OK, good morning. If you would open your Bibles with me to begin our service, Colossians chapter 3. As you're turning, I've received an e-copy of this book some time ago, and we got the hard copy this week. It's a book by Ian Potts. And if he ever watches this and he's offended that he's either from Ireland or Scotland, I think it's Scotland. But he has compiled this book of daily readings. And what it is, it's just articles from pastors and writers that we know. And it's for sale at a couple of different places on the internet, if you would like a copy of it. It's called Day Unto Day, and as long as I remember, I'll leave a copy out in the vestibule if you'd like to get it. I would assume that every article in here is good, because I know all the authors, so I would assume that they would be worth reading.

Also, a couple things we want to remember in prayer. I just heard this from Debbie, that Jessica Culver, is going to have another surgery to remove a cancerous section of her colon or intestines, which is, as I say, right, the colon. That's tomorrow, Wednesday. So we want to remember her. She had been through it. She had been through it with so many of these treatments. We want to remember her. Earl Wooten is having, they're gonna attempt to do two more stints tomorrow. The first ones they did were difficult Caused him a lot of pain and trouble, and they're gonna try to do two more tomorrow. And talked with Bill Hoxton yesterday, and this disease he has, he's been struggling with for so long. He's in a tough spot, he and Nancy. So as the Lord brings them to your mind, let's hold them up to our Lord in prayer.

On a lighter note, we're gonna have our get together this afternoon at Tim and Heather's. And Tim has reminded me, now, if you've never been there, Tim has the garage of all garages. I mean, really, it's an insult to call this room, he's got a garage. But it's around back. So you can either park around back or park somewhere, walk around back. Tim says, if you knock on the front door, nobody's going to be there to answer. So go around back, and I hope you all can come. I think it'll be a very good time. I think it's important for us to be able to have these times of fellowship together.

All right, Colossians chapter three. I couldn't find a place to stop until I got to the 17th verse, so we'll read through the first 17 verses.

If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection, your mind, your heart on things above, not on things on the earth, for ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory.

Mortify, therefore, your members, which are upon the earth, fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry. For which thing's sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience? in the which ye also walked some time when you lived in them. But now ye also put off all these, anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth. Lie not one to another, seeing that you put off the old man with his deeds, and you put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him, where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision or uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond or free, but Christ is all and in all. Now he's told us what to put off, now he says, put on, therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, vows of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, long-suffering, forbearing one another and forgiving one another. If any man have a quarrel against any, even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye. And above all these things, put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness, and let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also you are called, in one body, and be ye thankful.

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. And whatsoever you do, in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by Him.

All right, let's stand together as Shawn leads us in singing our call to worship.

My soul with Christ is one. He is my covenant head. It was for me he left his throne, obeyed the law, and bled. My soul with Christ is one. in everlasting ties. O matchless mercy, grace unknown, and love that never dies. My soul with Christ is one, betrothed to Him in love. He takes this sinner for His own and daily proves His love. My soul with Christ is one. Savior, possess my heart. Until you take me to your throne, for we can never part.

OK, if you would, turn in your hymnals to song number 100. We'll sing, O Come All Ye Faithful.

100. O come, all ye faithful, joyful and triumphant, come ye, O come ye to Bethlehem. Come and behold Him, born the King of angels. O come, let us adore Him. O come let us adore Him, O come let us adore Him, Christ the Lord.

Sing, choirs of angels, sing in exultation. Sing, all ye bright hosts of heaven above. Glory to God, all glory in the highest. O come, let us adore Him. O come, let us adore Him, O come, let us adore Him, Christ the Lord.

Yea, Lord, we greet thee, born this happy morning. Jesus, to thee be all glory given. Word of the Father, now in flesh appearing, O come, let us adore Him. O come, let us adore Him, O come, let us adore Him, Christ the Lord.

Turn this morning to Acts chapter 9. The pastor has asked that we read Acts chapter 9 verses 26 through 31.

And when Saul was come to Jerusalem, he assayed to join himself to the disciples, but they were afraid of him. and believed not that he was a disciple. But Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles and declared unto them how he had seen the Lord in the way and that he had spoken to him and how he had preached boldly at Damascus in the name of Jesus. And he was with them coming in and going out at Jerusalem. And he spake boldly in the name of the Lord Jesus and disputed against the Grecians but when they went about to slay him, which when the brethren knew, they brought him down to Caesarea and set him forth to Tarsus, then had the churches rest throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria and were edified, and walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost were multiplied."

May the Lord bless his word. Let's pray.

Our Holy, Most High Heavenly Father, we come before you this morning in the name of and for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ. Father, we're so thankful that through Christ we're made sons of the Father, that we can come to you before your throne of mercy and grace, crying, Abba, Father. And we know that you'll give us what we need. Father, we pray that you would show your mercy upon us. Lord, that you would be with us this morning in this service. Lord, that you would give our pastor recall of his notes the ability to speak freely, Lord, but even more, Lord, we pray that you would send your spirit to bless the words to the hearts of your people. Father, use this service this morning to feed your sheep. Take the man out of the way, take the cares of the world and put them aside and give us, Lord, an hour of worship. Lord, we know we can't do that unless you enable us and we pray that you would. Father, we pray that you would continue to bless this congregation, Lord.

Going through difficult trials and trials that we don't even know. And we pray, Lord, that it would be thy will to continue to have the word preached from this pulpit, that you would send your word out to the world, that you would gather your sheep, bring them into this fold. Lord, we pray for those who are going through difficult, difficult trials. We think of our sister Jessica and we think of our brothers Bill and Earl, Lord, We know that we have this disease in our bodies because of our sin. But Lord, we know that thou art able. And we pray that it would be thy will to comfort and heal them, that they might worship thee, that we might worship together with them. And we know that you can make them whole, whether here on earth or in eternity. We pray for them.

Father, we can't help but hurt when members of our congregation hurt. And we can't help but ask that you would heal their sinful bodies. But we pray all things to be thy will. knowing that thy will is perfect and good. Father, we pray for the souls of the young people that you've given us, the children of this congregation, Lord. them and anyone else who has not looked to Christ for all salvation. We pray, Lord, that you would have mercy on their souls, that it would be your will to reveal yourself in a saving manner to the souls of your people through the word preached here.

Father, we've been blessed above all people and that we're able to come to this place and gather together as one body and open your word. Lord, we pray that you would show us the living word. Lord, give us Christ or else we die. Lord, once again, we thank you for all that you've given us. Pray that you would forgive us our many sins. Lord, see us only in Christ. We pray these things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ for our good and for his sake. Amen.

Keep your Bibles open there in Acts 9. That's the passage we'll use as our text this morning. I titled the message, When Christ is the Focus. You know, there's a very great danger as we meet together from time to time to have something become so right here that we focus on it instead of focusing on Christ the Savior. I've seen this happen before. Maybe it's politics, you know, We're so worried about what's happening in the political world. Many of us might see it as evil or might see it as good or whatever, and we become so focused on it that we don't focus on Christ here in the worship service. It could be a pet doctrine, a pet verse, whatever. It could be a conduct of someone. Nobody's saying that it's not wrong, but to focus on it. takes our attention off Christ, doesn't it? It could be a trial. That's one of the difficulties of trials, isn't it? It's hard not to think about the pain. It's hard to not think about the crushing weight of the trial and focus on Christ. And you'll find when you go through a trial, if for a few minutes in the worship service, while Christ is being preached, you could focus on him instead of on the flesh. At least for that time, you get such Comfort is just like a breeze of fresh air blowing, you know. And there's just a great danger if Christ is not to focus. And our text here gives us some blessings that God's people experience when Christ is the focus.

So let's begin in verse 26 here of Acts chapter nine. And when Saul has come to Jerusalem, he is saved to join himself to the disciples. But they were all afraid of him and believed not that he was a disciple. Now between verses 25 and 26, three years have expired. This is the time when the Lord took Paul to the desert in Arabia and the Lord Jesus appeared to him and taught him the gospel personally. That's how Paul was an apostle. In order to be an apostle, you had to see the Lord personally. You had to have the gospel taught to you personally. from the Lord Jesus. And during these three years, this is when the Lord took Paul out to the desert and taught him the gospel. And then Paul came back to Jerusalem.

Now a lot of people there, probably nearly everyone, remembered Saul of Tarsus very well. They remembered him very well. They remembered the pain and the suffering that he had caused Saul may have been the cause of some of their friends and loved ones being jailed and put to death. And when he tried to join himself to the church at Jerusalem, they were afraid. They thought, well, he's just a spy. He's coming here as a spy. He's going to find out who all is coming to the meetings, and he's going to turn our names in, and they're going to come get us in the middle of the night and put us in prison, put us to death, whatever. And they were afraid. You know, they, maybe some people quit coming to the service altogether because Saul was there. Suppose they did come to the service and Saul was there. All they could think about was Saul. I mean, you know, what's this guy doing? What's he going to do to me, you know? And who can blame them, right? I mean, who can blame them?

And someone could say, and I've read writers that said this, well, they should have been more forgiving of Paul. or Saul, whatever they called him at that time, they should have been more forgiving. No question that they should have. That's what scripture teaches us, to be more forgiving, doesn't it? But still yet, who can blame them? I mean, now come on, who can blame them for having their doubts here about Saul of Tarsus? You know, we can forgive one another. Someone does something that destroys your trust in them and you can forgive them. But now that trust is going to have to be earned back. I mean, I heard Brother Henry say so many times, you can build up a reputation over 30 years and destroy it all in 30 seconds. It's going to take you a long time to build that trust back with someone. You're just going to have to spend a lot of time being faithful and kind and loving and showing that you've repented and changed. It just takes a while to build that trust back up.

But also think of this. You know, forgiveness and trust is a two-way street. Saul was genuine here. I mean, he genuinely trusted Christ. He genuinely preached the gospel. He genuinely wanted to join himself to the disciples and worship Christ with them. And he's being treated this way. Well, he had to forgive them too, didn't he? Ultimately, he had to forgive them too. So this is a two-way street. So this is a real issue going on here, isn't it?

And Barnabas played the peacemaker, verse 27. But Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles and declared unto them how he had seen the Lord in the way and that he had spoken to him and how that he preached boldly to Damascus in the name of Jesus.

Now, Barnabas came, this is a man that they trusted. He said, no, listen, I was at Damascus. I heard this man preach. I've heard his confession of faith. This guy's legit. So based on Barnabas playing the peacemaker, they accepted him.

And verse 28, and he was with them. He was with the disciples there in Jerusalem, coming in and going out at Jerusalem. And he spake boldly in the name of the Lord Jesus and disputed against the Grecians. But they went about to slay him, which when the brethren knew, they brought him down to Caesarea and sent him forth to Tarsus.

Now when Paul was given the opportunity to join up with them, he did. He started to work to earn their trust back. He was faithful. He was going in and out with them. And when he had the opportunity to preach Christ, he preached boldly.

Now this is not the first time in the book of Acts we've heard this word boldly. It doesn't mean Getting up and saying whatever you want to say, not caring, you know, what anybody thinks, you know, and you just out yell them and that's bold. That's not what the word means at all. The word boldly here means to speak with freedom, to speak clearly, without ambiguity, so that everybody understands exactly what you're saying, no matter the cost.

Paul preached Christ so clearly that people understood exactly what he was saying. And they could see what he was saying match the scriptures. No, they didn't believe it. They didn't like it, but they couldn't prove him wrong from the scriptures. That's why people were trying to put him to death again.

So just like there at Damascus, at Damascus they let him down the wall in a basket, and here they snuck him out of Jerusalem some way and took him to Caesarea to protect him from being killed. And we don't know exactly what Paul was preaching there. I think we can gather from his other writings and says he preached boldly in the name of the Lord Jesus.

I'm sure Paul boldly, clearly preached man's total depravity. And that doesn't just mean men out there. I'm talking about you and me. Our total depravity, that everything we do is totally sin. It's totally defiled. with sin, and this would have been a message to preach in Jerusalem, even your best works, even following the law, even following the law as well as you can follow it.

And Saul of Tarsus had experience with that, didn't he? He said, outwardly, I was blameless. Nobody could point a finger at a time where outwardly I broke the law. But I was still a sinner. I was still totally depraved. And those things that I thought made me better than everybody else, that I brought to God thinking that'll help God accept me, that, if you can say, is the worst. Just the worst of the worst sin that there is. Thinking I can do something that will cause God to accept me, rather than be accepted in Christ alone.

That's our total depravity. And it's not just seen out in the bars and brothels and heroin houses and all these things. It's seen in our religion, our religion without Christ. It's so sinful. We're totally depraved. We can't do anything but sin. We need God to save us and save us by His grace. Then Paul talked about God's electing love. The Father chose a people to save. And he only chose sinners to save, not just Jews, but Gentiles too, regardless of their race and their background and their creed, because we're all totally depraved. God in his electing love chose sinners to save. And he gave those sinners to his son to save, and Christ came to save those people and those people only. He came to save and suffer and die for God's elect and only for God's elect.

Christ did not die for all mankind to give men a chance to be saved. Christ died for his elect to save them, completely and utterly save them. And I'll give you an example of preaching not boldly and then preaching boldly. To say that Christ died for those who would believe. True statement, isn't it? True statement. The worst Armenian, the most free will person that you could find would agree with that statement. That's not preaching boldly. Preaching boldly is saying Christ died for his elect and only for his elect. And those people shall be saved. The Holy Spirit will bring those people to Christ and give them faith to believe Christ. That's preaching boldly. You see the difference, don't you? Paul preached boldly. He preached boldly.

This is something Paul had such experience with. It's something that you could tell he was ashamed of the whole rest of his life. Salvation is by grace, through faith, without our works. And Paul would look back on his religious works and how proud and how hypocritical he was. And he's so ashamed. He's ashamed of his work so much, he counted them but done. Yet one time he thought those are the things, these are the golden, this is gold and diamonds and silver. These are the things I'm gonna bring to God, and God's gonna accept me for them. And Paul said, now I see their horse manure. Now that's all they are.

Salvation is by grace through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Salvation was accomplished by the faith of Christ. He was faithful to accomplish everything that it took to save his people from their sins. And we're saved without our works. Without any of our works whatsoever is completely by trusting Christ to do everything that it took to save me. And if you got any works that you think will make God accept you, you throw them out and you come to God naked. You come to God empty trusting Christ and Christ alone. That's preaching boldly.

He talked about the new birth, the necessity of the new birth. We must be born again, because going back to the first thing he talked about, our total depravity. We must be born again because we're dead in sins. And when the Holy Spirit causes us to be born again, bless your heart, what a glorious, gracious, wonderful gift that God has given you to cause you to be born again. But you're going to struggle the rest of your life now. Before you didn't have any struggle because you just had one nature. That old man didn't have anybody to fight with. Now he's got somebody to fight with. You got the old man, you got the new man. And they're going to war and fuss and fight with all they got inside you for the rest of your life. What a blessing.

God called you. He chose you. Christ died for you. He called you to Christ. He gave you faith to believe Christ. He caused you to be born again. But you're going to live with a civil war the rest of your life. And you're going to have that old man constantly trying to get you to offer your works to God. And you're going to have the new man constantly putting down and trusting Christ alone. You're going to struggle with that the rest of your life. But you don't need to worry that the old man will ever win out, that the old man will ever get you to stop believing Christ, because God's saints are secure in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Yes, I would leave Christ every day. I mean, multiple, many times a day. I've quoted him before, I love, this is one of my favorite quotes from Brother Fortner. Somebody asked him, do you ever not believe? He said, I try to every day. But God won't let me. But God won't let me. God's not going to let his people go. Christ has redeemed them. Christ has brought them to God and he will not let them go.

Yes, that old man is going to cause you so much heartache and all this fighting against him will make you miserable, but he'll never make you leave Christ. Never. That new man rules. When Christ sets up in your heart, he sets up a throne, and he rules. He's not going to let you go.

But you know that does not mean that a believer lives not caring what he does. Now, the believer's free. He's free from the law. He's free from the burden of the law, and he's free to serve Christ out of love and out of gratitude, not because he's afraid God's going to condemn him if he doesn't do enough work. That's preaching boldly and clearly. And that's not hard to understand. That is not hard to understand. I mean, the children can understand that.

But it's impossible to believe, isn't it? Until the Holy Spirit gives us faith to believe Christ. And that message is so offensive to the flesh. Because it takes away all credit from the flesh. It takes away Anything that the flesh can do, it takes away the works of the flesh. It takes away the wisdom of the flesh. You mean I can't be saved just because I want to, just because I've decided to give my life to Jesus? That's my wisdom. That's my choice. No, sir, you can't. It takes away man's wisdom, doesn't it? It takes away man's dignity.

You think how you'd feel if you came out in public somewhere and somebody went up to you and said, You stink. I mean, I knew something was stinking in here and it's you. You stink. I mean, your clothes are ugly. Your clothes are defiled with some awful smell. I mean, your skin is dirty. You stink. I mean, just like, you know, oh, you'd be offended, wouldn't you? That's what the gospel says about us spiritually. It offends the flesh. And you can't take the word of God and disprove it. So let's kill the preacher that's saying it so we don't have to hear it anymore. That's what they try to do with Paul.

And they sent him away. They sent him away to Caesarea. And when he got there, Paul preached boldly again. Verse 30. Which when the brethren knew, they brought him down to Caesarea and set him forth at Tarsus. Then had the churches rest throughout all Judea, Galilee, and Samaria, and were edified, and walking in the fear of the Lord, and the comfort of the Holy Ghost, and were multiplied.

Now once people got over all these other issues, once they got over Paul's past, and once they got over all these other issues, and they were all taken out of the way, and everybody was able to focus on Christ alone, they experienced five blessings. And that's what I want us to look at this morning. The first one is rest in Christ. It says, then had all the churches rest The word means peace. I don't know why. This is the one and only time this word is translated rest. Almost every other time the word is used, it's translated peace. And that's what it means. Now the church has had peace. And you know, it wasn't because Saul wasn't persecuting them anymore. He wasn't persecuting anymore. But when Saul quit persecuting them, I just bet you this is what happened. Somebody worse took his place. I just guarantee somebody worse took his place because now it's personal with this guy. Saul used to be my friend. Now he's with them folks and it's personal with him and now he's persecuting the church even worse than Saul ever did.

They didn't have peace from persecution because the church is always persecuted. The church is always hated by the world because our gospel disagrees with the world. So what this means is the churches, had peace of soul. They had peace of soul in trusting Christ because now they're focusing on Christ alone. You'll never have peace of soul looking anywhere but Christ.

There's one of the old preachers, it may have been Spurgeon, I don't know who it was, but I don't remember, but he said this, I looked to Christ and the dove of peace flew into my heart. I looked at my heart and the dove flew away. The only way we have peace and a peace of soul is looking to Christ.

In John 14 verse 27, the Lord said, my peace I give unto you. And I love the way he said, he didn't just say, I'm giving you peace. He said, my peace I give unto you. I'm giving to you the peace that I'll earn for you by my blood on Calvary's tree. That's how we have peace with God. It's the blood of Christ that makes peace, makes peace with God. Because the blood of Christ took away the sin that made God angry. God didn't have any reason to be angry with his people anymore. The blood of Christ took their sin away, and God's at peace. And when that blood is applied to our hearts, that's what we call the new birth. And that new nature. that believes Christ, that trusts Christ, has peace, enjoys peace with God.

Turn over a few pages to Romans chapter five. Let me show you this. It's that new man that trusts Christ, has peace with God. Let's go back up to verse 25 of Romans four. Who is delivered for our offenses? and he was raised again for our justification. He was raised again as proof. His death justified all of his people. Therefore, being justified, being justified by the death of Christ, by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. The way we have peace with God is by trusting Christ.

You have peace. You have peace from fear of the law. Before you trusted Christ, you were afraid of the law, weren't you? You were afraid that law was gonna get you? You were afraid the law was gonna condemn you? Now that you trust Christ, you trust Him. He kept the law for you, and you're not worried about the law anymore. You don't even look to it as a rule of life. You just follow Christ. You have peace. If Christ kept the law for you, you got nothing to worry about. you got nothing to worry about because you cannot be condemned.

And if you look at Isaiah chapter 26, 700 years before Christ was born, Isaiah told us how to have peace, this peace of heart, spiritual peace with God. Isaiah 26 verse three, thou will keep him in perfect peace. whose mind is stayed on thee, because he trusteth in thee. Now trust ye in the Lord forever, for with the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength. With the Lord Jehovah is the rock of ages, and you're gonna have peace of soul, spiritual peace, as long as you're focusing on Christ. Now you let something get between you and Christ, so you see him a little bit, you don't see him as clearly, You're not gonna have peace looking anywhere but to Christ alone. And once Christ is the focus, we have peace, peace of heart.

Then next, the second blessing is being edified. And the phrase means being built up, being spiritually built up. Built up, built stronger, built more solidly. Now how are you gonna do that? You know, I'm no builder or carpenter anything like that by any stretch of the imagination. But this I know. I saw this one time. I was helping some men do this. Dig a trench. They dug this big trench. They used a backhoe to dig it and they got shovels and they told me what to do too, you know, getting this trench, you know, nice and neat and smooth, straight up and down, smooth as you could on the bottom. And they poured concrete in it. All the way around they poured concrete in it. and they built a whole building up on that concrete. It was the foundation. They were laying the foundation, and that's the first thing that had to be done before that building could be built. They built up this building on the foundation.

Well, you know who the foundation is, don't you? That rock is the Lord Jesus Christ. And if you look at 1 Corinthians 3, that building is done through the preaching of Christ. Here's how God's people are edified, is by doing what we're doing right now, by the preaching of Christ.

1 Corinthians 3 verse 9. For we're laborers together with God. You're God's husbandry. You're God's building. Now according to the grace of God, which is given unto me as a wise master builder, I've laid the foundation. I've laid the foundation of Christ and another's gonna build thereon, but let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon. For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. And if a man build upon this foundation, gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble, every man's work shall be made manifest. For the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire, and the fire shall try every man's work, what sort it is.

And if we're built up on Christ, gold, silver, and precious stones, the gospel of Christ is so precious. It's gold. It's silver. It's precious stones. And the foundation is Christ. And the gold, silver, and stones that we're built up on is Christ. We're going to be edified. We're going to be strengthened. We're going to grow. And the way that we grow, the way the believer grows, is by hearing Christ preached. The more we hear Christ preached, the more we're gonna know of him. The more we know of Christ, the more we'll trust him. The more we trust him, the more that we're built up. See, God gives us faith in Christ, and we're built up in Christ, our faith is built up in Christ, and we're built up on Christ. See, the way we grow in grace and knowledge is through hearing the preaching of Christ.

But you know, that's not, now this is speaking to individuals. Every individual is edifying. They're built up by hearing the preaching of Christ. But you know, that applies to local churches. That applies to the whole church of God here on earth. We're built up a spiritual house through hearing the preaching of Christ.

Look at 1 Peter 2. 1 Peter 2, verse five. Ye also as lively stones, living stones, are built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. Wherefore also it is contained in the scripture, behold, I lay in Zion a chief cornerstone, elect, precious, and he that believeth on him shall not be confounded.

I'll tell you how the church is all grown up together. These individual living stones are individual believers, and we're laid together side by side, one on top of another one, cemented together with the bond of love, the bond of the love of Christ, and we're built up a spiritual house through the preaching of Christ. We're built up on Christ through the preaching of Christ. And I'm telling you, the only way we'll be edified is by thinking about, by talking about, and focusing on Christ alone.

And as soon, and you know what I'm saying. I'm not saying that every time we get, we're gonna have a get together day. You don't just have to talk about religious things. We're gonna talk about all kinds of things, aren't we? We're gonna enjoy talking to each other. But I'll tell you what edifies us, what edifies our soul, is talking about Christ, thinking about Christ, focusing on Him and Him alone.

Look at Romans chapter 14. Here's some good instruction from us from the Apostle Paul, Romans 14 verse 19. Let us therefore follow after the things which make for peace, and things wherewith we one may edify another. That puts these two blessings right together, doesn't it? Let's follow after things which make for peace. If it's gonna make for war and it's gonna make for division, leave it alone. I mean, unless the thing that's gonna cause division is the truth of Christ, the blood of Christ, salvation in Christ, righteousness in Christ alone. But if it's something else, leave it alone. Leave it alone. Follow after things which make for peace, wherewith we may edify one another.

And here's something that believers can always talk about, whether they've got different backgrounds and different political beliefs or different whatevers, you know, the things, the differences in the flesh. We start talking about Christ, we're going to be amen to one another, aren't we? There's something edifies one another.

The next blessing listed in our text is walking in the fear of the Lord. Once Christ became the focus, and these other worries were put aside, and they focused on Christ alone, they were walking in the fear of the Lord. They walked with Christ, just like Enoch did. Enoch walked with God. In Enoch's everyday life, I mean, I don't know what life was necessary, Like back then, some things were similar to ours. Enoch had to earn a living. He had a big family. He had to feed that family. He had to clothe that family. He had to get shoes for them. Enoch had responsibilities out in the community and things. And as he was taking care of all those responsibilities in his everyday life, Enoch walked with God. I mean, he wasn't on a different spiritual plane than you or I are. He walked with God just in his everyday life.

Well, how do I walk with God? I mean, I'd like to walk with God like that. How do I walk with God? It's by looking to Christ. That's how you walk with God, by looking to Christ to be everything that you need. The word walked in there means to follow. That's what it means, to follow. And if you're following someone, you've got to be looking at them. If you take your eye off them for a second, they can go one way and you don't know which way they went. And I'll give you a real good example. Growing up, I would hear Brother Henry talk about his trips to Mexico. He would go down there every year and preach for a week with Walter and a week with Milton. He'd be gone. And he talked about, I heard him tell this story one time about going to the market with Walter. And he took his eye off Walter And Walter just wandered away. I mean, this is a big place. A lot of people there. And he couldn't find Walter at all. He can't speak the language. He can't ask anybody for help. He was lost. And he had some men with him. They're all looking to him. I don't know what's going on. I don't know where he is. I don't know what to do.

Well, I heard that story. Well, then years later, come time, I could go to Mexico. And Cody one day said, we're going to go down and see the markets. You know, see the market and see things down here. I was like, okay. I remember that story. And I was this close to Cody the whole time. I mean, he wasn't getting out of my sight. I mean, I could just practically step on the back of his, the heels of his shoes every step. I was not letting him get out of my sight because Frank Tate was not getting lost in Mexico and I can't speak the language. I just wasn't going to do that.

That's how we follow Christ. I mean, you just snuggle up so close to him, you're not getting away. I mean, nothing can come between you and him to take your eyes off him. That's following Christ. That's walking with Christ. It's looking to Christ to be all your righteousness. Righteousness is not that you keeping the law and not disobeying this law and following this. Righteousness is Christ. Righteousness is not even a thing. Righteousness is Christ. If he's all your righteousness, you keep looking to him to be all of your righteousness. He's all your holiness. He's all of your acceptance with God. The only way we can be accepted is in the beloved. He's all your wisdom. Keep looking to him to be all of your wisdom. The only way, the one and only way I can know how God saves sinners is by looking to Christ. Christ crucified. He's my righteousness. He obeyed the law for me. He's my sacrifice. He's the one that put my sin away. That's the only way God could save a sinner like me. That's wisdom. Now keep looking to him to be all of your wisdom. Keep looking to him to be all of your peace with God. You're not making your peace with God. You're not deciding, okay, I'll do this and God will be happy with me. Christ is our peace. He made peace for us by the blood of his cross. Now keep looking to Him, and Him alone, don't ever let Him get out of your sight. Don't ever let anything else become the focus. That's walking with God. That's walking with Him. That's following Christ.

Then fourth, they walked in the comfort of the Holy Ghost. And that word comfort, it doesn't just mean calm your heart, make your heart feel good. It means calling near. I thought that was interesting, calling near. Now what's the job of the Holy Ghost? It's comfort of the Holy Ghost. What's the job of the Holy Ghost? It's to take the things of Christ and reveal them to us, isn't it? To show them to us. And you know the way that you see something, if somebody's wanting to show you something and you want to see it better, what do you do? You get closer. You get closer. Let me see it. If I can't see well enough, it's such small, fine print, Charlie, get me a magnifying glass, you know, but I'm going to get closer to it so I can see it. The job of the Holy Ghost is to take the things of Christ and show them to us. Well, the closer we get to Christ, the more comfort that we're going to have, the more the more that we follow Christ, the more that we don't let anything become the focus, that nothing comes between me and Christ, the more comfort I'm gonna have. Many of you know this by experience, the same way I do.

You can be in such a trial, Maybe it's physical pain, maybe it's emotional pain, maybe it's mental anguish of worrying about, you know, something that's, the bottom's fallen out of it, you know, and you're so worried about it, it's gonna have such an impact on your life. And you come to the surface, and if for a few minutes, the Holy Ghost will set those things aside and put Christ right here in the preaching of the word, you're going to have comfort. You're going to have comfort.

Now, when you go back out, I mean, the trial is still going to be there, but the more that you can remember what you heard preached, the more that you can keep Christ right here, the more comfort that you're going to have. And believe me when I tell you, I don't want the next trial. It's coming. I wouldn't choose it, but God's going to send it. And what I've learned in the past is I'm sure what will be true in the future. I'll have more comfort of the Holy Ghost in that trial than I do when I'm on easy street. That's so.

And something else that'll give us more comfort in the Holy Ghost, and Gary, I hate to bring this up, because no man has ever prayed publicly, ever once his prayer talked about, but Gary, in his prayer Wednesday night, was giving God thanks for the Word, the importance of the Word. What a blessing it is to read it. What a blessing it is to have Christ preach from it. You know where you learn more of Christ? It's the only place you learn anything about Christ. It's from the Scriptures. And the more we hear the Scriptures preached, the more comfort the Holy Ghost will have. Because the Holy Spirit is going to put Christ right here. The Holy Spirit will never get caught up in any other issue. If I get caught up in another issue, That's Frank, not the Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost will always keep Christ right here. And the more we see him, the more we focus on him, the more comfort that we'll have.

And the last one quickly is this. When Christ was the focus, believers were multiplied. Now I know at that time they had a large increase in the number of believers, the number of people that were joining the church and being baptized and confessing Christ and the Lord was saving them. The Lord was doing that at that time in the early church, adding many. One day he saved 3,000, the next day, how many ever? And wouldn't you love to see that here? I mean, I would love to see that here. The Lord call out people out of this community that we've never even seen here before, and the Lord save them, and those numbers be added to the church daily, such as should be added. I'd love to see that. I'd love to see this place filled up. Our Savior's worthy of everyone hearing him and believing him. I'd love to hear, to see that.

But you know, this is also talking about individually. Each individual believer was multiplied, not just added, but multiplied. And you know, when you're multiplying something, it grows a whole lot faster than adding, doesn't it? Each individual believer was growing in grace and the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ because he was the focus. All the believers were being multiplied in the graces, love, joy, peace, long-suffering, forgiveness, because Christ is the focus. You want somebody to be more loving? Don't tell them that you'd be more loving. Just preach Christ to them. If they're one of His, they'll be more loving. They'll be more loving.

And you know how you could tell that they were being multiplied and growing in grace? Here's how you and me can tell if we're growing in grace. Are we growing downward? The lower and lower and lower I become, in my own estimation, the more I'm going to grow in grace. And the flesh being what it is, so full of pride, the only way we'll ever grow downward is by seeing Christ lifted up. The more our focus is on Him, the more we'll learn of ourselves and grow downward.

And may God be pleased to give us these five blessings here, because Christ is the focus. Christ is the focus. I pray, Lord, make it so.

All right, let's bow together. Our Father, how we thank you for your word. How we thank you for the clear declaration of Christ our Savior in your word. Father, I pray that as he's been preached this morning, that by the power of your spirit, that you would lift him up, magnify him, glorify him, Let each one of us here be so focused on Christ. We can't see anyone but him. We can't see anything but him. Cause him to be our all and in all.

Father, I pray you'd make that so today and. And for. As many years as it could be till you return that Christ is our focus here that you keep him the focal point that you make him the only issue so that your people will be saved and will grow in grace and knowledge of him. The more we see of him, the more useful will be one to another. Father, make Christ the focus here. Make him the only subject, the only object of faith. Fathers in his name, for his sake and his glory, we pray. Amen.

All right, Sean. Okay, if you would, turn in your hymnal to song number 236 and stand as we sing Amazing Grace.

236. Amazing grace, how sweet the sound,
that saved a wretch like me.
I once was lost, but now am found.
Was blind, but now I see.

T'was grace that taught my heart to fear.
And grace my fears relieved.
How precious did that grace appear,
The hour I first believed.

Through many dangers, toils and snares,
I have already come.
Tis grace hath brought me safe thus far,
and grace will lead me home.

When we've been there ten thousand years
Bright shining as the sun
We've no less days to sing God's praise
than when we'd first begun.