We are talking about the promised Messiah. And basically what we've been doing is looking at Old Testament scriptures that speak of His first coming. We looked at His promises in Genesis. We looked at His promises in the Old Testament. We saw that those promises are affirmed in Jesus. And when we looked at his affirmation there, we also looked at his identity as the Son of God, as God in the flesh, as the Messiah, the Christ, as the way, the truth, and the life. We saw his role as Savior of the world, as the Lamb of God, as the mediator, as a high priest. We looked at his life and ministry as the miracle worker, as a teacher, as having a sinless life. We looked at his death, resurrection, and ascension by looking at his crucifixion, and as well as his resurrection from the dead on the third day and his ascension. And we looked at what Scripture says about his second coming. We also considered what others said about him, like Matthew and Andrew, the Samaritan woman, Martha, Peter, the Apostle Paul, and also the writer of Hebrews, And now we're looking at the last two of those points. As I said, we looked at Jesus from the Old Testament. As I told you, He's not listed by His name in the Old Testament. He's listed by titles and other names. There are so many titles and so many names for Jesus. It's just amazing when you see this in Scripture, but each of those titles and each of those names says something different about Him, and it reveals to us His character, who He is, Who is this one who has come over 2,000 years ago and came as a little baby but grew up and ministered among the people, and then went to the cross and died in their place, in our place, for our sin and resurrected the third day and then ascended back to the Father. Who is this one who did this? Who is the one who is the promised Messiah? Who is the one who could fulfill all of these Old Testament scriptures? Jesus. Jesus is the only one who could fulfill all of these prophecies. And today we're going to go back through those prophecies that were written about him in the Old Testament, but I want to show you their fulfillment and how they specifically apply to Jesus. Isaac Newton said, prophecy is a witness to God when it is fulfilled. And why is that? Well, it's because he's the one who gives the prophecy. He is the one who gives the timing for its fulfillment. Even Jesus, when He was here, He said, My time has not come. And they could not kill Him. They couldn't do anything to harm Him before the time. There was an appointed time for Him to appear. There was appointed time for Him to go to the cross. And they couldn't do anything until it was their time to do it. But God gives the prophecy. He designates a time for His fulfillment. And as I have stated on a couple of the occasions that when He came the first time, there were 109 prophecies written about His first coming. He fulfilled all 109 when He came. There are a total of 333 prophecies about Messiah. So He will fulfill the remaining prophecies when He comes the second time. Now we looked at 19 Old Testament prophecies. We didn't look at 109. But we did look at 19 of them that talked about Messiah. So let me have you to turn in your Bible where we began each time and it's in Genesis chapter 3. Genesis chapter 3. We looked at verse 15. Verse 15 is the Pro Euangelion. It means the first gospel. First place the gospel is preached is in Genesis. And it happens right after the fall of Adam and Eve. And it happens right before he passes judgment on them for disobeying him. In Genesis chapter 3 and verse 15 it says, And I will put enmity between you and the woman. And here God is speaking to the serpent and also to Satan. So the first part, I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your seed and her seed. He will bruise you on the head and you shall bruise him on the heel. So he passed judgment on the serpent. And when he did that, that was in the previous verse. He said, because you've done this, cursed are you more than all cattle and more than every beast of the field. And on your belly you will go and dust you will eat all the days of your life. And as I told you, every time you see a snake, you could be reminded of the curse that God put on them. Snakes don't walk. They don't walk upright. But boy, they can climb, can't they? But they're on their bellies. They'll go. And it's coming from Genesis 3.14. That's where God cursed the serpent. Then 3.15 is when he speaks to the one who inhabited the serpent. That was Satan. But as we looked at this, we saw that within that verse, there is a mention of seed. But the seed in this verse is not coming from the man. It's coming from the woman. That's unheard of. Because the seed resides in the man, not the woman. And so when it's speaking of the seed of the woman, we said two things. Number one, it's speaking of a coming Messiah. who would be born of a virgin, speaking of a virgin birth. Now, when you get into the New Testament, Galatians 4 and verse 4 says, But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law. And just so that we know who He is talking about, if you go back into chapter 3 of Galatians, and I'll just read it to you, Verse 26, he mentions Christ Jesus by name. Verse 29, he mentions him as Christ. And then that carries forward into chapter 4, so we know that when he's talking about his son, he's talking about Jesus. He was born of a woman, born under the law, so that he might redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. This unique seed, the seed of the woman is a unique concept and it can be interpreted only as a foreshadowing of the virgin birth. Over in Isaiah chapter 7 and verse 14 we hear this, Now you probably already know that that verse is repeated in Matthew chapter 1 and verse 23. But before I read that verse, let me read a quote from A commentator, Herbert Lockyer, he says this, it is with hesitation that one approaches the solemn holy mystery of our Lord's entrance into our world as a human babe. The theme is so vast and delicate, so profound and incomprehensible that one trembles lest a single word should be expressed that misinterprets to the least degree any aspect of such a wonderful revelation. Bishop Hanley Mole asserts that in scripture a mystery may be a fact which when revealed we cannot understand in detail though we can know it and act upon it. It's a thing to be known only when revealed and with reference to the virgin birth it is certainly true that we cannot understand it in detail though we can know it and we can act upon it. See, we don't know how other than what we're given in Scripture in Luke that talks about the Holy Spirit coming and overshadowing Mary and the child that would be born to her would be a fulfillment of Genesis 3.15. Her seed. Joseph had never had any kind of sexual relationship with her and didn't until after Jesus was born. Now here's Matthew 1.23 which is a quotation of Isaiah 7.14. Behold the virgin shall be with child and bear a son and they shall call his name Immanuel. Well in Isaiah it ends right there but in Matthew we have what Immanuel means. It says which translated means God with us. God with us. That's significant. Especially since there was a long period of silence between the Old and the New Testament. But then the New Testament opens up and one of the first things we hear is about the forerunner of Christ, John the Baptist. And after he is born and grows up and he begins to preach to Israel and call them to repentance and he declares from Isaiah, make the way straight for the Lord and he prepares the way for the Messiah. And he didn't even know who the Messiah was until he was revealed in the baptism. But there are a host of verses that come after this that just lends support to this whole concept of a virgin birth. Like Isaiah 9, 6, for unto us a child is born and to us a son is given. And then over in Luke 1, 31, it tells us, and behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son. Here the angel was talking to Mary and you shall name him Jesus. He will be great, he will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and his kingdom will have no end. And Mary said to the angel, How can this be, since I am a virgin? The angel answered and said to her, The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you, and for that reason the holy child shall be called the Son of God. Now do you understand all of that? You're like me, we understand exactly what we read, we take it at face value, but the fact that Jesus was born to a woman who had never had a sexual relationship with a man, and this being protected and overshadowed by the Spirit of God, do you understand that? That's what Herbert Lockyer's talking about here. Over in Matthew 1.18 we hear this, When as his mother Mary was a spouse to Joseph, before they came together she was found with child of the Holy Spirit. Before they came together. That's pretty clear. To fulfill these amazing prophecies of the birth of Christ, God performed a biological miracle. For the manner of his begetting was something unknown in human history and experience. This was something unheard of, even today. It's not somewhat remarkable that whenever the birth of the Messiah is spoken of in prophecy, you know, that reference is made to his mother or it's made in reference to her womb, but it's never made in reference to his human father, which he did not have. Joseph was his stepfather. But every time you hear about the virgin birth, you always hear about Mary, you hear about the woman, you hear about her womb. Nothing about the man. See, Jesus is the one who fulfills this. And as I also told you last week that in 70 A.D. the temple was destroyed. You know what was kept at the temple? The genealogical records of every family. Those were destroyed. Now what does that mean? What implication does that have? Well, the implication is this. No one could prove that they are the Messiah if they came on the scene then or even now. You can't prove it. The records have been destroyed. But how does Matthew begin His gospel, Matthew 1.1, the record of the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah, the son of David, the son of Abraham, and then it goes through his genealogical record. It can be proven with Jesus, but not proven with anyone else. And here what we just read, we read two things, he would be a descendant of Abraham, Because when God said to Abraham in Genesis 12, 3, in you all the families of the earth will be blessed. He was speaking of a coming Messiah. And then when he speaks of him also being a descendant of David, the son of David. Over in Luke 1, 32 and 33, it says, He will be great. He will be called the Son of the Most High and the Lord God will give him the throne of his father, David. So he comes from Abraham. He comes from the royal line, the kingly line of David. He's a descendant of both. He would also be a blessing from Jacob to Judah in Genesis 49 when Jacob is giving the blessings and the cursings to his sons. Well he says to Judah, the scepter shall not depart from Judah nor the ruler's staff from between his feet until Shiloh comes and to him shall be the obedience of the people. And then of course we read in Luke 133, that He will reign over the house of Jacob forever and His kingdom will have no end. Again, Jesus is the only one who could fulfill this and did fulfill this. In fact, when you look at the Old Testament as it looks forward to a coming Messiah, when you come to the New Testament, the Messiah has come. See, we look back, they looked forward. Same with the cross. They look forward to a suffering servant, forward to the Messiah going to the cross, of which they didn't even understand. We look back at the cross. When Jesus bore our sins on the cross, all of our sins were future. We weren't even here. But his death, his burial, his resurrection, is applied to us. It's applied to all who repent and believe in Jesus. Jesus stood in our place, took our punishment for us. And what punishment, you say? It's the punishment for Adam's sin. Because Adam's sin, it was passed on to every person who would ever be born. It was imputed. And that's why when you repent and you believe in Christ, Christ's righteousness is now imputed to you. So when God looks at you, what does He see? Does He see a fallen, sinful, wretched, wicked? You keep filling in the words. No, He sees the righteousness of Jesus. that covers you and me. That's what he sees. And like Psalm 103, he has taken all of our sins and he has cast them as far as the east and the west. And he's cast them into the deepest sea to remember them no more. And that's because of Jesus. And that's because of his sacrifice for us. That's because he took our punishment. The wages of sin is what? Death. But the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus, our Lord. You say, well, I'm not part of that. I don't sin. I've never sinned. Well, if you say that, then you're deceived. And I can tell you right now, there are a lot of people around you, probably even in here, that could tell you that you're wrong, and they've seen you sin. Right? What does the Scripture say about that? All have sinned. and fall short of the glory of God. All. There's none righteous, Romans 3. No, not one. That's almost like him saying, no, not even you. The only righteousness that we have is now as being followers of Jesus. Now as being in Christ. Being a new creation. We didn't come on our own merits, we came on the merits of Christ. We came on the works of Christ. Our good works is nothing but filthy rags. And the term filthy rags is not what you think. It's something far worse. The Messiah would be born of a woman, and it would be a virgin woman. The Messiah would also be a descendant of Abraham, a blessing from Jacob to Judah. He would be a descendant of David. Some other prophecies that we looked at, like Deuteronomy 18, it talked about a coming prophet who would be like Moses. It says in Deuteronomy 18, 15, the Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your countrymen. You shall listen to him. This is according to all that you asked of the Lord your God in Horeb on the day of the assembly, saying, Let me not hear again the voice of the Lord my God. Let me not see this great fire anymore, or I will die. And the Lord said to me, They have spoken well. I will raise up a prophet from among you, from their countrymen like you, and I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command. It says in John 6, when the people saw the sign which Jesus had performed, they said this, this is truly the prophet who is to come in the world. So how did they interpret this? When they saw the works that Jesus was doing, they equated Deuteronomy 18 to Jesus. This is the prophet to come. In John 12, 49, Jesus said this, For I did not speak on my own initiative, but the Father himself who sent me has given me a commandment as to what to say and what to speak. I know that his commandment is eternal life, therefore the things I speak, I speak just as the Father has told me. And what did it say in Deuteronomy 18 and verse 18? I will put my words in his mouth and he shall speak to them all that I command him. Do you see the fulfillment there? Well some other prophecies that we looked at was like Micah 5,2 where it says that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem for you or from you one will go forth for me to be a ruler in Israel. His going forth are from long ago from the days of eternity. And then we find in Matthew chapter 2 and verse 1 it says now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem. See the direct fulfillment? Or as I mentioned a moment ago about John the Baptist Isaiah 40 in verse 30 or verse 3 rather says a voice is calling clear the way for the Lord in the wilderness make smooth in the desert a highway for our God and then you hear in Matthew chapter 3. And verse 1, Now in those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the wilderness of Judea, saying, For the kingdom of heaven is at hand, for this is the one referred to by Isaiah the prophet. When he said, The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Make ready the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. Fulfillment. One after another after another. We know in Isaiah 53 in verse 3 that the Messiah would be rejected by His people. It says that He was despised and forsaken of men, a man of sorrow and acquainted with grief. And like one from whom men hide their face, He was despised and we did not esteem Him. And who is He talking about? Jesus. John chapter 1 verse 11, He came to His own and those who were His own did not receive Him. They rejected Him. He came to his own people and they wanted to kill him. We've been seeing that in our study of the Gospel of Mark. One minute they said he had a demon. He was a friend of glutton and drunkards. They constantly criticized him. Constantly. I think that they were jealous of him. Even Pilate knew when they handed Jesus over to him that they handed him over because they were envious of him. He could do all of these amazing, miraculous things that obviously drew large crowds. When we get back into the Gospel of Mark, we'll come to chapter 8 and we'll see the feeding of the 4,000. And it says, once again, a large crowd gathered. And this crowd had been with him for three days, hadn't eaten anything. They were hanging on every word he said. And if he was here physically in the flesh, you and I would be doing the same thing, too. But guess what? He's not here physically in the flesh, but he's right here. He's right here in the Bible. And we can read it. And my question to you is, do you believe what you read? I do. And honestly speaking, I don't need 109 prophecies. One's fine for me. Maybe two. You know, 109? I mean, just the probability of him fulfilling one of them? That's amazing right there. We hear in Zechariah 9, verse 9, It says, Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout and triumph, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your King is coming to you! He is just and endowed with salvation, humble and mounted on a donkey, even on a colt, the foal of a donkey. And then we read in John 12, verse 12 and following, On the next day the large crowd who had come to the feast, When they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, took the branches of the palm trees, and went out to meet him, and began to shout, Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel! Jesus, finding a young donkey, sat on it, as it is written, Fear not, daughter of Zion. Behold, your King is coming, seated on a donkey's colt." Direct fulfillment. And that's the way the Scriptures present Him. Here's the prophecy. Here's the fulfillment. Who is fulfilling it? Jesus. The only one who could do this. Now we also read in Psalm 41 and verse 9 that he was betrayed by a close friend. Who was that? It was Judas. That's right. And Psalm 41.9 speaks of this. Even my close friend in whom I trusted, who ate my bread, has lifted up his heel against me. And then Luke 22.47 says, While he was still speaking, behold, a crowd came, and the one called Judas, one of the twelve, was preceding them. And he approached Jesus to kiss him. But Jesus said to him, Judas, are you betraying the Son of Man with a kiss? Direct fulfillment. But you know, not only that, Zechariah also mentioned in Zechariah 11 and verse 12, it mentions that they weighed out 30 shekels of silver. Then verse 13, the Lord said to me, throw it into the potter. that magnificent price of which I was valued by them. So I took the 30 shekels of silver, threw them to the potter in the house of the Lord, Matthew 26, 14. Then one of the 12 named Judas Iscariot went to the chief priest and says, what are you willing to give me to betray him to you? And they weighed out 30 pieces of silver to him. Then after Jesus was taken through that mockery trial, convicted, Judas went out and hung himself. But before he did that, he went back to the religious leaders and wanted to give the money back. They didn't want it. It's got blood on it. He threw it at them. And then they took it and they bought a potter's field. You think they knew what they were doing? Wait a minute, let me look up Zechariah and see what we're to do with this money. Wasn't that at all? They're going through their natural normal course of life and fulfilling prophecy and didn't even know it. Psalm 22 verse one talks about that he would die. Messiah would die by crucifixion. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? And you remember Jesus said those very words on the cross, John 19, 16. So he then handed him over to them to be crucified. They took Jesus, therefore, and he went out bearing his own cross to the place called the place of a skull, which is called in Hebrew Golgotha. And they crucified him with him, two other men, one on either side and Jesus in between. And even just the fact that it mentions that he was crucified with two other men, these were criminals. And Isaiah 53 and verse 12 says that he was numbered with the transgressors. Yet he himself bore the sin of many and interceded for the transgressors. Matthew 22, 38, at that time two robbers were crucified with him on the right and one on the left. You see, Jesus was the only one who could fulfill this. Even to the very piercing of His hands and His feet, Psalm 22, 16. It says, For dogs have surrounded me, a band of evildoers have encompassed me. They pierced my hands and my feet. I can count all my bones. There's a prophecy here about this very thing. And we read in John 19.33, coming to Jesus, when they saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. But one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and immediately blood and water came out. And that's even a fulfillment of Zechariah 12.10. They will look on me whom they have pierced. John 12.34, but one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear. And then they would cast lots for his garments. Psalm 22, 18, they divided my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots. Then John 19, verse 23, then the soldiers, when they had crucified Jesus, took his outer garments, made four parts, a part to every soldier, and also the tunic. Now the tunic was seamless, woven in one piece. So they said to one another, let us not tear it, but cast lots for it to decide whose it will be. And listen to this. This was to fulfill scripture. They divided my outer garments among them. And for my clothing, they cast slots. Therefore, the soldiers did these things. They didn't know the prophecy. It's the writer of this gospel who is quoting this prophecy. This is the Apostle John. He's the one that just quoted it, not them. And then, of course, In Psalm 16 and verse 1 it speaks of the Messiah being resurrected from the dead. It says, For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol, nor will you allow your Holy One to undergo decay. And then we hear in Acts 2.31 that He looked ahead and spoke of the resurrection of the Christ. That He was neither abandoned to Hades nor did His flesh suffer decay. The very quotation coming from Psalm 16. And then last, Psalm 68 verse 1 speaks of him ascending back to heaven. The Messiah going back to heaven. And it says, you have ascended on high. And then what do we hear? Luke 24, 51. While he was blessing them, he parted from them and was carried up into heaven. Now there's only one person, as I've said, who could fulfill all of these prophecies. And we just heard him fulfill them. Jesus fulfilled every one of them to the very letter. Now, I want you to notice some of the titles that he has that refer to him as being Messiah. They're messianic titles. But before I give them to you, I need to pause right here and I need to read a quote to you by C.S. Lewis and something for everyone to consider. as we hear these things. C.S. Lewis writes, I'm trying here to prevent anyone from saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Jesus. I'm ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don't accept his claim to be God. That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg or else he would be the devil of hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was and is the Son of God or else a madman or something else. That's the implication of all this. After hearing all these prophecies that we've been looking at for three weeks now of a promised Messiah and then seeing them affirmed and fulfilled in the Lord Jesus Christ, what say ye about Him? What is this saying to your heart this morning? Who is this Messiah? Even Jesus asked His disciples Who do the crowds say that I am? One of the prophets? Elijah? John the Baptist? Who do you say that I am? What did Peter say? You are the Messiah! You are the Christ! The Son of the Living God! And then Jesus said to Peter, Flesh and blood didn't reveal that to you, Peter, but my Father who is in heaven. See, that's what we need right there. You could read all the prophecies for the rest of your days, but unless the Father reveals this to your heart, they are no more than words on a page. Over in Daniel chapter 7 and verse 13, the one who was coming up to the Ancient of Days is called the Son of Man, and you remember, that that was a favorite title that Jesus used of himself, and it's a messianic title. In Mark 10, 45, Jesus said, for even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many. And so he just kept using this title for himself, the Son of Man, but it had an Old Testament prophecy about that title. And then, of course, Son of David, which we pointed out a moment ago. And it says in Matthew 9, 27, that Jesus went on from there, two blind men followed him, and the blind men were crying out, Have mercy on us, Son of David. Crowds were starting to understand who he was. Jesus said this in Revelation 22 and verse 16, I, Jesus, have sent my angel to testify to you these things for the churches. I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright morning star. These are, again, messianic titles. Isaiah 53 7 says that he was oppressed. He was afflicted. He did not open his mouth like a lamb that is led to the slaughter. And then we hear John the Baptist saying when he saw Jesus, behold, the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. And he's using that very title from Isaiah. Or Zechariah 9 in verse 9, Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout and triumph, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you! Matthew 27, 11. Now Jesus stood before the governor, and the governor questioned him, saying, Are you the king of the Jews? And Jesus said to him, It is as you have said. He didn't deny it. Just like when he told the woman of Sychar, the woman at the well, when Messiah comes, she said, he will reveal all things to us. And then Jesus says to her, the one who is speaking to you is he. I am the Messiah. She dropped her water pot and took off to the city to tell everybody what had just happened. That's what we should be doing. Over in Isaiah 9, 6, he's called the Prince of Peace, Luke 2, 14. Glory to God in the highest and on earth. What? Peace among men with whom he is well pleased. Over in Psalm 23, 1, you know this psalm, the Lord is my what? Shepherd. In John 10, 11, Jesus said, I am the good shepherd. Job 19, 25. Job says, as for me, I know that my Redeemer lives. Titus 2, 14. It talks about Jesus gave himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed and to purify for himself a people for his own possession. He's the Redeemer. Or Exodus 3.14, Moses asked, Who shall I say it is who's sending me? And God said to Moses, I am who I am. And then we read in John 8.58, Truly, truly, I say to you, Jesus is saying this to the crowd before Abraham was born, I am. Or Isaiah 41 verse 4, He's called the Holy One of Israel. Mark 1.24, The very demons from hell, Say to Jesus, What business do we have with each other, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the Holy One of God. And then Isaiah 42 and verse 1, speaks of God's servant, Matthew 12 and verse 18, that very passage is quoted right here. Behold my servant whom I have chosen, my beloved in whom my soul is well pleased. I will put my spirit upon him and he shall proclaim justice to the Gentiles. And then one more, and we already read it. Isaiah 714, therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign, behold a virgin will be with child and bear a son, and you shall call his name Emmanuel, Matthew 1.23, end of the verse, which translated means God with us. The Messiah promised in Genesis, promised in the Old Testament, affirmed in Jesus, fulfilled in Jesus. And we even hear the Messianic titles that Jesus gave himself and others gave to him. Who is this Messiah? It's Jesus. It's Jesus. Christ. Christ is Christos, means anointed one. It's the Greek equivalent of the Hebrew word Messiah. And Messiah means anointed one. So is He your Messiah? Is He your Lord? Is He your Master? Do you believe the promises? Have you embraced the promises? that speak of a promised Messiah and are applied to the Lord Jesus Christ. Have you embraced that? Is He your Lord? Is He your master? Are you following Him? Are you obeying Him? Are you living your life for Him and not for you? It's all Him. For from Him and to Him and through Him are all things. Romans 11, 39. To know Him is to come to Him in humility, to come to Him in humble obedience, obeying the gospel, repenting, believing, confessing that He is Lord. I'll close with this. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, he said, the Lamb of God is the one who takes away the sin of the world. In His death, He takes the place of the sinner, bearing the judgment and wrath that was due to us. He is the true sacrifice for sin. He takes the place of the sinner. He took our place. We deserve to die for Adam's sin. And we confirm Adam's sin in us because we sin. We deserve death, judgment, hell. We don't deserve eternal life with Christ. We don't deserve forgiveness. We don't deserve heaven. That's why it's a gift. It's a gift. But you have to receive it on His terms. Now, come Christmas, we're going to be exchanging gifts with our families. And someone hands you a gift, what do you do? You take it. You receive it. And then you open it, and all eyes are on you to see if you like it. That's the hardest part, isn't it? Opening up. I've just assumed take all those gifts and go to my bedroom and no one see me open them. See my first reaction, you know what I mean? And even if you don't like it, you go, right? I don't think I've ever gotten a gift I didn't like. And even if I didn't, it's just the thought of the love and the time it took to either get that gift or make the gift. I think homemade gifts are awesome. You know, our grandkids make homemade things for us. We love that. And when our kids were smaller, they did that for us, right? We love that. And now we're looking around and they're all grown. We're like, where are the gifts? Those homemade gifts? I have a file that Hannah, from all the little things that she's made me, and I didn't want to lose them, so I would stick them in a file. And I'd keep them right there, and I'd put it right there in my file cabinet that's part of my desk. And periodically, I'd just pull them out and look at them. And I'd go down memory lane. Cry a little bit, you know, and just remember those moments because every one of those pictures has a story attached to it, right? You have them. But I love that phrase that Bonhoeffer says, he takes the place of the sinner bearing the judgment and wrath that was due to us. He took our punishment. We deserved it. And here's the catch right here. If you never repent and believe in Jesus, then who is left to bear the punishment? You are. And that's why hell is forever. Because there's no amount of time that will satisfy a holy and righteous God. There's no. Single number. That could be equated to you'll be in hell for 50 years, you'll be in hell for 50 days, you'll be in hell for X amount of time because none of that will satisfy him. Because you rejected the only means of forgiveness. See why? I tell you what my friend said to me 40 years ago. 40 years this past March for me. And my friend said to me, when he witnessed to me, he said, Steve, you need to be forgiven of all your sin. And that only can be possible by you repenting and surrendering your life to Jesus Christ. That's the only way it's gonna happen. And by God's grace, I dropped to my knees and I asked God to forgive me and save me. And he did. It's been 40 plus years. And some of you have that same kind of testimony. You've been walking with the Lord for a long time. You know, God doesn't have to do some kind of miracles for us, does he? He does all kinds of things in our life. Right? So many good things that have happened in our life that are fully him, solely him. I look at it this way. Everything good about me is him. Everything bad about me is me. I've read a quote one time that this person, I think it was Spurgeon, he said, the person that I fear the most is me. My evil, wicked heart. Because see, in Christ, I have a new heart. In Christ, I've been forgiven. You say, well then, why do I still sin? Why do I still deal with these evil things and evil thoughts and temptations and all these things? It's because you still have the flesh. I mean, Paul said in Romans 7, the things I want to do, I don't do. The things I don't want to do, I end up doing. And He said, O wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death? It's this body that we're dragging around. We're walking around in this corpse. And this is what brings you down. It's not the righteous work of the Holy Spirit in your life. You're a new creation in Christ. You're ready for heaven. The only thing that's going to change is for you to get a new body. And that's promised to all of us one day. That's what happens at the rapture. What's it say in 1 Corinthians 15? Talks about a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed in a moment, in a twinkling of an eye. At the last trumpet, we shall all be changed. And that's where we get our glorified bodies. We've already been changed. Our soul's already been changed. If you're in Christ, I just praise his name for that. Well, as we go to the Lord in prayer, just praise him, just worship him, thank him. And if you don't know him today, would you call upon him and ask him to save you? The Bible says that whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. He will save you. Examine yourself now. We thank you, Heavenly Father, for this opportunity for us to share in the Word of God together. Thank you for all your people here today, and thank you for your blessings, and the blessing of the Word of God that we have been able to look at today and see, and see Jesus as the fulfillment of all these things. Thank you. Thank you. We give you worship. God your name is so worthy. You're so worthy. We pray all this today in Jesus name. Amen.