Now I've titled the message this morning, They Preached Jesus Christ. We just read this text, but let's look at Gamaliel's, the end of his answer, beginning in verse 38. Peter has preached the gospel to them so boldly and they hate it, they wanna kill him. But this is the end of his answer to those men. He says, and now I say unto you, refrain from these men and let them alone. For if this counsel or this work be of men, it'll come to naught. You're not gonna have to end it, it'll end on its own. But if it be of God, you cannot overthrow it. Lest happily ye be found even to fight against God. Now that is the answer of a politician, not a spiritual leader. These Pharisees are supposed to be spiritual leaders in Israel. This is the answer of a politician. It's not the answer of a man of faith. He just wants to compromise. You know, let's just Go with whatever direction the wind is blowing. And we'll find out later if this work is of God or of men. And if we find out, well, maybe this work is of God later on, we'll believe. But until then, let's just go with whatever direction the wind is blowing to serve our interests the best. That's a politician. And I know preachers that do this very same thing. They're willing to compromise on something they think is true. They think this is what the scriptures teach, but they don't dare preach it because somebody who's influential in that congregation don't believe it and hates it. So they don't preach it just so they don't, you know, ruffle some important person's feathers, you know. That's a compromiser. That's a politician. That's not a man of faith. Faith says, I'm going to follow Christ. I'm going to follow Christ full steam ahead. I don't care what anybody else is doing. I don't care which direction the wind is blowing, politically or in society or whatever. I'm going to follow Christ. And faith does what the apostles did here when they were faced with this thing of being commanded not to preach in the name of Jesus anymore. After they had, verse 40 says, and to him they agreed, And when they had called the apostles and beaten them, they commanded that they should not speak in the name of Jesus and they let them go. And they departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name. And daily in the temple and in every house, they ceased not to teach and to preach Jesus Christ. You'll notice it doesn't say there that they continued to preach the doctrines of grace. It doesn't say that they continued to preach the five points of Calvinism. It doesn't say they continued to preach against the law. They preached a person, Jesus Christ. That's what I'd like to do. Preach Jesus Christ. Now, if we're going to preach Jesus Christ, we have to tell who he is. Who the Bible says he is. Not who different men think he is. Not what different denominations think he is. What does the Bible say that Jesus Christ is? What do the scriptures say? Thus sayeth the Lord. God's given us a whole book to tell us who he is and how he saves sinners. If we want to find out who Jesus Christ is, let's dig into this book and find out. Let's find out not what men think Jesus Christ is, but who God says that he is. And we want to tell folks who Jesus Christ, we want to preach Jesus Christ so that sinners will believe on him. So that those who already believe him will have their hearts comforted and assured by faith in Christ. So that they'll trust him to save him all by themselves. Preaching Jesus Christ is not just giving you true facts of who he is. Preaching Jesus Christ is telling who He is and what He's done in such a way that sinners will be amazed, that they'll rejoice in Christ and that they will believe Him. That's our goal in preaching, is to glorify the Savior, to hold Him up so much that sinners will believe Him. So how are we gonna do that? How are we gonna preach Jesus Christ? Well, number one, if we're gonna preach Jesus Christ, we have to tell who the scriptures say that He is. And we won't turn to all these scriptures, because there's so many of them. You can jot them down if you want. But first, in John 1, verse 1, the scriptures tell us that Jesus Christ is God. In the beginning was the Word. The Word was with God, and the Word was God. Jesus Christ is God. He is God with whom we have to do. You can't ignore this matter of dealing with Jesus Christ. He's God. He's the one that with whom we have to do. He's our creator. He's our ruler. He's the one who gives us life. He's the one who sustains our life. He is God. And since Jesus Christ is God, He cannot fail what He came to do. If Jesus Christ came to save you, your soul saved. And you can trust him because he's God. Second look at Romans chapter 10. Jesus Christ is Lord. Romans chapter 10, verse nine. that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised thee from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. Jesus Christ is Lord. He's Lord over all, and since He's Lord, He is to be obeyed. And what is His commandment to you and me? It's not to keep the 10 commandments and earn your own righteousness. That's not his commandment. God gave the law to show us we can't keep the law. God gave the law to show us our sin so that we would believe Christ. We would see we need someone else to keep the law for us. The commandment of God is to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. That's his commandment. Now, if you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, You're saved. He has completely and utterly saved you. And even the Lord can't take your salvation away from you. Even the Lord won't get tired of you and cast you out for all your sin because the Lord has already put it away. Now you trust him. Isaiah verse nine, or Isaiah nine verse six says, this is who Jesus Christ is. He's the mighty God. He's the everlasting father. Now think about that for a while. The son is the everlasting father. Mary's first born baby boy is the eternal father. And he's the prince of peace. And since he is the mighty God, Jesus Christ is to be worshipped as God. He's to be bowed to. He's to be submitted to because he's God. He's the only object of faith. He's the only one you can trust to save your soul. And he's the Prince of Peace. People give crazy amounts of money, do crazy things, trying to find some peace, don't they? Trying to find some peace. If you want peace with God, look no further than Jesus Christ. See, God's holy. God's angry with sin, and there will be no peace with God as long as our sin exists. If you find that you don't have peace with God because your sin's been put away, you're wise. God cannot have peace with anyone in their sin. But Jesus Christ came and in the flesh and he made peace with God by the blood of his cross. He took the sin of his people from away from them and put it away under his blood. So their sin no longer exists. There's no reason left for God to be angry with you. If Christ died for you, because he took your sin away. Guilty sinners. who see all, the only thing they can ever do is sin, have peace with God because of the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ that put it away. Now, if you would have peace with God, peace of conscience, peace of heart, believe, ask God to give you faith in Christ so that you believe on him and enjoy peace with God, enjoy it. Then Matthew 1 verse 23 says, Jesus Christ is Emmanuel. He's God with us. God came to where we are. He came as what we are to be with us. Now, the man Jesus Christ, he's fully God. He's got the eternality of God. He's got the power of God, the holiness of God, the righteousness of God, the justice of God. He's got every attribute, every character of God. His character is God. but he's God with us. He also came in the flesh as a man to be the second Adam, to be the representative of his people. See, if we're gonna have a representative, God can't be our representative, can he? Doesn't have the same nature as us. So Christ came in the flesh with a human body and a human nature, now he can be our representative. He came where his people are And he joined himself to them. Now you think of that, he's holy, he's harmless, he's separate from sinners, but he joined himself to his sinful bride so that he could redeem her. And since he's our representative, everything the man, Jesus Christ did. You did, just like you did everything that Adam did in the garden. All of God's people did what Jesus Christ, our representative did. When he obeyed the law, so did you. When he was righteous, so are you. So if you trust Christ, you have no reason to fear God. You have no reason to fear judgment. You have no reason to fear God whatsoever, because if Christ is your representative, he's a God with us, You are as righteous as God himself. Couldn't make that statement, wasn't found in this book. You're the righteousness of God in him. The father loves you just like he loves his son. He accepts you just like he accept his son because you're in him. He's Emmanuel, God with us, our representative. Then Revelation 22 verse 13 says, He is alpha and omega, the beginning and the ending. He's the beginning, the ending and everything in between. Jesus Christ is everything. He's everything and everything. But particularly here, we're talking about salvation. He's everything in the world. He's everything in providence. He's everything. And He is everything in salvation. And if you're a sinner, that's good news to you. You don't have to contribute anything in order to be saved. Jesus Christ is everything in salvation. He's our wisdom, our righteousness, our sanctification, our redemption. He's our prophet, our priest, our King. He is our eternal life. He's all in the forgiveness of sins. He is all. Salvation is all in Him. God made it so easy for the sinner to don't do anything, just trust Christ. Now, if you try to mix anything that you do with Christ, Christ shall profit you nothing. Either Christ does it all, or you do it all. One or the other, there's no in between. Either Christ is Lord of all, or He won't be Lord at all. He's either Savior of all, or He won't be the Savior at all. But if you trust Christ, you trust all of your soul to Him. You have everything that God requires of a sinner. But since Christ has everything, if you have Him, you have everything, right? And there's no reason that the Holy God would ever cast you out, because in Christ, you have everything that God requires. Then John 1 verse 1 says that Jesus Christ is the word of God. And that word, if you look it up, that word word is a capital W, talking about a person. Jesus Christ is God's Word personified. He's God's Word in a person. He is this book in a person. He is everything. Jesus Christ is everything that Almighty God has to say to sinners. And if you would understand the written word, as you read and study the written word, if you would understand it, tell you what to do. Look to Christ, the incarnate word, because he's the fulfillment of every word, every job, every tittle, every exclamation point, every comma, every period, everything. He is the fulfillment of everything. in this book. And if you would understand it, all you got to do is look to Christ. And if you trust Christ, if God has given you faith in Christ, do you know that you know everything that there is to know about how God can save a sinner like you? Now, I'm not saying that you're going to understand every passage, every verse of this book, because no man can fully, completely understand it. But this is what you understand when you read this book. I understand how God can save a sinner like me when I look to Christ. He's my righteousness. That's how God can accept me. He's my sacrifice. That's how God can forgive my sin. And as much as you read and study this book, you'll never find one thing in this book to contradict that. If you would understand the written word, look to Christ's incarnate word. Then John 1 verse 41 says that Christ is the Messiah. Jesus Christ is the Messiah. And that means the anointed one. The anointed one. The one that God chose. In eternity past, the Father elected a people to save. He chose a people out of Adam's fallen race. He said, I'm gonna save these people. Even though they don't deserve it. Even though they're fallen in Adam and all they deserve is for me to damn them. I'm gonna save these people. But in order to save them, somebody has to save them. Somebody has to put their sin away. Somebody has to make them righteous. So the father elected a savior to save his elect people. And there was only one for the job, the son of God. He gave those people to his son. And his son said, father, I'll save them. I'll become flesh. I'll obey the law for them. I will suffer and die to put their sin away and make them all just like me." And the father said, I accept that. They're already accepted before God even created the world. Before he said, let there be light, all of his people were already accepted in Christ. And I'll tell you what that means now. Because remember, I'm not just trying to give you facts. I want you to hear who Jesus Christ is, to hear the preaching of Jesus Christ you believe in. If the father sent his son to save you, you are completely and utterly saved. And it's a salvation you can never lose. See, seeing who Jesus Christ is, it just takes all the pressure off, doesn't it? Then Luke 2 verse 11 says, Jesus Christ is the Savior. He's the only Savior. He's the only one that has the power to save. He's the only one that has the right to save. Since He's God, all sin's against Him. So He's the only one that has the right and the power to forgive sin. And He came to save His people. He came to save His people from God. You know, if we would be saved, we've got to be saved from God. We've got to be saved from his wrath. We've got to be saved from his holy requirements that we cannot meet. We must be saved from God. Jesus Christ came to save his people from God. Not just to save us from hell, but to save us from God. And that's just what he did. He saved his people from God. He saved them from the wrath of God. by suffering and dying in their place, by taking their sin and suffering the wrath that the sin of his people deserves. He saved his people from eternal death by dying for them so that they'd have eternal life. Jesus Christ is the only savior. He's the only one with a perfect obedience that he can give to his people to make them righteous. He's the only one who has pure sinless blood to offer to the father to put away the sin of his people. There is salvation in no other name. There's no name given under heaven, given among men, whereby we must be saved. There's no other way of salvation. Jesus Christ is the way. He's the way of salvation, the way of eternal life, the way of righteousness, the way of forgiveness, the way of acceptance with the father. And if you trust Christ, he is your savior and he'll never let you be condemned. Never. Job said in Job 19 verse 25, that Jesus Christ is our redeemer. Now we've sinned against God. We have, In human language, we pawned ourself off. We're under the wrath of God, the justice of God for our sin. And if we would go free, somebody's got to pay the redemption price. Way back there, Job knew who the Redeemer is. He said, I know that my Redeemer liveth. I know him. And he's coming to pay the debt that his people owe. And he's gonna pay it. And that's why Job was so confident. He said, in the latter days, he's gonna come again. Not only is he gonna come the first time as the Redeemer, he's gonna come again to gather all of his people to himself. And Job said, with these eyes, I'm gonna see. I'm going to know him because he's my redeemer. He paid the redemption price to set my soul free from the justice of God. And if Jesus Christ shed his blood for you, you can be just as confident as our brother Job was all those years ago. I know my redeemer liveth. He's redeemed me from my sin. And when the price is paid, the only way the price could be paid is His precious, sinless blood. And since His blood paid the debt, when this veil of tears, the journey through this veil of tears is over, I'm going to awake in glory. And with these eyes, I'm going to see Him. And the only way that's possible is He's my Redeemer. It's not because I started sinning less. It's not because I did anything. Remember Christ is Alpha and Omega. He's the beginning and the ending. If I awake in glory and look into the face of Jesus Christ, it'll be because He's my Redeemer. I think about death every day. That's always a tricky question when you go to the doctor and they're trying to find out if you're mentally stable and they ask what you think about death. Yeah, I think about it every day. And the first time I told my family doctor that, he's like, And then I told him, well, I'm a pastor. And he, oh, well, okay. You ought to think about death every day. Yeah. But boy, all these, you know, you got to explain it all the time. Do you want to die? Kind of. Are you afraid of death? No. It doesn't mean I'm mentally, I think about it every day. But there's a day coming soon that you and I are going to draw our last breath. And if Christ is your Redeemer, you can say, I want this to be my last breath. I'm done with this body of sin. I'm done being like Adam. I love y'all. I love my family. It brings me such joy to see your faces. It brings me such joy to spend time with my family. But I love Christ more. I need Him more. And I want this to be my last breath. The only way you can say that is if Christ is your Redeemer. If your Redeemer liveth. John said in John 1 verse 29, that Jesus Christ is the Lamb of God. The God man, God became a man so that he could be sacrificed for the sin of his people. That's the only purpose of a lamb, to be sacrificed. He is the only sacrifice that's pleasing to the Father. The blood of bulls and goats never satisfied the Father. The blood of all those bodies of animals burned up on the altar, that never pleased the Father. Those things were only pictures of Christ. The only sacrifice that ever pleased the Father was the sacrifice of the Lamb of God. Behold the Lamb of God, John said, that taketh away the sin of the world. He taketh away the sin of the world because he's the only sacrifice that ever pleased the father. And after Christ died, there's remaineth no more sacrifice for sin. There's not need for another one because by one sacrifice, by one offering, he had put away forever all of the sin of all of his people. The bloody, awful horror of the death of Christ, the death of the son of God, the son that God loved. You know what the father said about it? It's a sweet savor to me because that death, that sacrifice satisfied God's justice and enabled him to be just and still show mercy to sinners like you and me. Now, if Christ is your lame, You must go free. You must, just like Isaac had to be taken off that altar and he must live. He must come back down from that mountain and go back home to his mama because there was a ram caught in the thicket by its horns. And Abraham took that ram and offered it up as a sacrifice in the stead of Isaac, as a substitute for Isaac. And if Christ is your lamb, you must go free. This is surely as Isaac went free. If Christ is your lamb, you must be given eternal life. Just as surely as the firstborn on the day of the Passover in Egypt cannot die if the lamb has been slain and the blood's been applied to the door. The firstborn cannot die because the lamb died for him. The lamb died as his substitute. If Christ died as your substitute, you must have eternal life. You must. I mean, I want to be very careful to say something God must do. But if Christ died for you as your lamb, God must give you eternal life because the lamb died in your place. He died the death that you deserve. Then in John 10 verse 11, John says, or Christ said that Jesus Christ, he's the good shepherd, the good shepherd. Now the father elected a people. He set his love upon those people and he gave those people to his son to save. But every last one of those people, they're lost. They're lost in Adam. They're lost in the world. They're lost in sin. They're so lost, they don't know what direction is up or down and they cannot see God, no matter how hard they try. And they're so lost, they're really not even looking for God. They're lost. And Christ came as the good shepherd. And you know what that shepherd's going to do? He's going to find every lost sheep. Not one of them has wandered so far away. He's not going to find them. And when he finds them, he's not going to ask their permission. He's going to find them. He's going to pick them up on his shoulder, pick them up, put them on his shoulder and carry them home rejoicing. Rejoicing because my land was lost and I found it and I brought it home. He doesn't wait for you to make a decision to accept him. He doesn't wait for you to make the first step. You're lost and you're going the wrong direction and he's gonna find you. If you're his sheep, he's gonna find you and he's gonna bring you all the way home. Now, if you trust Christ, if he is your shepherd, it's impossible for you to perish in the wilderness of this world. You can't wander so far away that you'll end up perishing because your shepherd won't allow it. He's going to find you sooner or later, and he's going to put you in his pasture where you'll never leave. He's the good shepherd. Our Savior has to save us from God, doesn't he? He's got to save us from justice and he's got to save us from ourselves. The good shepherd, the one with the rod and the staff is going to keep his sheep in his pasture and he's not going to let us wander off. He won't let it, he won't let it, because he's the good shepherd. And all the days of your life, you're going to lay down on your deathbed, and you know what you're going to say? Same thing Jacob said, boys, gather around me here, I want to tell you something. The Lord who shepherded me all my life long, that's who I trust. And you're going to find, and you're going to look back over your life, and you know what? The Lord has shepherded me my whole life long. How did I come to hear the gospel? How did you come to hear the gospel? The Lord shepherded you, didn't He? He brought you to where you can hear the gospel. How is it you believe this gospel? How is it you see Him and believe Him and your soul's thrilled with this? because the Lord shepherded you, because he fed you in the green pastures of his word, and he gave you drink from the cool still waters of his word, because he's the good shepherd, and he'll never do you wrong, never. Paul told Timothy in 1 Timothy 2, verse five, that Jesus Christ is the mediator. There's one mediator between God and men, the man, Christ Jesus. And there's only one mediator because there's only one who gets the job done. Christ is the only one who has blood to plead for the forgiveness of sins. He's the only one. Now that's a true fact. Here's how this blesses you. If Jesus Christ is at this moment pleading for you, ever living to make intercession for you, your sin's forgiven. The father is never angry with you because your sin has been put away by the blood of Christ. And our mediator is there with the scars in his body, reminding the father their sin has been paid for. Then John says in first John two, verse one, that Jesus Christ is the advocate. I went to see an attorney this week. Trying to get some understanding of what we have to do with this, you know, will and so forth. This is a complete and utter mystery to me. I mean, he explained, and I still don't understand. But you know what? That's okay. That's okay. Because he said, I'm your lawyer. I'll take care of it. We have an advocate and our advocate has never one time lost a case. And what makes that even more amazing is he won't take you as a client if you think you're innocent. He only takes guilty clients. And you think, how can an advocate take a guilty client and they go free? Because our advocate makes his guilty clients to be not guilty. because he pleads his blood, his sacrifice, his righteousness before the bar of God's justice. And the judge always says, case dismissed. You're innocent. Go free. Because of our advocate. Now, if Jesus Christ is your advocate, you can never be condemned. Never, ever, ever. Because our advocate will never lose a case. I could go on and on and on. There's so many scriptures. You can, you can look them up if you want, but that's who Jesus Christ is. That's who the scriptures say he is. But now second, if we're going to preach Jesus Christ, we have to tell what Jesus Christ did, don't we? Well, what is it that he did? Exactly what he said he'd do. Exactly what he promised to do. Exactly what he came to do. He came and in the flesh, he obeyed the law perfectly. And even men that hated him and wanted to put him to death had to admit it. Pilate said, I find no fault in him. The Pharisees and so forth in their mock trial, they knew he was innocent. They could convict him of no sin. They had to find people who are willing to perjure themselves and lie on him in order to put him to death. They knew he was innocent. Jesus Christ is the only righteous, innocent man who ever lived. And if you trust Christ, His obedience is your obedience. And I know we look at ourselves, we look at our lack of obedience, we look at our weak faith, we look at all of our failures and faults and filth, and we get so discouraged, don't we? I think Believer would never think that. A believer would never... What is wrong with me? True enough. But if you trust Christ, your obedience is not your obedience. It's His. And it's perfect. It's perfect. Jesus Christ came to reveal to us the wisdom of God. By His sacrifice as our substitute, taking the sin of his people away from them, so that our sin is punished, not in us, but in the person of our substitute, God is both just, and he justifies the ungodly. Now, I love that. I love that. I love thinking about that. I'm so thankful God's given me faith to believe that, because in Jesus Christ, in his sacrifice as our substitute, that is the one and only way salvation can be sure. I know this, when Christ died for his people, he paid the price. That is so wise. Of all the false religions that men have ever made up, they never have yet devised a way to fully punish sin and freely give grace to the sinner. They've never found it. Only God had the wisdom. to find the ransom and send him in the flesh. And when Christ came in the flesh, he ransomed his people from all of their sin. He put their sin away. When Christ came, you know what he did? He revealed to us God's eternal purpose. Before Christ came, this is what everybody thought. Certainly this is what Jews thought. Salvation is us keeping the law. God gave Moses the law of Sinai. Salvation is in us keeping that law. Salvation is in us keeping all these ceremonies and in these different pictures and offering these different sacrifices. It's up to us. Salvation is up to us. And even if we don't do it quite right, that's okay. Because if you're born a Jew, the descendant of Isaac through Abraham, you know, through Isaac, I mean, then you're already saved. Christ came to tell us that salvation is by grace. It's not by works. It's by grace. By grace, or you say through faith and that not of yourselves, it's the gift of God. Jesus Christ spent three years preaching that message of grace. And then he went to the cross and showed it. This is a man who never sinned. He wasn't acquainted with sin. He'd never did any sin. He never thought any sin. There was no guile found in his mouth. Yet he willingly went to the cross to suffer and die for sin, not his own, the sin of his people that was made his own. Now, if that's not grace, I don't know what is. If you want to see grace, all you've got to do is look to Christ crucified. One more time, look to Christ crucified, and you'll see God's grace. Then Christ came to reveal the love of God for his people. Look at 1 John chapter four. 1 John 4, verse 9. And this was manifested, displayed, the love of God toward us, because God sent His only begotten Son into the world that we might live through Him. Now herein is love. If you want to see love, here it is. Love is not that we love God. but that he loved us. And he sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins. Now I know that false religion will tell you all the time, God loves you, God loves everybody. Well, God loves everybody that he sent his son to die for. That's what this book says, isn't it? The only way we can know that God loves us is if God sent his son to be the propitiation, the sin covering for our sins. And I tell you, you gotta really love somebody. You gotta really love somebody to take their sin and become guilty of it. Somebody accuses me of something that I didn't do, they're gonna have a fight on their hands. I mean, that's just... Christ didn't do it, but the Father made him guilty of it. And he willingly accepted it and suffered and died for it. That's love. That's love. Now, if Christ came and he died for you, he's loved you from all of eternity. And you will never hear him say, I don't love you anymore. You'll never hear him say, depart from me. I don't love you. He's always loved you and he'll love you throughout eternity. Then third, if we preach Jesus Christ, we have to tell why Jesus Christ did what he did. Jesus Christ did what he did. He lived a life of perfect obedience. He suffered and died to put the sin of his people away because that's what he promised his father he'd do. In the covenant of grace, he promised he would do everything it took to save those people that the father elected to save and gave to him. He promised his father, I'll save them. He promised that he would honor every attribute of his father. And that's what he came to do, to fulfill God's covenant of grace, to seal it with his blood. And Jesus Christ kept that promise to his father. If he came to save you, he's going to keep that promise to you too. You go through every page of this book and find every promise of God to his people and you revel in it. It's yours. That promise is to you. If Christ came to save you, that promise is to you and you revel in it. Oh, what precious promise. I know that we don't know everything there is to know about God, but one of the things I know for sure about God is this, He cannot lie. If He promised to save you and bring you to eternity where He can present you before His Father and say, Father, here they all are, all the children you gave me, here they all are. If He promised to do that for you, He's gonna do it. Now the trail between now and then might be rough sometimes, but He's gonna do it, because He promised to. Then if we preach Jesus Christ, we're gonna have to tell where Jesus Christ is now. Jesus Christ was born of Mary, of the Virgin. He didn't partake in Adam's seed, so he didn't partake in Adam's sin. He's born of the Virgin. He lived a life of perfect obedience, and then he died for the sin of his people. And they took his dead body and laid it in the tomb of a rich man. He borrowed it for three days. And then he arose again. He appeared to his disciples and then he ascended back to heaven. You know why he ascended back to heaven? Because there's nothing left to do. Salvation was accomplished. It is finished, he said. So there's no reason for him to stay here. Salvation is finished. And he went back to glory where he sat down on the throne of God. The father said, you sit right here and you wait until I make your enemies your footstool. He's sitting on the throne of glory. What's he doing there? I know that's where he's at. What's he doing? He's ruling everything in his creation. I mean details that you and I don't even see. He's working every detail together to accomplish his purpose that all of his people for whom he died will be brought to faith, be brought to faith in Christ and one day appear in glory. And all he's doing is waiting and waiting until the time comes for him to return and gather all of his people to himself. And when He gathers us and He takes us to be with Him, you know what heaven's gonna be about? Him. It's gonna be all about Jesus Christ. And we're gonna be able to worship Him then, like we wish we could worship Him now. Our minds will never wander, we'll never not understand, we'll never just see through a glass darkly, through faith that's so weak, we'll see Him face to face. And then last, if we preach Jesus Christ, we're going to have to tell folks, what does this mean to you? Now this preaching of Jesus Christ, what does this mean to you? What does this mean to me? Tell you what it means. Call on him and beg him for mercy. Begging for mercy. Friend, you can't save yourself. You can't make yourself more savable. You can't make yourself a more likely candidate for salvation or more likely candidate for grace because you do something good. You can't do something to obligate God to save you. Like these false prophets that'll say this little cute trite sinner's prayer, you know, and God will save you. You can do something to obligate God to save you. But I'll tell you what you can do. You can beg for mercy. You can ask God to forgive your sin for Christ's sake. Don't ask him to just forgive my sin, because I'm a good boy, a good girl. Forgive my sin for Christ's sake, because Christ died for me. Put my sin under the blood of Christ and wash it away. I know you can't make yourself believe God, but you sure can ask God to give you the gift of faith. It's a gift. It's his to give. Why don't you ask him to give it to you? This book commands us to call on God and beg him for mercy. And this is why I can promise you, God will hear your cry for mercy. He will, because that's what he commanded you to do. That's the preaching of Jesus Christ. And I hope that throws your heart and causes you to believe in. Let's bow together. Our Father, I thank you for this time that we can meet together and open, study, and read your word. And I pray that you would reveal your son, the Lord Jesus Christ, to us, to each heart here this morning. Father, let us see his glory. Give us the faith to believe him, to be found in him and him alone. Father, we ask that you'd forgive our sin, that you would accept us for Christ's sake in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ and what he has accomplished for his people. Father, bless us for his sake, we pray. This would be a great blessing, be a great blessing if you would be pleased to save us. But Father, do it so that your son gets all the glory for it. Father, it's in his name, for his sake we pray, amen.