you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. Let's take this opportunity to find our seats and silence our electronics and prepare our hearts for worship. you All of you, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, to Dayspring Fellowship, we are delighted to have you with us on this glorious Lord's Day morning. I want to encourage visitors to sign our guest register out on the hall table and grab a booklet, Ultimate Questions, that we have a stack of for you to grab one before you leave here today. And I want to direct your attention to the inside of your bulletin, where you will notice that at 945, every Sunday morning, we are in here for an adult Sunday school class, right here in this room, going through 1 Samuel. And we were in chapter 23, looking at David's suffering and deliverance, something that we can all relate to. And if you were providentially hindered from joining us, I encourage you to grab that online and listen to that for your benefit this week. Also, you'll see that Wednesday night of this week, we will be having a Brown Bag Supper right here in the Fellowship Hall. It'll start at 545. And then after the supper, we're going to move on into this room at 630 for a lecture on theological liberalism, fundamentalism, and evangelicalism. So I encourage you to be here for our lecture for the month of November. We'll have one more lecture in December, and then We're going to do something new in the new year that I'll talk about in a second, but before I do, the sermon passage for next week is a fairly long one compared to the one we're looking at today. So John chapter 19, starting in verse 16, or actually that last part of 16, going all the way to verse 30. And so I encourage you this week to be reading through and reflecting on that passage. This is a passage where you will be staring at your Savior dying on the cross. for your sins. There's no greater thing to stare at, and so I encourage you in your family worship time and your private devotions to be looking at Christ crucified in John 19, 16 through 30, in preparation for our worship next week. And then across the page there, you'll see that the monthly free online resource that I'm recommending for the month of November is this wonderful book written by D.A. Carson called Love in Hard Places. This was a book that was a follow-up to his book on The Difficult Doctrine of the Love of God. So you may have read that one. Now, it's a great book by Carson, really looking at various aspects of God's love. Now, this book switches and looks at our love, the love that we are called to love. And he titles it Love in Hard Places. In the preface, he writes this, I am focusing especially on those aspects of Christian love that are not easy and may be painful as well as difficult. Because all of the expressions of our love take place in a fallen and broken world of which we are a part, we are unwise to retreat too quickly to merely sentimental notions of love, to love wisely and well, to love appropriately. to love faithfully, to love in line with biblical expectations of what it means to love is a very difficult thing to do. And he's written this book to help us with that difficulty and to think through it biblically. So I encourage you to grab that. It's absolutely free online to be reading that this month. And then the audio recording from the conference we had on church and politics is available. to listen for free online. I have a link there in the bulletin for you. And so if you're wrestling through politics and government and the church, I encourage you, if you haven't yet listened to that or weren't able to attend the conference, to do so. So this is what we're going to be doing in 2025 on our Wednesday nights. On the second Wednesday of every month in 2025, we're going to be gathering at 545 in the Fellowship Hall for our Brown Bag Supper as usual. But then instead of a lecture, we're going to come in here and we're going to hear from a single Dayspringer is going to give their testimony. He's going to tell us how God worked in their life to bring them to faith in Christ, to save them, and what he has been doing in their life ever since to the glory of God. And so we will be kicking that off in January and hearing 12 testimonies throughout the year. And so I am looking for volunteers. I've only heard from a couple of you, so I'm eager to hear from more of you. Yeah, get me on the schedule. I want to share my testimony with the church. This is going to be a great way just to revel in the gospel, to bring glory to God, but also to get to know your fellow Dayspringers. little bit better. Then it is time to check the the church directory to see if your email needs updating, maybe your phone has changed, your address, maybe you want to update your picture. This is the time of year that we begin to look at the directory and make updates to it, so I encourage you to do that. Also Thanksgiving is upon us and so I want you to consider inviting a Dayspringer who has no family and no Thanksgiving plans already to a seat at your Thanksgiving table. If you need any ideas of who you might invite, you can see your deacons. And then we have all sorts of things coming up in December. Here's just a few of them for now. This December on Tuesday, December the 3rd, The Austin Symphony will be giving a single performance of Handel's Messiah at 8 p.m. at the Riverbend Center. This is a glorious symphony and choral piece that proclaims the gospel in God's own word. And so I encourage you to be there to revel in that time of worship. You'll see that after the service on Sunday, December the 1st, so 1st of December is a Lord's Day, we're going to stick around after the service and beautify this chapel and decorate it for the Advent season. So I want to encourage you to just mark your calendars and join us in helping to decorate on Sunday, December the 1st, immediately following the worship service. You're welcome to bring a brown bag lunch and enjoy that here at the chapel. and then help us to decorate. And then that will be all in preparation for our Christmas party, which is gonna be on Saturday, December the 7th at 6 p.m. And so mark your calendars for that. We're gonna have a sign up for what to bring as far as food goes, but just be mindful and put that on your calendar that Saturday, December the 7th is the Day Spring Christmas party, and you don't want to miss it. You're all welcome to be there. That's it for the announcements in the bulletin. I have been asked to give the microphone over to the deacons. They have something to share, so come on up. We're so thankful that God has raised up servants to minister to this body, and they do so much. I'm so thankful for them, so brothers, come on up. Greg, could you stay up here? Yes. Don't worry, you're not troubled. So I'm going to read from verse 10, starting in verse 17. the women here. Sandra, thank you for suffering so well in the Lord. Never complain. And to have a good leader, there has to be a good wife behind them. And so we are very grateful and thankful for both of y'all. Rob, there are some gifts that the church has pulled together for you two. This was a congregation effort. And then there will be some cards that will be given to y'all as well. So just know that all of us put in the effort to show our love for y'all. Thank you. wanted to be good sheep and listen to our shepherds along with budgetary things. And so in the past, we've done things differently. And so this year, we wanted to put something together that you could keep for a long time. And so that's kind of what we've done this year. So we have some cards for you. We also have something for Ben as well. But I think that is coming here in just a moment. But yes, we are all very So we wanted to put together a bouquet of flowers and what other flowers would we choose rather than tulips. And so we went ahead and did that along with, there's some memory verses that everybody kind of put together themselves that they wanted to share with you so you could keep this. So thank you to you and to your lovely friends. Thank you. One thing we wanted to do, we wanted to pray over you guys. And so, do you want to leave with Ben? Yeah, I'll pray for him. Lord, thanks so much for the years of faithful and steadfast service that Ben Fletcher has given to you and to our body. What a rock and model for us he has been, a steady, just loving, force for us in this body. Now, as his physical limitations prevent him from coming to church as much, we just pray that you would watch over him, give him perseverance as he deals with his physical ailments, but keep his spirits up. and I pray for his daughter Amy, also her physical ailments, and that as they care and support for each other. Lord, just thank you for our special elder Ben. In Jesus' name. Father God, we thank you for this day, Lord. We thank you for your grace and your mercy, Lord. We lift up Pastor Greg to you, Lord. We just want to thank you, Lord, for the years of dedication and commitment that he's given to this church, Lord. We thank you for the calling you've placed on his life, Lord, to serve here in this outpost, Lord, and the way you've prepared him and given him wisdom, Lord, as he studies your Word diligently, Lord, and we just ask for continued grace upon him, Lord, as he prepares weekly sermons and messages, Lord, to provide to the church here, the church family, Lord. We ask for your, for you to move in us, Lord, to obey and submit to our pastor, Lord, as he oversees our souls, Lord, as you've called him and appointed him as our shepherd here on Earth, here in this church, Lord. We also lift up Sandra to you, Lord, as she stands by him, Lord, and supports him, Lord, in all his hard work of preparation and service, Lord. with not just sermons, Lord, but... visits and encouragement and counseling and all the other services that go with the pastorship, Lord. Bless them both, Lord. Protect them, Lord, from the enemy and his attacks that are unending and constant, Lord. Just keep them strong, keep them faithful, keep them focused on you and on your son, Jesus, in whose name we pray. Amen. Heavenly Father, I thank you for this morning. I thank you for my brother Bill. Lord, I thank you for the call that you have placed over his life. Lord, I pray that you would continue to sustain him and pray that you would help keep him close to your word. Lord, I pray that you would help him to remember humility in all things. Lord, I pray that you would help him to lead us well. I pray that you would help him to be the man that you have called him to be and to continue to grow him into that man. Pray that you would help him as a husband, I pray that you would help him as a dad. I pray that you would continue to keep him close to your word for those purposes, Father, for you have given him much responsibility, and I pray that you would help him. to continue in the way which you have called him and to do that which you have called him to do willingly. So Lord, I thank you for him. I thank you for Susie also. Lord, I pray that you would continue to hold her fast. I pray that you would continue to help her in her journey as you've called her to help Bill. And Father, I thank you for her and the dear sister she is. Lord, we thank you for the family. We thank you for Courtney and for Grant and for Cole. I thank you for Zach. I thank you for this family, Father. I pray that you would continue to watch over them and sustain them and fill them with your joy. Lord, I bless you and I thank you for Jesus. I thank you for them. And it's in Jesus' name we pray, amen. That is always so encouraging when the church says, I'm so thankful for this church. I'm thankful for the deacons. And I'm very, very thankful for the pastors of this church. I'm very mindful that this is the first time that we've done this where Ben has not been present with us. He's now homebound and has been told not to drive, and he stays home. He has slowed way down, but this church would not be the church that it is without Ben, and we're so thankful for his steadfast leadership. He's been a pillar of this church for decades. And for Bill, who has been a rock of support, always there for me, and has provided much needed friendship and wisdom, and I appreciate him. So greatly. I've been emphasizing a lot throughout this year allegiance and loyalty. We're going to be looking at that again this morning, talking about where does your allegiance lie. That question becomes much more important in times of war. And we're at war. And Bill is a soldier. And you're all soldiers in this war. And it's so encouraging. in the midst of that war, as Caesar prayed, the enemy's attacks are constant and relentless. Bill and Susie have experienced that. I have experienced that. Sandra's experienced that. It is constant. It is relentless. It is discouraging. It comes against our families. It comes against our health and even our mental states. And so times like this where we just hear and receive these tokens of your gratitude and appreciation lifts us and points us back to the Lord and reminds us that our labors in the gospel are not in vain. So thank you very much. As we begin worship this morning, I want to encourage you to take your red hymnals and turn with me in the red to hymn number two. It's number two in the red. Hold your place there and please stand together for our call to worship. Our call to worship this morning comes from the 52nd chapter of the prophet Isaiah. In that day, declares the Lord, they shall know that it is I who speak. I am. How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace, who brings good news of happiness, who publishes salvation, who says to Zion, your God reigns. The voice of your watchmen, they lift up their voice. Together they sing for joy. For eye to eye they see the return of the Lord to Zion. Break forth together into singing, you waste places of Jerusalem, for the Lord has comforted his people. He has redeemed Jerusalem. The Lord has bared his holy arm before the eyes of all the nations, and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God. Let us sing together. ♪ O worship our king, all glorious above ♪ O gratefully sing his power and his love ♪ Our shield and defender, the ancient of days ♪ Pavilioned in splendor and girded with praise O tell of his might, O sing of his grace, Whose robe is the light, whose canopy space, His chariots of wrath the deep under clouds form, And dark is his path on the wings of the storm, The earth with its storm of wonders untold, Almighty your power has found it of old. Established it fast by a changeless decree, And round it has cast like a mantle the sea. Your bountiful care, what tone can recite? It breathes in the air, it shines in the light. It streams from the hills, it descends to the plain, And sweetly distills in the dew and the rain. King of dust and feeble as frail, In you do we trust, nor find you to fail. Your mercy's how tender, how firm to the end, Our Maker, Defender, Redeemer and Friend. Through measureless might, ineffable love, While angels delight, Let us pray together. Our Heavenly Father, how we thank you that by your grace we have been given hearts that worship you as King through our Lord Jesus Christ. And what a privilege it is to join with your holy ones in heaven this morning and with all of the angels and archangels in worshiping and adoring you. We thank you, Lord God, that we are a part of that multitude that no man can number in heaven and on earth. that gives praises to the Lamb, through whom we have been made the flock of your pasture, the people and citizens of your kingdom. We thank you, Father, that you have redeemed us by sending your Son to be born of a woman and to die for our sins. We thank you that you have bought us with his blood so that we belong to you. Help us this day, Lord, to rededicate our lives to your service, to the love of you the love of neighbor, to your kingdom, to your glory. We pray, Lord God, that you would be at work by your Holy Spirit here in this service to remind us of your goodness, to remind us of your sovereign care, to remind us of how great you are. We pray, Lord, that you would meet with us as we sing and as we partake of communion together with Jesus, that you would hear our prayers and empower the preaching and the hearing of your word. In all things that we do, Lord God, we ask that you would see to it that you get all the glory and that you would go forth by your Spirit into every soul doing your sovereign work to the praise and the honor of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. May he be exalted now and forever. Amen. You may be seated. All right, well, as we continue to worship the Lord, please turn to hymn 469 in the red. 469, How Sweet and Awesome is the Place. and awesome is the place with Christ within the doors. While everlasting love displays the choices of her stores, while all our hearts and all our songs join to admire the feast. Each of us cries with thankful tongue, Lord, why was I aghast? Why was I made to hear your voice and enter Mother's womb, when thousands make a wretched choice and rather starve than come? It was the same love that spread the feast that sweetly drew us in, else we had still refused to taste and perished in our sin. our God, constrain the earth to come. Send your victorious word abroad and bring the strangers home. We long to see your churches full. at all the chosen praise. May with one voice and heart and soul sing your redeeming grace. So turn to hymn number 286. But while you're turning there, let me read the third verse of the hymn we just sung. While I was made to hear your voice and enter while there, oh sorry, why was I made to hear your voice and enter while there's room when thousands make a wretched choice and rather starve than come? You know, I think what that verse shows us is the magnificent grace of our God for us to even hear his word. For obedience is a gift from God, that we have nothing that we can't obey in our own strength. But man, what a praise that God has opened our eyes. And for those whose eyes hear who have not been opened, trust him. and believe in him and submit to him and turn away from your sins for there is grace that God can bestow upon you. So let us sing our next hymn, hymn number 286. Rise, O Church, and lift your voices! Christ has conquered death and hell. Sing as all the earth rejoices, Resurrection! Come and worship, worship Christ the risen King. See the tomb where death had laid Him, empty now its mouth declares. Death and I could not contain Him, for the throne of life He shares. Come and worship, come and worship, worship Christ, the risen King. Hear the earth protest and tremble, see the soul rejuvenate. All hell's minions may assemble, but cannot withstand his howl. He has conquered hell's foe. Christ the Lord, the risen King, Doubt may lift his head to murmur, Sufferers mock and sinners cheer, But the truth proclaims a wonder, Thoughtful hearts receive with cheer. He has risen! He has risen! Receive the risen King! ♪ We acclaim your life, O Jesus ♪ Now we sing your victory ♪ Send your help, we seek to save us ♪ But your conquest keeps us free ♪ Stand in triumph still ♪ Worship Christ, the risen King Amen, now we have the reading of God's word. Brothers and sisters, I'll be reading from 2 Timothy 1, verses 7 through 10. For God gave us a spirit, not of fear, but of power and love and self-control. Therefore, do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord, nor of his prisoner, but share in suffering for the gospel by the power of God, who saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works, but because of his own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began, and which now has been manifested through the appearing of Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. We celebrate that gospel every Lord's Day as we celebrate communion together. And I always take this time out in the service to talk about those who are excluded from this meal and those who are included. And as I talk about those who are included, I wanna focus on our unity that we have in Christ. In fact, I would go so far as to say what we're about to witness is a profound miracle. because here we are, I mean, Sunday after election day in this nation, a nation very much divided. You've got identity politics, you've got divisions along racial lines, along political lines, socioeconomic lines, and so forth. And Dayspring is so unique. I heard this week of someone who was elated at the outcome And many Day Springers greeted the outcome of this election with a yawn. We come from so many different places and yet there is a unity that exists through the gospel, through faith in Jesus Christ that brings a people who the world tells us should be divided in so many ways. We should be name calling and insulting one another. And yet here we are loving one another. caring for one another, living a miracle that God has produced here. And there are three things that we ask of you to be a part of that unity. But if this does not apply to you, I just want to encourage you today to look in on the miracle, to not miss it, to see what exists here that doesn't exist out in any place in the world. The first thing that we ask of you is that you are a sinner who is trusting in a Savior, Jesus Christ and Him alone, for your salvation. So you are one who has recognized that you have no righteousness, that you have no goodness, that you desperately need a righteousness that you don't have, that you can't earn. and that Jesus has for you. And so you are one who has been saved by God's grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, to his glory alone. And then secondly, we ask that you be a baptized believer, but we leave the details of your baptism up to your own individual conscience. And finally, we ask that you not be under church discipline from your local congregation, as we respect God's work here in the world. Well, as we prepare ourselves now for communion, I want to direct you in the red hymnal to sing 246, Man of Sorrows. What a name for Jesus, Man of Sorrows, 246 in the red. Let us sing together. For the Son of God who came Ruined sinners to reclaim Hallelujah! What a Savior! Bearing shame and scoffing rude In my place condemned He stood who sealed my pardon with His blood. Alleluia! What a Savior! Guilty, vile, and helpless we, spotless Lamb of God was He. Full atonement can it be! Alleluia! ♪ What a Savior ♪ Lifted up was he to die ♪ It is finished was his cry ♪ Now in heaven exalted high ♪ Hallelujah, what a Savior ♪ When he comes, our glorious King All his friends and home to bring, Then anew this song we'll sing. Alleluia! What a Savior! It is perhaps one of church history's greatest ironies that something designed to be as unifying as the Lord's Supper has been the cause of no little division throughout church history. At the time of the Reformation, the official Church teaching in Rome is what Roman Catholicism continues to officially teach today. Taking a literalistic reading of the phrase, this is my body, they teach transubstantiation. That when the priest exercises his priestcraft over the elements, hocus pocus, Right, that's literally where the phrase hocus pocus originated from the Roman Catholic mass. Hocus pocus, the bread and the juice becomes the actual body and the actual blood of Jesus Christ during the mass. Well, one Protestant reformer, Martin Luther, he also got stuck in a literal reading, but he taught that obviously the bread and the juice doesn't transform But what happens is that the elements of the bread and the juice, they're still bread and they remain juice, but they're joined with or accompanied by the elements of Jesus's flesh and his blood. So that Jesus is actually present in the elements physically, a doctrine called consubstantiation. And then there was a huge division with another reformer during the Reformation, a Swiss reformer named Ulrich Zwingli, who said, no, no, no, these are clearly just symbols. They're symbolic and they're symbols meant to remind us of Jesus's body and of his blood. So the supper is a mere memorial, a remembrance. Jesus said, do this in remembrance of me. But yet another reformer, John Calvin, he proved to be the better exegete. because he agreed that it is a remembrance, but he pointed to the fact that it is no mere remembrance at all, but it is an actual participation, a fellowship, a koinonia in the Greek, a communion in the body and the blood of Christ, that something actually happens. when we partake of the Lord's Supper. The symbols do more than merely represent. They actually bring us into the very presence of Jesus Christ and all of his gracious benefits. Yes, Jesus' human body is localized and present in heaven, but as Calvin said, it doesn't have to descend in order for believers to truly partake of it. Why? Because the Holy Spirit makes true fellowship possible here and now. The Holy Spirit is Christ's spirit. He lifts us up to the heavenlies to feed on Christ. Those who eat the bread and who drink the cup in faith are also, by the power of the Holy Spirit, actually being nourished by the body and blood of Christ, which means that it's more than just a time of remembrance. It is a time of communion. as the risen Lord Jesus himself truly meets us as we eat of his bread and drink of his cup. I want to read to you one of the most marvelous things that Sinclair Ferguson, friend of this church, ever wrote in his great work titled The Holy Spirit. He writes, the role of the spirit is vital in the supper. Only by understanding his work can we avoid falling into the mistakes that have dogged both Catholic ex opero operato and evangelical memorialist misunderstandings of the supper. It is neither by the church's administration nor merely by the activity of our memories, but through the spirit. that we enjoy communion with Christ crucified, risen, and now exalted. For Christ is not localized in the bread and wine, that's the Catholic view, nor is he absent from the supper as though our highest activity were remembering him, that's the memorialist view. Rather, he is known through the elements by the spirit. There is a genuine communion with Christ in the supper. Just as he is present in the preaching of the word, he is present not in the Bible locally or by remembering, but by the ministry of the spirit. So is he also present in the supper, not in the bread and wine, but by the power of the spirit. The body and blood of Christ are not enclosed in the elements, since he is at the right hand of the Father. But by the power of the Spirit, we are brought into his presence, and he stands among us. So I speak as to sensible people. Judge for yourselves what I say. The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ? the bread that we break, sorry, because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread. Whoever therefore eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord. Let a person examine himself then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself. That is why many of you are weak and ill and some have died. But if we judged ourselves truly, we would not be judged. But when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined so that we may not be condemned along with the world. Brothers and sisters, let's take a moment of silence before the Lord to examine ourselves. Our gracious Heavenly Father, how we thank you that you have united us with your Son, Jesus, that all his blessings are ours, that you have become our Father, that you have seated us with him in the heavenly places, that sin and death and the world and Satan no longer rule over us, that you have united us in his resurrection, so that we are now spiritually alive to glorify and obey you, that you have united us in his death, that in him we have died to our former selves, that we participate in the blood of Christ, in the body of Christ, that we have been pardoned of all of our sin, reconciled to you. And so we ask you to bless this bread and this cup, set them apart for their holy use, and bless us in partaking of them, to do so by faith alone, in Christ alone, to his glory alone, and so in a worthy manner. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus, on the night when he was betrayed, took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, this is my body which is for you, Do this in remembrance of me. In the same way also he took the cup after supper, saying, this cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me. For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes. This is the body of our Lord crushed for our iniquities. This cup is the new covenant in Christ's blood, shed on behalf of many for the forgiveness of sins. It's the new covenant in Christ's blood. This is the new covenant in Christ's blood. Please take your blue hymnals. We will be turning to 354, I Cannot Tell. I cannot tell why He, the King of heaven, should leave the peace of all eternity, why God Himself should lay aside His splendor to leave the Father's side and come to me. But this I know, our silence filled with seeking, and all our darkness fled from heaven's light. When Christ the Lord, so human yet so holy, in love was born a child for me that holy night. I cannot tell why he, the joy of heaven, should give himself to suffer for my sin. My holy God should love me in my shameless, why he should die to draw my soul to him. But this I know, that Christ the Lord is risen, and praise His name is risen now in me. Because He lives, I'll rise to life eternal. He took my guilty heart, and I'm forever free. I cannot tell when He will rule the nations, how he will claim his loved ones as his own, and him who'll tell the holy jubilation when all his children gather round his throne. But this I know, all flesh will see his glory, ♪ And skies will burst as all creation sings ♪ ♪ The sun will rise upon eternal morning ♪ ♪ When Christ the Savior of the world is born in king ♪ I'll take your red hymnals once again and turn with me in the back of your red hymnal to page 805. 805 in the red hymnal. We're going to read responsibly Psalm 57. Please stand together. Have mercy on me, O God, have mercy on me, for in you my soul takes refuge. I will take refuge in the shadow of your wings until the disaster has passed. I cry out to God most high, to God who fulfills his purpose for me. He sends from heaven and saves me, rebuking those who haughtily pursue me. I am in the midst of lions. I lie among ravenous beasts, men whose teeth are spears and arrows, whose tongues are sharp swords. Be exalted, O God, above the heavens. Let your glory be over all the earth. They spread a net for my feet. I was bowed down in distress. They dug a pit in my path, but they have fallen into it themselves. My heart is steadfast, O God. My heart is steadfast. I will sing and make music. Awake, my soul. Awake, heart and liar. I will awaken the dawn. I will praise you, O Lord, among the nations. I will sing of you among the peoples. For praise is your love reaching to heavens. Your faithfulness reaches to the skies. Be exalted, O God, above the heavens. Let your glory be over all the earth. Let us pray together. Our sovereign God and merciful Father, we thank you that you have given us genuine affection and faith and repentance towards you. We thank you, Lord, for all that you have done for us from creation to redemption. We lift this congregation up to you now and ask that you would be at work among us by your Holy Spirit to build us up in our faith, build us up in our love for you and our love for one another. We can do nothing apart from you, and so we ask that you would comfort your people, that you would do your sovereign work in every heart. We pray for those unable to be with us this morning, that you would draw near to them, comfort them, and shape them by your word. We pray for our neighbors, Lord, for this city. We pray for all of those to whom members of our congregation proclaim the gospel this week. Lord, we ask for the tearing down of strongholds, for true awakening and spirit-wrought revival that will transform hearts and cause the rebellious to lay down their arms and to turn to you in worship and loyalty and allegiance. We pray for America. We pray for President Biden and President-elect Trump and for the smooth transition of administrations and for peace. We pray especially that you would continue to work your sovereign purposes for your kingdom through the authorities and leadership that you have sovereignly ordained. We thank you for all of your provision for a free land in which we can worship you openly and in which we can share our faith publicly We lift up Pastor Samuel Klintock at Park Hills Baptist Church this morning and pray that you would fill Samuel with your Holy Spirit as he proclaims your gospel, and that you would grow that church deeper in their love and in their faith. We pray for all of our missionaries, especially for Ken Barber and his family in Belize as they celebrate Joshua's wedding this coming week, and that you would provide all of their needs. We pray, Lord God, that you would be with your persecuted church throughout this world as they honor you with their lives. And finally, O Lord, we pray that the whole earth might be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Well, you may be seated and our children may go out to Children's Church at this time. And as they go, please turn with me and your copy of God's inspired, inerrant, infallible word back to John chapter 19. John chapter 19, as we continue our study this morning in our Gospel of John series. Remember from last week, those of you who were here, Pilate, the Roman procurator, He had declared Jesus to be not guilty for a third time, and he was still seeking a way to release Jesus, this innocent man, to let him go free, while also trying to keep the peace politically among the Jewish leaders. So he took Jesus dressed up with a crown of thorns and a purple robe. He had him flogged and he told the Jews to behold, to look at this beaten dog of a man, to look at this laughing stock of a human being who you'd just be ridiculous to see as a threat of the highest order such that you would continue to insist that Rome needed to punish him. let alone execute him. That's what Pilate was trying to do. It didn't work, though. Remember, they cried out to Pilate, crucify, crucify. So Pilate went back and he questioned Jesus one last time, and that's where we pick it up. So look with me at chapter 19, beginning in verse 12. From then on, Pilate sought to release him, but the Jews cried out, If you release this man, you are not Caesar's friend. Everyone who makes himself a king opposes Caesar." So when Pilate heard these words, he brought Jesus out and sat down on the judgment seat at a place called the Stone Pavement in Aramaic, Gabbatha. Now it was the day of preparation of the Passover. It was about the sixth hour. He said to the Jews, behold your king. They cried out, away with him, away with him, crucify him. Pilate said to them, shall I crucify your king? The chief priests answered, we have no king but Caesar. So he delivered him over to them to be crucified. Well, there it is. That's the moment, right, that the Jews have been driving at for weeks now, really ever since Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead back in chapter 11. They want Jesus dead, and they want him dead by crucifixion. And this is the moment, finally, when Pilate gives them what they want. But you can tell right from the beginning that he really doesn't want to. He's not that interested in condemning Jesus to death. He just kind of gets forced into it. You see that at the very beginning of it in verse 12. From that moment on, Pilate sought to release him. And if you look at the story carefully, you see he has been looking for a way to do that, to release Jesus since Jesus showed up in the praetorium that morning. But something about the interaction with Jesus in those last few verses, like ending in verse 11, it kind of sealed it in verse 12. He really, really, really wants to let Jesus go. So the question then becomes, all right, if Pilate, from the very beginning, has wanted to let this innocent man go. And if somehow verse 11 really sealed it for him so that in verse 12, he really, really wants to let him go and he's trying to find every which way to do that. How do you go from verse 12 to verse 16 that fast? How do you go from Pilate wants to let him go to verse 16, handing him over to be crucified? What is it? Well, the answer is that the Jews, they finally figured out exactly the point in Pilate's mind and heart at which to apply the pressure. And they made him cave. Whatever sense of justice he had, whatever conviction he had that Jesus was innocent of the crimes that they were accusing him of, All of that just crumbles when the Jews pushed on his fear and his ambition. Because ultimately it turned out that Pilate feared and loved something else more than he feared and loved justice, more than he feared and loved righteousness, and certainly more than he feared and loved Jesus. So here's the main idea. The main idea of our passage is this. You can look Jesus square in the face and even know deep in your heart that he really is who he says he is, and still be pulled away by the wrong fears and the wrong loves. Now, I know some of you are going to write that down, so I want to say it again. You can look Jesus square in the face and you can even know who he really is and still be pulled away by the wrong fears and the wrong loves. So three points to the sermon, not really dividing it up in any way, but just kind of looking at this entire little passage, and we're going to be looking at three ways that Pilate and the Pharisees went wrong, three ways that their hearts were dragged away, finally, from Jesus. Here's number one. Pilate was driven by the wrong fear. Pilate was driven by the wrong fear. Number two, he also embraced the wrong friend. He embraced the wrong friend. And then finally, number three, the Jews, for their part, they declared allegiance to the wrong king. So Pilate was driven by the wrong fear. He also embraced the wrong friend. And the Jews, for their part, declared allegiance to the wrong king. My hope and prayer for us this morning is that as we study this passage today, that you will start to see that those kinds of things, to be driven by the wrong fear, to embrace the wrong friend, to declare allegiance to the wrong king, those things are not unique to these people in the Bible. That's not just a dead 2,000-year-old problem that doesn't afflict us today. No, in a thousand different ways, you and I let the same things happen to us. We are driven by the wrong fears. We embrace the wrong friends. We give our allegiance to the wrong kings. And all of that drives us away from Jesus. So my prayer is that as we look at the mistakes of Pilate, as we look at the mistakes of the Jewish leaders, that our hearts will be pried off of all of those other things this morning, and that our eyes and our hearts would be fully and firmly set on Jesus Christ. So point number one, The first thing that I want you to notice here is that Pilate was driven by the wrong fear. He was driven by the wrong fear. By the time we get to verse 12, Pilate, he is quite obviously completely spooked, right? He's frightened. He's scared. It even says that in the paragraph right above, that he was even more afraid after hearing who Jesus was claiming to be. throughout the trial, he had always seemed to be unconvinced, really, that Jesus was guilty of anything, let alone anything worthy of death. He doesn't buy the sedition argument. He doesn't buy the treason argument. He certainly doesn't buy the blasphemy argument that the Jews are now making. He just does not seem to think that Jesus is guilty of anything, especially anything worthy of death. The Jews, they were trying to nail him with sedition and treason, but Pilate couldn't see that Jesus was a threat to the empire. And besides, when Pilate had asked him straight up, are you claiming to be a king? Jesus had explained it. Yes, yes, in fact, I am a king, just like you've said, but my kingdom, my kingdom is nothing like the kingdoms of this world that operate and advance with swords and spears and armies and flags. That is not me, and that is not my kingdom. Jesus had told him straight up. So in Pilate's mind, he wasn't dealing with a threat to Rome, right? He was just dealing here with some kind of religious guru who goes out in the wilderness and talks in metaphors about kingdoms and stuff, but he wasn't dealing with any kind of threat to the empire. But then in verse 7, if you look back up, Everything changed for Pilate, and he got very interested in the whole thing, because the Jews, they were finally honest with him, and they told him their real problem with Jesus. Their real problem with Jesus wasn't the fact that he was claiming to be a king, but that he was claiming to be the Son of God. And that set Pilate back on his heels. And to make it even worse, his wife, Pilate's wife, had sent word to him earlier in the morning. We get this from Matthew 27, 19. Pilate's wife had sent word saying that she'd had a dream. She'd had a troubling dream about this man, Jesus, and that Pilate should have nothing to do with this man because this man is righteous. So he had all of that in his mind already, and now for the Jews to say, oh, the real reason that we're really upset with this guy is because he's claiming to be the righteous son of God, making himself equal with God. That scared him, rightly so. So by verse 12, Pilate, he is just completely spooked, and he's desperate, he desperately wants to get out of this situation. You can see there in verse 12, he sought to release him, which given the efforts that he's already made to do that, and considering the tense of the verb that's used here in the Greek, it probably means something more like he really, really, really sought this way and that way to release Jesus. But the Jews they've got one more card to play. They see the writing on the wall, they see Pilate's mind spinning, they see his fear, they see that Pilate's about to do something to release Jesus, and they've got one final card to play, and it turns out to be a heavy hitter. So look at the second half of verse 12 there. The Jews cried out, they're still screaming. If you release this man, you will not be Caesar's friend. Everyone who makes himself a king opposes Caesar. And that thought. Those words, they land like a nuclear bomb in Pilate's mind and heart. And you can see the result and the fallout of it. If you look into 13, immediately upon hearing those words, his desire to release Jesus fades and fails and disappears. And he immediately goes to the judgment seat to hand down his verdict that Jesus should be crucified. But why? Why does he do that? I mean, why do those words from the Jews have such a dramatic effect on Pilate's mind and heart? Well, what happens from verse 12 to verse 13, in the split second between the Jews quitting their literal speech and Pilate making the decision to crucify Jesus? Well, what happens is that the Jews found the one thing, the one thing that could take whatever fear, whatever respect that Pilate had for Jesus, and displace it all. They made him fear something else more than he feared and respected Jesus. Basically, they made him fear Tiberius Caesar, sitting on his throne in Rome. the Jews' threat that you are no friend of Caesar was hugely powerful. And whatever fear he might have been feeling, whatever respect towards Jesus, whatever inclination he may have had to try to release Jesus, it was dissolved immediately by the greater fear, the greater respect of Tiberius. It's a fascinating thing to think about because Like Pontius Pilate, most of us generally like to think of ourselves as being respectable, noble, civilized creatures driven by noble things, driven by virtue, driven by what's right, what's true, driven by a sense of justice and love. But I think if we're honest, If we look into our hearts and we're honest with ourselves, most of us are really probably more like Pilate than we really care to admit. We tend, as human beings, to be driven by fear just as much as we are driven by virtue. We tend to be driven by dread of this or that thing happening to us as much as we are by hope that something good might come. You ever notice that in yourself, in your own actions, in your own heart? Maybe when it comes to your faithfulness to Jesus out there in the world. If you've ever stopped to notice what's driving you in those little moments of unfaithfulness to your King, it's often just fear. Right, fear of being rejected, fear of being mocked, fear of being ignored or backhanded, or worst of all, it's a fear of being pitied by those by whom we want to be seen as respectable. I think the same thing's true when we look to the future. And sometimes we look out into the future and it can seem cloudy, it can seem dark, it can seem uncertain. And even a strong faith in Jesus, a strong faith in God's providence can be swallowed up by the fear of what's coming. And it's true. Fear of bad things happening to us is a very normal human thing. But when it comes to faithfulness to Jesus, when it comes to trust in him, that he's working out all things together for the good of his people, fear is not what should drive our hearts as Christians. The thing about the gospel of Jesus Christ, the thing about trusting in a king who has died for you so that you have the hope of eternity, the thing about trusting in a God who has promised that he is working all things together for your good, It is knowing that we are perfectly loved by that King, and that God drives out the fear of the future. He drives out fear of bad things. That's why the Apostle Paul would write to Timothy in the passage that Rob read for us earlier, that God has not given us the spirit of fear, but a spirit of love, and of power, and of self-control. Look, brothers and sisters, there are always, always in your life, in your church, whether personally or in your nation, there are always going to be scary days, dark days. There are always going to be uncertainties about the future. But you are a child of the King. You are a Christian. Don't be driven by fear. Instead, be pulled along, be motivated by love, and be strengthened by faith in your sovereign God, who is always in control. He never steps down off of his throne, even in the darkest of days. this fear that Pilate had of Tiberius Caesar, it trumped his fear of Jesus. When push came to shove, when the moment of decision came, his fear of Tiberius Caesar short-circuited his interest in Jesus. Is it all possible that that has happened to you? That at some point along the way, maybe even this morning, This sense of interest that you have in Jesus just gets short-circuited by your fear of something else. And maybe you've even been staring at Jesus for a long time now, maybe even coming to Dayspring for months and months and months and listening to us talk about Jesus and about the gospel of Jesus, and maybe you're right up at the edge saying, yes, I believe in him and I'm going to follow him too. Maybe you're right at the edge of saying, I'm a sinner, I know it, and I can't save myself, but I know that he can, I know that he is gracious, I know that he extends mercy to me. I know that he can stand in my place. I know that he has lived the life that I should have lived and that he died a death like I deserve to die so that his people wouldn't have to. And I know that he rose from the dead so that if I'll embrace him, I'm gonna rise too. Maybe you're right at the line of saying that, but every time, Every time it just keeps getting short-circuited by fear of something else. And what's turning you away? What's short-circuiting your interest in Jesus? Is it the prospect that you might lose friends if you become a Christian? Is it the fact that you're going to have to admit some things to yourself in order to follow Jesus? Is it that you're going to have to admit some things about yourself that you just don't want to face up to? Well listen, here's my advice. If you think that there is something back there short-circuiting your interest in Jesus, if you find your interest in Jesus just going up and up and up and then short-circuiting over and over again, here is my counsel to you. Whatever that thing is, whatever that fear is that short-circuiting your interest in Jesus, don't let it hide in the shadow of your mind. That's my advice. Whatever that thing is, don't let it hide in the shadow of your mind. Drag that thing out into the bright light and stare it full in the face. Identify it. Pull it out and see. What is stopping me from coming to Jesus in faith? And you know, you may stare that thing right in the face and come to the decision that, yeah, I really, really am afraid of that, and I really do value that, and so I am rejecting Jesus for that. You may come to that conclusion. My prayer and my hope, though, is that when you stare that thing in the face, that the things of this world will grow strangely dim. and dissolve in your hand as you look at it straight in the face. My prayer and my hope is that whatever it is that is causing your interest in Jesus to short circuit will ultimately dissolve as you see the tender mercy and beauty of Jesus Christ, the Savior. My prayer is that when you look at it for what it really is, you'll realize that those things that you're afraid of, those things that you don't want to lose by becoming a follower of Jesus, you'll realize that those things, they are not worth it at all, and you will drop them and run to Jesus, who is worth it. Jesus is worth it. Don't be driven by the wrong fear. And especially, don't be driven away from the one and only Savior, Jesus, by the wrong fear. Here's the second thing. Pilate was not only driven by the wrong fear, he also embraced the wrong friend. He embraced the wrong friend. Let's look a little more closely at exactly what the Jews say to Pilate in the second half of verse 12. They say, if you release this man, you are not Caesar's friend. Everyone who makes himself a king opposes Caesar. Now, it's not 100% certain that it happened by this time, on Good Friday, when Jesus was crucified. But at least in the very near future, if it hadn't already happened, the phrase, Friend of Caesar, was going to become a sort of official title for a very select few people who were especially loyal to Caesar, and so were especially recognized and treasured by him. But whether or not it was a full-blown official title yet or not, to be considered a friend of Caesar was something every single Roman official in the empire would have desperately wanted. And at the very least, you certainly wouldn't want to be called an enemy of Caesar. You wouldn't live very long if you got that title. So that's what the Jews threatened Pilate with. Pilate, if you let Jesus go, if word gets back to Rome, that Pilate has let this pretender to the throne go, and we will make sure that word gets back to Rome, then you're gonna be declared, Pilate, not to be a friend of Caesar. Any hope you ever had, Pilate, of becoming a friend of Caesar, staying a friend of Caesar, would be gone. That's what they threatened him with. and he caves immediately. Imagine though, just pause your mind and imagine for a second, imagine if Pilate had decided that he treasured a different friendship, even more than he treasured the friendship of Caesar. Imagine if he had if he had really pressed into his interest in Jesus. Imagine if he'd asked him a few more questions about his kingdom, about his mission. Imagine if he'd opened his mind to the answers that Jesus might have given him. And imagine if he had become a friend of Jesus. Everything might have been different for him. And what about you? What would it mean for you to be a friend of Jesus? What does it mean for you as a Christian that you are a friend of Jesus? Because that's exactly what he says you are, if you believe in him. He said it back up in chapter 15. Jesus said, you are my friends. Not just my servants, not just my slaves, not just my subjects, you are my friends. It's an extraordinary thing that he says, and so enormously comforting. And so often in our songs and our prayers and our scripture readings, all the rest, we think of Jesus as King, as Lord, as the one with the blazing eyes and the stark white hair who sits on the throne and walks among the golden lampstands and rules the universe. That's how we think of them, and it's absolutely right to think of him that way. But then sometimes it is just so good to stop and relax and remember that this great king who rules the whole universe has also said that we are his friends, and he loves us, and he cares for us. I want to encourage you and ask you to stop and just remember that the king of this church has also called us his friends. We're not friends of Caesar. We are friends of King Jesus, who loves us and gave himself for us. The king of kings that we worship stoops from his throne to care for us and to remind us that he is working all things together for our good. Pilate thought that he was a friend of Caesar, and he feared losing that. What an enormous comfort it is for us to know that if our faith is in Jesus, if we've come to Jesus in trust and faith, if we've repented of our sins, if we've trusted him to save us, then he is our friend and he will never leave us nor forsake us. Praise God for that. Here's the third thing. The Jews, they declared allegiance to the wrong king. So Pilate was driven by the wrong fear, and he embraced the wrong friend. The Jews, for their part, they declared allegiance to the wrong king. Beginning in verse 13, Pilate's made his decision. He's driven by fear of Caesar. He's driven by this desire not to lose his status with Caesar. And so he decides that in defense of that, Jesus is expendable, right? If I can just keep my friendship with Caesar, if I can not have these Jews go to Rome and tell Caesar that I'm allowing riots in Jerusalem, if I can just avoid all of that, then Jesus, well, he's completely expendable. So in verse 13, he brings Jesus out to the judgment seat. Notice there in verse 13 and 14 that the Apostle John, who's writing this, is very careful to note the exact place where this all happened, and even the exact day and hour that it happens. Why does he do that? He does that because he knows that this is just a monumental world historical moment when Jesus, the Son of God, the incarnate God himself, is about to be sentenced by the Roman procurator to death. And so he essentially, seeing the greatness of the historical moment, he essentially time stamps it and geolocates it. We see the biblical writers doing this all over the place, all the time. Why do they note all of these minute historical details? They do it because Christianity is not just a religion of ideas or feelings or philosophies or principles. It's not just an ethical system where it doesn't really matter what happened so long as the ideas are there. Among all the religions of the world, Christianity is 100% about historical events that happened in time, in space. And if those events, those historical events, did not really happen historically in the real world, then Christianity is worthless and empty and dead, and we ought not to be here. That's why Paul says, if Jesus didn't really get up from the dead, If that tomb isn't really empty, then we of all men are most in this world to be pitied. Christianity is not finally about the ethics or the ideas or the philosophies or beautiful spiritual metaphors of newness of life and uplifting sayings. It is about Jesus of Nazareth and what he actually did in history. So that's why they do things like John does here. They're putting a stake in the ground. They're saying this happened and it happened at a specific time, specific hour, specific day in this specific real world. That's what they're saying. Well Pilate is obviously, even as he brings his judgment seat out to condemn Jesus, he's obviously incensed that the Jews have caught him and they have forced his hand. So he brings Jesus out, humiliates him, Jesus is beaten, he's wearing a crown of thorns, he's wearing the purple robe. Soldiers are mocking him. The other Gospels tell us that he's even holding a reed that they put in his hand, probably something like a cattail, just very slender, very thin, not a scepter at all. They're mocking him. And Pilate points to this man who's beaten and bloodied and says, hey, you Jews, behold your king. You're a bunch of ridiculous people, and this is the best you'll ever have as a king, because your real king, he's saying, is Caesar in Rome. Behold your king. They respond there with, away with him, away with him, crucify him. And Pilate digs the knife in deeper. What do you want me to do? You want me to crucify your king? They take this man who's the ruler of the Jewish nation, humiliate him like a slave in front of the whole nation. Shall I crucify your king? And then look at how the Jews answer him then, in verse 15. We have no king, Caesar." We have no king but Caesar. A couple of levels of meaning at play in that statement. For one thing, they're finally setting the trap on Pilate, right? And after they say that, there's no way that he's getting out of it. Because what they're doing there is even claiming that their loyalty to Caesar is higher than Pilate's loyalty. You can read it with that kind of emphasis. Pilate, we have no king but Caesar. What about you? That's what they're doing on one level. They're setting the trap so that there's no way now that he's getting out of it. But secondly, and more importantly, and more deeply, for all that the Jews had been saying about Jesus being a blasphemer, these words that they utter right here are finally and fully absolute blasphemy. Why? Well, because over and over again in the scriptures, the law and the prophets insist again and again and again that the only true king of Israel is God himself. The only true king of Israel is God himself. Even when they get kings, right? Even when Saul is king, and then David, and then Solomon, and all the rest of them, the only reason those kings are legitimate in any way whatsoever is because they understand themselves to be low kings under the High King of God, the King of Israel. They didn't see themselves as being in the place of God. They didn't see themselves as taking the crown of God for themselves. They saw themselves as taking a vassal's crown for themselves that was given to them by King God, and all their allegiance they owed to him. And yet the Jews here insist, we have no king but Caesar. And when they do that, they're not only rejecting Jesus's messianic claims, they're not just rejecting Jesus as Messiah, they are abandoning Israel's entire hope for a Messiah. We have no king but Caesar, and we will have no king but Caesar. We will have no Messiah, no Davidic savior. We will not have the Lord God reign over us. Once and for all, they are disowning the kingship of God himself over them. You see the point? See what's going on there? The Jews declare allegiance to the wrong king. They declare allegiance to Caesar rather than to the Lord God. And in doing so, they miss their own Messiah. So what about you? Where is your loyalty? Where is your allegiance ultimately? What are you declaring allegiance to this morning instead of King Jesus? Because there is a King Jesus. There is a great King. There is a King of kings and Lord of lords who rules and reigns over all heaven and earth and who demands your allegiance. who holds his hand out and says, if you give me your allegiance, your loyalty, bow your heart and acknowledge me before men as your Savior and Lord, I will give you mercy, I will give you salvation, I will give you life in my kingdom forever. There is a king who offers you that without any hesitation, but liberally, graciously. If you're not a Christian today, Especially if you've heard the gospel of Jesus Christ over and over and over again, you could tell it to someone else, and yet you're not a Christian still, then there is a king. There is a king that you are still swearing your allegiance to instead of Jesus. Who is it? What is it? Is it yourself? Is it the things of this world? Is it a political agenda? Is it the sin that you love and serve? The Jews swore allegiance to the wrong king, and they missed eternal salvation. Don't let that happen to you. Jesus, for Pilate, for the Jews, for Caiaphas, for Annas, for all of them, Jesus was right there in their faces. He was right in front of them. but they got distracted and turned away. There are right now in the world, in your life, in your heart, in your mind, so many distractions. Don't get so sidetracked by those that you miss looking into the face of your king and your friend. Let us pray. Oh, our Lord Jesus, we honor you and we praise you this morning as King of kings, Lord of lords, as friend of sinners. Oh, Lord Jesus, you did so much good for us when you became a man and lived the life we ought to have lived and died the death we ought to have died and then rose again to take your rightful throne, to ascend into heaven and to reign forever and ever. and to promise those who would believe in you, all those who would believe in you, eternal life with you in your kingdom forever and ever. Our Lord, we pray that you would help us to keep these things at the forefront of our minds, to continue to bow ourselves to you, to trust in you as the great king who rules over all the universe. We pray this in your royal, majestic name, in Jesus' name, amen. will please stand together. Be sure to take a moment to greet one another, enjoy fellowship around the gospel with one another. And please join us back here this Wednesday evening, 545 in the Fellowship Hall for a brown bag supper. And then at 630 in this room, we'll be talking about theological liberalism, fundamentalism, and evangelicalism. And now may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of His Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.