If you'd like to turn again to Acts chapter 8, to the passage we read just a few minutes ago. Perhaps in recent months, sometimes it's been a bit of a struggle, hasn't it? Those of us particularly that live more than a few miles away, when it's been cold, when it's been dark and gloomy and tipping down with rain, and we think, oh dear, what a struggle it is to get in the car and come and worship. Well, just bear this man in mind. None of us have had to make anything like the sort of journey that he made. We're told in verse 27 he's a man from Ethiopia. Now, we're not quite sure exactly what geographical area the ancient kingdom of Ethiopia corresponded to at this time. It may possibly have included some of the country that now bears the same name. It may possibly have been a little bit to the north, maybe the very southern part of Egypt or perhaps what's now Sudan. But it was a long way away. It was the very limit of the known world as far as the inhabitants of the Roman Empire were concerned. And this man had quite a long journey to make. He had to travel from Ethiopia up the course of the Nile through Egypt, across the Red Sea, over the Sinai Peninsula, and then into the land of Israel. a long and hazardous journey. Now we live in an age where we can just take it for granted. We can get into a car or get into a train or go off in an aircraft somewhere and travel quite considerable distances. We take it for granted. We forget how until, well, as recently as about 150 years ago, travel was dangerous. Travel was not for the faint-hearted. But as we've seen, he had a very good reason for undertaking this journey. He'd come to Jerusalem, we're told at the end of verse 27, for to worship. This was why he dared to do this. Now who was he? In all probability, he was probably a proselyte. That's the name that was given to people who were not born Jews, but who had been drawn towards the Jewish religion. And there were many of them because circumstances had conspired, had been providentially arranged by God to raise the profile of the Jewish nation and of their God. First of all came the two exiles of the Jews. They lived in their own country for several hundred years, but God dispersed them in two particular instances because of their unfaithfulness to him. Firstly, the Assyrians took away the northern kingdom, ten of the twelve tribes. Then about 130, 140 years later, the southern kingdom was destroyed by the Babylonians. The temple in Jerusalem was destroyed. and again the Jews were taken away captive. Now some of them were graciously allowed to return but others didn't and you end up with these colonies of Jews called the Diaspora that were spread out right around the Eastern Mediterranean and some of them travelled even further. And not only had the Jews themselves been spread out, but also their sacred scriptures, about 200 BC, they were translated into Greek, which rather like English in our own time was very much the world's language. Lots of people of all different nationalities would have spoken some Greek. When we think of our New Testament, There's only one Gentile writer, Luke, who wrote the book of Acts that we read and also the Gospel that bears his name. All the other writers, all the other authors were all Jews, but rather than writing in their own language, they all wrote in Greek because it meant that people right throughout the Mediterranean, North Africa, quite a wide area would be able to understand what they'd written. And it was through this that people became much more aware of the Jews and of the God of the Jews. And it was ultimately, of course, to be because of these factors that people began to hear of the good news of Jesus Christ. But sadly, at this point in time, the good news of Jesus had not yet reached Ethiopia. It was this important official who was the first person from that particular nation to come to believe in him as their saviour. Now, in those days, so many of the nations had some sort of national religion that involved idolatrous practices. They would bow down before this block of wood or stone or sometimes it could be trees or something like that depending which country we're talking about. and various rituals would take place, some involving quite disgusting practices. And a lot of people who had a chance to hear something about the Jews' God and maybe had a chance to see something of their scriptures, could see that there was something better than just bowing down before a block of wood or a block of stone and saying, this is your God. It seems so stupid, it seems so futile. The Jews may not always have been the best of advertisements for their God. They were often quite unpopular with the nations in which they were spread about and often, to be honest, looked down upon their neighbours as well, which didn't really help much either. But in spite of that, something about their God, something about the way he'd revealed himself in these scriptures, something about how they weren't allowed to make an image of him, spoke to quite a number of people. they were drawn towards the God of the Jews from all sorts of races like this man. Of course, although he was attracted, although he was clearly... he'd seen something better than the religion of his own country, he was still ignorant about the message that the Jewish scriptures taught. He was returning, they're told, having gone up to Jerusalem and reading a scroll containing the prophet Isaiah. He'd been on this great long journey. As we shall see, he came back confused. He'd gone to the temple as far as he'd been allowed to go, called to the Gentiles. But he hadn't really come back clear as to what exactly he was worshipping. He didn't understand the message. He read this this scroll containing this mention of a suffering servant. Who was this suffering servant? We see him asking Philip this. Is he talking about himself? Is Isaiah talking about something that's happened to him? Or is he talking about someone else? He was clearly a man seeking, but he was a man who was muddled. In God's mercies we shall see his confusion was ended by Philip. There's that lovely phrase at the end of verse 39. He went on his way rejoicing. Now you may ask yourself a question, well really what is the account of this unnamed Ethiopian official who lived some 2,000 years ago got to say to us today? Why is it worthy of study in the early 21st century when life is so different? What's the relevance of it all? Well I'll tell you why, it's because there are people today who are in a similar position to this Ethiopian official. Maybe perhaps there's someone here today, you're drawn towards Christianity but you're confused, you've got questions. Maybe you own a copy of the Bible but you think, well I'm not really quite sure what the message of the Bible is all about. You recognise there's something unique about it. but you're still muddled. I hope and pray that as we study this passage, that like this man, your confusion may be ended. I'd like to split the message into two parts. I'd like to consider firstly three obstacles that this man faced, all of which we can find parallels today. Perhaps one of them you'll be able to identify with, maybe more than one of them. And secondly I would like to look at three blessings that he received. I hope and pray that these blessings which are still available, you will avail yourself of too if you haven't already done so. Let's look at the first of these three obstacles then. That's that his condition appeared to make him an outsider. We're told in verse 27 he was a man of Ethiopia. He was also a eunuch. Now we can be very thankful that this practice, this awful practice is now confined to the history books. Now of course one or two commentators have actually said that sometimes the word eunuch was used in a generic way to signify any official, senior official in a government rather than necessarily someone who'd been castrated. But it's quite likely that that was the case with this man. You'll notice that he was serving under Kandese, Queen of the Ethiopians. Now, in Ethiopia, the Queen Mother traditionally had a very powerful position in the land. It was a generic term, it didn't actually refer to one particular lady. When you hear Kandese, Queen of the Ethiopians, it's rather like you hear say Pharaoh, King of Egypt. All the kings of Egypt were called Pharaoh or Caesar of Rome. It was a generic term for any powerful Queen Mother figure in Ethiopia. And of course people like Hewlett's are often the best people to have surrounding a powerful woman, the Queen in ancient times. So it was an advantage for him that he was in this position because of what had happened to him. But it wasn't so good if he wanted to join himself with the Jews in worship. Because in the book of Deuteronomy, chapter 23 and verse 1, it's quite explicit. He that is wounded in the stones or hath his privy member cut off shall not enter into the congregation of the Lord. So, it seems that although he travelled all this way, he could have been an outsider, someone who just couldn't, because of his physical condition, make the grade. But the good thing is it hadn't put him off. He had still made this long journey specifically to worship God. Perhaps that scroll that he had in front of him as he travelled home, he noticed the words a bit further on in chapters 56, verses 3 and 5, where it says, Neither let the eunuchs say, Behold, I am a dry tree. For thus saith the Lord unto the eunuchs that keep my Sabbath, and that choose the things that please me and that take hold of my covenant. Even unto them will I give in mine house and within my walls a place and a name better than of sons and of daughters. I will give them an everlasting name that shall not be cut off." How wonderful! There was hope this man may not be an outsider at all. In the 53rd chapter of Isaiah that he was reading, the Prophet introduces us to the suffering servant, which we'll consider shortly. In chapter 56, he talks of the consequences of that servant's coming. Up until then, God has pretty well exclusively confined his close relationship, his special relationship, with one single nation, the Jews. But now, once the servant had come, the door was opening wide. The door was open to all who were seeking after him. Now again, on the face of it, you might say, well, how's this relevant to us today? After all, thankfully, this inhumane practice belongs to the past. The doors have been flung wide now for 2,000 years. That's true, but you know, it's still possible to be sitting here, or any church for that matter, and to feel you're an outsider. not just perhaps to a particular congregation, a local congregation, but to the church as a whole. You look at Christians and you think, I can never be like you. There's so much wrong with me. Think of my past if you don't know what I did. God wouldn't just want to show any interest in me. People do have quite wrong ideas about Christians. Sometimes, admittedly, those wrong ideas are quite negative. People say, oh, you're hypocrites, oh, you're bigoted and so forth. But some people are drawn towards Christianity, but they think, no, I wish I did know God like you people do, but I'm going to be an outsider, there's something that disqualifies me, I'm not good enough. Well friend, if you find yourself in that position, take heart, because the route to faith is exactly the same as it was for this man. A route that many of us here have already taken. It's a route you can take too. You don't have to feel you're going to be an outsider. Do you feel your sin? Do you feel a sense that God has laid down certain standards and your conscience is saying, I haven't kept those standards. I fall seriously short. I feel uncomfortable about this but that's reality. I don't really want to be an outsider. But I feel my sin is separating me from God. If that's you friend, be encouraged. Because without this sense of sin, you can't become a Christian. It's actually a requirement, it's not a deterrence at all. So that's one obstacle which can be overcome. Now there's a second. Let's look at his position. The great apostle Paul wrote that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called. The Lord Jesus himself said that it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God. There are other verses I could quote on a similar theme in the New Testament. And you would think, well, prospects don't really look very good for this man, do they? Because we're told that besides being a eunuch, in verse 27, he's a man of great authority. He was a man in charge of all the treasure of Kandese, Queen of the Ethiopians. You could perhaps say he was on a level with George Osborne, the Chancellor of the Exchequer. He was certainly an important person. He would therefore have been a man of wealth and influence. He had his own chariot, we know. He certainly had servants, probably had quite an entourage with him as he made this journey. And it is actually a sad fact as you look down through 2,000 years of church history that very few people who get to these exalted levels, people with power, people with influence and money, are to be found in the church. There are of course exceptions. Just a few miles up the road from here you can go up to Winchcombe and to Sudley Castle and they, particularly last year, they made quite a feature of Queen Catherine Parr, the final of Henry VIII's six wives. A lady who graciously came to faith and who used her faith for good, in particular with regards to bringing up her stepson who became King Edward VI, who was also a believer even though he was a king. You turn on a hundred years and of course we come to Oliver Cromwell, a great man who likewise had a real Christian faith. But such people are sadly few and far between. Now why is this? I think one reason is because the obstacles to coming to faith for people in positions of authority are so much greater. There's so much to give up, so they feel. Of course if you become a Christian, You see things differently. No one who has become a Christian can say, I wish I never had. No one would ever dream of saying such a thing. But for those looking on the outside, they'll say, well, it's such a big price I've got to pay. Can I really cope with it? It's a fact. that becoming a Christian has never been a route to popularity, never been a route to a fortune, never been a route to an easy life. Jesus talks about taking up one's cross. It's a surrender of your life to Jesus. A condemned criminal had no independence, had no rights. And becoming a Christian means handing over the keys of your car, the keys of your house, the keys of your life. to someone else's control. You live God's way, you don't live your way. Your time and your money is His. And for the rich and the powerful, that can be one step too far. I like my lifestyle, I like my power, I like the prestige that goes with it. God may not necessarily cause a Christian from an exhausted background to give up their job, But sometimes he does. Think of C.T. Studd who played cricket for England. Highly regarded, obviously a popular man. Turned his back on it to go off and serve the Lord on the mission field. A much less well-known person was a man by the name of Baron de Salga, a 17th century French nobleman. He became a Christian. And when he was pressured by the king, Louis XIV, to give up his faith, he wouldn't do it. And so he ended up exchanging his life of ease and affluence for that of a galley slave. He had to row those warships that the French navy used at the time. They had one big sail but were otherwise propelled along the sea by men chained to their oars who had to row and were often treated very badly. As for our man here, this Ethiopian official, what became of him after he goes on his way rejoicing and he vanishes from the pages of scripture, we don't know. But we have to say that there are a few who have followed in his footsteps in subsequent generations. Now again you might say, well is this really relevant? I don't know everybody here but I wouldn't suspect there's anybody whose status is on a level with this man or say with George Osborne. But you don't have to be rich, you don't have to be influential to have to face up to this question of lordship. You can't become a Christian unless you let go of your life. It may not be prestige or wealth, you may not have these things. Maybe some habits that you're feeling uncomfortable with. Maybe it's a relationship that you know is harmful. Maybe you don't like the idea of professing your faith publicly through baptism like this man did here. But the question is, are you prepared? You need to think about this. Now there's a third obstacle that we need to consider which is the degenerate state of the church at the time. Now I've read through this passage many times but it's only as I've been preparing this message did it strike me of the significance that this happens on the way back. This man travelled all the way to Jerusalem He travelled all the way to find God, to meet with the people of God, to worship God with them, and yet he ended up coming back confused. Yes, he had a copy, we know, of at least part of the scriptures, but for all his interaction with the Jewish religious leaders, we don't know who he spoke to, we're not told when he went up to Jerusalem, but none of them explained to him that this most important passage, one of the most important of all, about the one to whom the whole of the Jewish Scriptures pointed, the promised Messiah. They didn't explain what it was about. The one who the Scriptures, right from the beginning, right from Genesis chapter 3 pointed to. No one told him about this. And even worse, no one in Jerusalem had told him that these words, this prophecy, and also the prophecy that we sang in Psalm 22, lots and lots of other prophecies had all been fulfilled In the last few years, in the death of Jesus of Nazareth, it was he, the one who was led as a sheep to the slaughter. And yet the Jewish authorities had been the ones that had done it. Rather than recognising that the promised one had finally come, had rejected him, they put him to death. They would not believe on him. Even when he raised someone from the dead, They'd hardened their hearts, even when he himself came back from the dead. What did they do? They bribed the guards who'd seen some of the incredible things that took place at his resurrection and told them to tell lies. Now of course since then there had been a change of heart among some of the Jewish religious leaders. In Acts chapter 6 and verse 7, we're told a great company of the priests were obedient to the faith. Some of them recognised that the man whose death their leaders had helped engineer was the Son of God, was the Messiah. But in the main, As it says in John's Gospel, his own receives him not. Opposition to Jesus from the Jewish religious leaders continued after his death, manifesting itself in opposition to his followers. So it's no surprising that our official came back empty-handed. In a period where religion among the Jews was at a fairly low ebb, their religious leaders had not been of much help to him. How can I understand the scriptures, he says in verse 31, unless someone should guide me? I've not had anybody guide me at all so far. They've not been any help. Perhaps as we consider the third parallel, this third obstacle, the parallels with our church today are more obvious. The fact that the church in the whole of the Western world is in a sad space of decline. You can walk into many a building that says outside, church, but you'll come out none the wiser than this man did on his way back from Jerusalem. In some places you'll be told you can't trust the scriptures as reliable. Some of you may remember 25 years ago, there was a great rumpus in the press because of a man called David Jenkins who was consecrated Bishop of Durham. a man who denied the resurrection of Christ. And the press were keen to point out, well isn't that stupid? Here's a man who just doesn't believe what his church says he ought to believe. It's rather like coming across someone who professes to be a conservative politician who believes that everything should be nationalised. They're saying, you're in the wrong place, you're in the wrong job. And the sad thing is, although no one has quite hit the headlines as David Jenkins did, you'll still find bishops who deny essential Christian doctrines. And let's not, let's just not single out the Church of England, it's exactly the same sadly in some of the free churches. If you look at the origins of what's now Providence Chapel here, you'll find that the few pioneers actually ended up walking away from a Baptist Union Church quite a few years ago, because at the annual assembly of that group of churches in 1971, a man called Michael Taylor, who was principal of Manchester Baptist Bible College, made a speech denying the divinity of Christ. And let me say that man is still alive and still writing. I was quite surprised to find that out. How can you expect anyone to come to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ when its professing leaders are as blind and as ignorant as the Jewish religious leaders of the first century AD? It's a very real problem some people face. But the good thing is that just as our Ethiopian was able to overcome all these obstacles, so also so can you. Let's consider the three blessings that he faced, these three blessings that are still available to us today. And the first is of course the blessing of the Scriptures. He didn't have the whole Bible, of course the New Testament hadn't been written. He may not have had the whole of the Old Testament. Up here you can see it's quite a large Bible that is placed on the lectern. Of course you can get very small ones, you can get ones that are even smaller than this one, put them in your pocket. In the first century AD they were written on scrolls, large scrolls you had to wind up for storage. They took up a lot of space, I don't know how many he managed to fit into his chariot, but probably not an awful lot. But however little or much he may have had, he certainly had a very key passage in Isaiah chapter 53. And he could see that there was something very important about it. He was drawn to the Scriptures and he was drawn, as we will see, to the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what the Bible tells us about. The Scriptures point to Jesus. Some people have tried to demythologise it, as they would say. but the Bible speaks for itself. It's obvious what it's about. Supposing I had come here with a cookery book and I'd held it up before you and there on the front was a nice picture of a chocolate cake and I said, this book's all about golf. You'd say, that's stupid. It's obvious what it's about. And let me say that it's exactly the same with the Word of God. People have tried to undermine it. People have tried to say it means this and it means that. that 2,000 years its message remains the same. It's about Jesus, it's about the Lord Jesus Christ, His life, His death and the significance of it. You know, it's possible to know something of the nature of God as the Bible itself acknowledges just through the world that we see around us, creation. We see in what we call general revelation or providence much that points to God. The intricacy, for instance, of irreducible mechanisms, something like a knee joint. How could that have just evolved, as some people say? Think of the beauty of a nice spring day. We haven't had many of them yet, but let's be patient. How lovely the countryside looks when the flowers come out. Now, of course, you can say, like Richard Dawkins, it all happened by chance. Just an accident. But surely the most open-minded people will say, doesn't it point to a designer? You need far more faith to be Richard Dawkins and believe it's all random than you do to believe that there was a designer behind it. The trouble is though, nature can only take you so far. You might look at the things I mention and say, well, there must be a designer, there must be a God. but it won't tell you about his acts in history. It won't tell you about other aspects of his character. You need the scriptures for that. And it's in the scriptures that you read about the greatest thing he did of all, the sending of his son, Jesus Christ. The Ethiopian wasn't aware, as he struggled with reading through Isaiah 53, that this, what he was reading about, he was reading about Jesus. That was the case, as in so many other portions of Scripture, as in Psalm 22 that we sang, numerous portions of Scripture. It's perhaps a slight exaggeration to say you'll find Him in every page of the Old Testament, but it's not far off. The overarching theme of the Scriptures is the Lord Jesus Christ, His life, His death and the significance of it. However, there are some who have the Scriptures They own a copy of the Bible themselves. They recognise that that's what it's all about. But they still fail to appreciate why he came. I can only talk of my own life. I was brought up as a Roman Catholic. I would go to Mass every Sunday. I would hear portions of scripture read. By the time I was about 12 or 13, I knew certainly the Gospels quite well, very familiar with them. but I was still ignorant of the message. But God mercifully did for me what he also did for this man. His second blessing was that someone explains the Christian message to him. How wonderful that was. God sent him Philip. Philip must have been quite confused. There he was in Samaria. He was involved in a work that God was clearly blessing, people coming to faith. Then suddenly God through angels says, leave this work behind, go out to this remote spot on this desert road that goes south from Jerusalem. Few travellers came that way but that was all. Well, Philip's sense of bewilderment must have ended when this chariot came along. How wonderful to see a man who was so clearly seeking the truth, a man who, yes, was muddled, but was clearly drawn to the scriptures and wanting to understand the message. Philip was directed to go up to him and say, do you understand what you're reading? This man, as we see in verse 31, says, how can I? Except some man should guide me. He desired Philip that he would come up and sit with him. He really was so keen for someone to explain what this passage he was reading was all about. And that's what Philip did. We read in verse 35, he preached unto him Jesus. Now, a bit of shorthand here, but I think we can make a reasonable guess as to what Philip actually preached. He explained that Jesus was the one that fulfilled that passage in Isaiah 53. No doubt, besides the immediate verses that he that he was reading. He took him back a couple of verses. He took him back to verses that said things like, he was wounded for our transgressions. With his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way and the Lord lays on him the iniquity of us all. What a wonderful passage to have been providentially reading at the time when Philip came along. It's so clear He explains what Jesus' death was all about. It was a sin offering. The Ethiopian would have been up in Jerusalem and seen those sacrifices that were being offered, all those animals that were killed in the temple every day. And Philip would have said to him, you remember those sacrifices you saw? Well they point to one sacrifice, the sacrifice that took place a few years ago when the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, was crucified. This is the sort of thing that he would have said and then he'd have challenged him. Are you aware that you need a saviour? You've read in that passage about we all have gone astray. You've gone astray. You've broken God's commandments. The God that you're drawn to cannot accept you unless some reparation is made for your sins. And so many times have you broken God's commandment. You can't possibly make amends yourself. It needs someone else. And that's what this passage is all about. That, he would have said, is why Jesus came, because he came to die as your substitute. That, I'm sure, is what Philip would have preached to him, or something like that. And let's be clear that 2,000 years later, for all the muddle that we see in parts of the professing church today, that the Christian message hasn't changed. Man hasn't changed. Yes, through science, through technology, through medicine, we've seen all sorts of advances in certain fields. We can do things that our forebears couldn't dream of. We can see illnesses healed that would have killed you not that long ago. It's fantastic and we're right to be thankful for it. But inside, human nature hasn't changed one little bit. We're all sinners. And what's more, God hasn't changed. He's still a just and a holy God. He cannot turn a blind eye to your sin now in 2013 AD any more than he could to the sins of this Ethiopian all those years ago. But you know what? Something else hasn't changed either. The efficacy of his shed blood. The fact is the death of the Lord Jesus can pay the price for a sinner today just as much as it did 2,000 years ago. So if you come here confused, here's the Christian message in a nutshell. Let's now turn to the final of the three blessings that this man received. The Holy Spirit opened his heart. We see that confession of faith as he went down to the water. I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. I own this Saviour as my own. This is important, you know, because there are sadly people who recognise the authority of the Scripture, who've heard the message of the Saviour, who died for sinners and yet it had no effect on them. Benjamin Franklin was one of the people that played a key role in the drafting of the American Constitution that gave America its strong Christian influence that we see even to this day. Franklin's father was a Christian. He was therefore brought up in a home that placed great importance on the Bible. In the 18th century, God raised up a man, born in Gloucester in fact, called George Whitefield. And Whitefield went on several occasions to preach in America. Benjamin Franklin would go out to hear Whitefield preach. He enjoyed listening to him. I believe I couldn't find the source of this and I looked for it high and low yesterday. I believe that Franklin was such a connoisseur of Whitfield's sermons that he could discern if this was a new message that Whitfield had never preached before or whether he was using one that he preached somewhere else. But sadly, in Franklin's own words, he said after Whitfield died, Mr. Whitfield used to pray for my conversion but never had the satisfaction of believing that his prayers were answered. for all the Christian influence in Franklin's life, for all the fact that that Christian influence was transmitted to the nation of which he was one of the founders, for all the gospel messages he heard from one of the greatest preachers that Britain has ever produced, he never came to faith. I think of a man I used to know in Sussex, a man who'd gone to church all his life, You speak to him and his language would reflect the influence of church going. He never came to faith. Whenever I went to that particular chapel, I would always try to make sure that I presented the gospel as clearly, as simply as I could, very much with him in mind. Sadly, I heard that he died without ever showing evidence of conversion. I find that so sad. Some of the most miserable people in hell, I believe, will be those who had the greatest exposure to the message of Jesus and yet never responded. So as I draw to a close, my plea to anyone who's in that position is that you don't end up in this situation. You might say, but you've said it can only be a work of the Holy Spirit. Can I know that he's working in me? Well let's measure yourself then against this man, that'll help. Are you seeking God? Do you know that the scriptures provide the path on which you need to travel to find him? That they point to Jesus, that he's the son of God, that's the starting point. Then let's ask then secondly, how do you feel about the elaboration I gave to you about what it meant when Philip preached unto him Jesus? In other words, are you aware that all is not well with you and God? Are you feeling convicted by your lifestyle? Are you feeling convicted that you have broken his law? In other words, that you've sinned, you've fallen short of his standards? Do you want to carry on like this or do you want to say, no, I want to turn from this? I want to turn to the Lord Jesus Christ." If you feel like that, there's a good indication that the Holy Spirit is at work, because if he wasn't, you wouldn't feel like this. People who hear the Gospel in the open air don't want to know, they walk away, not interested. If you feel different, then I ask you, do you, like this man, believe with all your heart Do you believe that Jesus was sent by God, God the Father, down to earth? Do you believe that he came to die on the cross as a sacrifice for sins? And do you believe that his death was sufficient to pay for your sins, your sins in particular? Then I say to him, if that's you, turn to him in faith, repent, seek to turn from your sins and trust. that you will receive this gift of pardon. May it be that if that's you this morning, that you, like this man, will go on your way rejoicing. Amen.