Good morning. And good morning to those of you who are still online. We are so grateful to see so many of you are able to come back now. It's such a joy. Turn your Bibles to, oh, thank you. Turn your Bibles to, we're actually gonna start today in Genesis 22. I guess I'll keep it here. That song that we were singing, all hail Emmanuel. The word Emmanuel means God with us. God is with us. He promised that where two or three are gathered in his name, he is in our midst. I'm sure that you could feel his presence this morning as we sang those beautiful hymns. Not long ago, It was pretty common when people went to a movie, they would leave as soon as the credits started rolling. But nowadays, if you've noticed, people tend to stick around until the very end. And there's a reason for this. The movie writers have realized that human beings are extremely curious. And they have built these movies in such a way where they give little clues of mysteries that are to come. And it keeps people engaged and they wanna see the next one. Some people get annoyed with us because they know it's a marketing ploy, and that's true. However, with the word of God, there's no marketing ploy. But God knows he made us, he made us curious. And the word of God is actually written in that way. starting from the very beginning, and even in Genesis chapter three, there's a little clue about what is to come. It's written with metaphors, with foreshadowing. There's actually 574 prophecies in the Old Testament concerning Christ. And this morning, we're gonna look at three of those prophecies. and we're gonna look at how Christ fulfilled them in Passover week. There's so many that he fulfilled. We're just gonna focus on three, okay? You don't have to turn there, but in 1 Peter 1, verse one, I'm sorry, verse 10, he says, concerning the salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired carefully inquiring what person or time the Spirit of Christ in them was indicating when he predicted the sufferings of Christ. In other words, they didn't know what they were writing about sometimes. The Spirit of God was within them telling them what to write, and they were like, what am I writing about? And they diligently searched and inquired carefully, and it was revealed to them Oh, and also, and the subsequent glories was also spoken about. And then it says in verse 12, it was revealed to them that they were searching not for themselves, but for you. That is why those things were written, was to comfort you. And the things that have now been announced to you through those who preached the good news to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things into which even the angels looked. The angels didn't know what was coming. This was a great mystery and the Lord was revealing it just a little at a time. And that little mystery makes us curious. We see that also happening with the book of Revelation, don't we? It's kind of a common saying now about Revelation that we shouldn't study it, we shouldn't read it, because we don't know what it's talking about. Well, the book of Revelation was written in the same way as the prophecies of the Old Testament, and they were supposed to be curious. It's okay to read the book of Revelation. It says in the first chapter that you're blessed if you read it. You should read it. It is extremely encouraging to your faith. But while he made the faithful diligent to study, he also hid the truth from those who didn't believe. Those who willfully suppressed the truth and unrighteousness, it was hidden from them, and we will see that today. Not only that, but they distort the teaching of God to their own ends, creating their own God to worship. So we're gonna consider three prophecies today. The first one is, in the book of Genesis, which was probably written, as you know, by Moses. The second one is from the Psalms, from David, and the third is from the book of Zechariah, chapter nine. So in your Bibles, turn to Genesis 22, and let's start at verse one. By the way, I'm gonna be jumping around a little bit today because we're dealing with fulfilled prophecy. I apologize, but that's what we gotta do. After these things, God tested Abraham and said to him, Abraham, and he said, here am I. He said, take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah and offer him there as a burnt offering On one of the mountains, which I shall tell you, it was a specific mountain God chose. And how many sons did Abraham have? How many sons of the promise did he have? One. Your only son, Isaac, whom you love. That is important. Now skip down to verse six. Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac, his son. Remember that. And he took in his hand the fire and the knife. So they went, both of them together, and Isaac said to his father, Abraham, my father. And he said, here am I, my son. And he said, behold, the fire and the wood. But where is the lamb for the burnt offering? Abraham said, God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son. And so they went both of them together. And they came to the place which God had told them. Abraham built the altar there and laid the wood on the altar and bound Isaac, his son. He bound him and laid him on the altar on top of the wood. And Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to slaughter his son. But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, Abraham, Abraham. And he said, here am I. And he said, do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him. For now I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son from me. And Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked and behold, Behind him was a ram caught in a thicket. That word behold is used a lot in scripture. Have you noticed that? It means pay attention to this. Look at this. Behold, the lamb was caught in a thicket by his horns. And Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son. There's a lot of things here, and I'm not going to get into everything here in Genesis 22, but notice that the ram was offered instead of his son. He was substituted for his son. That is a very important concept with our salvation. Our Lord Jesus Christ was offered instead of us. He was bound. He carried that wood on his back up the hill. And he was offered for our sins. And then he says, and this is important, verse 14, Abraham called the name of that place, the Lord will provide. As it is said to this day, the day in which Moses wrote this, on the mount of the Lord, it shall be provided. The Lord provided a ram. long before Moses wrote this. So Moses is speaking of something that is to come from his perspective. So on that mountain, something would be provided by the Lord. Okay, now if Moses had a camera, what do we call it now, just a camera? I was gonna say camcorder, that really dates me, sorry. Set up a tripod on Mount Moriah, and just let it run for 2,000 years. What you would have seen walking into that camera, what do they call it? Camera frame? Frame, thank you. You would have seen what we're gonna read next. Turn to Matthew 21. Sometimes we forget that the things in the Old Testament and the things in the New Testament happened in the same place. Sometimes we forget that we live on the same earth that they lived on. And that if we were standing there, we would have seen these things. These are not fairy tales. Verse one of chapter 21. Now when they drew near to Jerusalem and came to Bethphage to the Mount of Olives, Then Jesus sent two disciples saying to them, go into the village in front of you and immediately you will find a donkey tied and a colt with her. Untie them and bring them to me. If anyone says anything to you, you shall say the Lord needs them and he shall send them at once. How does he know that? This took place to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet saying, Say to the daughter of Zion, behold, your king is coming to you, humble and mounted on a donkey and on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden. And we're gonna turn to that prophecy. Turn over to Zechariah 9. It's the book right before Malachi. It's the only Italian book in the Old Testament. Zechariah 9 and verse 9. Rejoice greatly. Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion. Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem. That's what we were doing this morning. Shouting aloud to our king. Behold, there's that word again, your king is coming to you. Righteous and having salvation is he. humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey. I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim and the war horse from Jerusalem and the battle bow shall be cut off and he shall speak peace to the nations. Think about what this means to Israel. Behold, your king is coming to you. And how is he coming? How did a king normally come? When you think of a king in the ancient world, do you think of a great white horse covered with maybe with jewels or armor? I think of, Alexander the Great, he had leopard skin on his horse as he rode around intimidating everyone, defeating everyone in battle. What does our king come on? He comes on not only a donkey, the foal of a donkey, the child of a donkey. He rides that donkey in, and do you know what that means? There were times when kings would ride on donkeys. It meant that he came in peace. When the Lord came, his name was Emmanuel, God with us. He came in peace, riding on a donkey. How do you think the Jews wanted him to come? They didn't want him to come on a donkey. They had these scriptures, they knew it full well, but here comes Jesus. How did he get to Jerusalem? Anybody know? Shout it if you know. He walked. He walked. The King of Kings and Lord of Lords had no donkey. But he walked. What is that, like three days journey from Galilee to Jerusalem? The Lord of Glory had nothing. We came here in cars today, our parking lot's full. Our Lord had nothing. He was made nothing for us. He had no place to lay his head. He didn't even have a donkey. Donkeys, everybody had a donkey in Israel, but the Lord didn't have a donkey. And that's partly also because he came to preach the word of God. He came to the house of Israel. He didn't have time to take care of stuff. His job was to come and preach the word, the gospel, that the kingdom had come. And he had come to go all around Israel preaching this word. He didn't have time to take care of stuff. He was made poor that we might be rich. And when you hear that scripture, it's not talking about that he came so that we might have lots of money. He became poor physically But Christ himself was rich spiritually, wasn't he? Spiritually, he was rich. And he wants to give those riches to us. That's why he came. And there's another reason why he was made so low, and we'll get to that. A little background on this section. Turn over to John 12. We see all these crowds in Jerusalem. They wanna see Jesus, and there's a reason for this. Jesus had become famous for doing miracles, but there was a particular miracle that he did that made him super famous. And if you remember, there's a lot of points in his ministry where he would do a miracle and then he would say, don't tell anybody I did this, okay? He was trying to lay low, not because he didn't deserve to be praised, but because his time had not yet come. But he waited for this moment, He waited for this moment, the Passover was coming. The fullness of time was coming. And something he did made him super famous to the point where he could not hide any longer. So in John chapter 12, starting at verse one, six days before the Passover, Jesus therefore came to Bethany where Lazarus was. whom Jesus had raised from the dead. That's the key. He had raised Lazarus from the dead days before this. Now he had gone away for a short time, maybe a few days. He traveled about 20 miles north to lay low, and he waited, and then he came back. And I will explain why in just a moment. That six days is important. six days before the Passover. Jesus, therefore, came to Bethany, where Lazarus was, and he had raised from the dead. So they gave a dinner for him there. Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those reclining with him at the table. Mary, therefore, took a pound of expensive ointment made from pure nard and anointed the feet of Jesus. You probably know this, but that expensive ointment was burial ointment. and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped his feet with her hair. Jesus had walked a long ways. And that's a dirty countryside. And I know from being there myself that my feet were very stinky when I was walking around. And she loved Jesus so much, she used her own hair to wash his feet. Now we know this, we've heard this story before, but think of yourself doing that to someone. and how approachable Jesus was. Do you do that to someone that you're intimidated by? You would only do that to someone that you know loves you and is at your perfect peace with. And this was her gratitude being poured out to him for raising Lazarus from the dead. But Judas Iscariot, one of the disciples, notice he didn't get any of that. He who was about to betray him said, why was this ointment not sold for 300 denarii and given to the poor? He said this not because he cared for the poor, but because he was a thief. And having charge of the money bag, he used to help himself to what was put into it. Jesus said, leave her alone so that she may keep it for the day of my burial. For the poor you will always have with you, but you will not always have me. which is ironic because Jesus himself was very poor physically. When the large crowd of Jews learned that Jesus was there, they came, not only on account of him, but also to see Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. This is, okay, so the Passover's coming. People are traveling from all over the place, not only from Israel, but from other countries. We see in the book of Acts, when Peter goes to preach, people were speaking all these different languages in Jerusalem during Passover, because they traveled from all over the place. So all these people are coming, and they didn't have the internet back then. They didn't have TV. They'd never seen Jesus, most of them, but they'd heard of him. So all these people are pressing in on him to see him. So the chief priest, wait a second, I think I missed something. Not only on account of him, but also to see Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. So the chief priest made plans to put Lazarus to death as well. Because on account of him, many of the Jews We're going away and believing in Jesus. What kind of unbelief does it take to see a person right in front of you who's been raised from the dead and you know who did it? Not only do you not believe in him, you want to kill that person. That is the heart of man. That is the heart of man. I hear a lot of people say, speaking of horrible things like the Holocaust, and say that those Germans were animals. No, they weren't, they were human beings. And we are so wicked that we would do things like that to one another. It is our sin nature that brings us into condemnation before God. Don't dehumanize people that have committed sins like that. Know that it is a reflection of all of us and what we are inside. By nature, we are children of wrath But Jesus came to save us. That's why he came. We can't save ourselves. I imagine when the apostles, first of all, when these things were happening, they didn't understand what was going on. And even though they were singing praises to him, they didn't know what they were saying. But later on, it says that the Lord were brought to mind, these things that had occurred. I think it's in our, I can't remember which, it's in all four accounts, it speaks of the triumphal entry, and one of them says that they didn't know what they were seeing, but later on they remembered. And as I thought of them, like, laying in bed at night, and all of a sudden, all these scriptures that they learned come flowing back into their minds. All these verses they learned in Bible quizzing, That's what that meant. That passage in Zechariah 9, that was one of them. Genesis 22, Isaiah 53, Psalm 22, all these verses starts flowing back in their minds. And there's another one that they were saying that I don't think they had any idea of what they were doing. Turn over to Psalm 118. It is remarkable that they did this. Don't turn away, but in the triumphal entry, I keep losing my place, they have so many markers here. They cried out, Hosanna to the son of David. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest. What are they singing? Why did they know to say that? Well, I learned in my studies that this was something that the Jews sang every Passover. Even to this day, they sing it. If you go on YouTube, you can see them singing it. Lots of them have made these videos. Psalm 118, I'm gonna start at verse 22. I'm not gonna read the whole thing. But Psalms 113 through 118 are called the Psalms of Hillel. You've ever heard of Hillel before? I remember at Ohio State, there's a building called Hillel. I didn't know what that meant. It just means praise. So these are psalms of praise, and they would sing them on Passover. And you know when they sang them? They sang them when they were preparing the Passover lamb. And they would actually chant them in the temple. See, these are some of the words that they said. The stone that the builders rejected has become a cornerstone. This is the Lord's doing. It is marvelous in our eyes. This is the day that the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it. Save us, we pray, O Lord. Do you know what that is translated to in English? Hosanna. So in Hebrew, they were saying, save us, we pray, O Lord. But apparently there was no good Greek version of that. So they wrote a version of Hosanna. It sounds like Hosanna. So that's what they wrote. And then that got into English. O Lord, we pray, give us success. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. We bless you from the house of the Lord. The Lord is God. He has made his light to shine upon us. Bind the festal sacrifice with cords upon the horns of the altar. What does festal mean? That's kind of a strange word. We don't use that. It means feast. Bind that which we are going to feast on to the altar to sacrifice it. Do we not feast on the Lord? Did he not tell us to eat his flesh and drink his blood? That is something that was very offensive to even the disciples. But we are told in Exodus on the day that they were supposed to prepare this lamb, which was five days before the Passover, that they were supposed to eat all the lamb and whatever they didn't eat, they were supposed to consume it in the fire. There was nothing to be left to the next day. The Lord is to be enjoyed. He presents himself to you as someone who is approachable, who you can delight in and feast upon. And that is where our joy comes from. It doesn't come from observing legalistic laws and duties. It comes from knowing him, from feasting upon him, This is the Lord's doing. This is the day the Lord has made. You think about that in Genesis 22. He promised them that he would provide and this is the day he provided. Here is the lamb presenting himself. He has made his light to shine upon us. That's another word for Christ, isn't it? The light of the world. He has come. He has come. And guys, he is with us to this day. Bodily he's in heaven, but in the spirit he is with us. That is his name. These Psalms were called the Egyptian Hallels because in Egypt is where the Passover happened. So on the 10th day of the month, Exodus 12, three says that they were to prepare the lamb. So here comes Jesus. It's the 10th day of the month. The first month of, I think it's called Nissan. Is that right? The first Jewish month, the lamb of God comes and we know he's the lamb of God because John the Baptist has said, behold, the lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world. He has been proclaimed this and God's voice came from heaven. This is my son in whom I am well pleased. Listen to him. This should comfort you. What that means is that Christ's sacrifice is enough for you, that your sin was laid upon him. As Isaiah 53 says, our iniquities were laid upon him. By his stripes, we are healed. Let's just go through this for a second as well. He was rejected by men. He was despised and rejected. He was sent by the Father. He came willingly. And consider this, when he told the disciples to go get that donkey, who was in control of the situation? He knew exactly where that donkey was. He knew it was tied up, and he knew there was a foal there. He didn't have cell phone to text people to coordinate. He knew even where the little donkeys were. The Lord is the Lord of heaven and earth. He cares even about the menial little animals in this world. He made them and he knows exactly where they are and he takes care of them. He told them to go and get that little donkey and bring them to him. A donkey which no one had ever ridden upon. Have you ever tried to ride a donkey that no one's ever ridden upon? The donkey went exactly where God, where Jesus wanted him to go. Donkeys require that they trust you. If they don't trust you, they're not going to do what you want them to do. Think about the character of Christ, the lowliness and the meekness of our Savior. the perfect, holy Lamb of God. He was both God and man. And think about the wood that Isaac took up the mountain, Mount Moriah. What was Jesus gonna carry up that mountain? It's the same mountain. Jesus was ascending the same hill where Isaac was taken. On the mount of the Lord, it shall be provided. I wanna talk a little for a minute about the willful blindness of the Pharisees. Turn in Matthew 21 to verse 42. Jesus had just got done explaining to them the parable of the tenants, and he was very strongly implying to them that they were the wicked servants. And he said to them, have you never read in the scriptures the stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone? This was the Lord's doing and it is marvelous in our eyes. Of course they knew this. Of course they knew the text, but they didn't know what it meant. This is the very text they were chanting every Passover. They were supposed to know this. Now if you, I was watching a video online of these men, and I have nothing in my heart for them, but sadness actually watching them. This happens all over Israel, but I was watching a video of David's tomb. You know they know where David's tomb is? That's kind of cool. But they had these scriptures and they were just chanting them over and over. as if God was going to reward them for their chanting. That's not what God desires. He desires that we trust the Lamb of God. Not that we just say words about Him. He wants us to trust Him. He wants us to lay our sins upon Him and trust Him for our salvation. The stonemasons reject stones that don't suit their needs. If the stonemason's building a house and he runs upon a stone that this doesn't work for me, he throws it aside as if it's worthless. Christ says he is the stone the builders rejected. The rulers of the Jews had rejected their own Messiah, but he became the chief cornerstone of a better house. a spiritual house that he's building. He wasn't the kind of Messiah they were looking for. What kind of Messiah were they looking for? They were looking for someone to kick the Romans out. Either that, well, yeah, that's what they were looking for. But when it became, and you can see this in the disciples a little bit. They believed in him, but they still were kind of like battling with each other. They wanted to be the first in line to have power when Jesus became Messiah. Well, the Pharisees wanted that too, but they didn't have any faith in him to trust him. And when he started rebuking them, they started hating him because it became clear they were not going to be first in line. And so they sought to put him to death. There's another thing about this that the main thing that kept the Pharisees from trusting in him is they thought that they were good. They thought they were righteous. I saw another video of a rabbi online the other day mocking Christians because we believe that God can save everyone. Okay, this is from the Talmud. It's from their tradition. and they are blinding the eyes of their dear people to see that Christ is their Messiah. What does Psalm 18 teach us? This is the Lord's doing. This is the day the Lord has made. Save us, we pray, O Lord. The Lord is to be beheld as our Savior. He came to save us. and he's to be sacrificed. One more thing, verse 28 in Psalm 18, you are my God. What kind of God is to be sacrificed? It's the living God. Some other people that were there that didn't believe, we think of, you ever heard of civic religion? You ever heard that term used? There's a kind of religion that people have that it's comfortable. It's what we do. If you're from Saudi Arabia, you're Muslim, right? If you're from Poland, you're Catholic. If you're from America, you're Protestant. It's just what we do. And in Israel, you're an Israel, you're a Jew, you're Jewish. It's a way of thinking. It's, we call that a kind of civic religion. In that kind of religion, there's no sin. Or if there is sin, it's everyone else is sinning but me. And in that kind of religion, what do you think their hope is? The hope is that their country will be strong and everyone else will be weak. That someone will come and rescue us from the rest of the world, so the rest of the evil people in the world, not recognizing that we are the ones that need rescuing from our own sin. And we see they had palm branches. Now, palm branches are not a bad thing. And there's a sense in which when the disciples had these palm branches, they were worshiping God and hailing him as Lord. There's a sense in which those palm branches mean they are recognizing him as king. But there's another sense in which these palm branches, whoops, sorry. These palm branches were like, you know how the Star of David is like their flag? Or like we have the stars and stripes. In Texas, they have the lone star. For Israelis back then, the palm branch was like their national symbol, okay? And when they thought Jesus the Messiah was coming, they heard that he had raised Lazarus from the dead, they thought, great! Now the kingdom of God is coming. He's gonna save us from these Romans. And they threw off all restraint and they started worshiping him as king right in front of the Romans. But what do we see later in the week? What were they doing? Even the disciples were scattered. And the rest of them were saying, crucify him. Crucify him, let his blood be on our heads and on our children. Why would they say that? It is because they had a hope in this world. And once they realized Jesus was not coming to do that, they got scared. Wait a second. We were worshiping him a few days ago. We need to let the Romans know that were not against them. They were saving their own skin. And the Pharisees, who had been wanting to kill him for a long time, used that to their own ends, and they crucified the Lord of glory. But who was really in control of the situation? We see the Lord. He knew where that colt was, and they brought it to him. How would he know? He says, immediately you will find that colt. He knew every single detail of what was going to happen. And when he stood before Pilate, he said, you would have no authority, no authority, if we're not given to you from heaven. Jesus came willingly to die for your sins. He was in complete control of that situation. At any moment, he could have had a heavenly host of angels there to rescue him. He didn't want to be rescued. He wanted to save you. Now I ask you, what will you do with the Lamb of God? What will you do with him? How will you reconcile yourself to him? What would you have thought if you were standing there of this poor traveler who had walked from Galilee to Jerusalem, who probably smelled like nard, because it was baked into his feet. Riding this foal of a donkey, what would you have thought of him? Would you have despised him? Do you despise him today because he's not what you wanted? Maybe he's not the kind of king that you want. God has provided. on the mountain that he has set apart. He set apart his lamb of God. There's no other lamb coming, guys. There was only one. He fulfilled everything that was promised of him. How could we improve upon the lamb of God? Can you do better? Could we maybe get a president in this country that's going to save us from the communists? Even if we did, we'd still have our sin to deal with. We have to stand before God. Think about this too. The Romans nailed into that cross. Where are the Romans today? If you go to Rome today, what will you see? You're gonna see ruins. Everywhere you go in the ancient world, there's Roman ruins. Where is the church today? The church is growing. In communist China, 50 years ago, there were hardly any Christians. Now there's over a million, probably more than that. I don't even know what the number is, but it's a lot. In Iran and other countries like this, the church is growing, and it's going to continue to grow. There is salvation in no one else. For there is no other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. It's not whereby you might be saved if you feel like it. Whereby you must be saved. You must be saved. Can there be a more perfect fulfillment of the 574 prophecies in the Old Testament? Not only that, these things weren't done in secret. If you had been standing there, you would have seen them. What did the Roman centurion say when he saw Jesus dying on the cross? The whole ancient world was dark for three hours. Even the pagans wrote about it. There was a great earthquake. Remember Jesus said, even if they don't praise my name, the rocks will cry out. The rocks did cry out. People stopped praising him and they were mocking him. But the rocks cried out on the day that he was crucified. And it was dark for three hours. And then the veil in the temple was ripped from the top to the bottom. These things happen in public. And when he rose from the dead, did he rise from the dead in secret? People like to compare Christianity to Islam and Mormonism and these other religions where these men got secret visions in caves or out in the wilderness. These things didn't happen in secret. Hundreds of people witnessed these things, and they died for it. They didn't get rich off of these things. Every one of the disciples died except for one, and he was in a, was he in a salt mine or something? He was horribly treated. But what they gained was Christ. They gained Christ. They lost their lives that they might gain the Lord Jesus Christ. They didn't lose anything. It is appointed unto man once to die, and after this, the judgment. When are you going to die? Do you know? I don't know. It might be today. You are given a chance right now. The Lord has come to you humbly, riding on a donkey, presenting himself to you as the Lamb of God. Will you turn away from him again? You don't know if you have another day. I plead with you, do not delay one more day, one more hour. Place your trust in Him. Go to Him in prayer. If you're sitting here listening to this and you don't, you say, what do I do? I believe, but I don't know what to do. Trust in Him, believe in Him. Go to Him in prayer and cry out to Him, Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief. He will not cast you out. everyone that comes to him, he will not cast out. To those of us who have come to know him, who have trusted in him as the lamb that God has provided, what does this mean for you? Turn to Ephesians 2. Ephesians 2 and verse 12. Oh, I'm in Galatians, sorry. Remember that you were at one time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel. We're Gentiles, aren't we? We were alienated from the Commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of the promise, having no hope. What hope is it talking about? Hope of salvation, eternal life. It's not talking about hope in this world. It's hope in the world to come, and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus, you who were far off have been made near by the blood of Christ. God wants to bring you near. He's not a distant far off God like the cosmic clock winder, clock maker that wound up the world like a clock and just let it go. He wants to bring you near to him. Brought near how? By the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace. he comes on a donkey to you, who has made us, notice that's past tense, he has made us both one, Jews and Gentile, we're made one in Christ, and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility. When that temple veil rent, that's a picture of his body being rent, and because of that, we can walk into the Holy of Holies and have perfect communion with God, not because of anything we did, but because of the perfect righteousness of the Lamb of God. By abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances that he might create in himself one new man in the place of two making peace. and might reconcile us both to God by one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. What hostility? By nature, we are enemies of God. There is none righteous. No, not one. There is none that seeks after God. But on the cross, Jesus killed the hostility, making it possible for us to enter into his presence. And he came and he preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near. Notice that's past tense. You were far off. You were brought near. That's to you. Through him, we both have access, both Jew and Gentile, in one spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens. but you are fellow citizens with the saints and the members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ himself being the cornerstone. There's that word cornerstone again. When Jesus went up the hill and he went into the temple, you know what he did? He cleared out the robbers and the thieves that were robbing people. And you know what he did after that? He went to Bethany. He went home, he went to bed. Well, he went, not his home. He went to his friend's home. There was another temple he was going to build, a spiritual temple that you are part of. You are living stones in the temple that he would build. and he is the chief cornerstone, the stone the builders rejected. In him, the whole structure being joined together grows in a holy temple in the Lord. In him, you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit. You think about what Jesus did. The word was primary in his earthly ministry. He had nothing physical and he traveled around. He couldn't be tied down to a piece of property. He had to preach the word because the word is how the kingdom of God is built. And the word is how the kingdom of God continues to be built, which is why we're here today. The word of God is building you up, is strengthening you, as the holy temple of God. One more thing. I forgot to mention this. He came once on the donkey in peace, but there is coming a day when he's going to come on a white horse. And you know what he's gonna do? He's going to judge the living and the dead. The first time He came, He came not to condemn the world, but to save the world. And right now you have a chance to accept Him, trust in Him, and find peace for your soul, to repent of your sin. If you don't, you must stand before Him as your judge. You do not want to face Him on that day. You want to face Him lowly, riding on a donkey as your lamb, someone who can be approached, someone who is at peace with you and loves you and gave himself for you. Behold the lamb. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, you have given us your lamb. You have provided the lamb which you promised. on the very hill that you promised it. You have done it on this very earth on which we stand. 2,000 years ago, you kept your word, and we know that you will keep your word on that last day. It's coming. I pray, Lord, that if there is anyone here this morning that does not know you, that they would recognize their need of a Savior, and that you have promised these things, that you have kept your word. You've kept your word about salvation, And you will also keep your word about judgment. I pray, Lord, that you would cause us, you would awaken the hearts of anyone here who doesn't know you. And I also pray, Lord, for those who do know you, that they would not be terrified by those things, but that they would trust in you. They would find peace for their souls, that they might be built up and that they might be fruitful and joyful because that is what you intended. We pray all these things in Jesus' precious name, amen.