I want to bring a message today,
and it is, what is our message? What is the gospel preached?
What is it that a preacher is supposed to preach? You know,
what is a preacher supposed to preach? What is his message?
What is his message? What is his word? What is the thing that he's going
to preach? It says down here in verse 5, For we preach not ourselves,
but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves for your service, for
Jesus' sake. So that's what a man is to preach,
Christ Jesus the Lord. Now, Paul talked about receiving a
ministry. If a man has a ministry, he receives
it. He doesn't take this calling
upon himself. He doesn't take this task to himself. This is
something that's put upon him. It's not something that, you
know, that he just says, one day I'm going to be a preacher.
I'm going to go off to preacher school and I'm going to enter
the ministry. You don't go off to seminary and come back as
a preacher. That's not the way it's done.
When you find in the Scriptures everybody that was called a priest,
Paul said, as I receive this ministry, you receive it. And
I know that Several things about a preacher that God calls him.
First thing, he renounces the hidden things of dishonesty.
He renounces this idea that, you know, we're going to sneak
up on man's blind side. We're going to preach works and
grace together. We're going to preach grace in
one place. We're going to preach law in
someplace else. We're going to preach whatever needs to be preached
to get folks on our side wherever we may be. We're going to priestly
find out what folks agree with us about, and then that's what
we're going to talk about. We're not going to try to get
on the folks' side that's got plenty of money and leave off
the poor folks. We renounce those things. We're
not interested in those things. We're not walking in craftiness.
We're not trying to sneak up on anybody, not trying to entrap
anybody, not trying to get anybody to, you know, one of the things
that they tell you about soul winning. When you're getting
ready to give an invitation, you don't never say, in conclusion.
Because they know that folks are getting ready to set themselves
against being invited. So don't never say, in conclusion.
Because if you do, folks go, uh-oh, they're getting ready
to give an invitation. So we renounce that craftiness. But
here's what we do. We manifest the truth, commending
ourselves. Commending ourselves to every
man's conscience in the sight of God. I commend myself this
morning to your conscience in the sight of God, whether I'm
preaching the gospel or not. Whether I'm preaching the truth
or not. And if our gospel be hid, if it's hid to your conscience,
hid to your mind, hid to your understanding, hid to the place
that you cannot grasp it and get a hold of it, it's because
you lost. It's because you lost. "...in
whom the God of this world hath blinded the minds of them which
believe not, unless that glorious gospel of Christ." And Christ
is the image of God. "...should shine unto them."
That light of Christ should come in their hearts, should come
in their minds. And that's why he says, "...for that's why we
preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves
nothing but your service for Jesus' sake." For it is God who
commanded the light to shine out of darkness, that has shined
in our hearts. And when He shined in our hearts,
He gave the light, the revelation, the understanding of the knowledge
of God's glory in the person of Jesus Christ. Now let's talk
about what is the preacher's message. What is he to preach?
You know, when you read books, you read articles on preaching.
There's multitudes of them. Multitudes of books and articles
on preaching. But very little is about Christ
or preaching Christ. They have books on expository
preaching. Articles about expository preaching,
which is the best kind of preaching, it really is. And then there's
books on relevant preaching. We've got to preach what's relevant.
Relevant for our time. Relevant for the congregation.
Relevant for the condition of people. Relevant for the age. And they have books on preaching
with power. Books on how to conduct yourself
in the pulpit. How to stand. And they've got
books on preparation to preach. But with all of that, if you
don't have the right content, what difference does it make?
You've got to have the right content. And there are some that
believe that Christ should not be the sole focus of preaching.
That Christ should not be the sole focus of preaching. That
other subjects demand equal treatment. Especially when it comes to preaching
to believers. But others think it's so obvious
that Christ must be preached that we don't even need to say
it. But how little, how little of preaching Christ is practiced.
In all your years of attending services before you come to hear
the gospel. And you go to funerals, and you
go other places, and you hear people talking about their religion.
How little of Christ is talked about? How little of Christ people
are concerned about? They're concerned about how they
live. They're concerned about their marriages. They're concerned
about how the church is doing. But how little is concerned about
Christ? Now let me take you... Paul said here, we preach not
ourselves. give you three meanings of the word preaching here. First
of all, it means to tell good news. And we've got good news
to tell. You know, Isaiah said it like
this, How beautiful upon the mountain are the feet of them
that publisheth glad tidings of good things, that preacheth
good things, saying unto Zion, Thy God reigneth. And oh, beloved,
we've got good news, and good news for one class of people.
For sinners. People in need. And not only
that, but it means to herald or proclaim. When you herald
something or proclaim something, you know, it's like when you
go to a big shim dig, you know. We was at a baby contest yesterday. We was a pretty babies, pretty
boys and all that. And every time they'd bring a
baby out, they'd herald the baby's name. Mom and daddy's name, proclaim
the moment, that's what it is. It means to herald the name of
Christ. It means to proclaim the name
of Christ. It means to say Christ is here. Christ has come. Christ is in
the gospel. Christ is in the scripture. And
it means to herald or proclaim. And thirdly, it means to tell
thoroughly. Preaching means to tell thoroughly. And, oh, beloved, look, I want
you to see with me over here in Galatians 1.23. And not only
preaching is to preach the faith. It's to preach the faith. It's
to preach the Word. Look with me quickly here in
Galatians 1.23. And preaching is the faith. It's preaching the faith. It's
preaching the Word. It's preaching the kingdom. Paul
said over here about preaching, you know, here he says, here
I'll preach Christ Jesus the Lord, but look what he says here
about him here in Galatians 1.23 when we talk about preaching
the faith. But they that heard only that he which persecuted
us in time past now preaches the faith which he wants destroyed. The faith, beloved, here he's
talking about is the gospel, the objective faith, the things
that we believe. The content of the gospel. Christ
in His person. And that's why Paul says he went
confirming the souls of them, exhorting them to continue in
the faith. Contending for the faith which
was once delivered unto the saints. Now, we know what our faith is.
People say, what's your faith? Baptist. Presbyterian. That's
not what we talk about when we're talking about the faith. When
Paul's talking about the faith, he's talking about the content
of what we believe. Who do we believe? Why do we
believe Him? Why do we believe and trust Christ?
Who is the Lord Jesus Christ? What did He come to do? Why did
He come to do it? Where is He now? To whom are
we trusting our souls to? Why are we doing it? So there's
a faith, an objective faith that He's talking about that we believe.
An objective faith that we can set out and give a reason of
our hope. I can stand before God today
and before you and give a reason of my hope that when I go into
eternity, I'll be received and accepted of God. And that's what
he's talking about when he's talking about the faith here.
And then, beloved, the Word. Preaching is not only the faith,
but the Word and the Kingdom. Now, beloved, there are 67 references
that speak of preaching, either the Gospel or Christ Jesus. Sixty-seven
of them. References that preach either
the Gospel or Jesus Christ. And oh beloved, that's what he
said over here in 2 Corinthians 4. That's why the God of this
world has blinded the mind. And that's why it's called the
glorious Gospel of Christ, the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now in preaching the faith, in
preaching the Word, in preaching the Kingdom, all of them relate
to our Lord Jesus Christ. He's the object of our faith.
Is that not right? There are people who the object
of their faith is their faith. The object of their faith is
in the profession they made. The object of their faith is
in the experience that they had. The object of their faith is
that I can take it to the time and I can take it to the place.
But Christ is the object of our faith. And I mean, I looked to
Him yesterday, I'm going to look to Him today. I'm not going to
trust Him in the experience I've had. I'm not going to trust Him
one today. I'm not going to trust Him one tomorrow. I looked at
Him yesterday. I'm going to look to Him today.
And God helping me, I'm going to look to Him until I see Him
face to face. That's what I'm talking about.
He's the object of our faith. And not only that, but He's the
subject of the Word. From Genesis 1-1 to Revelation
22, when He says in the beginning, God, said, and Christ was the Word
by which God created this world. He was the seed of the woman
in Genesis 3.15. He was the bloodshed and the
covering that covered Adam and Eve, all the way to Revelation
22, 21. He said, Amen, even so, come
Lord Jesus. I mean, He's the content and
subject of the Word. And then when we preach the kingdom,
we're preaching Christ is the ruler of the kingdom, the king
of the kingdom, not a cunning king in some millennial age way
out in the future here, but Christ is on His throne right now, ruling
with all power and authority. I mean, every soul is subject
unto Him to do with them as He pleases. He's the king right
now. And oh, beloved, Whenever the
New Testament identifies the subject of preaching, that subject
is always the Lord Jesus Christ. Always. Always. And thank God
I ran across a preacher one day who told me that. And God used
him. And let me tell you a little
bit about the consequences of not preaching Christ. You know,
only preaching Christ has authority from the Scriptures. That's why
most preachers don't have any authority. They're not preaching
anybody that has any authority. They're preaching a one-legged,
a one-armed Jesus. A helpless, impotent nobody. And, beloved, if you don't preach
him as he is, then you have no authority in your preaching.
You're always making suggestions or implications and things like
that. But, beloved, if you don't let
me... Now, keep that crispness. Look with me in John 5.39. Just
a moment. John 5.39. You know, This is why we have authority.
This is why we love preaching the gospel. The authority is
not in the preaching. The authority is in the Word.
It's in Christ. And if you know what your content
is, and you know what your message is, you don't have to back up
from anybody. Huh? And here in John 5.39, our
Lord Jesus Christ said to him here, it says, search the Scriptures. Go through the Scriptures. Now
what Scriptures is he talking about? He's talking about the
Old Testament. The New Testament hasn't been written yet. You
go back to the Old Testament and you search them. You search
Moses. Moses wrote to me. To him, all
the prophets give witness. He says, you go back and you
search them scriptures. Because you look at them and
you say, I've got eternal life. He said, you think you do? You
believe you do? Well, you go back there then
and you search them and see if what you see when you look into
them, if they're talking about me. See if they're talking about
me. It's like our Lord Jesus Christ
told His holy disciples on the road to Emmaus. He said, Ought
not Christ who has suffered to enter into His glory as it is
written in the Psalms and in the Prophets and in Moses concerning
me? And all beloved, failing to proclaim
the Lord Jesus Christ, we rob God of His glory. And oh my,
oh to God be the glory! Great things He hath done! And
all, beloved, failing to proclaim the Lord Jesus Christ, we take
God and take His glory away from Him. God's glory, He vested it
in His Son. He put all of His eggs in one
basket. That's why it says He revealed
the glory of God, perhaps in the person of Jesus Christ. He
was the image of the invisible God, the brightness of His glory. And oh my, when we take Christ
and don't proclaim Him, God's glory does not shine at all. And our hearers are deprived
of spiritual food. Look there in John 6, 35-30 with
me just a moment. And you as God's dear children,
God's blessed children of God, they're deprived of spiritual
food. I remember here three or four years ago, a dear, dear,
dear brother of mine, and a lot of people, they got
him a new preacher. He was supposed to preach the
gospel, and after about three or four months, his own kids
come to him, said to him, says, man, I'm about to starve to death.
About to starve to death. He said, well, I thought it was
just me. He come to find out they all got starved to death
on this fellow's preaching. He had some good doctrine. But
he said that's what it was. He said he'd, you know, he would
He had talked about doctrine, but he never did talk about a
person. They had been used to hearing about a person and their
relationship to a person being fed from the table of grace with
justification and righteousness and grace free and full in Christ. Talking about Christ being the
head of the body. And them members, they're being
joined to Him. And oh my, I just went on and
on. And they finally all just said,
Daddy, let's just go. I can't live on this. And a bunch of them left. They
said, Man, I'm starving to death. Starving to death. The fellow
said to me, What do you think about it? I said, You know, you're
the one that has to listen to it, not me. No. But look here, that's what I'm
saying. We don't want God's people to start to death. Look here
in verse 30, John 6. Look what our Master said here. They said therefore unto him,
What sign showest thou then that we may see and believe thee?
What doest thou work? Our fathers did eat manna in
the desert. You going to give us some manna
like they did in the desert? Our fathers didn't eat manna
of the desert as it was written. He gave them bread from heaven.
You're going to give us a sign like that? Our Lord said unto
them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Moses didn't give you that
bread. Moses had nothing to do with giving you that bread. But
my father, Moses, the law cannot feed you. Moses can't give you
no bread. He can't give you nothing. Moses
gave you not that bread, but my Father giveth you the true
bread from heaven. For the bread of God, bread of
God, do you see that? The bread of God is He. Not manna,
He. Yes, sir. Which cometh down from
heaven and giveth life unto the world. Oh, my, this is what I
say, Lord, evermore give me this bread. And our Lord said, I am
the bread of life. He that cometh to me shall never
hunger, and he that believeth on me shall never thirst. I'm
satisfied with Him. I'm not looking for bread, no
place else. Are you? And oh, beloved, we
can and we will, by God's blessed grace, proclaim our Lord Jesus
Christ from the Old Testament as well as from the New. Isaiah,
our Lord, said, I'm going to just tell you some things our
Lord said about Himself in the New Testament. He said, Isaiah
saw my glory. And this is what he said. He
told Nicodemus, he said, as Moses lifted up the serpent in the
wilderness, I've got to be after that. He said, Abraham! He rejoiced to see my day and
was so glad. Jonah! Y'all want to sign? You
know about Jonah. He went down in that well and
stayed down there three days and three nights. He said, that's
what I'm going to do. That's what I'm going to do. And, oh, beloved, we should only
preach the Lord Jesus. You know, some people say, oh,
this is the consequence of not preaching Christ. Some say we
should only preach Christ to the unconverted. Believers don't need Him preached
to them. Oh, my. What would I have to say this
morning? I know preachers that they have evangelistic services,
one service on Sunday and then a message for the church, the
other service. I don't know what that has to
do with evangelistic service, one service, then a service for
the church. How are you going to separate
the message, Brad? How are you going to do that? Oh, my. They say lots of other
things we need to know. We need to know some other things.
We need to disciple people. Well, let me tell you something. I ain't never made a disciple. I've never won a soul. And it's not my responsibility.
You know what you need to know? God will teach you. That's my
responsibility to preach Christ to you, and He'll teach you what
you need to know. They say, let's move on to higher, deeper things. Let's get into prophecy. Let's
get into some prophecy. Let's get into the deep things
of God. Let's get into more spiritual
things. Well, let me ask you, who is
higher than the Lord Jesus Christ, sitting on His throne, sitting
in His glory? Where's the Lord at, the old
black preacher said? Where is He at? He's in His glory. That's where He's at. What message
is deeper than Christ? He's God. He inhabited eternity. He said He was on earth and in
the heaven. He said, you know, He said, I'm
in heaven and earth at the same time, He said in John chapter
2. How can He be here and there
at the same time? I tell you how He can. He's God! And He's man. Huh? Oh, my. Can you be more spiritual than
being united to Christ? Than knowing Christ? Paul said,
I want to know Christ. I want to win Christ. I want
to be found in Christ. And when it's all said and done,
when I'll reap the glory, that'll be my prize. Christ is my prize
now. I want to win Him. People want
to win crowns and want to win stars. I want Christ. I want to know Him. I don't want
to just know some things about Him. I mean, He walks and talks
with His people. You can hear His voice. Hearing
His voice in every line. I want to be found when God looks
at me and sees me and sees you and sees this body of believers
and He looks down on us. He sees Christ and us found in
Him. Shelter in Him, bear in Him,
lost in Him, consumed in Him. That's what I want us to be. Old timers and Puritans were
bad for this. Old timers and some today say
the law, what it does is sends us to the gospel that we might
be justified. We go to Calvary to get justified,
go to the cross to be justified, and then the gospel turns around
to send us back to the law to tell us how to live. Don't believe
that for a minute. Don't believe that for a minute.
I don't want nothing to do with the law. Christ has done dealt
with it for me. Oh, what does the scripture say?
Are we to preach the gospel to the unsaved and the law to believers? Oh, look over here in Romans
8, 4 with me just a moment. Look at this with me. Oh, my. You know, that's why Christ was
made a curse. Galatians 3, 13, while you turn
over, let me quote this to you. Christ was made a curse. Cursed is every one that hangeth
on a tree. Christ was made a curse for us,
for us to redeem us, to buy us out from under the bondage and
the condemnation and the guilt of God's holy law. Romans 8 verse
3 says this, For what the law could not do, in that it was
weak through the flesh, our old fallen nature, Look what God
did. He sent His own Son in the likeness
of sinful flesh. And for sin, as a sacrifice for
sin, He condemned it, He judged it, He put away sin in His own
flesh, on the body, on the tree. And He done this that the righteousness
of the law might be fulfilled in us. The righteousness of the
law. And you know the righteousness
of the law means that you keep the law from the day you're born
to the day you die. That God looks at you and says,
love me. I do. Do you with your heart? I do.
With all your soul? I do. With all your strength?
I do. Do you love your neighbor as
yourself? I do. You don't covet? I don't. Commit adultery? Never have. Told a lie? Never have I told
a lie. The righteousness of the law
is fulfilled in us. Now watch this. We're not walking
after the flesh. That flesh ain't contributed
one iota of our salvation. But what are we doing? We're walking after Christ and
what the Holy Spirit tells us in His Word. Now my experience
tells me something else. The boy of faith right now is
telling me, everybody, I say, this is so, this is so, this
is real, this is it! And Romans 10, verse 4 says this,
Christ is the end of the law. But for? For righteousness. Oh, when you know, have you ever
been to some place and you pull in somewhere and it says, dead
end! Dead end! No way it happened. That's what Christ is. He's the
dead end of the law. He's the end of it. He's the
fulfillment of it. He's the goal of it. And as the end of it, He's our
righteousness. Not to anybody that does, but
He that believes. Ain't that right? And look over here with me in
Hebrews 12, where does the word tell us to look? It don't never
ever tell us to look to the law. And I have had some conversation
with lots of people over this law business. Lots and lots of conversations
and had folks to leave and quit coming around because of this
law business. They want the law, they're welcome
to it. I ain't got, I don't want it. I ain't going to deny it.
We're not going to have it by God's grace. But what does the,
what does the Word, where does the Word tell us to look? Tell
us to trust? Look what it says here, Hebrews
12, 2. Hebrews 12, 2. Looking to Jesus. What else does it say? He's the author. He's the one
who begins our faith. You know, I like certain authors,
and I look for certain books. They start a book, and they finish
it. Christ said He begins our faith. He gives it to us. He produces
it in us. He makes Himself the object of
it. Watch what it says here. And the finisher of it. He touched
the book and he is a book. He which hath begun a good work
in you, he'll finish it. Ain't that what he says? Oh,
not only that, but look what he says. Who for the joy that
was set before him, endured at the cross, despising the shame,
sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. And oh, beloved,
look what he says here, for consider him. Study him. Ponder him. Concentrate on him. Give him full attention. Now, what happens when we preach
Christ, when we preach the gospel? What happens? Well, look over
here at 2 Corinthians with me just a moment. 2 Corinthians
2. What happens when we preach the
gospel? What happens? Something happens
every time we preach the gospel. Henry Mahan's got a message he
preached years and years ago on a trail of life and death. Wherever the preacher goes, he
leaves behind him a trail of life and death. And that's what Paul's saying
here. Look here in verse 12 with me. 2 Corinthians 2. He says, furthermore, when I
came to Troas to preach Christ's gospel, and a door was opened
to me of the Lord. He came to Troas, what did he
say? To preach Christ's gospel. A door was opened unto me. He
said, I had no rest. I had no rest in my spirit because
I found not Titus my brother, but taking my leave of him, I
went from this into Macedonia. Now look what he says, now thanks
be unto God. which always, always causes us
to triumph. We're at? In Christ. Not in the church. Not in denomination. Not in our works. Not in our
resolutions. Not in our resolve. But triumph
in Christ. Now watch this. And makes manifest. Makes manifest the savor. And
that word savor means a fragrance. The savor, the fragrance of His
knowledge by us in every place we go. every place we go, for
we are unto God a sweet savor of Christ in them that are saved
and in them that perish. To the one we are savor of death
unto death, and to the other savor of life unto life, who
is sufficient to these things." And what Paul is saying here
is that the preaching of Christ causes a fragrance, causes a
sweet smelling fragrance. You remember when Mary took and
she broke that alabaster box of ointment and anointed Christ's
body for his burying? In the last, I think it's Mark
15, maybe you can read about that. She opened that and everybody
that was in that room, everybody's in that room was blessed by that
fragrance. I mean, they smelled the fragrance
of that alabaster box of ointment. But there was one in that room,
and it was a sweet smelling savor, but there was one in that room
who says, this should have been sold for 300 pence and given
to the poor. One feller did not like the smell
of that Christ being prepared for his burial. One didn't like
it. This is Judas, and there's always
somebody who don't like the fragrance. That was a savor of death unto
him. That was the savor of death unto him. But in the knowledge
of Christ, in us making Christ known, to the saved and to the unsaved,
the fragrance, first of all, watch what he says there in verse
15, we are unto God a sweet savor in Christ. The first fragrance
is it goes to God himself. When we preach Christ, the fragrance
rises to God. That's the first place it rises.
That's why we preach for the glory. The first thing when you're
preaching Christ, it's a sweet smell and fragrance to God. It's
like that altar of incense, that golden altar that stood before
the holiest of holies, right before the veil. That thing just
continually burned and offered that incense that burned up and
went up to God, representing the prayers of Christ. You see,
preaching the Lord Jesus is an act of worship. It's an act of
worship. Whether men accept it, whether
men receive it or not, it's an act of worship. And God is pleased. He's pleased in proclaiming His
Son. You know what? I will have you
look at this. We'll just look at it. We've got plenty of time. Look over here in John 5 with
me just a moment. John 5. God is pleased in the
proclaiming of His Son. Old Simon Peter said, Lord, let's
make us three tabernacles here, one for Moses, one for Elijah,
and one for you. What did he say? God spoke from
heaven. God himself, when he said that,
said, Simon Peter, you thick-headed, cold-hearted, hopping-off preacher. He said, this is my beloved son. You listen to him. Moses, that's
who he talked about. And that's who Elijah was preaching
about. And look what he said here in
John 5.22, talking about God's pleas and the proclaiming of
His Son. For the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all
judgment unto the Son. that all men should honor the
Son, even as they honor the Father. Now, we see all these judges,
you know, they sit on the bench, and they sit there to judge,
and everybody says, Your Honor. And that fellow sitting on the
bench, he's got all the power, he's got all the authority, he
can tell somebody to sit down and shut up, he can hold them
in contempt. He's the judge. Your Honor! Well, God said here,
My Son is the judge. I've put everything in Him. I've
committed everything to Him. And He said, I'll tell you what,
if you honor Him, always honor Him, honor Him with your words,
honor Him with your life, honor Him with your thoughts, honor
Him with your actions, honor Him with your deed, honor Him
with your message, honor Him with your heart, honor Him. And He says, you know what you'll
do when you do that? You'll be honoring Me too. But if you don't, you don't even honor the Father
that sent you. Oh, my. And that's why, beloved, we're
going to honor Him in our speech, our service, our worship. And
don't you love to hear Christ honored? Isn't He a sweet fragrance to
you? Isn't He a sweet fragrance to you? I know He is to me. When
I'm by myself, you know I, and I need Him. I'll tell you right
here before all of you. I absolutely need the Lord Jesus
Christ. I need Him. There's nobody weaker
among you than me. But isn't He a sweet fragrance?
And He's our hiding place. Let me close with Isaiah 32.
It says we ain't gonna give an altar call in conclusion. I ain't going to sneak up on
you. In conclusion, look here in Isaiah
32. He's our hiding place. Look what
it says. Oh, what a blessed place for
us to be. And he says there, Behold, a
king shall reign in righteousness, and princes shall rule in judgment.
And watch this, and a man shall be as a hiding place from the
wind. When that old cold wind's blowing, or that hot wind's blowing,
making you wither. That old dry wind, it dries everything
out. And then there's a tempest, there's
a covert. And a covert, you know, is just
a place to get in. And a covert from the tempest.
And the tempest's going to come. It's going to come through your
children, it's going to come through your Husbands, it's going
to come through death, it's going to come through trials, it's
going to come. Tempests, oh, the tempest is
going to come, and it's going to just whirl around, throw you
around, and beat you, and wear you, and beat you down. And all, beloved, as rivers of
water in a dry place. You ever come in here, and you
ever felt like your life was just used as a dry line, and
lifeless? Your heart was dry, your mind
was dry, your soul was dry. You say, oh Lord, I'm so dry.
But He's just rivers of water in that dry place. And oh my,
you're going through this old weary land. I sure would love
to have a shadow sit down here. Well, sit down. He's that great
rock. Just sit down. And watch what
happens here now. And the eyes of them that see,
they won't be dim anymore. You'll see clearly. And the ears
of them that hear, they're going to say, Oh, I hear. I hear. I hear. Oh, what is our message? What we need, the Lord Jesus
Christ. Our Father, oh gracious, gracious
Father, thank You for meeting with us
today. Thank You for Your Gospel. Thank You for Your Son. Thank
You that You taught us the Gospel, that You taught us what it is
to trust Christ, to bring us to the place where we trust Him,
we need Him, and we look to Him. And Father, I know that there
are some here today in their heart of hearts who've never
confessed Christ. They've done what we talked about
today. They looked to Him. They needed Him. They said, yes,
He's the object of my faith. And I want to hide in Him. I
want to find assurance in Him. And Lord, only You can give that.
Only You can give that rest to the heart. Only You can give
that peace. Only You can give that assurance. And I pray that
You would give it. God bless and strengthen You,
dear saints, here today. We thank you for Christ our Lord.
Amen. Turn to 3.56 in our hymn book.
We'll stand and sing this. Then you'll be at liberty to
go. 3.56. Nope, nope, nope, nope, nope. 2.56. 2.58.
2.58. I'll get it right in a minute. Two-fifty-eight. A wonderful Savior is Jesus my
Lord, a wonderful Savior and for the wrong and for the
wrong and for the wrong and for the wrong and for the