinary it is. But it's an old him, and some of you know it, but it's brilliant.

Listen. Listen. My hope is built on nothing less. Or nothing less than Jesus blood and righteousness. I don't have any other hope, but this is a hope.

I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but wholly lean on Jesus' name on Christ, the solid rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand, all other ground is sinking sand. Here's a dead woman speaking through the hymn that she chose for her funeral. Here's a woman that's lost everything, if you like. She's dead, but she didn't put her hope in this world. All of that is sinking sad but in the blood of Christ.

Listen to this verse. His oath so it's the oath of Christ. His oath, his covenant his blood, support me in thewhelming flood. When all around my soul gives way, He then is all my hope and stay on Christ a solid rock ice stand. All other ground is sinking sand.

All other ground is sinking sand. Now, here's the verse. A verse that it seems that we've cut out because we're slightly embarrassed with, but it it brought a tear to eye eye when we sang it. I trust his righteous character. His counsel promises and power.

His name and honor are at stake. To save me from the burning lake on Christ the solid rock I stand. All other ground is sinking sand, all other ground is sinking sand. What a Amazing him. And so can I ask you, If you're to sink into death, if you're to be buried tonight or today or to whenever, Are you on that rock?

Are you cleansed by the blood of Christ or your sins been dealt with? Has the wrath of god fallen on Christ instead of falling in you on you in the fiery lake? On Christ, the solid rock I stand, all others, all other ground is sinking sand. My god bless us.