Blindness. Blindness must be a terrible
affliction. Simply not able to see anything. I can't even imagine. But I know
that there is something far, far worse than blindness. Turn
to Matthew chapter 15 with me. Something far worse than being
blind is being blind and think you can see. A man who knows he is blind is
going to take a great deal of caution and care about what he
does and how he does it. But somebody who is blind and
thinks they can see is going to eventually wind up in serious
trouble. But there's one thing still worse
than that. A blind man telling other blind men that he can see
and that they should follow him. That's what a false preacher
is. That's what a false prophet is. Somebody who teaches a lie
and tells folks this is the truth. Look at Matthew 15, verse 10.
Our Lord dealt with this. He called a multitude. and said
unto them, Hear, hear. You notice his command? Hear. Remember that. Hear and understand. Not that which goeth into the
mouth defiles a man, but that which comes out of the mouth
that defiles a man. Then came his disciples and said
unto him, Lord, don't you know that the Pharisees were offended
by what you said after they heard this saying? Now, folks are going
to do one of two things when they hear the truth. They're
either going to fall down and worship Christ, or they're going
to get offended. One or the other. But the Lord
answered and said, Every plant which my Heavenly Father hath
not planted shall be rooted up. Just let them alone. Here's what
they are. They be blind leaders of the
blind. And if the blind lead the blind,
both shall fall into the ditch. You know what the ditch is? That's
hell. Those who follow a blind man
will fall in the ditch, and he will too. False preachers tell
folks that salvation, eternal life, is in keeping the law or
obeying their rules or doing good deeds or doing the best
you can. And they might as well tell a
blind man to drive a car from here to California. It is not
going to end well. It is impossible that a blind
man could do that. And salvation by works will not
work. God does not save men by works. Turn to John 6. God's Word does not teach. Salvation
by works. It's by grace. God's Word plainly
declares by the lips of God's own Son that on the day one of
His children dies, God will raise that child from the dead and
give that child eternal, everlasting life. And here, let me read it
to you straight from the Scriptures, what I just said in John 6, verse
40. This is the will of Him that
sent me." Who sent the Lord Jesus Christ? God the Father. And this
is His will, that everyone which seeth the Son and believeth on
Him may have everlasting life. And I'll raise Him up at the
last day. Christ plainly declares here,
this is the will of God. Now, nobody frustrates the will
of the God of the Bible, because He is almighty. There have been
some who tried. Do you remember Pharaoh? Moses
came to him and said, ìThe Lord sent me to tell you to let my
people go.î What did Pharaoh say? He said, ìWho is this God
that I should obey Him?î See, he didnít know Him. He didnít
know Him because he was blind. But how did that work out for
him? After his country was destroyed and decimated, His son was dead
and his whole army perished in the Red Sea. It was now plain
to Pharaoh who this God was. This God is God. Whatever he
wills comes to pass. It was God's will that Israel
be set free from their slavery. Christ does not say, my father,
in this verse, he doesn't say my father could raise you up.
My father might raise you up if you let him. He'll raise you
up. Or if you do the best you can,
He'll raise you up. Christ plainly declares, My Father
will raise up His people. Period. He'll do it. That's as
plain and precious as the promise of the gospel can be stated.
And I assure everyone in here, I'm just sure that you all desire
to claim that promise. Is anybody in here Nobody in
here is going to admit, boy, the day I die, I hope I get sent
to the ditch. Nobody would want to say that,
would you? No, you want to claim this promise. In the day, my Father will give them everlasting
life and raise them up. But now, with every promise in
the Scripture, there's conditions to be met. You have to meet the
description of those to whom the promise is made. And what
are those two conditions in this case? They're very plain in verse
40. He said. This is a will of him that sent
me that here's the first one that everyone would see if the
son got to see the Lord Jesus Christ. And the second condition
is that you must believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. And let me
tell you what that does not mean. Seeing the Lord Jesus Christ
does not mean physically seeing a man named Jesus in the flesh.
If that were the case, there's no hope for any of us, is there?
Because he's been dead for 2,000 years. Now, he's alive again
in glory and he's waiting to return. But it doesn't mean that. Seeing him with these eyes, that's
obvious. And this does not mean believing
some facts, believing on Jesus. Christ doesn't mean believing
some facts about him, that he was a man born long time ago
and he was a good man and he did a lot of good things and
he gave some blind men sight. Is that what it means, believing
these facts? No, that's not what it means. And I'm going to show
you in God's Word what seeing and believing means. But let
me show you first how God enables us by His Spirit to see and believe. Look at verse 45 over here. It is written in the prophets,
and they shall be all taught of God. Every man, therefore,
that hath heard and hath learned of the Father, that's who comes
to me." That's who's going to see Christ and that's who's going
to believe in Him. Those who have heard and have
learned. You know, different diseases
or sicknesses have consequences and symptoms. As a kid, had the
measles. And I remember looking in the
mirror and it looked like somebody taking a red magic marker and
just dotted me up real good. That's a symptom of measles.
And I remember my brother had the mumps and it looked like
she looked like a big chipmunk with his jaws full of walnuts. And he had this real high fever.
If you get heart disease, a lot of things can happen. You can
have irregular heartbeats and you can get chest pain, shortness
of breath, and it can even cause your heart to stop and you die.
You see the correlation I'm making between a disease and its symptoms.
Well, there's a sickness that we all are born with and it has
consequence. When Adam ate the fruit in the
Garden of Eden, he still had these eyes, but all of a sudden
he was spiritually blind. Adam had ears, but all of a sudden
he couldn't hear anything spiritual. He had a mind, but he couldn't
make sense anymore out of what God said. He died spiritually. His spiritual heart died. And
listen, you and I, this is an inherited disease. And it's not
that like some diseases that are inherited in our day that,
well, you may get it, but you may not. No, no, 100% of Adam's
descendants get this disease. I guarantee you got it. You may
not want to admit it, may not want to know it, but it's true.
So how can we see Christ, a spiritual being, if we're born spiritually
blind? Well, aren't you glad in verse
44 that there's not a period at this point in the verse? No
man can come to me. Aren't you glad that's a comma
instead of a period? Boy, if it said no man can come
to me, well, it's over. Might as well pack it up and
go home. But there's a comma there. It
says, no man can come to me except, there's some exceptions. Boy,
I want to hear about the exceptions. Wouldn't you like to be an exception?
Wouldn't you like to know you're not heading for the ditch? No man can come to me except
what? The Father which has sent me draws him. Draws him. God's got to draw us if we have
any hope at all of ever seeing and believing on the Lord Jesus
Christ. And he said, if that happens, if God does draw you,
you know what will happen? I'll raise you up at the last
day. And then right after that promise is repeated, over in
verse 40, it says, if you see the Lord Jesus Christ and you
believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, I'll raise you up at the last
day. And then over here in verse 44, it says, nobody can see Him,
but if my Father draws you, then you can see Him and believe.
Now it tells us how in verse 45. You see, it says, Every man
therefore that hath heard and have learned of the Father comes
to me. Now, this may not make any sense
to anybody, but bear me out. Our heavenly Father does not
require what He does not provide. If we have to have spiritual
sight to see the Lord Jesus Christ, God will give it to us. He's
good. And he's in the lesson said,
God is good. His mercy endures forever. This
was true back in Moses day. It was true back in Abraham's
day. It's true in our day. God's good to his people. If
you had a child that was blind and you had the ability to give
them sight, wouldn't you do it? Of course you would. So a sight is required. God will
give it. And he begins the process of seeing for his children by
drawing his children to Christ. And he does surgery on their
ears. You say, wait a minute. That doesn't make any sense.
What doctor would try to cure blindness by going in the ear?
Well, let me tell you. God the Holy Spirit is no ordinary
doctor. He is a great physician. And
the Holy Spirit, He heals according to His way in His time for God's
glory. Don't miss seeing Christ because
you think you see better than or you know better than God.
No. This is clear here. He gives
sight by dealing with the ears. Turn to Romans 10. And I'll show you this in the
Scriptures. Why does God give ears to hear to his children?
Now, this may be too simple, but why does God give ears to
hear to his children? Because they're deaf. Because
they can't hear. They're spiritually deaf by birth.
And he gives them ears to hear because they need to hear his
word when it's preached. And nobody can do it himself.
God provides all that's necessary. And look at Romans 10. Here's
how he does it. Romans 10, verse 13. For whosoever
shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Now, that's
it. I want to hear about that. But
if I'm deaf, I can't hear, right? How then shall they call on him
in whom they've not believed? And how shall they believe in
him of whom they have not heard? What's God going to do? How shall
they hear without a preacher? You know, that's what a preacher
is. He's a man God uses to do surgery on the ears. And how
shall they preach except they be sent as it is written, how
beautiful are the feet of them which preach the gospel of peace
and bring glad tidings of good things. It does not surprise
me that a lot of folks don't think much of our pastor. They've
never heard him. They haven't heard, heard him.
They haven't heard the one he speaks of. They've never had
their ears probed, opened to the glory of Jesus Christ, which
is what he preaches. I'm so thankful for our pastor.
This business of beautiful feet. I don't know how pretty Todd's
feet are. I really don't. I know this, when these fellows
sit in that study back here, getting ready to read Scripture
and pray and prepare to come out here, it never really settles
down until around the corner of the door comes Todd's feet
and all the preachers here. And if you sit out here, I'll
tell you when everything gets OK, when his feet come walking
down here and he sits up here. I don't care how pretty his feet
is. Boy, they're beautiful because
of what He's bringing with Him. No greater blessing can God give
a people than a faithful pastor to preach Christ and Him crucified.
He preaches to you and to me and to our children and grandchildren.
Why? So that we might hear of the true and living God. So it's
by preaching. God's Word is heard and learned.
Understanding comes by hearing. And God's children hear His voice
through a preacher. They learn. They understand.
We don't understand everything. Certainly not. But we will recognize
the truth and begin to see some things in the Lord Jesus Christ. Turn over to Ephesians 6. I want
to drive this home about just how important this thing of hearing
is. Let me ask you a question. How
much hearing does it take? For somebody here hears, does
that make any sense? A lot of folks here with these
ears, but don't hear with spiritual ears. How much does it take?
Well, I knew a man once who in his
early 30s had never heard the gospel of Jesus Christ. And you
know what happened the first time he heard it? He died. It
slew him. I don't mean he physically died.
He died spiritually. He found out he was dead in sin.
Boy, he was a happy fellow. That man had a son who, you know,
since his daddy heard, he raised him in the gospel and probably
Sunday Bible school, Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night
for over 30 years. That son was sitting there. You
know how many messages that is? I did a little math. It's like
3000 messages he heard. And you know what? He never heard.
Oh, but one time. He heard, heard. He'd heard a
lot of them, but now he heard, heard. So it's not revealed how many. But God's people. never want
to miss a chance to hear. I know that's why you're here.
We want to hear about Him so we can see and believe all over
again. If the gospel is preached, that's
what happens for God's people. And is it ever too soon for our
children to hear? Paul wrote of Timothy, from a
child that has known the Holy Scriptures. From a child? I don't
know whether that's that big or this big or that big. That's
not my business. But if it does say a child can
hear. From a child that has known the
Holy Scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation
through faith, which is in Christ Jesus. Look at Ephesians six,
verse one here, and you folks, you parents, you're going to
like this first couple of verses here a lot. OK. Here's this verse,
and you children listen here, OK? Because it says, talk to
you right here, it says, children. OK, that's all of you in here.
Listen, just a minute. Children, obey your parents in the Lord,
for that's what's right. Now, folks, parents, we like
that, don't we? We like that. That's what we
want them to do, is obey us. And look at verse 2. It says,
honor thy children. You honor thy father and thy
mother, which is the first commandment with promise. Now, we like that,
don't we? We want them to honor us. Look at verse 3. And children, be warned here.
It says, Obey and honor that it may be well with you. If you
don't want things to go very well, will you just disobey your
parents? You found out yet there's consequences
to that? Don't honor your mother and father
and it won't go well with you. But it's even worse than that.
It says that thou may live us long on the earth. That's a pretty
severe warning, isn't it? But now look at verse 4 here.
And let's turn the tables. Moms and dads. And I know this. Fathers, let me say this to you.
You are responsible in this matter. I know the mom's got to do most
of the work, it's like most everything. You're the one that's got to
get them dressed up, fed, get them in bed early and do all
this. But if it's not happening, it's the father's responsibility.
And look what this says in verse 4. Provoke not your children
to wrath. Is there anybody in here who
wants their children to be disobedient, to get in trouble all the time,
to be obnoxious and have no respect and act out of sorts and be angry
all the time? See if I want their children
like that. Of course you don't. This tells you why they're that
way, if they are that way. This is so plain. I'd never seen
this before, the correlation between that In the next phrase,
you fathers, provoke not your children to go out. How do you
provoke them? Bring them up in the nurture and admonition of
the Lord. What does that mean? Get them
where they hear the gospel. You say, you mean Sunday school
and Sunday morning and Sunday night and Wednesday night? Well,
you decide. You decide how much wrath you
want them to endure. Let me give you this illustration.
One of your children was at the doctor and you found out. Bad,
sick, terminal, bad, sick, but the doctor says, you know. If
we gave him chemo, it could save him. But it's going to have to
be done seven days a week, and the only opening we have is 3
a.m. in the morning. Seven days a
week. I dare say you parents would
center your lives around this possible cure. Nothing would
be more important, would it? Do I even have to make the application
here? A day is coming when parents and your children will have no
concern for how much education they got, how much athletic accomplishments
they've made, what kind of job they got, what kind of house
they live in. They don't even have a house.
What kind of money they have and stuff is only going to be
one thing that matters. Do they know Christ? And they won't know Him if they
haven't heard and seen and believed. And where are they going to hear?
Right here. If we don't see to this matter, the wrath of God may follow on
our children. On our children. God deliver us from neglecting
the only thing of eternal consequences in their life. All right, turn
to Job 42. So God's spirit speaks through
a man, a preacher of the gospel, and God's children, they hear.
And then they see. So what do they see? Well, you
can read all 41 chapters of Job and read all that was going on,
but here's where Job arrives. In Job 42, verse 5, he said,
I heard, he said, I heard of you, I heard of you by the hearing
of the ear, but now mine eye seeeth thee. Do you see the correlation?
Nobody's going to see Christ unless they first hear. And where
are they going to hear? preaching of the gospel. But
look at the first thing that he saw in verse 6. Wherefore,
I abhor myself. He said, I hate myself and I
repent in dust and ashes. What do we see? We see ourselves
as God sees us by nature. We see ourselves as sinners.
And if we do, we'll repent. If a blind man is running, And
up ahead there's a cliff. You all know what's going to
happen? It's too simple. You're going
to run off the cliff and die. Do you know that's a picture
of what we are by nature? We're blind men just sundering
our way towards hell. Just running full out. And we
think we see. And we don't see a thing. And
left unspoken to, off we go. But if somebody calls out to
that blind man before he goes over the edge and warns him and
he hears, you know what he'll do? He'll turn. He'll stop running
this way and he'll go that way and that way. He wants to get
as far away from that cliff as he can get. You know what that's
called? Repentance. Repentance. The blind men who get sight see
who they are by nature. Oh, and we hate it. God's children
see. They see their complete inability
to change what they are. Turn to Isaiah chapter 40. Every time that we meet, God's
people need to hear and see and believe that we are evil and
depraved. You say, I don't like hearing
that. Well, I don't especially like it either, but it's true. Isaiah 40, verse 6, the voice said, God spoke to
his prophet, his preacher, and said, Cry, that means preach.
And he said, What shall I preach? He said that all flesh is grass
and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field.
The grass withers, the flower fades, because the Spirit of
the Lord blows upon it. Surely the people is grass and
the grass withereth, the flower fadeth, but the word of our God
shall stand forever. You and I are nothing but a bunch
of weeds growing in a field by nature, which one day the sun's
going to come out and scorch them, burn them up, and God's
going to gather them up and throw them in the fire, in the ditch,
throw them in the ditch. And we need to hear that. It'll
make us turn. Oh, I need some help. I'm hopeless. Turn, turn. And you see, that's
it. I mean, is depravity all we preach? Well, it's important and it's
vital. But thank God that's not all a believer sees and believes.
Look at verse Isaiah 40, verse three. The voice of him that
cries in the wilderness, prepare you the way of the Lord, make
straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall
be exalted and every mountain and hill shall be made low and
the crooked shall be made straight and the rough places plain. Why? That the glory of the Lord shall
be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth
of the Lord is spoken. When a man preaches the gospel,
and God's with him, he's on him, what happens is that he preaches
this thing about depravity, about what we are by nature. But what
he's also doing is, you know, you remember the day when you
thought you were something? I do. Thought I was a hot shot,
big time, all this stuff. You know what happens? The Lord
brings that mountain low. He brings that hill right on
down here to the grave. And you know, some of us were
just so down and always depressed and troubled and couldn't lose
everything, the whole world against me. He'll raise them up. And there's this highway. You
know where it leads? Straight to the Lord Jesus Christ.
Take you straight there every time. That's what the preacher
preaches. We're in trouble. We're heading
for the ditch. Oh, but turn, turn. There's help
in the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's how He's glorified.
That's His glory. The glory of the Lord will be
revealed. It will be seen and believed. Let me give you three
quick things about what is His glory. First of all, Jesus Christ,
God's Son, He became a man. He lived a perfect life. And
that's glorious enough. God, the Spirit, became a man. No other man ever did that. But
Jesus Christ, when He lived, He lived righteous and holy. It was perfect. And you know
what He does with that righteousness? He gives it to God's children. They see and believe that, and
it glorifies Christ. Second thing is that Jesus Christ
allowed himself to be crucified at Calvary. He took all the sin
of God's people. He put it on himself, went up
that hill and was crucified. He died for that sin. He didn't
have any of his own. He was punished for what we did
and we go free. That's glorious. Glorifies the
Lord Jesus Christ. And then thirdly, Jesus Christ,
he didn't stay dead. He arose from the grave. He sits
in heaven right now till he comes back. And you say, when's that
going to be? I can tell you when that is.
Not like the guy in California who says, well, it's 2011. Oops,
I was wrong. That's 2012. Oops. You know,
we just keep pushing that date out there. I can tell you when
it's going to be. When God, the Holy Spirit, has
drawn unto himself the last of his children. The day that the
last of his children hears the gospel, he's coming back. The ditch is
open. Tell you what, we'd better turn
before that ditch gets here. Don't know when it'll be, but
it's coming. And when God the Holy Spirit has drawn in him
the last of his children, then the Holy Spirit makes certain
every child of God has seen and heard and believed the Lord Jesus
Christ. to the glory of God. And again,
God does not require what we can't do. We can't save ourselves,
but God can. He gives us ears to hear, eyes
to see, and a heart to believe. So who are the children of God?
Y'all interested in that? I'd like to know if I'm one,
wouldn't you? Who are they? Well, the Bible calls them the
elect. I'm sorry if you don't like that
word, but it's in here. It's God's chosen people. And let
me try to illustrate this this way. Over a length of time, it
is easy to identify my children out of a crowd. You say, how's
that? Well, they hang around me, for
one thing. And they're devoted to me. They invite me, actually,
many of the places they go. most of the places they go. They
treat me with respect. They listen to me most of the
time. And they continually express
their love and gratitude to me. Now, I want you to hear this.
I'm not worthy of that honor. I'm not. Just by the grace of
God, it is that way. And I wish it were that way for
everybody. One of these days, all God's children are going
to love each other the way we should. Now, He helped us to
do it until that day comes. But I'd like to think that I'd die
for any of them. But you know, one never knows
about those things. I wouldn't boast that because,
you know, I might not be willing to take that bullet like I think
I would. But how did I get these children?
I have a son, Luke. by birth. I have a son, Brandon,
by adoption. I have two girls here, Megan
and Tracy, by marriage. These three things, birth, adoption
and marriage, make us one family. If you hang around us a while,
you'll see we are a family. I'm grateful for that, rejoicing
in it. What about God's children? God saw to the birth of His Son,
Jesus Christ, in the flesh. God chose to adopt some children.
And God marries every one of those children to His Son, Jesus
Christ. You see, it's by birth, by marriage,
and by adoption that we are all one in the family of God. Wouldn't you like to be in that
family? Mine's not much to talk about, but boy, his is. And I'll
tell you what, God is worthy of all honor and praise because
He did it. He did it. And do you know what?
We know for a fact that Jesus Christ, He not only would die
for God's children, He did die for God's children. If you're
one of His, at Calvary, He died in your place. Now, is that worthy
of glory or what? We have a glorious God and glorious
Savior in Jesus Christ. Now, how can they be identified
from the crowd? Well, God's children want to
be around or near Him, don't they? They want to come in here
when He's being spoke of. They're devoted to Him, totally
committed to Him. They regard God with great respect
and reverence and awe. And if he isn't welcome someplace,
they don't much want to have anything to do with that. They
continually express their love and gratitude. And they listen
to him most of the time. We're not there with him yet.
We still are still while that old man rears up, doesn't he?
And doesn't listen. That's the quickest way to get
back in trouble. Not listening, not being here to hear the word.
They always want to be drawn to Him by hearing the Word, seeing
the Lord, and believing by faith. Who they are and who Christ is
and what He's done, where He is now, and why He's done all
this that He's done. I want to hear that over and over and over
again. Everyone God draws to Himself, they hear, they see,
they believe, they fall in love with Jesus Christ and this Gospel.
Now, I'm going to read you a Scripture if you'll turn to Mark 10. It's
a living example of all that I've tried to say this morning.
Mark chapter 10. Begin in verse 46 of Mark 10. And the Lord and his disciples,
they came to Jericho. And as the Lord went out of Jericho
with his disciples, And a great number of people, blind Bartimaeus,
the son of Timaeus, sat by the highwayside begging. There was
a lot of people here. And I'm sure they were trying
to get a look and walk along and whatever, but there's this
blind, filthy beggar sitting there. I don't know if he's got
his hand out. He's got a cup or a bowl or what. He's begging.
And he's just sitting there. What else can he do? He's blind. And verse 47 says, And when he
heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he
began to cry out and say, Jesus, thou Son of David, have mercy
on me. You see, when he heard, he asked
for mercy. And there were many people there, and they charged
him that he should hold his peace. They said, You be quiet. You
shut up. We want to hear him. We want to see him. You be quiet.
Is that what he did? No. He cried the more. A great
deal. Thou Son of David, have mercy
on me. And then you know what happened? Jesus Christ stood
still. Now, our Lord said, I must be about my Father's business."
That's the only thing that will make him stand still, is it must
be his Father's business to speak to this man and give him sight
and give him a believing heart, a faith. The Lord stood still
and he commanded to him to be called. Oh, he said, fetch him,
didn't he? He said, draw him. Draw him to me. And they called
the blind man, saying unto him, Be of good comfort. Rise, he
calleth thee. And Bartimaeus, casting away
his garment, rose and came to Jesus." You know what? He threw
off his coat. You know why? It was nasty. It
was filthy. He's blind. He can't see the
dirt. He doesn't care. But he knew this. He was going
into the presence of a holy God, and he said, I don't need this.
I'm coming like I am by nature. In verse 51, Jesus answered and
said unto him, What wilt thou that I should do unto thee? If the Lord asked us that, what
would we say? You get one thing you can ask for, and I'll do
it. Bartimaeus said, the blind man said unto him, Lord, that
I might receive my sight. And Jesus said unto him, Okay,
go your way. Now, this is important. He said,
Bartimaeus, you go ahead. I'm going to take care of this,
but you go however you want to from here. Thy faith has made
thee whole. And the minute the Lord said
that, immediately Bartimaeus received this sight. He could
see now. And this is a picture of how
God saves sinners. They're going to hear from Christ.
He's going to speak to him, give him sight and give him faith
to believe who he is, what he's done, why he did it, where he
is now. And then you know what they'll do? They'll go their
way. You know what their way is? Our way now? Look at the
last phrase. He immediately received his sight
and he followed Jesus in the way. You see, Christ's way is
now my way. That's what I want. I want to
go his way. My way hadn't worked out so good.
Has it yours? No. I was just thundering towards
that cliff. And I'm so thankful God sent
a man to say, turn, turn, turn. And behold, the Lord Jesus Christ.
May someone here this morning see themselves as Bartimaeus,
a filthy, vile, disgusting, helpless, fine person. May we see our need
of Christ, His mercy to put away our sin and His grace to put
on our coat of righteousness, ask God's Spirit to give us a
heart that believes Christ. If that happens, we'll follow
Him all the days of our life. That's what we'll do. Seeing
Christ, it comes by hearing and believing comes by seeing. That's
what the gospel is in the Lord Jesus Christ.