Will you open your Bibles with
me again to Acts chapter 17. Acts chapter 17. The Lord is pleased, as he has
declared in his word, to use the foolishness of preaching.
It's not foolish to those who believe it, but it's foolish
to everyone else to save them which believe. Scripture says
without faith it is impossible to please God. They that come to him must believe
that he is, and faith comes by hearing, and hearing comes by
the word of God. That's why the preaching of the
gospel is the essential means by which the Lord reveals himself
to his elect people. And that's why we put so much
emphasis on it here. And that's why the Apostle Paul
gave himself to it. And what we find here in Acts
chapter 17 is the Lord directing the steps of the Apostle Paul
to bring the gospel to Thessalonica. The city translated to have victory
over error or over lies. And what a blessing. He passes by Amphipolis and Apollonia,
and he brings the truth of the gospel to the city of Thessalonica. He does it in the synagogue of
the Jews, the gathering of God's people. Nothing's really changed. The Lord passes by some and he
has mercy upon others and gathers them together with his people
to hear the preaching of Christ. Pray that he will fulfill for
us every time we come together. what he did here in the city
of Thessalonica. If he does, he'll be using small
man and small men. You remember Paul, the Apostle's
name before his conversion was Saul of Tarsus. Now the name
Saul translated, we're looking at verse 2 now of our text. We looked at the first verse
in the previous hour. Paul's name was Saul. Saul defined
means one to be desired. You remember King Saul, which
the children of Israel insisted on having as their king, was,
the scripture says, he was head and shoulders above all the other
men. Oh, he was a stately man. He was a man to be desired. He was a man of physical stature
and power and strength. And what a failure he was. And then when the Lord called
David, a man after God's own heart, he was just a little boy
out in the yard taking care of sheep, wasn't he? Saul's name
had to be changed. Paul says before his conversion
that he was the envy of his peers, that he had excelled above all
his peers. He was highly educated. If in
fact he was the rich young ruler, which I think he probably was,
he went away sad, you remember, because he had so much that he
would have to forsake. physical possessions, spiritual
possessions, the things that he had accomplished, and he went
away sad. But now the Lord has saved him. And in contrast to the name Saul,
his name now is Paul. You know what that means? Little. Little man. Oh, that's who God
uses, isn't it? Anyone who takes glory or credit
away from the Lord Jesus Christ to themselves is doing nothing
but wood, hay, and stubble. I pray the Lord would deliver
us from such that we would not promote a man ourselves, this
man, any man, but that Christ will be lifted up. That's when
the Lord's pleased to visit his people. He said, and I, if I
be lifted up, will draw men to me. And so our duty, our duty,
our responsibility is to preach Christ and him crucified. And Paul said, I determined not
to know anything among you save Christ and Him crucified. Might
the Lord give us that spirit to lift up the Lord Jesus Christ. He's our only hope. I love the illustration that
our brother Cody Groover from Mexico gave us years ago when
he was here. He said the gospel preacher is
like a window He said, I don't want to be a stained glass window.
I don't want to be a window that draws attention to myself, and
I don't want to be a dirty window that doesn't really practice
what I preach. I want to be a clear pane of
glass so that no one pays attention to the window, just the light
that comes through. John the Baptist had a following,
a large following, and when the Lord Jesus Christ came on the
scene, what did John say? Ah, he said, I must decrease,
he must increase. He must increase. He must get
all the glory and all the praise and all the honor. And so here's
the one that the Lord uses to preach his gospel. And notice
in our text in verse two, and Paul, as his manner was, as his
custom was, as his habit was, as his pattern was, oh, pray
the Lord would make us all small in his presence and that he would
give us the manner, the custom, the habit of gathering together
with God's people, with the true Jews in the synagogue of God. You know, there are good habits
and bad habits, aren't there? We come here to this place, it's
not, well, you know, we just sort of have a take it or leave
it attitude about it. No, we've got to be, this is
where the Lord has promised to manifest His grace and His glory. As a sinner, I'm in need of His
grace. As a believer, I long for His glory. And so our manner,
our habit, our pattern of life is to gather together as often
as we can that we might meet with Him and He with us, sup
with Him. You know what the Lord said? When the Lord was leading those
disciples in Luke chapter 24 that were on the road to Emmaus,
the scripture says, and in the breaking of bread, their eyes
were opened. That's our hope, that in the
breaking of the bread of life, God's word is broken open. When
God opens what no man can shut, when the windows of heaven are
opened, when Christ is revealed, that he will open our eyes. and
that we'll behold him in his glory. There's even good addictions. The scripture says in 1 Corinthians
16, verse 15, speaking of the house of Stephen, he says, they
have addicted themselves to the ministry of the saints. Oh, we
usually think of an addiction as a bad thing, don't we? But
here the Lord says they've addicted themselves to the ministry of
the saints, to the gathering together. This was Paul's manner
of life. And this is every one of God's
people's desire to gather together where the gospel is being preached. And notice in our text, and Paul,
as his manner was, And God's little people, babes, that's
what the Lord said, except you become his little babies, you're
not in the kingdom of God, except you become his child. Suffer
the little children to come unto me, for such is the kingdom of
God. Oh, we find ourselves in his presence and we see how small,
how small we are, how dependent we are on him. And as our manner is, we gather
together. Notice he preached to them, he
went in unto them three Sabbath days. The number three is the number
of perfection. And here our Lord is telling
us that what he does, he does perfectly. When he saved his
people, he saved them perfectly. He didn't leave anything left
to be done. When he bowed his glorious head
on Calvary's cross and cried, it is finished, Father, into
thy hands I commend my spirit, he actually accomplished the
salvation of his people perfectly. We see the number three in many
places in the scriptures. We see the triune Godhead, God
the Father. who elected a people, God the
Son, who redeemed those whom his Father elected, and God the
Holy Spirit, who is regenerating all those for whom Christ died
and all those for whom the Father chose in the covenant of grace. What perfection. Now there's
perfect salvation. Paul met with them for three
days. The Lord Jesus Christ was three
days and three nights in the belly of the earth. He died on
Calvary's cross. His death is perfect. His death was sufficient. His
death accomplished the salvation of his people. His death satisfied
the justice of God because God raised him from the dead. He
could not allow his Holy One to see corruption. It's the resurrection
of the Lord Jesus Christ. We're gonna see later on in Acts
chapter 6, 17, when Paul went to Athens and he preached the
gospel to the Athenians and they heard about the resurrection
and the scripture says, and some mocked. Oh, we were with you,
Paul, until you started talking about a resurrection. Oh, there's, resurrection's our
hope. He was offered up for our offenses.
He was raised again because of our justification, being justified,
being justified, being made right with God, having the law has
no charge to make against those for whom Christ died. They're
justified in the sight of God. We have peace with God through
the Lord Jesus Christ. Perfect salvation. Our Lord's
ministry was three years. Everything he needed to accomplish
was accomplished in those three years. Three short years of public
ministry, and yet he fulfilled everything the Father sent him
to do in those three years. Our Lord hung on Calvary's cross
From the sixth hour to the ninth hour, there was total darkness
over the face of the earth. From noon to the evening sacrifice,
which had been three o'clock in the afternoon, and so three
hours separated from his father. Blackness covered the face of
the earth. God saw sin on his only son and was forced to forsake
him. and to pour out the fury of his
wrath on him as our sin bearer and as our substitute. This number
three reminds us of the perfection of our God. We sang that hymn
at the beginning of the first hour, holy, holy, holy is the
Lord God almighty. And we see that in Isaiah chapter
six that Every attribute of our God is lifted to its third degree
of repetition in his holiness so that his love is holy, his
sovereignty is holy, his mercy is holy, his justice is holy,
his grace is holy. Everything about him is holy,
holy, holy, holy. Our God is perfect and everything
he does is perfect. The Lord Jesus Christ is that
perfect lamb without spot and without blemish, offering himself
to his father as the sacrifice for our sin. Nothing's changed. The Lord is
doing right now for us what he did for these believers in Thessalonica. He brought them a gospel preacher,
a man who considered himself nothing in the sight of God,
that Christ might get all the glory. A man who said of his
own confession, those things which I thought were gain unto
me. Oh, I was glorying in my accomplishments. I was of the
tribe of Benjamin, I was of the Jews, circumcised the eighth
day. And concerning the law, he said,
I was blameless before man. No one could charge me for having
violated the law of God. And yet those things which I
thought were gain, I now count but loss for the excellency of
the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord, that I might know him. You have your Bibles back in
Acts chapter 17, look with me. And Paul, as his manner was,
and he went into them three Sabbath days, reasoning with them out
of the scriptures. Now this word reason means to
dialogue. I know enough about good preaching
to know that good preaching is a dialogue. I'm not confessing
to be a good preacher. I'm just saying that the good
preaching that I hear is a dialogue. A man who's not preaching at
me. A man who's not preaching down
to me. A man that's not trying to get
dominance over me, but a man that engages me in preaching. That's the word here. He reasoned
with them. He dialogued with them. He presented
the gospel with the objections and the questions that he knew
his audience might have, and he answered those questions. Our preaching is to be done that
way, and we're not afraid of questions. We're not afraid of
objections. We're not afraid of people wanting
to understand the truth because our authority is the Word of
God. And that's the only authority that God's people need. God's
people, you know, when I was preparing for this message, and
if you were here the first hour, I was looking at Amphipolis and
Apollonia, and I read a lot of historical information about
these two cities. And the Lord convicted me of
not saying anything about them except for how the name of the
city is interpreted. Why? Because I don't want to
ever go outside of Scripture to try to defend Scripture. We
don't need history to defend the Word of God. We don't need
wisdom, human wisdom or philosophy to defend the word of God. We
don't need scripture to defend scripture. And all God's people
need as believers is to know what sayeth the scriptures. And
so might the Lord give us the grace to just say what God says
and leave it at that. And if anyone has an objection,
with what God says, then they're going to have to deal with God
about that. God's people are just going to believe what God
says. So he's reasoning with them. He's dialoguing with them. We
don't As I said, we don't preach down to people. When Isaiah was
sent of God to preach the gospel, the Lord told Isaiah, he said,
comfort ye, comfort ye my people, speak ye comfortably to them. Speak from your heart. A gospel
message is a message that came from the heart of God, to the
heart of God's preachers, to the heart of God's people. It's
a work of grace in the heart. It's not an intellectual thing.
And we're not trying to put men under some sort of law or beat
them with a whip or bloody the sheep. No, we're here to comfort
God's people. Speak ye comfortably to them. Tell them their warfare is accomplished. And don't you love where Isaiah
later on in Isaiah chapter six said, Lord, where do I start
this message? And the Lord said, tell them their grass. That'll
be a comfort to them. Tell them they don't have anything.
They don't know anything. They can't do anything. They're
completely dependent upon me and they'll come. They'll find that
to be their comfort. The only proof that the believer
needs For their faith is the Word of God. Faith comes by hearing,
and hearing comes by the Word of God. Notice, This man who had been made small
by God, as his manner was, as his habit was, his pattern of
life was to go in among the people of where they were gathered together,
the Jews and the synagogue, and three Sabbaths in a row. He reasoned with them, notice,
out of the scriptures. Out of the scriptures. When Paul
preached in 1 Corinthians chapter 15. There's a term with me there
to that passage, 1 Corinthians 15. Moreover, brethren, verse one,
I declare unto you the gospel. which I preached unto you, which
also you have received, and wherein you stand." Now, in our text,
in Acts 17, Paul's preaching the gospel to a bunch of unbelievers. But now he's preaching to a church
made up of believers that have been there a long time. Same
message. We don't preach one message to
unbelievers and another message to believers. We preach Christ. Christ. Look what he says. By
which also you are saved. And if you keep in memory what
I preached unto you, unless you believed in vain. For I delivered unto you first
of all, that which I also received. How? That Christ died according
are for our sins, according to the scriptures. How that Christ
died for our sins, according to the scriptures and that he
was buried and that he rose again the third day, according to the
scriptures. The Lord uses his word. God's
people just want to know what God's word says. Don't they?
What does his word say? Well, it says in the volume of
the book, it is written of me. When Paul went to Thessalonica
and reasoned with these people, where did he begin? Did he begin
in Genesis chapter three after the fall? When the Lord said
to the serpent, the seed of a woman will crush your seed and your
seed Well, bruise his heel? He's gonna crush your head and
you're gonna bruise his heel? You know that's a prophecy to
the necessity of Christ dying on Calvary's cross. That Satan
bruised the heel of the Lord Jesus Christ, but he actually
accomplished the salvation of God's people and crushed his
head. You see, Christ must die according
to the scriptures, all that the scriptures have to say about
him. Perhaps he talked to them about
the story of Cain and Abel and how Cain had brought an offering
to the Lord to try to atone for his own sins, an offering of
things that he had produced himself. And the Lord had no regard for
Cain's offering, and Abel brought a blood sacrifice. The same blood
sacrifice that his father Adam obviously had told him about
when the Lord slew that lamb in the garden and shed its blood
in order to cover the nakedness of Adam and Eve. You see, this
goes all the way back to the fall, doesn't it? And everything
in scripture points to the necessity of what the Lord Jesus Christ
did. Look with me at verse two of
our text. And Paul, as his manner was, went in unto them three
Sabbath days and reasoned with them out of the scriptures, opening
and alleging that Christ must needs have suffered and risen
again from the dead, and that this Jesus whom I preach unto
you is Christ. opening and alleging to them
from the scriptures that this Jesus had to die. He had to die. You remember when
the, I made references a while ago, when the disciples in Luke
chapter 24 were walking back to Emmaus and the Lord's walking
with them. And they don't know it's the
Lord. And the Lord said to them, why are you so downcast? And
you're so sad. And they said, have you not heard? Have you not heard? They're speaking
to the Lord Jesus Christ, the risen savior. And they don't
know who he is. And they said, have you not heard
that the one that we hoped would be the Messiah, the Christ, the
prophet of God has been crucified? And the scripture says, and the
Lord began with Moses and the Psalms and the prophets, and
he expounded unto them those things concerning himself. And
after the breaking of bread and their eyes were opened and they
saw the Lord Jesus for who he was, and he disappeared. They looked to one another and
what did they say? Oh, did not our hearts burn within
us as he spake with us along the way? As he revealed Christ
and the necessity, the Lord told those disciples, he said, oh,
fools and slow of heart to believe. Do you not know that Christ must
suffer these things? He must suffer these things.
You see, we're preaching the same Christ and the same necessity
of His suffering. What was the necessity of His
suffering? God's justice had to be satisfied. The law had
to be fulfilled. And only the Christ could do
that. Only the Lord Jesus Christ, who was without sin, could bear
our sins in His body and be a sacrifice that would be sufficient to His
Father to satisfy divine justice. Did Paul speak to them about
the Tower of Babel? and how men tried to earn favor
with God by making bricks with their hands and putting them
together with slime and building a tower to go up into heaven,
and how God confused their speech and sent them all over the world
so that all the religions of the world are just as confusing
as the many languages of this world. There's only one tower. Jacob's ladder, did he talk about
Jacob's ladder perhaps? It reached up into the heavens
that the angels ascended and descended upon the Lord Jesus
Christ. Perhaps he spoke to them about
the covenant promise that he made to Abraham and those animals
that he slew and put the parts on the ground, said that was
Christ. In order for the light of the
gospel to come into the world, that had to happen. This is God's
covenant promise. The covenant could not be fulfilled
without the death, burial, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus
Christ. And all of scripture speaks of it. If we study the
Bible for any other reason, If we're just trying to glean from
the Bible some do's and don'ts so that we can live a better
life, or if we just try to glean from the Bible some interesting
historical facts or some theological information that we can intimidate
one another with, we haven't understood it properly. As his
manner was, He expounded unto them. He reasoned with them. He dialogued with them, opening
and alleging from the scriptures that this Jesus is the Christ
and that he must suffer. This is what it's... You see,
the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ is the reason for everything.
From eternity past to eternity future. It is the crux of the
matter. It is God's reason for everything. Everything meets at the cross.
God said this must needs happen. This was purposed of God before
Adam was ever made. The cross was designed and purposed
of God before the fall. The fall was necessary. order
to glorify God in the cross. Perhaps Paul spoke to them on
those three Sabbath days about the Passover. Surely he brought
up the Passover. Don't you know? that that Passover
lamb, that the blood was put on the lentil and the doorpost
of the houses of the Israelites in Egypt, that was Christ? That lamb that was to be chosen
out, that was without spot, without blemish, the lamb that was to
be slayed and every bit of it was to be consumed and what was
not eaten was to be burned? Don't you know that that's a
foreshadowing of what the Lord Jesus must do He must do this. It was purposed of God and it
had to be done in order for sinners to be saved. There's no other
way for sinners to be saved. Perhaps he talked to him about
Moses leading the children of Israel through the wilderness
and that rock that followed them and how Moses smote the rock
and how that rod of Moses was the rod of God's justice that
smote the Lord Jesus Christ. The rock of ages from whom flowed
the rivers of living water. Perhaps he talked to them about
that man that came down from heaven. Oh, the bread of life. This is the Christ that was made
flesh and dwelt among us. We beheld his glory as the only
begotten of the Father. You see, it's all about the Lord
Jesus Christ. Everything is about him. He opened and alleged from the
scriptures. He reasoned with them out of
the word of God. Perhaps he talked to them about
that scapegoat. Once a year that the high priest
would take that goat and place his hands on the head of that
goat and symbolically transfer the guilt of the sins of the
people of Israel to that goat and send that goat out into the
wilderness. and how that foreshadowed what God Almighty did when He
placed the hand of His justice on His Son on Calvary's cross.
These things must be. He alleged and He reasoned with
them out of the Scriptures how this Jesus who died is the promised
Messiah. He is the Christ. He is the one
who God purposed for all of time and eternity. to save his people,
that there's no salvation outside of him. And God's people say,
oh Lord, show me Christ. Give me Christ, put me in Christ.
Surely Paul in these three Sabbath days turned their attention to
Psalm 22, where David cried, my God, my God, why hast thou
forsaken me? and reminded them that David
was nothing but a type of what would be fulfilled in the Lord
Jesus when he became sin and bore that not only the penalty
of it, but the shame of it and the guilt of it and cried out
in agony from the cross, being forsaken of his father. Turn
with me to Isaiah, to Psalm 22, Psalm 22. He reasoned with them from the
scriptures. And I'll repeat what I've already
said. The only proof, the only proof
that God's people need is what say at the scriptures. And any
preacher that tries to give you evidence or proof of salvation
outside of that is building his house on sand. Look at Psalm 22, verse one.
My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? And our Lord asked
those Pharisees, let me ask you a question. The Christ, whose
son is he? Well, he's the son of David.
Well, if he'd be the son of David, then why did David call him Lord? When David said, the Lord said
unto my Lord, sit thou here at my right hand until I make thine
enemies thy footstool. You see, David's not talking
about David. David's speaking as a prophet of God of what must
needs be, what had to happen in order for you and I to be
saved, in order for sinners to be made right with God, in order
for us to be justified. And there's no other means, no
other means by which a sinner can be saved. Why art thou so far from helping
me and from the words of my roaring? Oh my God, I cry in the daytime,
but thou hear us not. And in the night season, I'm
not silent. Here's Christ on the cross. He
quoted these verses, didn't he? Why was God silent? Because Christ
was guilty. He was guilty. He bore all the
guilt of all the sins of all of God's people. and put them
away by the sacrifice of Himself. And God Almighty's eyes are too
pure to look upon sin. He could not have anything to
do with His Son. He was forced by His holy justice
to forsake Him. Look at verse 3. Here's our Lord's
response to His Father's silence. Here's his response, but thou
art holy. Thou art holy. There's my hope. Oh, thou that inhabit us, the
praise of thy people. Our fathers trusted in thee,
they trusted, and thou didst deliver them. They cried unto
thee and were delivered. They trusted in thee and were
not confounded. Look at verse 12. Many bulls
have come past me. Strong bull's abation have beset
me around. They gaped upon me with their
mouths as a ravening and a roaring lion. I'm poured out like water
and all my bones are out of joint. My heart is like wax. It is melted
in the midst of my bowels. My strength is dried up like
a pot shirt and my tongue cleaveth to my jaws and thou hast brought
me into the dust of death. And Paul is reasoning with them
and dialoguing with them and alleging to them from the Scriptures
that this Jesus is the Christ and these things must needs be
in order for God's people to be saved. It had to happen this
way. There was no other way. Is that
not what our Lord cried in the garden when He said, Father,
if there be any way, Any other way that this cup can pass from
me, let it be. What was the cup? It was the
cup of God's wrath. It was the bitter dregs of sin.
It was what Christ knew he would become on Calvary's cross. And
he cries out to his father in agony in the garden. Lord, is
there any other way? Nevertheless, not my will, but
thy will be done. There was no other way. There
was no other way. It's the only way. No other way
for a sinner to be saved. But this way will actually save
them. It will actually accomplish their
salvation once and for all. It will satisfy God. Surely the
apostle Paul in these three Sabbath days went to Isaiah 53. That's the passage that the Ethiopian
eunuch was reading from when he said, does the prophet speak
of himself or is he speaking of another? And what did, what
did Philip do? He began at that same passage
and preached unto him, Jesus said, no, he's, he's not speaking
of himself. Turn to me to that passage, Isaiah
53. He preached to them from the
scriptures, from the scriptures. Isaiah 53 verse one, who hath
believed our report? And to whom is the arm of the
Lord revealed? You see, believing God's report
will reveal the arm of God. The Lord Jesus Christ is God's
right, strong right arm. And the only way to see Christ
is to believe God's Word. The only way to believe God's
Word is to be given faith from above. No man can receive anything
except to be given to him from heaven. Oh Lord, this is unquestionable
faith. This is the faith of God. He, the Lord Jesus, shall grow
up before him, the Father, as a tender plant and as a root
out of dry ground. He hath no form nor cleanliness,
and when we shall see him, there's no beauty that we should desire
him. We're not gonna desire him unless God puts a desire in our
heart for him. He is despised and rejected of
men, a man of sorrows acquainted with grief. And we hid as it
were our faces from him. He was despised and we esteemed
him not." We were so interested in atoning for our own sins and
engaging in our own righteousness that we esteemed him not. But surely, surely he hath borne
our griefs. Surely he hath carried our sorrows. We did esteem him stricken, smitten
of God, but he was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised
for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace
was upon him, and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep
have gone astray, each unto his own way, and God has laid on
him the iniquity of us all. And look over in verse 10. It pleased the Lord, the Father,
to bruise him. This is the fulfillment of that
prophecy that the Lord gave to Satan and Adam and Eve in the
garden when he said the seed of the woman would bruise the
head of the serpent. It pleased the Lord to bruise
him. He hath put him to grief. when
thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin. He, the father, shall
see his seed, the church, and he shall prolong his days and
the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. He, the
father, shall see the travail of the soul of his son and shall
be satisfied. I looked up this word to allege. Go back with me to our text quickly. The first definition in the dictionary
for the word allege is to assert without proof. When you allege
someone guilty, you have to prove it. You have no proof of it in
your alleging. Isn't that true? But that's not
what the word means here. It means to lay beside. It means
to stack scripture on top of scripture on top of scripture
to prove by the word of God that this Jesus is the Christ. And that needs be, he must suffer. according to the scriptures in
order to satisfy God's divine justice and in order to put away
the sins of his people and save and secure his people once and
for all by the sacrifice of himself. It's to compare scripture to
scripture. It's not to, it's not to allege something without
proof. We have the only proof we need. Let me ask you a question. I've
tried to deal with several passages, we could, well, we do. We come here every week and we
keep going back to the scriptures, don't we, to prove the same thing
from the word of God. Perhaps you've been a juror in
a case being tried in a court of law. And as a juror, you've
got to determine the truth of the matter. and 66 witnesses
take the stand. And they each, from their own
perspective, testify to the same thing. Adam, you're a lawyer. You've got a client. He's got
66 eyewitnesses all alleging to the same thing. How sure is
it you're going to win that case? And as a juror, how hard would
it be to convince you How could so many people telling exactly
the same thing be wrong? Now you would say, brethren, that's what we have. The law and the prophets all
testify of him. What did they testify? That he
is the Christ, the God-man mediator, the one man between us and God,
the only man that's able to bear our sins and satisfy God's justice
and actually accomplish the salvation of God's people, the Messiah,
the anointed one, the Christ of God, the purpose for which
all history and all eternity stands. That word history is an interesting
word, isn't it? It's a conjunction of two words,
his story. And that's what all history is,
isn't it? It's all his story. It's all to lift up Christ, to
tell sinners how they can be right with God. No other name. has been given by God among men,
whereby we must be saved." Our Heavenly Father, bless Your
Word with the gift of faith. Cause us to flee to Christ. Open that which no man can shut. Open our hearts. Open the gospel. We ask it in
Christ's name and for his sake. Amen. 268 in the hardbacked hymnal. 268. Let's stand together.