Let me be the first to publicly thank Matthew for that song. That was so good. Thank you. If you would open your Bibles with me to Acts chapter 9, as you're turning, let me tell you how honored and grateful I am to be able to be here with you and worship our Lord together. I trust that the Lord's given me a message of Christ. I titled the message, This Is Very Christ.

Our text begins in verse 19. This is after Saul of Tarsus has met the Lord on the road to Damascus. He's gone to Ananias and heard the gospel, had his sight restored back to him, been baptized. And verse 19 says, and when he had received meat, he was strengthened. Then Saul was certain days with the disciples which were at Damascus. In straight way, he preached Christ in the synagogues that he is the son of God.

Well, I bet that was a meeting, wasn't it? Saul of Tarsus coming, instead of coming in and arresting folks and throwing them in jail, he came preaching Christ to them. In verse 21, but all that heard him were amazed and said, is not this he that destroyed them which called on this name in Jerusalem and came hither for that intent that he might bring them bound unto the chief priest? But Saul increased the moor in strength and confounded the Jews which dwelt at Damascus, proving that this is very Christ.

Now Paul came there preaching Christ, that he is the Son of God, preaching Christ the Savior. I don't know how many people believed when they heard him preach. I'm assuming some did, but I know some did not. Look at verse 23. And after that many days were fulfilled. The Jews took counsel to killing. but there laying awake was known of Saul. And they that watched the gates day and night to kill him. Then the disciples took him by night and led him down by a wall in a basket.

Now Paul had come and proved to their minds that Jesus of Nazareth is the very Christ. He has to be because he declared Christ from the scriptures and they could see in their mind what he's saying is true. Now, I can't refute it from Scripture, and it makes me so mad. I can't refute that from Scripture. So I got two options. I can lie on him and tell people he's saying something he don't say, or I can try to kill him. And they tried to kill him because they saw what Paul was saying. They saw probably that it was true with their head knowledge, but they didn't believe Christ. They didn't believe Christ. That's why they wanted to kill him.

Now, my question to you and me tonight is this. How did Saul prove that Jesus is the Son of God? That he is very Christ? Because I want to know that. Well, he had to use the Old Testament scriptures, didn't he? Because that's the only scriptures that were in existence at the time he used the Old Testament scriptures. And he proved to them. That word proving means to knit together. to knit together, to put together in someone's mind. Paul took the Old Testament scriptures one verse at a time, line upon line, precept upon precept, and he knit them together to prove, to show, to make it obvious to their minds that Jesus of Nazareth is the Son of God, that He is the very Christ.

Now, I doubt that Paul used Old Testament pictures of Christ. I love the Old Testament pictures of Christ. When someone asks me to go somewhere and preach, it's my knee-jerk reaction, I'm gonna find a Old Testament picture of Christ to preach from. A dear lady used to, one of the saints there in Madisonville, she told David one time he had invited me to preach, and she said, oh, good. Brother Tate's coming, we're gonna hear from the Old Testament. I love the Old Testament pictures of Christ. But I doubt Saul used those things to prove to them that Jesus is the very Christ. Because if he preached on Noah's Ark, he preached on the Passover lamb, he preached on the Day of Atonement, they would say, that's not what that means. That's a ceremony that we use. That is not obvious. That does not make it obvious to me that Jesus is the Christ.

Saul of Tarsus was a highly intelligent man. I mean, he could have spoke so far above our heads, none of us would understand what he was saying, but I don't think he used human logic. Matter of fact, I know he didn't use human logic, because if someone uses human logic to convince you of something, somebody smarter with better human logic can convince you of something totally different. So Saul had to use Old Testament prophecies that were only fulfilled by Jesus of Nazareth. And the Old Testament is full of them, but for the sake of brevity, I want to give you four of them tonight.

First, look at Isaiah chapter 7. conception of Jesus of Nazareth proves He is the very Christ. He was conceived in the womb of a virgin by the Holy Ghost. Isaiah 7 verse 14, Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign. Behold a virgin shall conceive and bear a son and shall call his name Immanuel, God with us. Now of all the false prophets and false messiahs that were out there, Jesus of Nazareth is the only one who ever claimed to be conceived and born of a virgin. He's the only one. Nobody else would have dared try to convince you or anybody else that they were conceived in the womb of a virgin by the seed of the Holy Ghost so that they didn't have Adam's nature. It's too obvious. I could never convince you of that. It's too obvious I've got Adam's nature. Nobody would ever dare claim that. Jesus of Nazareth. Everybody else who ever claimed to be some sort of Savior, some sort of Messiah, it was obvious they are all following Adam the same way I am. But Jesus of Nazareth was conceived of a virgin. That means He did not partake in Adam's sin because He was not born from Adam's seed.

Alright, next look at the book of Micah. Micah is right between Jonah and Nahum. If you've got the, what Brother Charlie Payne used to call the authorized version, the Cambridge is page 1155. Micah chapter five.

The birth of Jesus of Nazareth proves he is the very Christ. He was born in Bethlehem. Micah five, verse two, but thou Bethlehem Ephrata, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee, Shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel, whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting.

The one who is from everlasting, the one who is eternal, that has no beginning and no ending, was born in Bethlehem. Saul could have told him, you boys call Jesus the Nazarene because he was raised in Nazareth. But did you know he's not from Nazareth? He was born in Bethlehem.

And he was born in Bethlehem in the most miraculous way. He was conceived of a virgin. He was in the womb of the virgin. And the Lord put it in the heart of Caesar Augustus to move the entire world, the entire Roman Empire, which was pretty much the entire known civilized world at that time, to go back to their hometowns, to the town of their ancestry, to be taxed or to be counted in a census or something.

And our Lord's mother, nine months pregnant, sat on a donkey and rode all the way from Nazareth to Bethlehem. You ladies got some idea what a miserable trip that was. But she went to Bethlehem. And you know, that child wasn't born on the road between Nazareth and Bethlehem. He wasn't born till they arrived in Bethlehem. He was born in the city of David.

And since he fulfilled this scripture, he's born in the city of David, he's a descendant of David. Let me tell you something, he's king. He's king. He is heir to David's throne, the eternal throne of God. His birth proves he's the very Christ.

Now look back in Isaiah again, Isaiah chapter 35. His life proves. The Jesus of Nazareth is the very Christ. Isaiah 5, verse 3, 35, excuse me, 35, verse 3. Strengthen ye the weak hands and confirm the feeble knees. Say to them that are of a fearful heart, be strong. Fear not. Behold, your God will come with vengeance, even God with a recompense. He will come and save you. And here's how you know who he is when he comes. Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. Then shall the lame man leap as in heart, and the tongue of the dung sing. For in the wilderness shall waters break out, and streams in the desert."

During his earthly ministry, the Lord Jesus performed all these different miracles, just exactly like Isaiah prophesied of. Nicodemus knew Now he didn't know at the first this man is the very Christ, that he's the son of God, but Nicodemus knew this man's unusual. Nobody could do the miracles that you do except God be with him.

Jesus of Nazareth, you think about this, cured diseases for which there was no cure. He healed, he cleansed lepers. that time leprosy was a death sentence. You were a dead man walking. There was no cure for it. If you got leprosy you're going to die. And the Lord healed them. The paralyzed, those who had never been able to move. Paralyzed from the neck down their whole life. The Lord told them, get up, take up your bed and walk and go on home. And they did. The paralyzed people stood up, picked up their bed and walked on home. The deaf who could not hear. He touched their ears and made them hear. The blind that couldn't see, sometimes He touched their eyes, sometimes He spoke, sometimes He made mud out of spittle and put it on their eyes, but He gave the blind sight.

Now the seeing eye and the hearing ear is of the Lord. Only the Lord could do this. Only the very Christ could do this. He went to the lame and healed them, They didn't just get up and walk and stumble around and go, you know, kind of learn to walk slowly. They got up leaping and jumping. A few years ago, I had such a horrible rupture in my back that is on the nerve. It was just pressing against the nerve. And I couldn't walk. I mean, I was just confined to a chair until they could finally do the surgery. And when they did, I mean, I had to learn all, I mean, not learn, but I mean, I couldn't go more than 10 feet at a time for a while. Maybe just, you know, a few steps for a while. Maybe I could go partway down the street for, it took a long time till I could get up to even walking clear around the block.

Here's a lame person. Now their muscles have atrophied. They're just, their legs are just, you know, skin over top of their bones. And the Lord told them, you're healed. And they got jumping up and down. That's healed. The demon possessed. He cast him out. Just with the word of his mouth, he cast him out. And listen, he gave the dead life. He was out walking one day and a funeral procession passed by. A young man, the only child of his mother. She was a widow. She had no earthly support left in this world. Everybody's falling behind, weeping and lamenting. And Lord just went and touched the casket and he was raised back to life. He did this. And publicly, people saw him do it.

And I know people today claim to have these gifts of miracles and tongues and all these things. And this has always been my question. I mean, from the time I was a little guy, this has always been my question. Why is it you only heal somebody when, you know, you come to the place and it's so obvious that there are plants, you know, and they pretend like they can't walk and the guy touches and blows on them and, you know, suddenly they can walk. That's a farce. If somebody has that ability to heal these diseases, how come they haven't gone down to the ICU down here and emptied the place out? Better yet, how come they hadn't gone to the cemetery and raised some poor boy that died and took him back and give him to his mama? How come they hadn't done that? It's because they can't do it. But Jesus of Nazareth did. He is the Son of God, the very Christ.

And fourthly, look at Psalm 22. The death of Jesus of Nazareth proves he's the very Christ. Psalm 22. This is the Psalm of the Cross, what many of the old writers say that Christ recited from the cross, and He may have, but certainly you can see this is Christ the Son of David speaking, Psalm 22. My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Why art thou so far from helping me and from the words of my roaring? Saul could have said, you boys have seen many people crucified. Did one of them cry this from the cross? My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Not one. Jesus of Nazareth did, fulfilling this scripture.

Verse 2 he says, Oh my God, I cry in the daytime, but thou hearest not. And in the night season, and am not silent, while Christ hung on the cross, the sun went out in the middle of the day. It wasn't night. It seemed like night. It was so dark you couldn't see your hand in front of your face because God was doing business with God. Man's not to see this transaction. We're not meant to understand it. Just like the high priest in the tabernacle on the Day of Atonement was alone in the Holy of Holies, sprinkling that blood upon the mercy seat. Nobody saw it. That priest, that high priest was doing business with God for the people. When the sun went out, that was God doing business with God. Have you seen that happen one time in your life? Much less when somebody's being crucified. No, you haven't. This proved Jesus of Nazareth is the very Christ.

Verse six, he says, I'm a worm and no man. A reproach of men and despise of the people. All they that see me laugh me to scorn. They shoot out the lip. They shake the head saying, he trusted in the Lord that he would deliver him. led him delivering, seeing he delighted in him. Have you ever heard any of these religious leaders pass by somebody being crucified and saying, come down from the cross and we'll believe you? Well, I thought you trusted in the Lord. Let's see if the Lord, they didn't say that to one person, except for Jesus in Nazareth. He's the very Christ.

Verse 18, they part my garments among them and cast lots upon my vesture. Now, from what I read, those Roman soldiers that took part in these crucifixions, part of the way they got their pay as executioner is they would divide up the clothing of the person being executed. And sometimes I guess they cut at the seam of, you know, the shirt or the pants or whatever. So everybody got a piece of it. But our Lord's robe, his cloak, was a solid woven piece, woven from top to bottom. And if they divided that up, they'd just take tatters home to their wives. It wouldn't do me of any use to anybody. So they rolled dice to see who would get it.

Did those Roman soldiers do that to one person when he was being crucified except Jesus of Nazareth? Not one. He is the very Christ. Look at verse 30. Now this man was crucified. You saw his dead body taken down from that tree and laid in a tomb. But yet a seed shall serve him. It shall be accounted to the Lord for a generation. They shall come and shall declare his righteousness unto a people that shall be born, that he hath done this."

There's going to be a people come who believe him, who trust on him. for generations are going to keep preaching Him, keep preaching Christ, keep preaching His righteousness, keep preaching what He accomplished in His crucifixion, His death on Calvary's tree. They're still going to be preaching this to generations to a seed that has not yet been born. But when they hear Christ preached they're going to be born again.

Now of all these other so-called Messiahs, who's still preaching them today? Remember Gamaliel told his his Pharisee and scribe friends. They had the disciples in jail. He said, you be careful how you treat those men. He said, you just leave them alone. If this thing is not of God, it'll fade away. Remember how this fellow rose up and boy, everybody thought he was something. Roman soldiers came, took him away. He's gone. He don't got any followers preaching him anymore. Same thing happened to this guy and this guy. He said, you leave these boys alone. If this is not of God, they'll fade away too. But if it's of God, you're finding yourself fighting against God.

All these other false messiahs that have risen up, nobody's preaching then. But people are still preaching Christ. I dare say today, at this time in the history of the world, more people at least have the opportunity, and I bet you more people hear the gospel of Christ preached on a week-to-week basis than have ever heard it before. And we think this is the worst time in human history, but let me tell you this, Christ is still being preached. And he's gonna keep being preached to a generation that has not yet been born. And Christ is not gonna return until they're all born, until they're all born again and brought to Christ. Because look at the last line here, verse 31, that he hath done this. Do you know literally translated, that phrase is, it is finished.

generation is going to be born. They're going to be born again of the Spirit of God because it's finished. Their salvation has already been accomplished. And Saul could have asked them, now I ask you, of all the men that you saw crucified, which one of them cried, it is finished, and gave up the ghost? You normally had to break their legs in order for them to die. This man cried, it's finished, and gave up the ghost. Who else did that? This has to prove to you. This is knit together these scriptures, knit together these things, so that in your mind it's proved at least to a head knowledge, Jesus of Nazareth is the Messiah.

Now, I don't want to just have a head knowledge of Christ. I don't want you to either. I want to know him. I want to believe him. And I want to go back through these four prophecies now, and I want to show you why you should believe him, why he's trustworthy, why this ought to thrill your soul, that Jesus of Nazareth is the very Christ.

First, Jesus of Nazareth was conceived in the womb of a virgin. Since Jesus of Nazareth was not conceived by the seed of man, he did not take on him Adam's nature. He took on him flesh, but He didn't take on him Adam's nature. Christ was conceived by the seed of the Holy Ghost. And whatever it is that's conceived, whether it's a man, whether it's an animal, whether it's a fruit, its nature comes from the seed that conceived it. The Holy Ghost has holy seeds. So Jesus of Nazareth was holy. He did not partake in Adam's line, in Adam's bloodline. He did not partake in Adam's sin. That's what they call original sin. You and I participated in original sin in our father, Adam. But Adam is not the father of our Lord Jesus Christ. So the Lord Jesus did not take part in Adam's sin.

Instead, He lived a life directed by His nature. It was holy. It was righteous. He obeyed the law perfectly. Not just outwardly. Now, you think about this. He never even thought about sin. He never even wanted to sin. You know, if you wanted to sin sometime, maybe you wanted to lie to get out of trouble. And you think, if I tell this lie, nobody will ever be the wiser. And I'm going to get out of this thing scot-free. And maybe you thought, no, that's wrong. I'm going to tell the truth, take my medicine. You still sinned. I mean, when we just thought about it. We can't understand that. The Lord Jesus never even wanted to sin. And he worked out that perfect righteousness as a man made under the law, not for himself. Mark, he's already holy. He's already righteous. He worked that righteousness out as a representative of his people. To not just give his people a righteousness, make them righteous. Make them righteous.

Let me show you this is a glorious, glorious passage of Scripture. Jeremiah chapter 33. Christ has made His people righteous. It's not pretend. It's not what Brother Scott Richardson has pasted on. He's made them righteous through and through. Jeremiah 33 verse 15. In those days and at that time will I cause the branch of righteousness to grow up unto David and he shall execute judgment and righteousness in the land. Obviously that's the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the branch of righteousness, the stem of Jesse, the rod of David. In those days shall Judah be saved and Jerusalem shall dwell safely. The Lord Jesus is going to save them and make them dwell in safety. And this is the name. wherewith she shall be called Jehovah Sidkenu, the Lord, our righteousness.

And this evening you get home and you want to go back 10 chapters and read Jeremiah chapter 23, you know what you'll find? This very same words being written out, except in that instance is talking about Christ. This is the name wherewith he shall be called. Jehovah Sidkenu, the Lord our righteousness. That's the name of Christ, the name of the Lord. I would never dare take the name of Christ as my name, unless he said it. This is the name wherewith she shall be called. Believers have such a union with Christ that we are what he is. We don't just bear his name, we are what he is. We're the righteousness of God in him, so that when God comes looking for me, or he comes looking for you, he comes looking for any believer, you know all the Father sees? He only sees Christ. He doesn't see Christ and me in Christ. Well, I got to accept Frank because he's in my son. All he sees is Christ. And when God comes looking for me, that's all I want him to see. Jehovah Sidkenu, the Lord, our righteousness. And this is such a thrill to those who trust Christ. If you trust Christ, you have a perfect righteousness. You're perfect in Christ. You're complete in him. And even though all we're gonna do from here to the time the Lord calls us home is sin, we can't mess it up because it's not dependent on us. It's dependent on Christ. And what did he cry? It's finished. That righteousness is already finished and perfect.

And I tell you what, I thank God. I can say this honestly, I trust him. I mean, I do, I trust Him. I don't trust Him like I wish I did. I don't trust Him perfectly, but I trust Him. And I want you to trust Him. Trust Him. I mean, right now, where you sit, trust Christ. Trust Him to be your righteousness. And if you can't do it, tell you what, this is my advice to you, ask God to give you faith to trust Him. Doesn't this book say faith is the gift of God? Now, I can't do anything to make God save me, but I know what I can do. I can beg him for mercy. I can ask him for forgiveness. I can beg him, Lord, would you give me faith to trust him? If you're trying to make yourself trust Christ and you can't do it, ask God to give you faith in Christ.

second thing, Jesus of Nazareth. This proves that He's the very Christ. Here's why you should trust your soul to Him. He was born in Bethlehem. He's heir to David's throne. And I want you to look at Zechariah next to the last book of the Old Testament, Zechariah chapter 9. I challenge you to find another king like our king, like King Jesus. Our Savior is the King. Zechariah 9, verse 9.

Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion. Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem. Behold, thy king cometh unto thee. He's coming to you. He's just, having salvation, lowly and riding upon an ass and upon a colt, the foal of an ass.

You know what that's a prophecy of? It's that Palm Sunday when our Lord rode into town. the cult, the fall of Van Ness. Nobody had ever ridden him before, but you know, he wasn't wild and trying to buck the Lord off. The Lord just sat on him because he belongs to him. He sat on him and rode into town. You know why he came to town? Why did the Lord Jesus come to town on that very week? So that he could suffer and die. The king came to town to suffer and die, to put away the sin of everybody in his kingdom. of all of his subjects.

And his throne, we say he's born in Bethlehem, so he's the heir to David's throne. Well, it's not that chair, whatever kind of throne David sat on. This is so much better than that. It's an everlasting throne. It's an eternal throne. He's king from all of eternity. And the king, our king, came in the flesh, he suffered, and he died, and he rose again. And after about 40 days being with his disciples, he ascended back to heaven. And you know what happened when he got there? The father said, sit right here on my right hand, on the throne of glory, till I make your enemies your footstool. He sat there, accepted of the father, because he did everything the father sent him to do. He saved all of his people from all of their sin.

Now I want you to think about something. Whose is on the throne right now? It's our Savior. It's the one who, before God created anything, willed the salvation of His people. And He loved those people enough to be made flesh, to humiliate Himself, to be made flesh, to be made in the likeness of our flesh, yet without sin, and to personally pay the redemption price for his people and purchase them with his precious blood so that they would be his, so that they would be saved from their sin.

Now, brother, that's what the king did. You don't for a minute think that the king would let one that he personally redeemed ever perish, do you? No, he wouldn't.

The most insulting thing that anyone can say about Jesus of Nazareth is this, that He died for everyone, everyone, everyone of Adam's race. He died for them all, and it's up to them to accept Him. And if they don't accept Him, you wasted the blood of Jesus. He wanted to save you, but you wouldn't let Him. You wouldn't do your part. He paid your redemption price. He paid for your sin, but you went to hell anyway.

the most insulting thing I can think of that anybody could say about the Lord Jesus Christ. No one is going to take away the salvation of those people that He saved by His precious blood, and by His obedience.

Look at Isaiah chapter 9. Here's a description of Him. And after reading this description I ask you is anybody going to thwart His purpose? Is anybody going to take away the people that He redeemed, that He loves? Those people that he betrothed to himself, Isaiah 9, verse 6.

For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulder. I love bringing that every single time. It doesn't say the government's going to be on his shoulders. Just one will suffice. He has the government of the whole world on his shoulder. and his name should be called Wonderful, Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace.

Of the increase of his government and peace, there shall be no end. Upon the throne of David and upon his kingdom to order it and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even forever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts, the zeal of the God of heaven will perform this.

Is he going to lose one he redeemed? Is he? No. And by God's grace, I can tell you I trust him. I do. I trust him. And I want you to trust him. It matters a great deal to me if people hear me preach Christ, that you trust Christ. I don't care if you remember me by the time you get home, but I want you to know Christ.

And if you're trying to trust him, And I know what I'm talking about. I spent years trying to make myself trust Christ. Couldn't do it. But if you're trying to trust him and you can't, let me give you a piece of advice. Beg God to give you the gift of faith. Ask him to forgive you. Ask him to reveal Christ to you and in you. And he will.

All right, here's the third thing. The miracles that Jesus of Nazareth did in his life prove he's the very Christ. No one but God could do those things. And all those accounts of the Lord healing some mysterious, you know, horrible disease. I mean, for that person, now that was a wonderful day. I mean, what a wonderful thing.

But you know what? Mark, every one of them died still later, didn't they? But the spiritual healing, the spiritual miracles that our Lord does in his people, oh, those are miracles of grace, and you'll never lose those. He cures every spiritual disease of his people so that they're perfect like he is. He cleanses the leprosy of our soul, the leprosy that just our disease, putrid soul, he washes white as snow in his precious blood. There's no other cure for it but the blood of Christ. And he shed his blood so that sinners would be cleansed of their spiritual leprosy. He makes it so that lame sinner comes to Christ. I think, and I hope at least, in every message I preach, I tell sinners, you come to Christ. Right now, you come to Christ. And you know when you come? Coming to Christ is not getting up and walking the aisles, not changing your physical location. Coming to Christ is believing Him. Just believing He is who He says He is. Believing that He can save me from all of my sin. Believing He's my only hope. You know when you'll come to Christ? When you'll trust Him? When you don't hear the preacher's voice anymore and God the Holy Spirit speaks to your heart. You know what you'll do, because you won't be able to help yourself? You're going to come running to Christ, and you're going to keep coming, and keep coming.

Peter said, to whom coming? You'll keep coming to Christ. He makes the spiritually blind to see. There have been times I've seen the blind receive their sight before they knew they had it. You can just tell. Not every time, but there's been times. that you're preaching to somebody and you can just see their minds a million miles away, their eyes are glazed over, they don't see. They don't see what the big deal's about. They don't see Christ. They don't see their need of Christ. They don't see themselves as rotten, hell-deserving sinners. And one day, the light goes on, and they see. And you know, the greatest evidence I can think of, you might be wondering, well, do I see? The greatest evidence of spiritual sight that I can think of is this. I see how it is God could save me and still be God, still be holy, and still be just. I see how God could be gracious to me and still be just. That's spiritual sight.

Same thing with the deaf. They can't hear the gospel. They hear the words. They understand the words. They're reasonably intelligent enough to understand the words. You can put children in Sunday school class and keep them there long enough. They're going to understand the gospel, how that Christ is a substitute for his people. He suffered and died and put their sin away. They can understand that. But I tell you, when you hear the gospel, when you hear it as a needy sinner, that Christ came to save me. I know he saved a number no man can number. But the issue in my soul And if the Lord only came to save me, I was the only one, He still would have had to do everything that He did. And He did that to save a sinner. I hear that now. I hear that gospel is a needy sinner. That's why it thrills me.

Christ gives spiritual, eternal life to His people. Life that can never be lost. when they're born again by the power of God the Holy Spirit. That's who I trust. He miraculously and powerfully saved me. So in a way, I understand it. And in a way, I don't. But I still believe it. I still believe it. Oh, I trust him. It thrills my soul to trust him. And I want you to trust him. I want you to trust him. If you find yourself wanting to trust Christ, and you can, when the preacher says, come to Christ, and you think, if all these preachers, just one of them would tell me where he is, I'd go. These preachers keep telling me, look to Christ. If somebody told me where he is, I'd look. I'll tell you what to do. Ask God to give you faith to trust Christ. He's the only one that can give it. Not begging for it. And then last, Psalm 22. The death of the Lord Jesus Christ makes me thrilled to trust Him. Verse 1, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Now, our Savior did not make that cry from the cross because He didn't know why the Father forsook Him. He asked that for our sake, so that we would know as He hung there on Calvary's tree, His Father forsook Him. And He didn't say, Father, Father. He said, my God, my God. He's my God, my judge. You've forsaken me.

He'd never known anything but the perfect loving presence and union of his father. And now his father had forsaken him. All his father could do was pour out his wrath upon his son because his son had been made what the father hates, sin. And he poured that out upon his son. If the Lord Jesus Christ, the Savior, my substitute, if he was forsaken for me, God will never forsake me. So he could honestly say, I'll never leave you nor forsake you.

Verse six, I'm a worm. And no man, a reproach of men and despised of the people, That word worm means a scarlet worm. From what I read about those scarlet worms, like a maggot, the female, when she's ready to give birth, she would affix herself to a piece of wood, and she would dye. She gave birth to her larvae, those other little maggots, and a red dye would run and stain the wood, and they would take that dye and scrape it off the wood. That's what they would use to make thread scarlet, and they used it for dyes and so forth.

what the Savior did for His people. He affixed Himself to the cross. The nails didn't hold Him there. The Roman soldiers, the threat of them didn't hold Him there. It was His power to save that held Him there. It was His love for His people that held Him there, that made Him shed His blood to put away the sin of His people so that they could be given life.

Verse 8, He trusted in the Lord that he would deliver him. Let him deliver him, seeing he delighted in him. Christ did not come down from the cross. He had the physical power to do it, but he didn't do it. If Christ did not come down from the cross, even though he had the power to do it, you know what that tells me? He was delivered from my offenses. That's what my offenses demand. If he was delivered from my offenses, then I never will be, because his blood paid the price.

Verse 18, they part my garments among them. They cast lots upon my vesture. His vesture is that robe woven throughout top to bottom, one piece. It's a picture of his perfect robe of righteousness. And if that righteousness is not torn, then I am perfectly righteous. Christ not just have my sin covered with the robe the robe it looks good on the outside, but underneath they're still full of disease and spiritual leprosy and filth and But made righteous through and through so I have no blemish

Verse 31 says or verse 30 says a seed shall serve him. It should be accounted to the Lord for a generation I sure would love to preach Christ to another generation. I sure would love that the Lord would use the gospel that we preach to give life to another generation. I sure would like to see another one come along, wouldn't you?

At the end of verse 31 says it's finished. It's finished. Salvation is finished. Righteousness is finished. The great transaction is done. All that's left for me to do is trust Christ. I don't have to do anything to make it effectual. I don't have to do anything to make it better. I don't have to do anything to keep it. Just trust Christ. Just rest in Him. Resting in Christ means quit trying to keep the law. Quit trying to live a moral enough life that you think God will be happy with you, and rest in Christ. He already did that for you.

And it thrills my soul. Wonder of wonders that God would give me the faith. I trust Him. I do, I trust Him. I wouldn't be saved any other way, even if I could. I trust, oh, I'd love to be able to trust in Christ. And I want you to trust Him. I want you to trust Him.

And if you're trying to trust Him, and you can't. You just find you can't make yourself trust Christ. Let me give you a novel suggestion. Ask God to give you the faith to trust, to take your place at his feet as a mercy beggar and beg him for mercy, beg him for forgiveness, beg him to give you spiritual sight, beg him to let you hear, beg him to give you the faith to trust him. You stay right there and beg him.

No one ever yet has begged at the feet of Christ that he said, go away. I won't have mercy on you. He that cometh to me, I will in no wise. I can think of 10 kazillion reasons that he would cast me out. But he said, I'll never cast you out because it's finished. He did it for you.

Now trust Him. All right. I hope the Lord bless that to you. I am honored that you have me. Appreciate your time.