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     1. Handel’s Messiah, excerpt   (3:31)
     2. Worship and Praise   (3:33)
     3. The Table of the Lord   (24:40)

Matthew 27:22.  Pilate saith unto them, What shall I do then with Jesus which is called Christ? They all say unto him, Let him be crucified.

“…cried out the more, saying, ‘Let him be crucified.’  When Pilate saw that he could prevail nothing, but that rather a tumult was made, he took water and washed his hands before the multitude, saying, ‘I am innocent of the blood of this just person: see ye to it.’  Then answered all the people and said, ‘His blood be on us and on our children.’” 

Do you see Pilate trying to get out of an awful situation?  Jesus Christ—how he had tried to get rid of Him!  When he heard that He belonged to Herod’s jurisdiction, he said, “Now, I’m rid of Him.  Send Him to Herod.”  But Herod sent Him back to Pilate, and Pilate couldn’t get Him off his hands—couldn’t get rid of Jesus Christ.  And I tell you, there isn’t a human being in all the world that can get rid of Jesus Christ.  You cannot get by the crucified Son of God. 

And tonight, you stand here, and Jesus Christ stands before the judgment seat, and you are the judge, and you are to decide whether you shall live forever with Him, cleansed, washed whiter in the precious blood of the Lamb, reigning with Him forever and forever—hallelujah!—enjoying the salvation which God promised “before the world began and now hath made manifest by the appearing of His Son Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.”  Or, you will decide this night—and you have decided already—to deliver him over to the tormentors, to crucify Him again.

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And beloved, the god of this world that hath his work in the children of disobedience, he hath decreed that your sons and daughters shall be defiled with “the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life,” and shall share eternal fire prepared for the devil and for his angels.  And oh, how the multitude bow to his scepter—the multitude who tonight go to church and sing songs about the passion of Jesus Christ!  What are they going to do tonight or tomorrow?  They’ll plunge from one sin into the other, and they’ll defile their garments which once were washed in the precious blood of the Lamb.

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Oh, we ought to pray for conviction.  Beloved, there’s too much religion without salvation.

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Oh, when you confess your sin, He is faithful and just to forgive you your sin, and to cleanse you from all unrighteousness.  That’s what communion means.  That’s what the blood of Jesus Christ means.  That’s what the gospel of Jesus Christ means: power of God unto salvation.  It means cleansing from my sin.

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What a cruel monster Pilate was!  How cruel!  I could never understand it: after he pronounced Him innocent, he didn’t have the manhood, he didn’t have the moral fiber to say, “I’d rather die than deliver that pure Man, that righteous Man over to the tormentors,” but he turned Him over to the vilest rabble of his soldiers, who spat upon Him, who made sport with Him.  And he knew they’d do that, and he commanded Him to be scourged.  What a cruel monster!

Beloved, let’s be a little bit slow: what a cruel monster am I if I play with sin!  “If we sin willfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sin,”—It’s over with—“but a certain fearful looking-for of judgment and fiery indignation which shall devour the adversaries.”  For if we sin willfully, we crucify the Son of God afresh.  We do worse than Pilate: he crucified Him once, but I crucify Him afresh.

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And tonight, “He prepares a table before me in the presence of mine enemies.”  Oh, how I need this “Bread that comes down from heaven.”  What are you after?  The things of earth?  Business?  Pleasure?  Money?  Oh, you’re having a wonderful time, aren’t you?  I tell you, the devil is laughing.  He’s having a wonderful time; he’s got you by the neck, and he’ll drown you in perdition.  I don’t say that; that’s what the Bible says.

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Zapfenstreich — a military tattoo

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