duty's there and Milton this morning, the body having asked him to stay with them and preach to them. Excuse me, I'm going to turn this down. I forgot to. We trust that things have gone well there for him. and remember him as he journeys back later this week. It was a text message I got from him one day during the week that set us up on our current course of thought with you this morning. I'm not sure what the verbiage from him was, but it made me to think back to when I first believed that I encountered conversion and the The emotions of that moment, that great, I guess, reviving of the spirit, is one way to put it. But anyway, it is along these lines that we have thought the last two to three days and just try to make some brief notes of things we trust will be beneficial for you. I am centering my thought on that phrase, that man Jesus, and I do not have it in the, I don't think referenced in any of the few verses we may look at, but that is the crux of the matter. that man Jesus. I was, I know I have told you before, but for those that may not have heard it, I was baptized into a church, being read the Roman road And agreeing with it, I was told that I was saved. And later I was baptized. And I knew, I knew, I knew it was not so. Because I did not want it. I yielded to someone of the present. Having some modest impression from the elders around me, the older folk who had tried to guide me in my life, but I did not have a need for it. That man, Jesus, He meant nothing to me. And dunking me under some water did not improve it. So we come to the The thing most important for us here now in my life is that I made a promise that I would come and hear the preacher man speak just to pacify a request. So we did. To fulfill that obligation I was at least that full of pride. And then we came again. And then we came again. And we came again. And by now you would think we were on the road to something, but no. I can so clearly see stopping the car at the house and I'm sitting with so much confidence I will not go back. I will not go back. I'm done. I fulfilled my obligation. At that point, that man, Jesus, still doesn't mean very much to me. But what I did not know, I was beginning to hear. I was beginning to hear. And I was still trying to run. I told Lisa, one of my more famous quotes, I should never come home from the meeting house. feel so bad about myself. Famous, famous words in my life. Next Sabbath day we were in the house again, and we were in the house again, and we were in the house again. And now I begin to realize that I am hearing, I am hearing something for the first time. So when the preacher man baptized me, And it was cold. He said it's going to take your breath and it did. I can still now even think of how cold it was. When I came up I couldn't get air back in fast enough. But I knew something was different. And salvation is not yet complete. I must endure, I must continue until the end, even if it's only five more minutes from now. But when I came up out of the water that time, I knew, and I know now, that that man Jesus meant something different than he had previously. So that is my point today. To try to encourage you to consider, I cannot talk you into anything. It is of no value. If I, in my pitiful speech, can talk you into it, someone can easily talk you out of it. So that is of no value. I only urge you to consider seriously that man Jesus as much as you can. So I will be careful there. These are parallels now. You have to be careful. But Jesus wept as John described to you. That tells us something. That tells us something. We were reminded last week, Mr. Spurgeon, the only thing, the only thing that I have to bring to the table is my sin and misery. That's all I've got. And if I am to leave this world in any different condition, that sin and misery must be paid. Someone will pay it. That man Jesus, If you will, let's ask for help to consider the scripture here before us. Gracious Master, we thank you, dear Lord, for the opportunity to come back into this little place set aside. Master, we trust that it can be a little garden And the gentle winds will blow upon the tender. And the mighty gales will blow to strengthen the older. They'll all find you present and complete to them. We ask, O Lord, for thy mercies upon our dear pastor who travels those dear souls there in Milton and for their comforting this great time of loss and for his safe return. Help us, Master, as we read and look into these words and passages given by thy hand. Help us to rightly understand them, to rightly use them. and to reflect upon them, Master, in days to come. You keep these, Master, by Thy great hand, by Thy great strength. Continue to teach them, Master, as it pleases Thee through Thy great Spirit. And guide us, O Lord, before You. We might be found pleasing, Master, a pleasing garden. In Christ's great name, we pray. Amen. The first verse I'd like to share with you is Matthew chapter 1 and verse 20. That man, Jesus, Matthew chapter 1 verse 20. But while he thought on these things, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost, and she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus. The crux of this verse here is for he shall save his people from their sins. One of the greatest or great dangers of this hour is that so much of this is handled so carelessly No There's so many hands that do not tremble that so many here And so often it is handled so casually No, no wonder there is a loss of respect for it For he shall save his people from their sins Now this man Jesus was born into the world in the same fashion as you and I, a baby. He cried just like Griffin. He toddled around and fell. All of these things are such a great mystery in some sense to me why he did that but on the human side I am glad he did it because he understands me he came all the way down and made himself into the same fashion as myself at least in some part, to understand where I'm coming from. When I say, Lord my sins are too great, I cannot approach you. I'm just too gone. He understands. He has walked the dirt roads, He has been in the great crowds. He has been betrayed by friends. He has experienced our lives. For He shall save His people from their sins. that man Jesus. An associate versage to that is over in Luke chapter 2, if you will. Luke chapter 2 and verse 25. Luke chapter 2 and verse 25 down to 30. That man Jesus. Luke chapter 2 verse 25, And behold, there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon. And the same man was just and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel. And the Holy Ghost was upon him, and it was revealed unto him by the Holy Ghost. that he should not see death before he had seen the Lord's Christ. And he came by the Spirit into the temple. And when the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him after the custom of the law, Then took he him up in his arms, and blessed God, and said, Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace according to thy word. For mine eyes have seen thy salvation. That man Jesus. Here is one waiting a great time. before his birth and willing to wait until he saw him. Now note he was prepared beforehand when he saw him he knew him. I guess What I am trying to say is there is much more to this than just uttering some words or reading a verse and making a statement about that man Jesus. It is far greater It is far greater than that. But those are some of the things we experience. We make that public acknowledgement of Him as Lord over us. But it is so much more. It is so much more. I had not heard a thing. I had gone to church. I was carried to church all my life. I had heard many sermons. I had witnessed with my eyes many things, but I had not heard one thing. Not one thing. But one day, I realized I could hear. And it was so freeing. What used to be a drudgery to sit and read was now the joy. Barrett loaned me the two volumes on Mr. Whitfield and I read those just in a few days in the time before we started work. We started at 6.30 and we quit at 5.30. My duty was to be there early on some days to open the store. So while I was waiting for anyone to come along, I was reading and it was so good. It was so good. So when we see this present age and this circumstance, even though we have not experienced those things of the past, It still hurts us to know that it has happened, but it is not happening in our hour in the same way. But I take heart that He has not changed. That man Jesus is the same. And if I was there for so long a time, if I would not hear for so lengthy a time. And then one day I realized I'm hearing something. Then it can happen with others. I have put here a notation. This is not what I am attempting to speak of here. This is not a low hanging apple for the grabbing when you get ready. I don't want to mislead you. I don't want you to think that it is of no cost. No ramifications. Because there are. There are, but they pale in comparison. And it is not in the choosing of my mind when and where. This, in this book, is not that. That is something offered amongst this world. That is something that was offered to me, and I took it. And it is very dangerous. The seriousness of this matter, I cannot expand it enough. This is not trivial. During this COVID thing, we have all lost friends and associates, relatives. Some I've known that were in good, seeming good health, and in the next moment, they're gone. This plan, this salvation that I am attempting to get you to consider is a plan that was made long before the sun ever shone or this earth ever turned or anything ever was. It was agreed upon that all of these things would be done. You have seen the images from the Hubble telescope. Now I understand they have a new one going out that will be even able to reach further. And how dramatic these pictures are, just things that just are astounding. They're just so astounding. But then amongst all of that rhetoric, I am forced to come back to the reality that we still have just one little blue orb out there, and that's it. We think, well, there could have been life on this planet at such and such a point, but we're not sure. We're going to have to investigate. There's only one where we know life is now and we know life has been. Just that one place. I'm not a scientist. I don't have great understanding. But this man, Jesus, he He came and he wrote upon the people and amongst the people, the overall wearing fellow. He was not appealing to the world. John Jerry Weathers, we received him not. We didn't want any part with him. But he came anyway. He's not a low hanging apple to be picked when you choose to. Mr. Barnard used to say so frequently, there has to be that vital union. There has to be that vital union. It has to be, I think. That man, Jesus, has to be a reality to you. He's got to be real. It's not some dream world. It's not some foggy notion. It's got to be real. I had a place in Isaiah 53, I believe it was. If you don't mind, we'll look there briefly. Isaiah 53. We have read, we have looked at a couple of verses about Him being described as the salvation. Jesus, Savior. And in Isaiah 53, it gives us a stark comparison to how we received Him. Consider the fact that the plan was made long before there was anything. And God knew how this was going to go. And the agreement was made in Stoke-2. The cost, the cost was very great. Far beyond anything I could ever describe for you. Let's listen to a few verses here. Isaiah 53. We'll start with verse 3. He is despised and rejected of men. That is current today. at any time, maybe. I started to say more, but I don't know if men's hearts are any different. But it's accurate for today. A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from him. He was despised and we esteemed him not. And yet, I interject, and yet surely he hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. Yet we did not esteem him stricken. We did esteem him stricken and smitten also of God and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace was upon him and with his stripes we are healed. Verse six, all we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way. And the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. Do you ever stop to consider that? Do you ever stop to reflect on your own condition at this moment? Your relationship to Him and how it must look from His viewpoint. We have turned everyone to His own way. We want His help in time of need. How about when the fire is off? He was oppressed and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth. He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth. He was taken from prison and from judgment, and who shall declare his generation? For he was cut off out of the land of the living, for the transgression of my people was he stricken. And he made his grave with the wicked and with the rich in his death, because he had done no violence. Neither was any deceit in his mouth. And I close with this. Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him. This whole plan, it's just I don't know how to say it. It is so terrific. It is so astounding. It is so mystical. I urge you, if you have not, to consider these verses. I urge all of us for our strengthening to consider them." Yet it pleased him. I was there that day and I bruised him. And I striped him. And yet somehow, one day I realized I could hear. That is to the glory of my Maker. It is not to my intelligence or my lineage or any other thing, it is to the glory of my Maker. That is powerful that a deaf man can hear in this hour. Consider those around you consider each of us our circumstance. Let us be inspired to press harder. As Brother Reagan used to admonish us, to press on, to press on, press on, press on. I think that is all I have to to share with you on these points. If there is nothing else to add, I think As far as I know, Barrett should be back next Sabbath day for you. Just remember him as he travels and safety. I know it's hard on him, all that traveling, but let the Lord keep him in it. I appreciate it. I hope it's not too painful. to listen to it. I appreciate it. And let us consider ourselves dismissed until next Sabbath morning.