Our Savior is risen, and we rejoice in Him. If you'll turn in your Bibles to 1 Corinthians chapter 15. 1 Corinthians chapter 15, and as you are turning there, Scripture teaches in Proverbs, Proverbs 16, that the mind of man plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps. And that's just one verse of many, many verses in Scripture teach that God is intimately involved in the affairs of every single one of us. If you think about that and think about this morning, think of all the truth that we've heard about Christ, think about the gospel that we've heard and we're going to hear now, recognize that not one person in here, from a scripture standpoint, can say that that's an accident they're here. God and His love had us all be here to be reminded of what He has done for us and what we have trusted in, and to be challenged with what He has done and what He offers to us. I hope that as your spirit, as you've heard these songs and these truths, and even now as we look into the Word of God, that the mind of man plans his way, but it is the Lord who directs the steps. We've all walked in here this morning and God is has a plan for that. If you'll follow along as I read 1 Corinthians 15, one through 11. Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you, unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you as of first importance But I also received that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures. That he was buried and he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures. And that he appeared to Cephas, then to 12. Then he appeared to more than 500 brothers at one time. Most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me, for I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God, I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me. Whether then it was I or they, so we preached and so you believed. Father, we give you praise that you have directed our steps here this morning. And we pray that we would have a sense of your work in us by your spirit. through the working, the continued working of your Son, our resurrected, ascended Savior and Lord. We know that He is still at work in the world today by the Spirit, and we long to continue to know that this morning and to see His purposes advanced. We pray this in Christ's name, amen. What should the Lord's day, the Lord's table, and every day have in common for us as followers of Jesus? Well, among other things, they should all be occasions in which we are reminded of the gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ. But it is, of course, the Christian tradition on this day to highlight a particular aspect of that gospel. You could say today we're focusing in on the linchpin of the Christian faith. I'm not sure how many of us think about linchpins anymore, but I'm told that large wheeled equipment still uses those, those pieces of metal that keeps the wheel on, right? And without that linchpin, then the wheels eventually come off. Later in this chapter that we're going to be looking at this morning, Paul unmistakably teaches that the resurrection of Jesus from the dead is the linchpin of the gospel and therefore the Christian faith. Christianity claims that God has made a way for guilty, law-breaking sinners like us to be reconciled to Him. because of his grace to us toward us in Christ Jesus. This morning we are considering verses one through 11, really doing a survey of these. We're gonna get a refresher on that very claim of Christianity, which is called the gospel. This whole chapter, this long chapter of 1 Corinthians 15 of 58 verses is dominated by the topic of resurrection, of physical, bodily resurrection. Paul is writing to believers at Corinth, and they have been influenced in a wrong direction. They have a lot of different questions for him. Corinthians is a question-answer kind of a letter, and they've been influenced in the wrong direction regarding their own resurrection. They're not questioning the resurrection of Jesus Christ. They're questioning their own future physical resurrection. Scripture teaches that if a born again person, a true believer in Jesus dies, their spirit is immediately in the presence of God. To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. The scripture also teaches that the person who dies in Christ, their body goes into the ground, but when Christ returns for his own, They will be raised and they will be glorified and they will be reunited with their spirit in the presence of Christ. This is the teaching of scripture. That's the teaching of future bodily resurrection for all those who presently trust in Christ. But the Corinthians were questioning this doctrine and were generally confused about it, so God has Paul write 58 verses in this chapter addressing the topic of believers' future physical bodily resurrection. How do we know that that's the case? And what's the connection between that and Christ's resurrection? If you'll look at verse 12 of this chapter, I think we'll see the connection. Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. So Paul is saying this, foundational to your future physical resurrection is the fact that Jesus was physically raised from the dead. If you deny your future physical resurrection, to be consistent, you have to deny what? You gotta not deny that Jesus rose physically from the dead. If Jesus didn't rise, then you're not gonna rise, even if you trust in him. If your body is not raised from the grave one day, then Jesus never was raised from the grave. There is that connection. So you can see how I think the resurrection, specifically the resurrection of Jesus Christ is a linchpin, isn't it? Without the resurrection, then the Christian faith is vain, empty, and pointless. With the resurrection, everything holds together. Without the resurrection of Jesus, you don't have to listen to anything he says. Anything that the Word of God says. Because the Word of God, if you read the Bible, you come to understand the storyline, the real storyline of reality in the scripture. You come to understand it all comes into and out of Christ. All of scripture is about Jesus. So if Jesus didn't rise from the dead, you've got to throw the whole thing out. But if Jesus rose from the dead, you and I must take whatever Jesus says as true and whatever God's word says as true. If Jesus rose from the dead, then he has the right to be your Savior and your Lord. If Jesus rose from the dead, you truly were made through him and for him. Whether we acknowledge it or not, if Jesus rose from the dead, our every moment of existence on this earth was designed for Christ. What's interesting about our text, though, is how Paul introduces this foundational point about the resurrection of Jesus. He doesn't say, now I make known to you, brethren, the resurrection of Jesus Christ, which you have believed, therefore you ought to believe in your future resurrection. That's not what he says. Look at verse one. Now we would remind you, brothers, of the what? Of the gospel. In other words, in order to explain the foundation for the resurrection of believers one day, Paul has to remind them and us of the gospel. Because the gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ, is foundational to remind us of that, then that tells us as well the good news of Jesus Christ and the resurrection of Christ cannot be separated. There is no good news, no gospel, without the resurrection of Jesus Christ. If Jesus died in our place but did not rise, there is no gospel. Without the resurrection of Jesus, the wheels come off of the gospel. And so we want to be reminded of the gospel just like Paul intended for us by the Spirit to be reminded this morning. The first point we want to notice is this in verses one through two. We need to be reminded about our personal relationship to the gospel. That's what he's doing to these believers. He's reminding them of their personal relationship to the gospel. Now when I say that, a question should be raised. There's an assumption, there's an assumption that everyone he's writing to has a personal relationship with the gospel, and the gospel is Jesus. So the assumption is everybody he's writing to knows who. That's Christ, and if we're gonna be reminded about the gospel in that way, that's the assumption this morning as well. So if you're here this morning and that is not your testimony, that is not your confidence, then I wanna encourage you as those who know Christ are being reminded of the gospel this morning, I want you to be not reminded of it, but I want you to be thinking of it as an invitation to you. As you're hearing others around you be reminded of the good news, you be hearing an invitation to you to trust in the good news, Jesus Christ. Look at verse one. I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you, unless you believed in vain. There are six things that Paul reveals here that we are going to walk through. this morning. Number one, this gospel was preached by Paul. In other words, Paul was used by God to proclaim this gospel to the believers at Corinth. That's recorded for us in Acts 18. And he's reminding them about this gospel. We gather this morning, we have the New Testament, we have received this gospel through the apostles. Number two, this gospel is what we received at salvation. Look at verse one. Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you what? Which you received. He's saying you received this gospel. You're a child of God, you know there was a time when you received the gospel. How do you know that? Because right now, you are continuing to acknowledge your sin and you're continuing to trust in Jesus alone for your salvation. He is your confidence. It is this gospel that you receive that you must not forget. And anytime we forget the gospel that we received, we are introducing confusion into our walk. The old saying is, out of sight, out of what? Out of sight, out of mind. That can never be the case for a believer. It must never be. It is sometimes, but it must not be. The gospel ought to never be out of sight, out of mind. We must live the Christian life by the gospel. Don't forget what you've received. Number three, the gospel is what we stand in. Now I would remind you brothers, verse one of the gospel I preached to you, which you receive, in which you stand. The gospel was preached to the Corinthians, they received it, and because they received it, that gospel, that good news, became their standing before God. rather than a standing of wrath that we used to have before salvation, we have a standing of grace through Jesus Christ. Romans 8 says, there is therefore now no condemnation, no judgment for those who are in Christ Jesus, which necessarily means before you're in Jesus, there is judgment, isn't there? Judgment for sin. Number four, this gospel is the means of our salvation. Look what it says, verse two, and by which, by which, the gospel, you are being saved. The gospel is the means of our salvation from sin, that sin that separates us from God and the true relationship with God before salvation. This gospel that presently saves all who trust in him. Now, We need to catch this, in the following verses we're gonna look at, Paul's gonna explain the content of this gospel. Before we get to that content, what we need to notice is it's by this gospel that we are being saved. In other words, you can talk about good news, you can talk about Jesus, you can talk even about the resurrection, and have something off on the content of the gospel, and you are not saved, or I am not saved. It's this gospel. that needs to be received. It's this gospel through which someone is saved. There are many people that know a kind of gospel, a word gospel with other content put in it and another Jesus redefined and there's a cross, there's a resurrection, but really, ultimately, it's about you and what you do or some other thing, but this is the gospel that must be received. If this gospel is altered in some way, then there is no gospel. There is no good news. This is the only good news. Number five, this gospel must be held fast to. He says, by which you are being saved, verse two, if you hold fast to the word I preach to you. The implication of the condition here is that Paul is saying, and I know that you are. His assumption is they are holding fast. But it also reveals a very important point about anyone's relationship to the gospel. For anyone to truly be saved by means of the gospel, they must hold fast to that true gospel. And if they have received it, they will, sustained by the grace of God. The final point is a warning in verses one through two. The gospel can be believed in vainly. Look at verse two. By which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you, unless you believed in vain. In other words, unless you believe for nothing, for without reason, thoughtlessly, without proper consideration, someone can have a kind of belief in this Gospel that's in vain. As we have even been talking about in the Gospel of Mark. Paul is reminding believers of their personal relationship to the Gospel. So the question is, do you, do I, have a personal relationship to this Gospel? Well, What is this gospel? We need to be secondly reminded about what the gospel is. Verses three through eight, Paul gives us four facts about what the gospel is, and we often jump to the three primary points in verses three and four, but there are other things around it that help us understand what this gospel is, the nature of this gospel. So number one, the gospel's nature. Look at verse three. For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received. The point here is Paul did not come up with this good news. He was simply the deliverer. The point is that Paul is claiming that God revealed this good news, that Jesus commissioned him, Jesus confronted him, Jesus revealed this gospel. He is saying that this is the revealed truth of none other than the eternal Son of God. No one can be neutral about this gospel. The claim is that Jesus, the resurrected, ascended Son of God gave this good news, the eternal Son of God. Now you think about that. We need to really focus in on that. If this is the claim, how can you be neutral? God, the claim is God revealed this message. You either have got to reject that vehemently or you've got to bow and worship truly. The neutral, kind of supposed neutral, kind of in between, well, whatever, that is a misunderstanding of the claim of the gospel. There really does have to be a decision on this. This was delivered from God. That's the claim. Number two, the gospel's priority. Look at verse three. For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received. In other words, this gospel must have the priority. If we get off on the gospel, we get off on everything. In this very context, the Corinthians needed to be reminded of the gospel because they had missed a very important consequence and inevitable outcome because they were a little bit off in the gospel. They had missed the fact that they are going to bodily rise from the dead because Jesus bodily rose from the dead. Their problem theologically about their own future was ultimately rooted in their own lack of remembrance of the gospel. The gospel must be the priority as well though in the revelation of God because otherwise the Bible only becomes a moral handbook. There's many people this morning that have gathered and the Bible is a tradition to them. Or it is a handbook that has no power for them to save them because they have not come to the Bible to look for Jesus. The gospel is of most importance. If the gospel is not given priority, we will subtly start to bring in the world's philosophies and values and call it the gospel. It'll look the same on the outside, but it'll have a completely different engine inside. One that won't take you where it's designed to take you. I'd submit that every true believer's battle and every local church's battle is to give the gospel first importance. We must prioritize the gospel in our obedience and how we respond to our sin and how we respond to the sin of others. How we view our past, the present, and the future. This gospel is of first importance. Now Paul finally comes to the content of this gospel. You know, a good novel will build up to a central point, right? And you feel like there's something missing. I'm hearing about this plot line, I'm getting it, but there's something missing. And now Paul comes along and says, now this is the gospel. This is what I've been talking about. This is what you need to be reminded of. So far, Paul is told us that the gospel was preached by him, by the apostles, it was received at salvation believers. For believers, it's what we stand in, it's the means of our salvation, it must be held fast to, it was divinely revealed, it's of first importance. But what is it? Well, look at verse three. The gospel's content. And as before we read these, I just want to remind us that what we're about to read are three historical claims. Things that happen in space and time on this earth. Before you can dismiss Christianity, or anybody can dismiss Christianity as a kind of fable, a religious way to teach morals that could be taught some other way, but it works for some people this way, before you can do that, you've gotta notice the fact that these are historical claims that can be verified or falsified, right? You must take them real. A claim, a historical claim. You have to take it seriously. It's not a mystical, nebulous kind of thing that everybody winks at and says, well that works for them. No, there's claims here rooted in time. The first one is this, look at verse three. I deliver to you what is of first importance, what I also receive, that Christ died for our sins. Christ's substitutionary death. Jesus Christ died, but not just that he died. Often those who portray the cross speak of the brutality and certainly there was unspeakable brutality on the cross. But there were many other people that died that same brutal death. But something was different about Christ. The significance of Christ's death is not merely in the fact that he died on the cross, the significance is what took place in his death on the cross. The reason we rejoice in the death of Jesus on the cross is not that we are some sick people that enjoy violence, but because we are people who have found that our sin is that horrendous, and that this was the only way for our salvation. that He would be slain and that the Father would pour out His wrath on our sin in Christ. He in the place of us in our stead to face the righteous wrath of God against us. This just God from whom all justice comes had to be satisfied. His character had to be held up. His good, and it is because of His goodness, and His right Justice had to be satisfied. Jesus died to satisfy God's righteous anger against our sin that we might be delivered from the penalty of our sin, the power of our sin, and the very presence of our sin. Every person here this morning knows what it's like to have a guilty conscience. I don't have to assume, I don't have to think there's any possibility anybody here has never had that. You know what that's like. You know what it's like to do something and the quietness of your heart, your heart is just condemning you. That's the conscience. That's a gift from God. Did you know that Jesus came to die for your sins and that he offers a cleansing to where you know you're a sinner, you know you've done wrong, you know in and of yourself you are condemned before God, but there is a way to live life acknowledging who you are, trusting in the cleansing blood of Jesus, having a cleansed conscience, being accepted before God. There's folks here I'm sure this morning that you are racked under a guilty conscience. And you're looking so many different places to find some kind of salve for that. Jesus is the only legitimate solution for that guilty conscience. Do you desire that peace with God and before God? The claim of Jesus is this, the claim of scripture is this. For our sake, the Father made Him to be sin, made Christ to be sin, who knew no sin, so that in Him, in Christ, we might become the righteousness of God. The second historical fact is Christ's verified death, and that might sound funny to you, but look at verse three. He died for our sins, verse four, and that He was buried. The reason this is important is to show that Christ truly did die. And if you look at the gospel accounts, it's really interesting. Maybe you've never noticed this before, but the writers bend over backwards to make it clear Jesus actually died. He was not swooning. The Roman soldiers were experts at determining the dead on the cross. They had done it many times and they verified his death. He was buried in an actual tomb that was known by the religious authorities of the day and by Rome and by the disciples of Jesus. It was a known place. He was truly dead. He was not misplaced. The tomb was heavily guarded. But the third fact is this. Look at verse four, that he was buried and that he was raised on the third day. Referring to the fact that Jesus was in the grave part of Friday, all of Saturday, part of Sunday. and the Jewish reckoning of things and the calendar, you could say legitimately three days and three nights. When verse four says he was raised, what does that emphasize? There are places that say the spirit was involved in the resurrection, that Christ was involved in the resurrection, but when it says he was raised, what does that tell you? Who raised him? The Father, now why does that matter? Well, think about it. Just on Friday, the Father judged His Son for us. On Sunday, the Father vindicated His Son. That tells you He's the innocent Lamb of God, died for you, right? And that everything that was said to be done on the cross was true. The Father raised Him from the dead. shows us that this claim of the good news is true. And then when Jesus said, it is finished, it truly was finished. An atonement had been provided for. Do you believe in this Gospel? That Jesus was no mere human being, but the Son of God who became a man, who lived in your place, that He might grant you His own righteousness, who died a substitutionary death in your place, that He might atone for your sins, who was verifiably dead, and who was verifiably raised from the dead. who rose again from the dead having victory over sin and death, victory over your sin that you struggle with, and victory over the death that no human being other than the God-man Jesus Christ has ever conquered. But what is the verification for these things? Paul gives the gospel's verification in verses three through eight. I'm gonna say verses three through eight. You may have noticed that I left out a couple phrases in there. What is the verification? Well, number one, through the scriptures. Notice as we looked at verses three and four, it said this, that he died for our sins in accordance with the what? That he was buried, he was raised again according with the scriptures. This is part of the verification. This is a technical term referring to the Old Testament. Almost every occurrence refers to the Old Testament. There are other occurrences that refer to the New Testament telling us the New Testament is God's scripture, it is his word. But this is referring to the fact that in the Old Testament, there was prophecy of the fact that the Messiah would die, that he would be buried, that he would rise again. Isaiah 53, surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. In other words, people would look at the cross and say, what did he do? He must be a really bad guy. Clearly he's under the curse of God, and he was, but for who? For sinners. But he was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace. Peace with God. And with his wounds we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray. There's not one person here this morning that can say I'm an exception. You're one of these people that was born going astray. Me too. "'All we like sheep have gone astray. "'We have turned every one to his own way.'" And listen to this, folks. We cannot get over the wonder of this. And the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. Jesus claimed to be that Messiah, and Jesus was pierced through for our sins, and the scripture verifies this beforehand, centuries before he ever came in Isaiah 53. but also we're told the resurrection was in accordance with the scripture. We're not gonna look at these two portions, we already read one of them. Psalm 16 taught very clearly that the Messiah would not be abandoned to the grave and undergo decay. Was the Messiah in the grave? Was he abandoned? Did he undergo decay? No, it was foretold. Or Isaiah 53, after the cross is foretold, we're told that the days of the Messiah would be prolonged and he would see his offspring. And people who are dead in the grave don't see their offspring. So Isaiah 53 is telling us, right, of the resurrection, centuries beforehand. Paul goes on and says that not only is the gospel verified through the scriptures, but it's also verified through witnesses. verses five through eight. By the way, much of what we believe in this life and accept as fact in this life is based on the testimony or witness of who? Other people ever thought of that? Are you the smartest person in the world that everything you've ever accepted as fact, you have figured it out yourself? Have you researched everything down to the nth degree? Do you, everything you hold as fact, you know yourself, don't you? You've figured it all out yourself, haven't you? No. In fact, it's a pretty humbling reality to think about that, isn't it? If you struggle to accept the gospel because you can't personally verify everything about it without trusting the testimony of others, I would encourage you to think about how often you do that in so many areas of your life. Now, you need to focus on that for a minute. The question is not whether or not you'll trust testimony from other people, the question is whether or not you'll trust the testimony of the right people. We spend our whole life figuring that out, don't we? Am I trusting the right people? All right, now we're talking about, all right, everything you do in life, you pretty much do that on, don't you? So we're not asking anything different with Scripture. If a skeptic was as skeptical about science, secular history, and everything else in this life as they are about Jesus and the Bible, to be consistent, they would not be able to say they were sure about anything, truly. Why? Because in all of life, we accept authoritative testimony. Once again, the claims of Christianity are historical claims, claims verified by credible witnesses. Keep in mind that at the time of the writing of the New Testament, these claims could easily have been contradicted and shown to be false if they were false, but rather what we see are people making bribes to keep the truth under wraps. They were not falsified, and that this message of the gospel that was proclaimed everywhere spread. If the body of Jesus could have been produced, it would have stamped out Christianity. But his body could not be produced because Jesus rose from the dead and he appeared to various people. Paul points out five different groups, people or groups. One of the ones he doesn't indicate is the first witnesses, they were women. In that day, in that culture, their testimony would not have stood in the court. That gives a ring of truthfulness here. Why is it recorded that women were the first witnesses? Because they were. You wouldn't record that if you're trying to get away with something here. It happened. Paul starts off with Christ's appearance to Peter, verse five. Look what it says. And then he appeared to Cephas, that is Peter, and then to the 12. He appeared to the 12, a formal way of referring to the disciples of Jesus. He appeared to more than 500 brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive and though some have fallen asleep. This would have been an occasion that Jesus had, I believe, gave the Great Commission, which demonstrates the commission to make disciples is for who? All of his disciples. So there is this significant number of witnesses that saw Jesus alive. Why do you think he says 500 still, some of them still alive and some have died? Why does he say that? What's he inviting people to do? He's inviting them to go verify it. There are people still alive, he's saying, even while people have died for telling people about Christ. You go verify. There's people alive that says, yeah, Jesus is alive. So there's this significant number. Christ's appearance then to James, the half-brother of Jesus. Incidentally, we just saw recently that this is one of the people in Christ's family that said Jesus was what? He's insane, and now he believes. He's one of the people that's a witness. All the apostles, this may be emphasizing the fact that all the apostles witnessed Jesus alive after his death. Christ's appearance to Paul. Paul points out later, Jesus appeared to him. And of course, we know this took place on the road to Damascus. He was on his way to harm those who believed in Jesus, but in God's grace, Jesus, the resurrected, ascended Lord, confronted him. We've been reminded about our personal relationship with gospel. That, of course, raises the question whether we have a personal relationship. We've been reminded what the gospel is. Do we affirm that? Do you affirm this gospel? Have you personally trusted in this Jesus Christ who died in your place and rose again? There's one more aspect that Paul gives about the gospel that we'll look at very briefly. We need to be reminded about what the gospel does for the undeserving. Just gonna read through this, look at verse nine. For I am the least of the apostles, Paul says, unworthy to be called an apostle because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God, I am what I am. And his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me. Whether then it was I or they, so we preached, and so you believed. That is a man who has been saturated in the truth of the gospel. He's saying it's all about him. I'm the undeserving one. You want to notice the gospel of Jesus Christ saves the undeserving. He's saying that the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called, He persecuted the church. Let me ask you, what have you done? What have you done that in your mind you have said disqualifies you from God's grace? What are you trusting in negatively to keep you from trusting in Christ? Paul was trying to kill people and was part of their murder. for trusting in Jesus. What have you done that is that affront, that much of an affront to Christ? You've done things that have gone against Christ, but God saves people like that. The gospel never leaves undeserving people where they are. Paul says the grace of God, by the grace of God I am what I am, and he talks about his ministry and what God was doing through him. The gospel transforms the undeserving. Paul went from a Christ rejector to a Christ lover. He was transformed by the grace of the gospel of Jesus Christ. The same grace is at work today through faith in Jesus. But only does the gospel of Jesus Christ save and transform the undeserving. Look at verse 11. It uses the undeserving. Whether then it is I or they, so we preach and so you believe. The Lord took a guy who was against him and made him for him and used him for him. And that's one of the reasons we're here this morning, here in this, is because we're being reminded of the gospel from a man who used to be a hater of Christ, but by God's grace, became a lover of Christ. Well, we've been reminded of the gospel today, and that message, which is of first importance for all of our lives. But the question is, is it in practice of first importance in all of our lives? Today we rejoice in what is the linchpin of this most important message. We rejoice in the fact that Jesus is risen from the dead. If you're here this morning and you've heard this reminder, and you just have to acknowledge it sounds foreign to you, or even you've heard this many times, but there's no life in it for you, you know that it's never gripped you, you've never trusted in Christ alone, then this has been a lengthy invitation to you. for you to turn away from all the other things, recognize this was delivered from God, right? Recognize this gospel is the good news for all who trust in Christ. And I would love to speak to you about this or someone who brought you or invited you or anyone around who knows Christ would love to speak to you about this and tell you of the wonderful hope that we have in Christ Jesus. Let's pray. Father, we give you thanks for this gospel. We thank you that you chose in your grace to reveal this to us by sending your Son. The grace, your grace has appeared, making salvation available for all. When we were going against you and going our own way, doing everything we could do to show why you should not have mercy on us, your kindness and your grace and your mercy appeared, Jesus Christ. Many years ago before we were even born, and yet in our life, you have ensured that we would hear this message. You ensured that every person here would be invited, every single person here that knows you would be reminded. And we pray that all of us would not hear of your kindness and your grace in vain this morning. We pray all these things in your name, amen.