Well, good morning. If you would open your Bibles with me to Luke, chapter 24. Luke, chapter 24. As you're turning, let me remind you about our Christmas party next Sunday at Tim and Heather's house. Tim has volunteered, if you would like to meet at the Green Park and Ride, and he will pick you up there and drive you the rest of the way. He has graciously volunteered to do that. So if you're interested, let Tim know. So he knows what he needs to do, all right?

Luke 24, we'll begin our reading in verse 13. And behold, two of them went that same day to a village called Emmaus, which was from Jerusalem, about three score furlongs. And they talked together of all these things which had happened. And it came to pass that while they communed together and reasoned, Jesus himself drew near and went with them. But their eyes were holding that they should not knowing. And he said unto them, What manner of communications are these, that you have one to another as you walk and are sad? And one of them, whose name was Cleophas, answering, said unto him, Art thou only a stranger in Jerusalem, and hast not known the things which are come to pass therein 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 priests 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. And beside all this, today is the third day since these things were done. Yea, and certain women also of our company made us astonished, which were early at the sepulcher. And when they found not his body, they came, saying that they had also seen a vision of angels which said he was alive. And certain of them which are with us went 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 have spoken. 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, not the law, not the ceremonies, the things concerning himself. And when they drew nigh unto the village, whither 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 to tarry 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 us the scriptures?

And that's my prayer for us this morning, that our hearts might burn within us because the Holy Spirit's come and opened us the scriptures and revealed to us the things of Christ. That's my prayer for you and me this morning.

Let's stand together as Shawn leads us in singing our call to worship.

? Blood has a voice to pierce the skies ?
Revenge the blood of able Christ
But the dear stream, when Christ was slain,
speaks peace as loud from every vein.
Pardon and peace from God on high.
Behold, he lays his vengeance by,
and rebels that deserve his sword
become the favorites of the Lord. To Jesus let our praises rise, Who gave His life a sacrifice. Now He appears before our God, and for our pardon pleads His blood.

Okay, if you would, turn in your hymnal to song number 256, It Is Well With My Soul.

256. When peace like a river attendeth my way, when sorrows like sea billows roll, whatever Thou hast taught me to say, It is well, it is well with my soul.

It is well with my soul. It is well, it is well with my soul.

Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come, let this bless assurance, control, that Christ hath regarded my helpless estate and hath shed his own blood for my soul.

It is well with my soul. It is well, it is well with my soul.

My sin, O the bliss of this glorious thought! My sin, not in part, but the whole, is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more. Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul.

It is well with my soul. It is well, it is well with my soul.

And, Lord, haste the day when my faith shall be sight, the clouds be rolled back as a scroll, The trump shall resound, and the Lord shall descend. Even so, it is well with my soul. It is well with my soul. It is well, it is well with my soul.

I love that song. It may not be well with my body. It may not be well with my mind or my emotions, but it's well with my soul. I love to sing that song.

All right, if you would open your Bibles with me to Acts chapter 9. I did not plan this. This is evidently the will of the Lord that I'm going to pick up in the message right where I left off in the lesson this morning. I've titled the message, This Is Very Christ.

Now this is after Saul had received his sight, and we'll pick up in verse 19 of Acts chapter nine.

And when he had received meat, he was strengthened. Then was Saul's certain days with the disciples, which were at Damascus. I bet that was a strange meeting, don't you reckon? In a straight way, he preached Christ in the synagogues, that he is the son of God.

But all that heard him were amazed and said, is not this he that destroyed them was called on this name in Jerusalem? And came hither for that intent that he might bring them bound under the chief priest? But Saul increased more in strength, and he confounded the Jews which dwelt at Damascus, proving that this is very Christ.

Now I have no doubt that some believed on Christ when they heard Saul preach during that time. But I also know this for sure, some did not believe, which is always the case. Some do not.

But here's how I know some did not believe, verse 23.

And after that many days were fulfilled, the Jews took counsel to kill him. But their laying away was known of Saul, and they watched the gates day and night to kill him. Then the disciples took him by night and led him down by the wall in a basket.

" Now, these people obviously were so upset with what Paul was preaching, they determined they wanted to kill him. Now, Paul had proved, that's what it says here in the text, proving that this is very Christ. Paul had proved that Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ. He proved it. People had to look at that and say, well, he has to be the Christ. He has to be. It was proven to their minds, but they still did not believe.

They did not believe that Jesus was the Christ, and they couldn't prove Paul wrong from the scriptures. They couldn't take anything from the scriptures and say, Saul, here, this proves you're wrong. So they couldn't prove him wrong, so they said, well, let's just kill him. We're just gonna get rid of him. It seems like the common way people want to deal with this or that we hate the gospel. Let's kill the one guy who's preaching it.

But here's what really caught my attention. How did Paul prove that Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ? How did he prove to them that Jesus of Nazareth is the son of God? Well, it had to be from the Old Testament scriptures. New Testament scriptures didn't exist, so it had to be from the Old Testament scriptures, didn't it?

And when Paul used the scriptures, I really seriously doubt that he used some of our favorite Old Testament pictures of Christ to prove that Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ. If Paul would have used Abel's Lamb, If he would have used Noah's Ark, if he would have used the Passover lamp to show how those are pictures of Christ, those Jews would have said, that's not what that means. Let's talk about a ceremony that we're supposed to do. That's just a story, you know, that we tell our children. That wouldn't have proved to them that Jesus is the Christ.

And Paul was a very intelligent man, great orator. But he didn't use human logic to prove to them that Jesus of Nazareth is the very Christ. Because if Paul used logic to prove to them that Jesus is the Christ, somebody else would have come along who's a slicker talker and proved to them Jesus is not the Christ. So he didn't use human logic. He had to use Old Testament prophecies of Christ. Things that were prophesied in the Old Testament that were only fulfilled by Jesus of Nazareth. fulfilled by no one else. That proved to them that Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ. At least it proved it to them in their head.

Now, you get out a Knaves topical concordance or some other kind of thing like that, and you'll find many, many, many prophecies of Christ in the Old Testament that Jesus of Nazareth fulfilled. But for time's sake, I chose four of them to prove that Jesus of Nazareth is the very Christ.

And the first one is this, his conception, Jesus of Nazareth, his conception proves that he is the very Christ. Look at Isaiah chapter seven. Here's the scripture that is fulfilled there. Jesus of Nazareth was conceived in the womb of a virgin by the Holy ghost. Isaiah seven verse 14. Therefore, the Lord himself shall give you a sign. Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son and shall call his name Emmanuel, God with us.

Now of all the prophets, of all the true and false prophets that were around at that time, the only one who ever claimed to be born of a virgin is Jesus of Nazareth. He's the only one, as far as I know, who ever claimed he's God with us. He's the only one who ever said, I am. He's the only one who ever said that he existed with the Father before creation. No other false messiah ever claimed that, that they were born of a virgin, that they were conceived of the Holy Ghost so that they did not partake in Adam's sin. They were not born with a sin nature. They may as well not have ever claimed that, because you could tell just by watching them, they're a sinner just like me. They're just like me.

The only one who ever fulfilled this scripture of his conception, being born of a virgin, is Jesus of Nazareth.

Then look at Micah chapter five. Micah is right between Jonah and Nahum. If you've got the Cambridge, it's page 1155. Micah chapter five. The birth of Jesus of Nazareth proves he's the very Christ. He was born in Bethlehem, just like the scriptures prophesied that he would. Micah chapter five, verse two. But thou Bethlehem Ephrathah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel. whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting.

Now Saul could have told the people listening to him, you boys call Jesus the Nazarene, because he was raised in Nazareth. He worked in his father's carpenter shop in Nazareth. You boys call him the Nazarene, but did you know he wasn't born in Nazareth? Did you know he was born in Bethlehem?

And Paul or Saul could have told them, Yes, his parents were from Nazareth, and yes, he was raised up in Nazareth, but very miraculously, very mysteriously, he was born in Bethlehem. When he was conceived of the Holy Ghost, about eight, nine months after he was conceived in the womb of the Virgin by the Holy Ghost, Caesar Augustus said there's going to be a census, a taxing, and everybody in the whole world, in the whole Roman Empire, has to return to their hometown. You can't stay in the town, even if you've lived there for years, you've got to go back to your ancestral hometown.

Well, the ancestral hometown of Joseph and Mary is Bethlehem, because they descended from King David. And even though she was large with child, she was almost ready to deliver, Joseph put her on a donkey and took that trip to Bethlehem. And while they were there in Bethlehem for this census or this taxing, that child was born. He was born in a manger in Bethlehem because so many people had come to Bethlehem, there was no room for them in the end. And he was born in Bethlehem. He was born a king.

When those wise men came looking for him, they came looking for the one who's king, didn't they? He's king. He was born in the city of David, and if you look in Isaiah chapter 11, he was born in the city of David, as a descendant of David, and he was born as heir to David's throne.

Isaiah 11 verse one. And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse. This is one coming from Jesse's family tree through David. And a branch shall grow out of his roots. And the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him. The spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord, and shall make him of quick understanding in the fear of the Lord. And he shall not judge after the sight of his eyes, nor reprove after the hearing of his ears. but with righteousness shall he judge the poor.

This one who's coming is the stem of Jesse, a branch growing out of Jesse's family tree through David. He's the one who's the judge. He shall judge the poor. He shall reprove with equity for the meek of the earth. He's got the power to smite the earth with the rod of his mouth and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked.

This one who's coming as king has got all power. in heaven and earth. He's coming with righteousness. So he judged the poor, the poor in spirit. He's going to judge them with righteousness. He's going to make them righteous. So it's right for the father to accept him. He's coming as king.

This one who's born king is also the savior of his people. He's the one that fulfilled that. I mean, I know many babies were born throughout history in Bethlehem, But this is the only one who's born king. This is the one, not just king of the earth, but a spiritual king. That the father gave him the kingdom of the earth to judge it and have do with it what he will. He's got power over all flesh that he should give eternal life to as many as the father gave him. He has the sovereign right to give eternal life to you and me or withhold it from you and me because he's king. He was born king.

Then third, look at Isaiah chapter 35. The life of Jesus of Nazareth proves that he is the very Christ. Isaiah 35 and verse three. Strengthen ye the weak hands and confirm the feeble knees. Say to them that are of a fearful heart, be strong, fear not. Behold, your God will come with vengeance. Even God with a recompense, he will come and save you. And when he comes, this is what's going to happen. The eyes of the blind shall be open, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. Then shall the lame man leap as a heart, and the tongue of the dumb sing. For in the wilderness shall waters break out and streams in the desert.

When Jesus of Nazareth came and began his public earthly ministry, He performed all of these miracles that are prophesied of right here. And no one else ever claimed to be able to perform all these miracles. If they claimed it, it was so easily disproved. You know, they couldn't open the eyes of the blind. They couldn't make a deaf person hear. They couldn't do that.

Nicodemus knew that even before, I don't know if he ever believed on Christ or not, but before, when he still yet didn't believe Christ, he knew this man is different. Nobody could do these miracles that you're doing, except God be with you.

He's the one that fulfilled this scripture and healed all of these diseases. He cured diseases for which there was no cure. At that time, leprosy was a sure death sentence, and he healed lepers. The people who had been paralyzed their whole lives, he looked at them and said, take up your bed and walk. The lame, they'd never walked. I mean, can you imagine how somebody had never walked, how their muscles had atrophied, or they never grew, their legs are just that big around? And he heals the lame. And they didn't just start learning to walk and stumble around like a toddler. They got up and leaped and jumped up and down and praised the Lord, because he made the lame to walk.

The blind, he gave sight. They had never seen before. He gave them their sight. Sometimes just by saying it, sometimes by touching them, sometimes by putting mud on their eyes. He healed the blind. He made the deaf hear. The demon-possessed, he cast them out. I mean, without a struggle, he cast them out. There was a legion of demons in one man. All he had to do was speak. I mean, he didn't even break a sweat. He just cast them out.

He raised the dead back to life. The dead. He was passing by one time in a funeral possession passed by. There was a young man there taken out to bury him and the Lord went and touched the coffin and raised him back from the dead. I mean the power of this man.

And I know people claim today to have the power of healing. And here's how easy it is to disprove these religious charlatans. This makes me so upset. They're praying on poor, sick, weak people, and they're just, you'll give me money and I'll heal you and all that. Tell you what, if you got the power of healing, when you leave here today, go straight down there to King's Daughters, down there to the ICU, and empty the place. Just heal everybody in there. Just heal them. Have you got any compassion at all for people? That's what you'll do if you got the power of healing. Better yet, go out there to Rose Hill. Take some poor boy that died as an infant and raise him back to life and take him to his mama. If you got the power to heal and do these miracles like our Savior did, you're cruel and hateful if you don't do that for folks. You don't do it because you don't have the power to do it, but our Savior does. He has the power and the compassion to do those things, to use his power for the good of his people.

Then fourth, look at Psalm 22. The death of Jesus of Nazareth proves he's the very Christ. Verse one, Psalm 22. My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Why art thou so far from helping me, from the words of my roaring? Saul could have told him, you boys have seen a lot of men crucified. You've never heard anybody scream that from the cross before. My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Only Jesus of Nazareth.

Verse two, oh my God, I cry in the daytime, but thou hearest not, and in the night season, and am not silent. Saul reminded them that The Lord Jesus was crucified about noon, and at the brightest time of day, the sun went out. It turned to absolute darkness, darker than midnight. Now you tell me, who else was being crucified that ever happened to? Not one, but Jesus of Nazareth.

Verse six, he said, I'm a worm and no man, a reproach of men and despised of the people. All they that see me laugh me to scorn. They shoot out the lip and they shake the head saying, he trusted in the Lord that he would deliver him. Let him deliver him, seeing he delighteth in him. Who else did you hear these religious pious men walk by the cross and mock and say that to? Oh, he believed God that God would deliver him. Well, come down from the cross now, we'll believe you. They never said that to anybody but Jesus of Nazareth, proving he's the very Christ.

Verse 18, they part my garments among them and cast lots upon my vesture. We looked at that in the class this morning. Why didn't they just tear his garments in pieces and give a little piece to everybody? That's what they normally did. That was the way these executioners were paid, or at least part of the way they were. Why did they cast lots that day? To fulfill the scripture. They did that to prove Jesus of Nazareth is the very Christ.

And verse 30 says, A seed shall serve him. It shall be accounted to the Lord for a generation. They shall come and shall declare his righteousness unto a people that shall be born. They haven't even born yet, but somebody's gonna go declare his righteousness to them that he hath done this.

You know, I know there were other men who claimed to be the Messiah, but they're all gone. They're dead and buried and nobody's still preaching them, are they? Remember Gamaliel, he told his friends, his scribe and Pharisee friends, he said, I advise you to leave these men alone. Now, if it's of God, you're fighting against God. You're not going to win that. But if it's not of God, it'll go away. It'll go away on its own. And he used examples. Well, this fellow, you know, held him up to be something and the Romans killed him. He's gone. All his followers are gone. Nobody's preaching to him anymore. This fellow was raised up claiming to be something. He died. His followers are scattered. Nobody's preaching him anymore. This man, Jesus of Nazareth, died. He is buried and he rose again. And more people are preaching him today, 2,000 years later than ever before. You think of that. This is the only one that ever happened to. And Paul used these scriptures to prove Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ. This last verse here at verse 31, the end of the verse, that he hath done this, people, men today are still preaching what Christ hath done. But you know that phrase, he hath done this? You know what that is literally translated? It is finished. Who else cried from the cross, it is finished, and gave up the ghost? Everybody else had to break their legs to get them to die. This man cried, it's finished. Nobody else ever cried that. Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ.

And he proved, he took these scriptures and he knit them together to prove Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ. And they had a head knowledge of it. They could see what he was saying was true, but they didn't believe Christ. They still hated him. That every single day prayer of my heart is that you and me don't just have a head knowledge of Christ, but that the Holy Spirit will give us faith and a heart to believe him.

Now I want to look at these four scriptures again and look at them, praying that the Lord will give us faith to believe him. Here's why from these four scriptures, we should believe Christ.

Number one, we should believe on Christ because Jesus Christ was conceived in the womb of a virgin. The Lord Jesus was not conceived by the seed of a man that descended from Adam. He was conceived of the seed of the Holy Ghost. And since he was not conceived by the seed of a man that descended from Adam, you know, Adam's nature passes down to us by the seed of our fathers. Since Christ did not part with his, the seed that conceived him did not come from Adam. but came from God.

Christ did not partake in Adam's sin. He didn't receive Adam's sin nature. He had no original sin. And since he didn't have a sin nature, since he had no original sin, he lived a life of perfect obedience to the law. He established righteousness. And do you know he didn't do that for himself? He was already righteous, wasn't he, Dan? He didn't have to produce that righteousness for himself. He produced it for you and me. He produced it for his people as the second Adam. And he gives that righteousness to his people. Isn't that the terms that we use? He gives that righteousness. He imputes that righteousness to his people.

How real is that? Now is that just gonna be someday we'll be righteous? Or if you believe Christ, are you righteous right now? It's one or the other. It's either real or it's kind of pretend. until Christ returns and we all appear in glory. Which is it? I say it's real. The scripture, I say it's real because the scriptures say it's real. How real is it? Can I prove that to you from the scriptures? Leave a can. Look at Jeremiah chapter 33.

Christ came as the second Adam so that his people are made what he is, because of what he has done. And that's real right now.

Jeremiah 33 verse 15. In those days, and at that time, will I cause a branch of righteousness to grow up unto David, and he shall execute judgment and righteousness in the land? In those days shall Judah be saved, and Jerusalem shall dwell safely, because he's gonna save them. He's gonna make them righteous. And this is the name wherewith she, shall be called. Now this afternoon, if you care to look back in Jeremiah chapter 23, you'll read verses very similar to this. It says, this is the name wherewith he shall be called the Lord, our righteousness. Jehovah Sidkenu, one of the great names of Jehovah, the name of our savior. He is the Lord, our righteousness. But here, Jeremiah says, this is the name of the bride of Christ. This is the name of all of God's elect. the exact same name as Christ our Savior, the Lord our righteousness.

Believers have a union with Christ that is so real. We are what he is. I wrote an article about this a few weeks ago, that the believer in Christ, we are what Christ is. So that when the Father looks at us, all he sees is Christ. All he sees is the Lord our righteousness.

I don't want the father to see Christ and then me in Christ. I don't want him to see anything about me. When the father looks at me, all I want him to see is Christ. And for every one of God's elect, when the father looks at them, he sees Jehovah Sidkenu.

Now, if the Lord sees me and he looks at me and all he sees is Christ, then I'm accepted. Then I'll be in his presence forever By God's grace, I can tell you this, I believe Him. I believe Him. And I want you to believe Him, too. Believe Him.

This is the reason to believe Him, that if you're in Christ, He's made you perfectly righteous. You can't be made righteous any other way. Quit going about trying to establish your own righteousness by obeying the laws and obeying some rules and regulation that some preacher set up for you, and just believe Christ. If you simply believe Christ, you're as righteous as the son of God himself.

Now believing, what are you waiting for? Believing. And if you want to believe him, and you can't, and if you're in that situation, I feel very sorry for you. I know, what's the word, the anxiety that that causes, because I lived it for years. I understand, and my heart goes out to you. And I got some good advice for you. If you want to believe Christ and you can't, will you please listen to me? Ask God to give you faith to believe. Ask him to give you the faith to believe Christ. If he gives you that faith to believe Christ, you're as righteous as Christ himself. That's salvation.

Then second, now here's a good reason to believe. Trust your soul to Jesus Christ. He was born. The King. He was born in Bethlehem. He was born as heir to David's throne. The Lord Jesus Christ is King. We read that. We won't turn to it again in the lesson this morning. Zechariah 9. Behold your King cometh. The King one day came to Jerusalem. What we call the first Palm Sunday. And everybody was shouting, throwing palm leaves in front of them, you know, and screaming and shouting. Hail to the King, you know. The king came to the town to be crucified, to be made sin for his people, to suffer and die, to put their sin away, and he did it. He did it.

And the father gave him an everlasting throne. This is a much better throne than the throne of David. David's throne, Solomon's throne, powerful throne, wasn't it? But it's not anymore. It's gone, it's not anymore. Our savior has an everlasting throne. He went back to the father and he was accepted of the father. The father said, sit here on my right hand till I make your enemies your footstool.

Now, why did he do that? Why did the father say that? Because he did everything that the father sent him to do. And that great covenant of grace before time began, the father and the son entered into agreement. The father chose, he elected a sinful people to save. And he gave those people to his son. They're a bunch of heathen. He said, son, this is your inheritance. Now you save them. And the son said, father, I'll do it. I'll do everything that it takes to save these people from their sin, to make them holy and righteous, and I'll bring every last one of them to you. Perfect, holy, spotless, without blemish. And they entered into agreement.

And the Savior came as a man, the Son of God, became a man, born of the Virgin, just like we read about. He was conceived of the Virgin, born of the Virgin in Bethlehem, and He did everything that it took to save those people from their sin. He didn't just sweep the sin of His people under the rug. He made them righteous by His obedience as their representative. He put their sin away by His own precious blood. that he shed in his dying agony for his people and washed them from all of their sin. He died. He died the death all of us deserve. He died the death every one of his people deserve, and they buried him.

And three days later, he rose again as the evidence that he justified all of his people. He made them without sin. And when he ascended back to the father, that's when the father said, the work's done. There's no more work left to do to ratify this covenant of my grace. You sit here on this throne till I make your enemies your footstool.

Now, right now, Jesus of Nazareth, a man, is sitting on the throne of glory. This is the Savior. The Savior who willed the salvation of his people before time began. The Savior who loved his people enough to humiliate himself. to be made flesh, to confine himself to the limitations of flesh, to live in a cesspool of sin, surrounded by sinners. He loved his people enough to go to the cross. Peter tried to get him out to go, and he said, get thee behind me, Satan. I'm going to the cross to redeem my people from their sin. He set his face like a flint to Jerusalem. He would not be turned away from it because the people that he loves can only be redeemed if he goes and suffers and dies in their place. And he did it. He didn't hide his face from those that would pluck out his beard or smite his face. He didn't hide his back from those that would lacerate his back with the cat-of-nine-tails. He didn't hide from any of the suffering that sin deserves. He wouldn't take that wine mixed with myrrh as a sedative to make him not feel the stroke of God's justice as much as he deserved. He loved his people enough to suffer everything that their sin deserves, and he put their sin away.

Now, let me ask you something. Is the king, who's sovereign over everything in his creation, gonna lose even one, even one, for whom he died? Not a chance. Not a chance. There is nothing more insulting to Jesus Christ than for a preacher to say, well, he died for you, and now it's up to you to make his blood effectual to you. Poor Jesus, he shed his blood for you, but you're gonna go to hell anyway. That's the most insulting thing anybody can ever say about Jesus Christ. If he shed his blood for you, you're redeemed. And he's gonna rule to ensure it.

The sure, the sureness, I don't know what the right word is, but the absolute certainty of my salvation does not depend upon me. That's some of the best news I've ever heard. It's up to the king and nothing's going to prevent his will from taking me from this world into his presence if he suffered and died for me. Now, by God's grace, I trust him. I mean, I trust him. I cast myself at his feet before his throne, begging for mercy and saying, thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. for saving a wretch like me. Thank you, Lord. Praise your matchless name. I mean, there's just not language to express the thanksgiving and the praise that he deserves. By God's grace, I trust him. And I want you to trust him, too. I want you to trust him. And if you are trying to trust him and you can't, I got a good piece of advice for you. Ask God to give you the faith to trust him. Fall at the feet of the king and beg for mercy and don't ever quit.

I don't know why my family says this, but they say I'm the most impatient man that they know. And I was watching a football game yesterday. Gavin, I was watching a football game. And it didn't start out too well for my team. in the first three or four minutes. Well, that's it. It's over. That's it. I mean, got no patience, you know, to see how this thing will play out. Don't be like me. Follow the feet of the king and beg for mercy. And if he doesn't answer, beg again. And if he doesn't answer, beg again. And if he doesn't grant you mercy, beg again. And you keep begging. Eventually, he'll give you mercy. Asking for forgiveness. Asking for mercy. Asking for faith. He's faithful and just to give it.

Then third, the miracles that Jesus of Nazareth did in his life prove he's the very Christ. And he healed, like we talked about earlier, all those physical diseases. But every one of those is a picture of the spiritual healing that he gives all of his people. And the spiritual healing is much, much, much greater than the physical.

I mean, everybody that the Lord healed eventually died of something. Everybody the Lord raised from the dead died again. They're not still here. But what a miracle of grace. If the Lord heals you of all of your spiritual diseases, you'll never be sick again. You'll never have that spiritual disease again. If he cures the leprosy of your soul that demands your death, if he cures it, you have eternal life and you'll never be plagued with the leprosy of sin akin.

He takes the lame sinner and makes it so not only do they come to Christ, they come running to Christ. They come to Christ believing. He is everything he said he is. He makes the blind see, spiritually see. And if you're spiritually blind, you don't see Christ. You don't see what the big deal's about. You see some doctrine that must be true. You see how somebody's woven the scriptures together to prove to your mind that Jesus is the Christ, that Jesus is the only Savior, but you can't believe Him. You can't see Him. You can't come to Him.

But if the Lord ever heals your spiritual blindness, you know what you'll see? You'll see Christ. And when you see Him, you'll see your need of Him. You'll see how desperately wicked and sinful you are. You'll see his glory, so there's no one else you'd rather trust than Christ alone.

I'm gonna say this very carefully, but suppose there was another way of salvation. Suppose I could earn my own salvation. Suppose I could do something to make God save me and I could keep my salvation, or I could trust Christ. I'm telling you, I'd much rather trust Christ, because He's so much more glorious than me. Oh, if you see Christ, it'll be your joy to trust Him. He makes the deaf to hear the gospel and to believe it, to have an ear to hear it so that you know the gospel when you hear it, and you know something that's not the gospel when you hear it. Now, you might not be a preacher so that you can explain, this is the gospel and this is not. You may not feel like you can get up and expound Christ from the scriptures. But when you hear him expounded, you know it. When you hear the gospel, you know it and you believe it. Even though you might not necessarily understand it, who can understand God? Who can understand grace? Who can understand a sinner being made righteous? I can't, but I believe it. I believe it.

Christ delivers his people from the power of Satan. The power of Satan is to stop us from seeing Christ. Now we see. Now we come to Christ. The power of Satan is to make us trust in ourselves. You're delivered from that so that you trust Christ. That is a miracle of God's grace. And he does that for all of his people.

By God's grace, I trust him. I mean, I do. I trust him. I trust him to for everything that's involved in salvation. And I want you to trust him too. I don't just get up here and preach to say some true things and go home. I wanna preach so that Christ is glorified so much that you believe him. I want you to believe him. And if you want to believe him, and you find you can't make yourself believe him, can I give you a piece of advice that maybe you've heard before? Ask God to give you faith to trust him. Ask him.

Then last, the death of Jesus of Nazareth proves he's the very Christ. Look back at Psalm 22. Psalm 22, verse one. My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Christ cried that from the cross, not because he did not know why the Father forsook him. He knew. He knew that the Father forsook him and turned his back on him and withdrew all of his love and mercy and affection from him because he'd been made sin for his people. The Savior asked this question so you and I would know. He was forsaken of the Father. The Father at Calvary wasn't playing games. He was executing justice upon His Son so that He could show mercy to His people.

If Christ the Savior, the Son of God, was forsaken for my sin, the Father turned His back on Him and poured out His unmitigated wrath for sin, for my sin upon His Son, then the Father will never leave me nor forsake me. That's why you can always cling to that promise, to God's people, I'll never leave you, nor forsake you, because Christ was already forsaken at Calvary for my sin, for my sin.

Verse six, he says, I'm a worm. I become a maggot and no man. A reproach of men and despised of the people. That word worm, it does mean maggot, but it also means a scarlet worm. That scarlet worm, when the female is ready to hatch her larvae or whatever it is they do, she would attach herself to a piece of wood. And she'd die in order to give birth to her larvae or eggs or whatever they are, you know. She'd die and a red substance would come out of her and stain that wood. And people would scrape that off and use it for dye to dye their thread red and so forth. But in that obvious picture of Christ our Savior, he attached himself to the cross. Those nails didn't hold him to the cross. The thread of the Roman soldiers didn't hold him to the cross. It's his power to save that held him to the cross. And he shed his blood to put away the sin of his people. And if he shed his blood for me, my sin's gone under his blood.

Verse eight, this is what they threw at his teeth on the cross. He trusted on the Lord that he would deliver him, let him deliver him, seeing that he delighted in him. How they told him what? Come down from the cross and we'll believe you. If the Savior did not come down from the cross, you know what that means? He was delivered from my offenses and he stayed there till the price was paid. And if Christ paid the debt for my sin, the debt's paid and the Father will never demand payment from me.

Verse 18, they part my garments among them and cast lots upon my vesture. I dealt with this in the class this morning. That vesture is a picture, his robe that he wore, a woven robe that was woven from top to bottom, all one piece. They didn't tear it and part it amongst the soldiers that were there. They cast lots upon it and kept it whole. So at least one of them had something worthwhile. If they tore it apart and it was just a bunch of tattered threads, it wouldn't be any good to anybody. But they kept it whole. so somebody could use it as a robe. And that's a picture of the spotless robe of Christ's righteousness. And if you're covered in the righteousness of Christ, you're perfectly righteous. There's not a single blemish, not a hole, not even a tatter, not even a blemish on your robe of righteousness. You have a perfect righteousness in Christ.

And in verse 31, Hey, here is people, they shall come and shall declare his righteousness unto a people that shall be born. Oh, that's what I wanna do. I wanna declare the Lord our righteousness. I wanna declare Christ our savior to a people that have not yet been born. They've not yet been born again. The spirit might give them life through the preaching of the gospel. And I want to remind God's people. I want to be able to remind all those who believe that he hath done this. It is finished. Don't you fret. Don't you fret about your soul. If you trust Christ now, and if you don't trust Christ, you better fret. But if you trust Christ, don't worry, don't fret, don't be full of fear. It is finished.

I tell you, by God's grace, I trust him. I trust him. I don't even trust the finished work of Christ. I trust Christ who finished the work. I trust Him. I mean, I trust Him completely. All that's left for me to do is believe on Him. I can only do that by God's grace, by Him giving me the faith to believe. I believe Him. I trust Him. I rest in Him. And I want you to, too. I want you to have that joy of your heart and that comfort and assurance of heart and soul in trusting Christ who finished the work.

You know, if you'd like to deliver yourself from the bondage of trying to do the work yourself and trust Christ who's finished the work, if you wanna trust him and you can't, I've got a novel idea for you. Ask God to give you the faith to believe him. Ask, beg of him. You might be surprised what by his grace he'd do. You'll be surprised.

All right, let's bow together. Our Father, how we thank you for this time to look into your word. And Father, I beg of you that you would not just let these glorious truths of Christ our Savior be in our minds, that in some academic exercise we see this is what this book, the Bible, says about Jesus of Nazareth. But Father, that you would put faith in our hearts by the power of your spirit that you cause each one of us here this morning to be born again and to trust him, to see the glory of Christ our Savior, who's fulfilled all of the scriptures so clearly shows us he's the only Savior. He's the only way of salvation, the only way of righteousness, the only way of eternal life. Father, I beg of you that you perform a miracle of grace and cause us to trust him. to trust Him and then to spend whatever time we have left growing in grace in the knowledge of Christ our Savior. Father, it's for Christ's sake, for His glory we pray, amen. All right, Sean. Okay, if you would, turn the hymnal to song number 361 and stand as we sing sweet hour of prayer. 361.

Sweet hour of prayer, sweet hour of prayer that calls me from a world of care and bids me at my father's throne make all my wants and wishes known. In seasons of distress and grief, My soul has often found relief, And oft escaped the tempter's snare, by thy return. Sweet hour of prayer. Sweet hour of prayer. Sweet hour of prayer. Thy wings shall my petition bear, To Him whose truth and faithfulness Engage the waiting soul to bless. And since he bids me seek his face, believe his word, and trust his grace, I'll cast on him my every care, And wait for the sweet hour of prayer, sweet hour of prayer, sweet hour of prayer.

of prayer, may I thy consolation share. Till from Mount Pisgah's lofty height, I view my home and take my flight. This robe of flesh I'll drop and rise To seize the everlasting prize And shout while passing through the air Farewell, farewell, sweet hour of prayer.