I'm going to start reading in verse 13, and we'll read down to the end of the chapter. Now, this is taking place right after Jesus's resurrection, and so we're picking up after Jesus is raised from the dead and has been seen by the women and by some of the apostles.

Verse 13, it says, And behold, two of them went the same day to a village called Emmaus, which was from Jerusalem about three score furlongs. And they talked together of all the things which had happened. And it came to pass that while they communed together in reason, Jesus himself drew near and went with them. But their eyes were holding that they should not know him. And he said unto them, what manner of communication are these that ye have one to another as ye walk and are sad?

And one of them, whose name was Cleophas, answered and said unto him, art thou only a stranger in Jerusalem, has not known the things which are come to pass here in these days? And he said unto them, what things? And they said unto him concerning Jesus of Nazareth, which was a prophet, mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, and how the chief priest and our rulers delivered him to be condemned to death and have crucified him. But we trusted that it had been he which should have redeemed Israel. Besides all this, today is the third day since these things were done.

Yea, and certain women, also our own company, made us astonished, which were early at the sepulcher. When they found Nadi's body, they came saying that they had also seen the vision of angels, which said that he was alive. and certain of them which were with us to the sepulcher, and found it even so as the women had said, but him they saw not.

Then he said unto them, O fools and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets had spoken. Here's the verse I really want us to contemplate this morning. Ought not Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into his glory? And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.

And they drew nigh unto the village, whether they went, and he made as though he would have gone further. But they constrained him, saying, Abide with us, for it is toward evening, and the day is far spent. And he went in and tarried with them, and it came to pass, as he sat at meat with them, he took bread and blessed it, and break, and gave to them. And their eyes were opened, and they knew him, and he vanished out of their sight.

And they said one to another, did not our heart burn within us while he talked with us by the way, and while he opened to us the scriptures? And they rose up the same hour and returned to Jerusalem, and found the 11 gathered together, and them that were with them, saying, the Lord is risen indeed, and hath appeared to Simon. And they told what things were done in the way and how he was known of them in breaking of bread.

And as they thus spake, Jesus himself stood in their midst of them and said unto them, peace be unto you. But they were terrified and afraid and supposed that they had seen a spirit. And he said unto them, why are you troubled? And why do thoughts arise in your hearts? Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself, handle me. See, for a spirit hath not flesh and bones as you see me have. And when he had thus spoken, he showed them his hands and his feet.

And while they yet believed not for joy and wondered, he said unto them, have you any meat? And they gave him a piece of broiled fish and of a honeycomb. And he took it and did eat before them. And he said unto them, These are the words which I spake unto you while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses and in the prophets and in the Psalms concerning me. Then opened he their understanding.

Boy, this verse gets past a lot of people. Then he opened up their understanding. Why? that they might understand the scriptures. And said unto them, thus it is written and thus behoove Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day. And that repentance and remission of sin should be preached in his name among all nations beginning at Jerusalem. And you are witnesses of these things and behold, I send the promise of my father upon you But tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem until ye be endued with power from on high.

And he led them out as far as Bethany, and he lifted up his hands and blessed them. And it came to pass while he blessed them, he was parted from them and carried up into heaven. And they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy and were continually in the temple praising and blessing God, amen.

Now brethren, as I was reading through this account, that verse 26 really did kind of stick out to me. Jesus asked these men who had been with him, these men had tarried with Jesus throughout his sojourn, these last three years of his ministry. They were one of the members of the church at Jerusalem. They were, ones that Jesus had specifically preached to and taught on a regular basis. They had been following him around and had been underneath his preaching and teaching. And yet here they are after Jesus's death, his burial, and his resurrection, these men were still in unbelief of all the things that Jesus had told them, which tells me, brethren, that you can be under the best preaching, the best teaching, you can have all the right information provided to you, presented before you, laid out in all of its most easy to read formats, bullet points for you, summarizations for you.

Matter of fact, I'll use the chat GPT or AI, Google things, Grok or whatever it is, sometimes to take pieces of stuff like that at my work. I'll take all my notes of everything that I've done on a machine that I speak into my talk to text. I'll put that in there and I'll tell it, you know, edit this for spelling and grammar and make it sound like a professional report. And it will line everything that I said, but it will bullet point it out and it will summarize everything in a really professional manner, concise. and everything like that. And it's amazing.

Matter of fact, this morning I did the same thing. I was actually reading through some stuff and I wanted to see what John Gill had to say about it. And it had like a paragraph, you know, I was reading it. It was like a big old long paragraph and stuff. You know how John Gill is. He's really wordy. He tells you 15 things that it's not before he tells you what it is. I copied all that and I threw it into ChatGPT and I said, can you summarize this and bullet point it for me? And it put it in a nice little concise thing, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, exactly what Gil said. And it made it quicker and easier for me to read and everything instead of reading, you know, five pages of negative versus positive.

But it doesn't matter how well that's presented to us. These men walked with Jesus, talked with Jesus, heard the master, much less the word of God, speak these words to them. But until Christ decides sovereignly to open their understanding, they could not believe these things.

Now, they were three years with him. And a lot of people would think, you know, after three years of hearing Jesus tell them that he was gonna die, that he was coming and that his purpose for being here wasn't what they thought. It's not him coming as a dictator, emperor, king, physically, that he's coming in a spiritual way to spiritually do a work in a spiritual kingdom for a spiritual people. You would think after three years that they would get the idea at the very least they would at least believe the multiple times that Jesus told them that he was going to be delivered up by the leaders and that was going to be crucified that he was going to die and was going to raise on the third day Jesus told them that two or three times and so you would think that these guys would have known that and seen that and then whenever it actually happened say hey that's what Jesus did but brethren even though they heard all that they seen all those Miracles that Jesus did proving that who he was And then it went through the experience of Jesus being captured by the leaders and being tried falsely and then being crucified and then dying being buried and then rose again on the third day and Even their own people to their own confession their own people going to the tomb and seeing Jesus gone Still did not believe the gospel did not believe the account of Jesus' death, burial, and resurrection.

Now, to me, I'm looking back at that in human understanding, looking at that and saying, well, that's dumb. Why didn't those guys automatically just believe that? Well, brethren, that's the nature of who we are. We do not believe. We cannot perceive spiritual things. I don't care who it is and how well they are educated they can have 15 20 35 50 letters behind their name degrees they can have gone to every seminary in the world and got degrees from all of them and may have the best oratory skills in all the world but brethren listen jesus himself taught these men and yet they still didn't believe but yet whenever it was pleasing to God to open up their understanding of all of what had taken place, their eyes were opened and they knew Him.

You see that in verse 31? Their eyes were opened. It doesn't say they opened their eyes or they finally changed their mind. It said their eyes were opened. And whenever we look down to verse 45, we see who opened their eyes. It said, then opened he their understanding that they might understand the scriptures. Now, who was that talking about in verse 45? It wasn't just talking about the two men on the road to Emmaus, but at this point, they had went back to the 11 and the rest of the church who was gathered together And it says he opened their understanding. All those men, the 11 apostles that were there, he opened their understanding because they still didn't understand it. All the women that were there, all the other men that were there that weren't the apostles that were disciples, he opened up their understanding.

Brethren, listen, I'm here to tell you that unless God opens our understanding, we cannot, cannot, know the scriptures. And here we have people running all over the world thinking if we just preach these words, these black letters on white pages to all these people and everything, and if we'll just take our time to explain it to them or condense it down in the best way we can, make little puppets and do puppet shows, write out little crayon sketches for them, have little plays and cantatas, and if we have worship teams that get up there and sing it for you, whatever the case might be, they think that if we present this gospel that it's something that people are going to believe.

But brethren, it doesn't matter how much effort you put into preaching the gospel. Now I'm not Condemning preaching the gospel. I'm not saying don't tell people the gospel. I'm not saying it's not important to preach Or to share the gospel. I'm just saying we have to get our understanding of how it works

We are not converting anybody. We are not bringing in anybody. We are not gathering in a militant church We are not a militant church that's going out that is conquering the world for Jesus Christ. There is one sacrifice that saved his people. That one sacrifice is for all times, and it completely and efficaciously did everything that God required for the salvation of a people. So there is no more gathering and doing. Jesus is the one who gathers. He gathers his sheep. He is the great shepherd. He is bringing his sheep into the fold.

We preach and declare the truth of the gospel. We declare to those people that are out there that have been already saved, we declare to them the gospel of their salvation. Whenever God is pleased to give them the ears to hear it, he opens their ears. They hear that and they follow the shepherd.

All these children of God that are in all these apostate churches and all these false churches and everything like that when it pleases God to open their ears He will open their ears and guess what? He does open the ears of people in false churches under false gospel. I believe I was one of them He opened my ears and opened up my heart and opened up my understanding to the true gospel Even though I was under a false gospel under false preaching and teaching of the gospel.

And so even though that is true, we are in under those false systems. Whenever the Holy Spirit teaches us, it's whenever we learn of him. And that's what happened to these men here. They were walking on the road to Emmaus and Christ taught them and opened up their eyes, opened up their understanding to understand the things about Christ.

Now, that was just kind of a side note of things to understand that the gospel and believing the gospel and understanding the scriptures is a spiritually enabled act of God. God enacts upon us the ability to discern and to hear and to understand spiritual things. Until he does that, we are left in darkness. We are left into the devices of our own thinking and our own wisdom. And there are many dear brethren, brothers and sisters in the flesh, moms and dads, aunts and uncles, grandmas and grandpas, cousins, who are still in the darkness and believing things by the wisdom of man.

But until God gives them understanding, they will continue in that darkness. They will continue believing a lie. They will continue believing on a false Jesus. These men. Had to have their understanding open, but like I said, verse 26 was really the thing that caught my eye because Jesus asked them whenever they described everything that happened about him. He said, did you not know that, hey, man, this guy came in and was killed and was buried and resurrected. Now he's not there. They say that he's that he's alive. And Jesus said, ought not Christ to have suffered the things and to enter into his glory? He asked him a question of, well, isn't this what should have been? It's like it's almost as if Jesus politely said, well, duh. Isn't that what was supposed to take place with the Messiah?

Notice how he said Christ, ought not Christ. The word Christ there, it means Messiah, the anointed one. He was the Messiah. And yet here, these men, whenever they was talking about it, they said Jesus of Nazareth, which was a prophet, mighty indeed, and word. And they said, Where was it here? I lost my place But we trusted verse 21, but we trusted that it had been he which should have redeemed Israel So it's almost as if they thought well, we thought this was the Messiah, but obviously it must not be Because he died and was buried but now they're telling us he's alive, but we don't know for sure We just know some women said that and some of our own brethren said that.

And Jesus here comes in and says, wait a minute, should not the Christ have suffered these things and entered into his glory? It's almost as if Jesus was saying, was not this the plan altogether, boys? Isn't this the plan that has been talked about, not only by me, but has been talked about throughout all the Old Testament? Was this not the plan before the foundation of the world? Well, we know it is, don't we? We know that this is the gospel that was preached to them by Jesus.

He said, and beginning at Moses and all the prophets He expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself." So Jesus took the Bible, at that time all they had was the Old Testament. Jesus took the Bible and he sat down with these men and he showed them everywhere from Moses, meaning all the books of Moses, all the books of the prophets, and the Psalms, as we see later, and the Psalms, that all that was written in them were of him. The Bible says that in the volume of the book, it is written of him. He is the message of the Bible. It isn't the message of other things, although there's other things in here, the central point in every other thing that's written in the scriptures is to point us to Jesus Christ.

Just recently, a few months back or so, a well-known internet preacher with lots of accolades behind his name from seminary and from books written and things such as that. went on record on YouTube and some messages that he preached, vilifying me and many other preachers, saying that we don't preach the whole counsel of God. That all we do is continue to bark and bark and bark and bark about the imputed righteousness of Christ. Christ's death, burial, and resurrection. and that we don't preach the whole counsel of God, but that if we would come and sit under his ministry, that we would get the whole counsel of God preached to us, and that he could teach us everything that's written in the book.

Well, brother, number one, that man nor any other man teaches you anything. I don't teach you anything. If you come to know anything of the truth by hearing something that I said, it's because, number one, I spoke the truth by the Holy Spirit. Second of all, the Holy Spirit taught you in your heart that what was being said was truth. Just like with these men, when Jesus began to preach all of him in the Old Testament, it burned within their heart that was truth. Not because Jesus made it easy peasy, one, two, threesies. Okay? It's not because Jesus spelled it out in vacation Bible school language. It's because Jesus opened up their heart by his spirit and preached unto them in their heart and taught them

So that no man has need that any man teach you because all of us has the anointing from above that teaches us. We don't have to have another man to tell us what the truth of the Bible is. Because the Holy Spirit of God comes and proclaims Christ to us. He doesn't proclaim everything else. He proclaims Christ. He comes and preaches to us Christ in the Old Testament, in the New Testament. He comes and proclaims Jesus Christ.

And so I say to that man who was vilifying all of us preachers that preach and harbor on Christ alone and harbor on imputed righteousness and death, burial and resurrection all the time and try to find that in every part of the scriptures. Number one, that's the food upon which the brethren feast. Jesus said, this is my body, and this is my blood given for you. This is the bread that came down out of heaven. Your fathers ate manna and died. But the food that I give to you, it's sustenance, it's true food. It's the food that will keep you sustained.

And brethren, if you, anybody here, Is honest What do we like to hear Listen, I love to hear about Church history. Don't get me wrong. I like to hear about that up to a certain point I like to hear about teaching on the church the local church and and the the administration of the local church the the the officers of the church, the ordinances of the church. Those are things that we ought to preach on once in a while, brother. Listen, I love to hear about all the things that goes on in the Bible. But brother, the thing that, when it comes down to it, that feeds my soul is whenever I hear what Christ has done. to hear of the majestic nature of our God and the glorious salvation that he has accomplished. That is the whole of the book. If you talk about Genesis to Malachi, every bit of that talks about the crucified Messiah. Everything from Matthew to Revelation talks about the crucified Messiah. It's the revelation of Jesus Christ.

And ought it not Christ have come to suffer? Well, absolutely, because that's what was written. in Moses and the prophets and the Psalms. Ought it not that Christ come, suffered, and go into His glory? Absolutely, because before the foundation of the world, God in the determinate counsel of His own will and purpose had already decreed that Christ stands as the lamb slain for all the elect people of God. And that by that determinant counsel, he chose that wicked men with their wicked hands would do the wicked deed of crucifying his son unjustly. God determined that before the foundation of the world.

So absolutely Christ ought to have suffered these things and then enter into glory because God, before the foundation of the world, chose Christ as the mediator between God and man, the only mediator between God and man. And God, before the foundation of the world, chose that Christ would mediate that through death, through blood, that his people would be redeemed by the blood of the crucified lamb. And so that, brethren, It's an absolute yes. Ought not Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into his glory? Well, if Christ did not do those things, then God is not God because God declared that to be such before Adam even brought sin and death into this world. God declared that to be so. And if God declared that to be so, it is not going to not happen. Otherwise, God would have been wrong in his declaration. Otherwise, what God foreknew and determined, he could not bring about.

Although God declared this is what was going to be so, therefore, our God does change. But the Bible says that he changes not. That all of his promises are yea and amen in Christ Jesus. He promised the salvation of his people. That they would be brought down into Adam. That they would be lost in Adam. But they would be recovered, redeemed out of that by Christ, the second Adam.

Look with me, if you would, at 1 Peter chapter 1. You know, whether people say it or not, whether they say they believe it or not, whenever you believe that Christ, let me start with the Arminian side first. If you believe that God had a plan, and that plan began after Adam's fall. Some say, and this is what I grew up under, being taught, This is what I myself had taught, that God made Adam in his image, desired to have a love relationship with his creation, and made him in his image, filled him with his spirit.

Adam chose, made a choice to sin because God left it up to him to decide, to choose, because God wants a real love relationship You can't have a real love relationship unless you have free will and free choice. You have to have the ability to reciprocate the love that God gives to you. Although the Bible clearly says that we don't have a love for God unless it's given to us by God. But I believed and taught and had heard all my life that God wanted this relationship.

Well, that was lost whenever Adam sinned and chose to sin. Therefore, now God wants to get God back into the man. And he chose to do that with a plan. His plan was sending Christ to die for the world. And that people could choose Christ and God would come back into the man. And now once in the man, he now controls the man. and brings that man into such a relationship that that man will let God be God in him so that God can be seen through this outward world so everybody will know what God is like.

That's it in a nutshell. That's what I was taught. That's what I was teaching other people. That's what I continue to hear coming from pulpits all over the place. That God wants this love relationship and it reciprocates by man's free choice. and it reciprocates by man letting God have control of his life, being Lord of his life, and if he lets God do that, then God will get into action in that man and create a holy person, will create a obedient person, will do all these wonderful works in that person if they'll let God do that.

But brethren, listen, there is also a reform view that says that God has elected a people, but he elected them after Adam fell. That God made Adam upright, but Adam fell. And once Adam fell, then God elected a people out of Adam to be saved, chose a people out of Adam to be saved. And so he sent his son and that son died for only those people, but yet that death is sufficient for anybody. but was only effectual for those people he chose out of Adam.

Well, brethren, I'm sad to say that both of those systems are incorrect according to scripture. Number one, God chose before the foundation of the world a people in Christ, not out of Adam. Now, yet he put those people into Adam when he created Adam and he redeems them out of Adam. but he didn't choose them out of Adam. They were chosen before they were put in Adam. They were in Christ before they were in Adam. They were in him before the foundation of the world.

Second of all, God doesn't desire a love relationship that's reciprocal by free will. God chose the people, put them in Adam, determined that Adam would bring sin and death into the world by his transgression. Therefore, all of the human race is under sin and is under death, yet his people, who he out of one lump has chosen some to be vessels of honor, some to be vessels of dishonor, and the ones out of honor, he redeems those people by his grace, by his mercy, which sovereignly he has the right to shed upon anybody that he wants to shed upon. He gives them that mercy. He gives them that grace. He brings them up out of sin and death. To the glory of his grace. He leaves the rest of them as he is chosen in Adam. He is left the rest of them in their sin in their death. To show his wrath is justice. His hatred of sin. He's done all those things.

but yet God gave love to his people so that they could love him because they couldn't love him without him first loving them. See, if we love him because he first loved us and God loves everybody, then everybody loves God because God's love produces a love for him back. So if you want to preach a reciprocal love, if God wants a reciprocal love, then you better start preaching that God sovereignly gives that love to the person who never had it. Then you have to answer the question, then how come not everybody has it? Why do some have it and some don't have it? But I'm kind of getting off my point here.

Back to 1 Peter, God's purpose all along was that Christ would be the lamb slain before sin was ever an issue. Look at 1 Peter 1, verse 11. Actually, let's back up. Verse three. Now remember, Peter's writing this to the elect according to the foreknowledge of the father, right? He says, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, and that fadeth not away reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

Now, brethren, there's a whole lot that can be preached on right there. One of these days I may go back to preach on this. But brethren, all of that points to a work that's done outside of you, for you. It had nothing to do with something you had to accomplish or let God do. Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations, that the trial of your faith being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found under praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ, whom having not seen ye love, in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with unspeakable and full of glory.

Verse nine, receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls, of which salvation, now pay close attention, this New Testament salvation that Peter is telling these New Testament Christians about. He said, of which salvation the prophets have inquired and searched diligently who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you. So the prophets of the Old Testament were preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ and the grace and salvation that was going to come upon his people, including those of the New Testament and the Gentiles, by the way.

But look at verse 11. searching what or what manner of time, here it is, the spirit of Christ which was in them did signify when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow.

What were one of the things that the prophets preached when they signified all those significations throughout the Old Testament? All those things that the prophets prophesied.

Not one of those prophets, maybe Isaiah more than anyone else, but hardly any of those prophets came right down and said, there's going to come a time the Messiah is going to come. The people's going to reject him. They're going to take him and bound him hand and feet. And they're going to take him before the the council and they're going to falsely accuse him and then they're going to nail him to a cross and he's going to be crucified and he's going to die, but in three days he's going to rise from the grave that they buried him in.

Nobody said that in the Old Testament prophets. But what did they do? They signified it. Everything was signified. It was signified in types and foreshadows. It was signified in nations rising and falling. It was signified in Israel being taken captive and being released from captive. It was signified in the sacrificial system, how God had set up the sacrificial systems that when someone had sinned, there was a sacrifice that was to be made.

Those types and foreshadows and everything that surrounded the life of these people was all to signify the sufferings of Christ and the glory that was to follow. Not just the sufferings, but the glory that was to follow. And that was by the spirit of Christ that was in them.

See, Christ's spirit was in those people preaching the gospel to those who were, if you will, in prison. Their minds were closed off to the full revelation of the work of the Messiah. They only knew the gospel in types and foreshadows and small glimpses of things through Abraham, through Isaac, through Jacob, through Moses, through the prophets, through the psalmist. They were given glimpses.

Now, some of them were given a little bit clearer glimpse. David was given the 22nd Psalm. That's pretty clear. That talked about Jesus being crucified. Isaiah was given the 53rd chapter of Isaiah to see that God was pleased to bruise him and by him that he would justify the many with his blood.

So some of those men were given very clear glimpses of that. But most of those prophets, the psalmists, Moses and some of his other writings and stuff. Listen, it was veiled They were shut up To the darkness that they were in and the veil that they were under at the time but brethren don't Think that it wasn't there and don't think that Christ by his spirit Through his spirit with his spirit was not preaching to the hearts of those people who were his his select people of in the nation of Israel during that time.

He was preaching to their heart. He was telling them the truth. They were believing on these things although veiled. They were believing on these.

Look at chapter 3 and verse 19. Verse 18 says, for Christ also has once suffered for sins that just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the spirit. By which, the spirit, also he went and preached under the spirits in prison, which sometimes were disobedient, when once the long-suffering of God waited in the days of Noah while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is eight souls were saved by water.

So here we see that Christ, even before the flood, was preaching the gospel by Noah to those people. Now, who are the ones who heard it? Those eight that were saved. But no less everybody else heard it that was under the hearing of Noah's preaching. But who was it that preached to them? The spirit of Christ. went to them.

So now we have the spirit of Christ preaching, not only during Moses' time, not only during the prophet's time, but clear back before Noah. During Noah's time, before the ark, before the flood, Christ was preaching this. But brethren, I say that it was before that.

Turn with me to Genesis chapter three. In verse 15, when God was cursing man and Satan, he says, and I will put enmity between thee and the woman, between Satan and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed, it shall bruise thy head and thou shalt bruise his heel. The gospel is preached right there, brother. Christ, was preaching the gospel to Adam at the very beginning.

Notice that it says that Satan had a seed and that the woman had a seed. You know that women don't have seeds, right? It's the man that has a seed. See, we're talking about Christ here. We're talking about him and his people We're talking about Satan and his people. See, even from the very beginning, God had separated mankind out. The elect, which was in Christ Jesus, and the reprobate, which was in Adam, and children of the devil.

That's why Jesus, whenever he talked to those religious leaders during his time, he called them a brood of vipers. He called them children of the devil. You will do what your father. My children hear my voice and follow me. Your children, you do what your father says. You follow after him. So you see, even there, we see that there's a separation between the two seeds.

Now just side note for anybody that may be listening, I do not believe that Satan procreated with Eve and created another line of people. Serpent seed doctrine. I do not believe that. But they. All those are the children of Satan. In their connection with natural Adam.

Look with me if you would at Acts chapter 17. Again, We're just gonna look at a few more verses here, but again, we're looking to see and answer the question, ought not the Christ have suffered and be brought into his glory? Acts chapter 17, look with me if you would down at, we'll start verse one. Now when they had passed through Amphilius, in Apollyona, they came to Thessalonica, where was a synagogue of the Jews. And Paul, as his manner was, went into them in three Sabbath days, 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.

So here we see that Paul has now went to the Gentiles and preached to them the same thing, that Christ, the Messiah, must, needs, die, raised from the dead, and raised from the dead. So what was Paul's main, main preaching, Christ's death and his resurrection, and the reason why Christ needed to do that, that he must needs do that. Why? To fulfill all prophecy. Well, what's prophecy? All prophecy is, is God telling us what he has already decreed from the foundation of the world. God is opening up the curtain for us to see back into eternity what he had already determined to do. Prophecy is him telling us this is what I've already declared. This is what's going to happen This is what will happen

Now a lot of people think that God has given us some sort of a covenant to keep that God has given us some sort of if condition But God is basically in his Prophecy is telling us this is what I have determined to do. I'm letting you know beforehand what is going to happen

When God told Adam, I've given you everything in this garden to eat of, except for this tree right here. Don't eat of this tree. In the day thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die. God never said if. He didn't make a condition with Adam and said, if you'll not eat this, you're gonna live forever, be good, and we'll have communion back and forth. Everything's gonna be hunky dory. He didn't say if you eat this, you'll never die. He said, in the day thou eatest thereof. He was telling him what was gonna happen. In the day thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die.

Why? Because God was prophesying to Adam what was about to transpire because God, before the foundation of the world, had determined that sin and death would come in by one man, Adam, and that one man, Adam, would transgress God, sin and death would come into the world, and death would spread onto all men, but out of all men, God would redeem a people for himself because they were elected in Christ Jesus. He would redeem those people out of that sin and death, but he would do that by the death, burial, resurrection, and ascension back to glory of his son, Jesus Christ, the mediator of that salvation. The mediator of righteousness, the mediator of obedience, the mediator of all things pertaining to the salvation of Jehovah. Christ is that mediator. I'm not the mediator that I can't mediate that.

Do you realize that your new birth, that your faith, that your trust, that your belief, that your perseverance, preservation? You realize that all of those things are actually fruits of your salvation in Christ Jesus. And that every one of those are governed and worked out by God himself, not by you. Every one of those is worked in by God. Not worked out by you. It's worked in by God. So that it can be worked out by you. But it's worked in by God first. Because it can't be worked out of you. You don't have it.

So everything of salvation, the legal and the experiential, is sovereignly effected because of Christ. Ought Christ suffer and enter into His glory? Absolutely. Why? Because there wouldn't be a salvation of a people. If Christ did not do that, there would not be the accomplishment of God's design before the foundation of the world to glorify himself through a redemption of a people who has been lost in death and sin. Sin and death had to come into the world. It was God's purpose. It was God's plan. It wasn't an afterthought. God didn't think up salvation after the... God thought up salvation, and because he thought up salvation, It must needs be that death and sin come into the world. Absolutely. Christ suffer and enter into his glory.

Look with me if you would at Revelations 13 8. Revelations 13 and verse 8. It says, and all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him whose names are not written in the book of life of the lamb slain from the foundation of the world. The book of life of the lamb slain from the foundation of the world. Jesus Christ stands in God's decree, in God's purpose, before the foundation of the world, slain. Now you tell me, how in the world is Christ going to stand as the slain lamb before time, before Adam, before sin, before death, and Christ ought not suffer and die and enter into his glory? Brethren, I'm telling you, if God has ordained it so, it shall be so. Known unto God are all his works, the end from the beginning. God has declared all things after the counsel of his own will. And by his purpose, all of his purposes shall stand. None can stay his hand. None can tell him, why are you doing this? So if Christ is the lamb slain from the foundation of the world, then ought not Christ have suffered to come into his glory? Absolutely, God declared it to be such.

One last verse, Acts chapter two. I don't think Acts is in my Bible. Look at verse 22. This is Peter preaching. It says, you men of Israel, hear these words, Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs which God did by him in the midst of you, As you yourself also know,

I was about to say here, I forgot that that last line was in here, but I was about to say, all through the Gospels, we know that these religious leaders saw the miracles and wonders that Christ did, the teaching that Christ did, and they were astonished at his doctrine, they were astonished at the miracles that he did, and they even came to remember Nebuchadnezzar, Nicodemus, Came to Jesus that we know that you're a man that's been it's been sent of God that's come from God Otherwise you couldn't do these miracles. These miracles are surely a sign that you're from God and Nicodemus was a leader of the Jews So that tells me that as a leader of the Jews the rest of those leaders and those who were under their teaching Were hearing from these men squabblings about whether or not this man was from God or not. And some of these men were saying, this man has to be from God because all these miracles that are being done, only someone from God can do this. Only God can raise somebody from the dead. Only God can heal somebody who's never been able to see, who's never been able to walk, who's never been able to talk. Only God can forgive sins. And this man is walking around forgiving men of sin.

Ye men of Israel, this Jesus of Nazareth, and I think when Paul used that just as those men on the road to Emmaus, they said, have you not heard about this Jesus of Nazareth? To a lot of these people, this was just a man from Nazareth. And Paul, I think he's using this here as sarcasm. almost a poke in the eye to these men who thought, can any good thing come out of Galilee? This is just Jesus of Nazareth, Joseph, the carpenter's son. You know, the one who was born from the woman who supposedly had never known a man, and yet she was pregnant out of nowhere. Yeah, this man, look at verse 23, him, that man, That Jesus, that man, guess who he is? He's the Messiah. He's the Christ. And him being delivered by the determinant counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken and by wicked hands have crucified and slain. He's saying you have done and fulfilled exactly what God before the foundation of the world had determined to do. You were God's instrument and tool in bringing in the righteous redemption of God's people. What you thought Messiah was coming to do for a nation, your hands were actually the tools in which God brought in that spiritual redemption of his spiritual Israel. And you are left on the outside. You are your father, the devil, and your house is gonna be left to you desolate. But his house is gonna be a house that will be forever. His kingdom has no end.

And with his resurrection, the Bible says, Peter says here in these very passages, that by his resurrection, Jesus Christ ascended David's throne, picked up that rod of iron and now rules in his kingdom. The very, the very prophecies that were being told in the Old Testament spoke of his death, his burial, resurrection, and ascension into glory.

Ought not the Christ suffer and die and enter into his glory? He ought because God has ordained it be so. to the very minutest detail that the very hands that nailed him to the cross, the very hands that put him up with false accusing, the very hands that spit on him, well it wasn't hands that spit on him, lips that spit on him, hands that plucked out his beard that struck him that put the crown of thorns on him, that beat him with a cat and nine tails, that drove those spikes into his hands, that drove that spear into his side, that lowered him down from that tree, put him in that grave.

Those very hands were all determined by God. Every action, every motion, every thought, every outcome. was so that Christ would suffer and die and enter into his glory. And this, brethren, is the volume of the book. This, brethren, is what Moses and the prophets and the Psalms all speak about. This is what all of the New Testament writers speak about. This is the center point of all things, Christ and him crucified.

Let's not get hung up on a lot of other things. Let's not get dredged down into theological debates about a lot of things, but let's lift up Christ and preach on what Christ has done for us. Let us rejoice that all things were done exactly as designed, exactly as ordered by God. And that all of our experience of this until the day that we die also is by the hand and prominence of a sovereign God who is carrying out every minute detail.

Recently had a conversation about whether or not God directs every step and every thought and everything that we do. Well, the Bible says it does. He said, man devises his ways, but God is the one who directs his steps. It's not within man to know his path and his way. Why? Because God is the one who does it. He has set our habitations. He is the one who is controlling all things in our life. He puts the thoughts in our heads for every decision that we make. I believe that at least. I don't know what all y'all might think differently on that, but I believe that the Spirit puts it within us to do that.

He put it within the thought of Abimelech not to lay with Sarah. Where'd that thought come from? Well, Abimelech thought it come from his integrity. But God said, no, I kept you from doing that. The only reason you had integrity in that is because I kept you from doing that. If I hadn't have done that, you would have laid with Sarah.

So brethren, I hope we see and understand that Christ's death is not a byproduct of Adam's fall, that it wasn't God's plan B, that everything that happened to Jesus and his people, that it was determined by God exactly the way that God designed it to be. I'm not going to read it. I'm just going to leave it here for you. But if you'll go to the 22nd Psalm and read the 22nd Psalm, which was thousands of years before crucifixion was even invented by the Romans. Read the 22nd Psalm and you tell me that God had not already declared all things that would be as far as the crucifixion of Christ and the evil that would entail. I mean, down to the very casting lots for his garment at the foot of the cross, the railing come down from here, you know, all those things that happened at the crucifixion. David wrote about this in Psalms 22 in vivid detail. Now, how could that have been unless Christ by his spirit had not preached the gospel unto David that gospel being the everlasting gospel, which has been preached from Genesis and will be preached there until our death in the very end. It's the everlasting gospel because it was the gospel decreed by God before the foundation of the world.

All right, anybody got any questions, comments, corrections? All right. We'll continue to remember Heather and her kids. They're still sick. Remember Daniel. He's still he's under the weather today. Thank you guys for your prayers for my my dad who was in the hospital on Christmas Day through New Year's Eve. And then thank you for those that knew I didn't make an announcement online or anything. But my stepdad was taken in on New Year's Eve and was in the hospital for a couple of days, and everything, but both of them are back home, and both of them are doing better, and we appreciate all your thoughts and prayers during that time, but continue to remember them as they are still not back up to normal. Anybody else? I missed, maybe forgot.

All right. Father, once again, we come to you and we thank you for all that you've done to us and for us, through us, by the Lord Jesus Christ. We thank you, Father, for all the wonderful mercy and grace that we find in him. And we thank you for your everlasting gospel. We thank you for your determinant decree. And Lord, we thank you that all the promises are yea and amen in Christ Jesus. And not one thing that you have declared will fall short. Lord, we know that you are working everything after the counsel of your own will, and that in the armies of the heaven and in the heavens and the earth, that all men are accounted as nothing, and that none can stay your hand, that you will accomplish all that you've desired. And so, Father, we are grateful for that. We find comfort in that. We find confidence in that, and that, Lord, that you are controlling all things and have determined all things. and that for your people, all things work together for good, and that all the sufferings of this life that we are brought through by your hands are only a slight in comparing to the glory that we will experience in the life to come.

So Father Lord, I pray that you'll continue to give us faith, continue to preserve us as you have promised, that you might keep us, Lord, in the gospel of Jesus Christ. Lord, I pray that you have blessed and ministered and that you have encouraged all your children, wherever they may be, whether they are here or listening or watching or under other pastors that you have called to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ, wherever they are at, Lord, we pray that where that gospel is preached, your people are finding encouragement and sustenance through the bread of life. Lord, we thank you again for your love and mercy upon us. that you might keep us this week as we leave this place, give us safety in our travels, and that you might gather us together. We do pray for our brethren that are sick, not with us today, Lord, that you might touch them by your healing hand, if it be your will. And Lord, we ask that you just might keep us all healthy as you have determined and purposed, if it be your will. And Lord, we just thank you again for all that you've done for us and it's in your name we pray, amen.