seated and we'll dismiss the young ones to go to the creche and the rest of us please can open up our Bibles to Luke chapter 4. By the way, that hymn that we just have sung, it's written by John Moore who pastored in Glasgow and then pastored on the Royal Mile at Crutgers and I think he's probably at this time passed away. When we bought the piano, the first piano we bought from the church, we went in to buy it on the Royal Mile and And the man said, I know John Moore, you know, the author of Burns' Olympic Calcum. It's a well-known hymn all around the world. And I said, is that right? He said, yes, and I've got his phone number. Let's call him. So he actually dialed him up and he called Canada. And he didn't answer, so I didn't get a chance to meet him on the phone. But he was all excited to tell me that. It's pretty neat, the Christian history that we've got here in Scotland. We've got a new tract that I don't know if you've seen it on the back. They're in groups of 10 on the back, and I encourage you to take some of them and be willing to hand them out. Some of the churches are aware that I do street preaching almost a weekly basis. I try to get down every week. Don't always get down every week. When we came to Scotland, I was praying. I had on our board, our display board, as we went to churches and raised support, it said street preaching. But it was there and it's just something that got in front of my heart. And then I got here and I just, it just wasn't me. And so I did a lot of evangelism, a lot of personal evangelism down the street, but I prayed about it for 13 years. And within your 15 years coming up on the 24th, we arrived, we left on the 23rd of March. But praying about it, Down on the Princess Street, it was a festival and there was a man that was down there street preaching with some other men were with him and God just gave me that urge, I wanted to street preach and it's right where I just saw William down there, I was street preaching down there this past week or two weeks ago and I saw William but right in that spot he's declaring the Word of God right in front of the mound and I just had an urge to take Uh and then after that, uh I went home and I prayed and I said, lord, if you want me to street preach and this is a call cuz I prayed to god and said, lord, if you're gonna want me to street preach, you gotta call me. Uh I said, give me scripture and god gave me uh in uh in Exodus, I think it is god speaking Moses and said, uh to Moses sent the bronze serpent up up on a pole and you know, in John chapter three, uh Jesus says, the serpent has lifted up. Even someone's son, Andy lifted up. that scripture and then every time as I start to witness to somebody, I just had an urge. It was the spirit of god in my heart. Uh just to declare it on the street so much so that TK Max down at um Cameron Toll. Uh I was witnessing to an employee and uh I said to him, I said, I'm burdened to get this message down in the street and he said, you should. He said, uh festival's on right now. There's a lot of people there and I'm thinking, here's an unsaved guy telling me So then we bought the equipment, we had a youth activity, we tested it, we were out in the woods over at Bush, and I was praying to God about when to go down, and God put up my heart about going the next day, I've been praying about do I use notes or not, obviously here when I'm preaching I use notes, and God just put up my heart about extemporaneously preaching. And so Tommy and I went down, and the first thing that I preached, I preached for 75 minutes just down there in the declaring the gospel and I say that because on this track there's a QR code that goes to a five-minute video. God stirred my heart the second time I went out this year. There was a point where God really stirred my heart as I was preaching and somebody had said we ought to take a short You can see it. It's on sermonaudio.com. If you look up Free Baptist Lothian or look up my name, you can find all the street preaching that we've done. And so we put it on Facebook as well as an evangelistic tool that people can get engaged with. They see it. They're like, oh, what's that guy doing? You know, start to listen in and hear the gospel. But I've been challenged to do a short clip. And so I did a five-minute clip that has words It's a QR code, takes you to that, to our sermon audio, and it's just a tool to hand to somebody and say, will you listen to this, and in the past we've preached that down the street here in Princess Street, and I'd like to give that to you, or just say, hey, I'd like to invite you to visit my church, and it's got the church information and details on it, but I encourage you to do that, but it's called Scotland Needs Jesus, and that's the title of the video as well. And so Luke 4, 13 through 32, his life and ministry. And Luke begins with a summary from the life of Christ, his first year of ministry. And you'll remember Jesus' ministry began after his baptism, then he's driven into the wilderness, or the temptation that takes place, the blood of the spirit, rather, into that temptation for 40 days. And then verse 13, when the devil had ended all the temptation, he departed from him for a season. Jesus returned to the power of the spirit into Galilee and there went out a theme of him through all the regions around about and he taught in their synagogues being glorified of all. So, Luke gives a summary of what's happening after Jesus Christ's baptism and his temptation and then his earthly ministry begins. Now, a synagogue is he's teaching a synagogue. It's like an Old Testament church house. It's a Jewish But Jesus went in all those, in that region of Galilee, teaching the gospel of the kingdom, that the kingdom of God was at hand. Many turned to him. It says in our text that he was glorified of all, and there went out the fame of him. And so as he's doing that, the people are finding the Messiah, they're finding the Savior, and they're finding a friend. And I want to preach this morning on that same idea as the track. You need to find Jesus. as your savior and friend. And so, have you found Jesus? Is he your savior? And is he, are you standing with him, rather, as his friend? Let's pray and ask God to help us become the word of God this morning. Father, we're grateful to you for your goodness. Thank you for all of your many blessings to us. And Father, I thank you for our church family. And Father, I just pray, may the spirit in the cause of Christ here at Southside Free Baptist Church. Lord, it's such a blessing to see our church growing, to see, Lord, your people encouraged in the word of God. Father, to see an appetite for spiritual things, to see a desire to get involved, to see a desire to pray for one another, be a blessing to one another, and encourage each other. And Father, that's why we're excited about this week, and excited about the care home ministry, excited about the ladies shoulder up for the cause of Christ and do something for God. Father, our prayer this morning has become a text that we just get some insight into the life of Christ. Father, that those that are without Christ would know where to find Jesus. Father, that in our evangelism as we share Christ with others that we know And Father, to think as a church, as part of I am Christ, am I the friend of Christ? Am I that woman that is with Jesus in these endeavors of getting the gospel out to the world? And Father, I pray for the young people in the crèche, I pray God, your grace in their, may the Spirit of God bless our children's ministries and power our children's ministries. And Father, in this place, may the Spirit of God Father, I pray that the Spirit of God would help me as well as I declare the truth of the Word of God, that I would do it biblically, practically, lovingly, and powerfully. And to the glory of the One that we focus our eyes upon this morning, it's in Christ's name you pray. Amen. points this morning about where somebody goes, where they look to find the Christ or Jesus. You find Jesus in the house of God on God's holy day, okay? You find Jesus in the house of God on God's holy day. Look at verse 16, it says, he came to Nazareth where he had been brought up and as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day and he stood up for a reading. Now, the Jews, Sunday. They met on what day? Saturday, right? The Sabbath day that God had ordained. That was the holy day for the was her holy day that was set aside for worshiping God. The Bible says in Exodus 20 verse 8, remember the Sabbath to keep it holy. In other words, sanctified, set apart as a special day, not an ordinary day, not like Friday, you know, back through Monday or like Sunday to them, but Saturday was a very special day for God. Exodus 35 verse 2, six days shall work be done, but on the seventh day there shall be to you an holy day rest up physically though it was that for man who work in six days shall he work the seventh day rest and so it was a day of rest but it was a day specifically of rest unto you the Lord my holy name and so Isaiah 58 13 from doing thy pleasure on my holy day, and call this sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honorable, and shall honor him, not doing thine own ways, and finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words. And God said to them, look, this day is the day set aside to just focus on God. Not go after your own things, not even really talking about your own things. They can talk about the normal days and all the carnal things and all the things of this world, but focusing on the things of God Almighty. God says that's what the Sabbath is about. And so Jesus never went to a church house. He did not worship on the Lord's day. He's the church. Spirit of God came. He's the one that baptizes us into the body of Christ in the church, okay, that the Bible speaks about, okay? And so, Jesus worshipped on the Sabbath, on Saturday, and that was God's holy day, so he was there to do that. Church meets on the first day of the as a memorial of Christ's resurrection. Let me just speak about that. In John 2, 20 verse 1, on the first day of the week, come with Mary Magdalene early when it was yet dark, come to the sepulchre, the tomb, and see if the stone taken away from the sepulchre. So what day did Jesus Christ rise from the dead? He rose from the dead on And upon the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, okay, that was the communion time, Paul preached unto them, ready to depart on the morrow, and continued his speech until midnight. All right, so he's preaching, it's the Lord's day, in that case, I'm not gonna say that's the standard of what we're gonna do, but he's preaching. We refer to Sunday as the Lord's Day because that's what John the Disciple did in the book of Revelation. It says in Revelation 1 verse 10, it says, I was in the Spirit on the Lord's Day. Okay, and so you heard behind him a great voice as a trumpet. The Lord begins to give of the revelation that we read about there in that book. So we find Jesus here at the synagogue. Now what do I say about Jesus? Jesus is there at the synagogue on God's holy day, and he had learned faithfulness to God from his youth. It says in verse 16, where he had been brought up. Now it's not referring to the synagogue, but it's referring to Nazareth. It's his home village. He's back in the area where most of his youth had been spent in this place. We know that Mary was a very godly woman. Hail, thou that art highly favored of God. Very special woman. Not somebody that we venerate and worship like a Catholic church, but somebody that we do rightly hold in high regard as a godly, godly woman. So godly that the Spirit of God and God the Father looked down at this lady as the one that we can see in her womb, Jesus Christ. this grew up. Jesus as an infant, remember, was taken to the temple to do for him after the law. to the ways of God that was in his his home. At 12 years of age, we find him in the temple. They'd gone for the festival, I think Passover, and then they left and accidentally left the Lord there because he's in the temple and sitting in the midst of the doctors both hearing them and asking them questions. And so I would say this, Jesus from his youth, he day, he was there in that place because that was the upbringing that he had. Understand that he's God in flesh, that his godliness is not dependent upon his parents, but we understand that he had godly parents that would have brought their son up in this way. And so Jesus had the good habit of attending public worship. It says in verse 16, as his custom was. Okay, in the temple at 12 years of age, he said to his parents, whisper not that I must be in the work of God and what God desired to do. And, you know, I read a quote recently, it said this, Christians are not leaving church, but they're just not attending church as much. We're seeing this all over the United States. We understand churches are cancelling their Sunday nights, or cancelling their Wednesday nights, or cancelling maybe other services. They're going to bi-weekly, bi-monthly services, because it's not that Christians are leaving the church, but they're not, as their custom was, attending church as they did. You know, if you were raised in a Christian home, and I was talking with some of you about this past week, but if you're raised in a Christian home, You will remember that when the church doors were open, that your family was there in the house of God. because that's the way that it was. If you didn't understand that, maybe I'm speaking to some today that just say, you know, pastor, I don't have that Christian background. I don't have that in my past that I can look back and I say, I remember when it was like that. I want you to know that's the way that it was when the church was open, the God's people, if they could be there, they were there in the house of God. I read this about Jesus. I just think, you know, what a great statement. As his custom was. Where's Jesus on God's holy day? He's in the house of God. Jesus wasn't just there, he's ready to minister there. The Bible says that he stood up for to read. So he's not just a spectator, he's getting involved in the worship that's taking place. And you know, to read as he would and speak as he spoke, there was time, understand, and I understand I'm speaking about the word this morning, but there was time of growth. where he could minister even as we see him coming to his earthly ministry at the age of 30. The Bible speaks about it. Luke 2, 52, Jesus increased in wisdom and stature and favor with God and with man. All right, the choir typically would be up behind the pulpit, you know, and up here, the choir would be sitting here. The choir would have to come to my church on Sunday nights at, you know, five o'clock or whatever it was, we had choir practice, and they'd be there for the evening service, and they'd be preparing for the next Sunday morning to be there, and there were requirements there to be in the choir of faithfulness and things like that. So when you speak about preaching to the choir, it means preaching to okay you find Jesus in the church house on God's holy day okay so I get that there might be somebody listening in you know praise God and get some videos and we put it out there might be somebody listening in that needs to understand that Christ is not out there he's not out there he's not there how often we're in the house of God. Can we say, as my custom once, to be able to say, as a parent, am I teaching my children faithfulness to the house of God? As a grandparent, am I teaching my children faithfulness to the house of God, so they can say, in my upbringing, as my custom was, there I was on the Lord's day. I'll tell you this, as older believers, and each one of us is growing in the Lord, as older believers, are we teaching the next of God, by our consistency and our consecration and our commitment to be in the house of God. You know, I say with confidence, on a Sunday night, Wednesday night, Wednesday afternoon at the care home, Sunday school at 10 o'clock, Sunday morning at 11 o'clock, I'll tell you this, Jesus Christ meets with us at South Side Free Baptist Church. How do I know that? Matthew 18, 20, for where two or three are gathered together in my name, There am I in the next. And I'll tell you this, you might wonder, why is it, Pastor, when we come together, there's such a sweetness at our church? Because Christ is here. He's here in who? I believe this. And so when we come together, we are the body of Christ, and there is a sweetness about that, isn't there? So I would say, in your evangelism, you're talking to somebody, say, look, you know, Jesus Christ, find Him at the house of God. Go to that place of public worship to hear the truth about Him. You find Jesus in God's house on God's holy day. You find Jesus in the answer of God to man's greatest needs. Verse 17. And so there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Isaiah. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written. All right, let me read, open the book. What do you pick? Isaiah scroll and and miraculously, I believe he just opens it up to the scripture that he wanted to preach uh from and he finds that place uh Isaiah uh chapter sixty-one. Yes, I was praying about what god wanted me to preach this morning. I opened my Bible to Isaiah sixty-one. I read uh verses one through three. It reminded me of Luke chapter four. I had to look it up and see uh where that story is where Jesus uh goes to that text but that's why we're He's going to speak about God's answer to man's greatest need. So, verse 18, it says, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are at bruise, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord. Now, I said Jesus is the answer to man's greatest need, but let me ask you this. Did man have a problem in the beginning when God created him? No. No, it was perfect. There was no problems in the Garden of Eden when God designed it. In fact, every day as God created it, it says, and God saw that it was good. Then verse 31 of Genesis 1, God says, you can eat of every tree that's in the garden except for one. Of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou mayest not eat thereof. The day thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die. And so death, sorrow, sickness, all the heartache that we see in life, it's not a result of God's perfect creation, it's a result of man's sin against God. They took the tree, so we got death, sorrow, sickness, war, oppression, I mean all the things that people say, if there is a God, why is the world like this? And praise God as believers, we can say, well let me tell you, it was perfect. And then man sinned, and we violated God's law, and so all that this has come upon us because of our disobedience to God. Beyond that, Romans 6.23, for the wages of sin is death. We know it's not just speaking about physical death, And the Messiah, the one that we're reading about, that Isaiah 61 spoke about, Jesus Christ, was the answer to all of that debt. He's coming to pay that debt. Jesus could have gone back in this world. Isaiah 53, He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities, the chastisement of our peace is upon Him, and with His stripes God could take away all the bad that's in our lives. Because what's bad in our lives and the angel said to them, fear not, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. I've got some good news. That's the what? year of the Lord. Now I want to point something out. If you look back in your Bible at Isaiah 61 this afternoon or something, and look at what Jesus was quoting, he stops his quote, okay? He stops after speaking about the acceptable year of the Lord, but in Isaiah 61 verse 2, the next phrase is, and the day of vengeance of our God. But guess what? He didn't come into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be He could have spoke about the wrath. He could have spoke about the judgment, but he wasn't there. He came to seek and to save that which was lost. He's coming another time in wrath, in Sinner's wrath. See, he stops right there. Galatians 4, verse 4. It says, but when the fullness of the time was come, acceptable here to the Lord, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law to redeem them that were under the law, Now, we just read about those things, Jesus said, He's gonna do this, He's gonna do this, He's gonna do this. I wanna point out, those things are both physical and spiritual. So you can read them and say, well, is He speaking physically or is He speaking spiritually? I would say, you know, either way is accurate. Men, because of sin, men are physically poor, broken-hearted, captive, blind, and bruised. Sometimes that's a result, direct result of sin, or it's just the fact that because of sin we've got childhood cancer, because of sin we've got horrible warfare that's taking place. So some things are direct, like a drunkard, because of their sin they fall and they bruise themselves, okay, and they're in bondage debt because of their sin, or in jail because of their sin. You can look at it in a physical level. But there's a spiritual level as well that is all of man's spiritual needs that he's got. There's no spiritual currency, so they're spiritually poor. They're taken captive by sin. They're brokenhearted by guilt. They're spiritually blind and bruised. Whichever way, it's accurate. And so the simple truth this morning is that you find Jesus. when you find the answer to man's greatest need. So when somebody is unsaved, they're thinking, okay, you know, what do I need? The answer is what? Christ. And so when you find that answer, that's Christ, Jesus. Revelation 21.4, God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes. There shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain from the former things, are passed away, praise God. And so, if you don't have Jesus, there's nothing else to be here, do you know what I mean? Jesus said to the woman at the well that had five husbands, and he whom she now had was not her husband. She's seeking satisfaction in relationships that was empty. He said to her, the water that I shall give him, if you'll drink that, ye shall never thirst. John 11 25 Jesus said unto her, and she is grieving the death of her brother Martha, I am the resurrection and the life. He that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live. Praise God. The death was defeated by Christ. He answered to man's greatest need. It's God saying ahead of time what's gonna take place. It's not like a curse where you say it and then you make it happen. It's that God just reveals ahead of time that this is what's gonna happen and it happens because God knows all things and has revealed it. And so verse 20, he closed the book and he gave it again to the minister and he sat down. And the eyes of all that were in the synagogue were fastened on him. And he began to say unto them, this day is this scripture for Now this statement that Jesus has made is one of the clearest testimonies that He ever gives about the fact of His Messiahship. As He says, this day, this is fulfilled in your ears. They knew this was a Messianic text. As He went to Isaiah 61, very familiar to them as Jews and Jewish leaders, that this is speaking about Messiah. And then He says, this day is as fulfilled in your ears. He had just said, the spirit of the Lord is upon me. The Spirit of the Lord we know came upon Jesus Christ at His baptism. How God anointed Jesus with the Holy Ghost and with power, who went about doing good and healing all that were oppressed of the devil, for God was with Him. So Peter's declaration and extent that I just quoted in Isaiah 61 are both powerful arguments And they were fulfilled in ways that somebody could say, oh, you know, Jesus just thought, I'm going to fulfill prophecies. I'm going to study about the Messiah, and I'm going to go and I'm going to make all these things happen. So many of these things could not be things that the Messiah could in any way make happen. For instance, his birth. Micah 5, 2, but thou bidst for them Ephrathah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah. Yet out of me shall he come forth unto me. That's to be ruler in Israel. Mary and Joseph, they were from, well, they were from Bethlehem, but not from Bethlehem, all right? They had to go back there to be taxed, and so God had them there, but Jesus couldn't have done that. His crucifixion, Psalm 22, 16, a thousand years before the cross, for dogs encompassed me, the assembly of the wicked having closed me, they pierced my hands and my feet. 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. Speaking about the flesh that was ripped off the back of the Lord Jesus Christ. gambling for his clothing, Psalm 22 again. They parted my garments among them, they cast lots upon my vesture, they gambled for my clothes. The price of Jesus' betrayal and the potter's deal that would be purchased with the money that was thrown down in the temple, Zechariah 11, 13. The Lord said unto me, cast it unto the potter, a goodly price that I was prized at of them. And I took the 30 pieces of silver, to the potter in the house of the Lord. Okay, so all these things were fulfilled in Christ. This day, this is fulfilled in your hearing. About 10 years ago, we had a young man that lives not far from the church here, just about a block and a half away. Last time I knew, that's where he was. before and and lo and behold, I got in that day and he contacted us and he came to church. His father just recently passed away but he visited on a Wednesday night. We're studying through Psalms and we got to Psalm twenty-two. We did that study. They pierced his hands and his feet. They cast lots upon his pasture. Dogs have compassed me in doubt and and Michael said this. He wasn't a religious person. He wasn't a church person but he said, I see that that is Jesus and then he was amazed because he understood. It's a And again, I just encourage us this morning in our evangelism, you find Jesus when you find the fulfillment of the prophecies, because they're fulfilled. west of the United States, very hot, very dry. And as you drive along, you're looking at the tarmac on that long road that sometimes, if you've been out there, I don't know if Joy, if your family too, trips out west, but I mean, you get out there and you can see, I don't know, 10 miles, and it's just straight road in front of you. But in the distance, you see shimmering, and it looks like water. And you think about it, I mean, if a child or somebody saw it, huh, what's the lake up there? deceive you by what they perceive. You know, God's Word does not and will not deceive us. Sometimes our eyes can deceive us, but God's Word will not. 2 Corinthians 5, 7 says, for we walk by faith and not by sight. And so, naturally, as Jesus comes, they're looking through the eyes of the flesh, but they need to begin to look through the eyes of faith. It says in verse 22, And all bear witness and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth. And they said, is this not Joseph's son? And he said unto them, he will surely stand to be this proper. Physician, heal thyself. Whatsoever we've heard done in Capernaum, do also hear in thy country. And he said, verily I say unto you, no prophet is accepted in his own country. Now in those three verses, there's a lot of statements about sight instead of statements of human reasoning based on what they can see. Look at verse 1 to 2. They ask the question, is not this who? Joseph's son. Alright, isn't this Joseph's son? Well, answer about Joseph and Mary when they got married. It says in Matthew 1.24, Joseph being raised from sleep, did as the angel of the Lord had bidden him, and took unto him his wife, and knew her not. He didn't have a physical relationship. So she had brought forth her firstborn son, and he called his name Jesus. Jesus was not born of Joseph. Jesus was born of who? God. Luke 1.35, the angel answered and said unto him, and the power of the highest shall overshadow thee. Therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God." They looked at it and they couldn't understand the Virgin Virgin. They couldn't understand God impregnating Mary and putting Jesus Christ into her womb. They saw it and they said, it's not this Joseph's son. And they were wrong. It's kind of starting to believe, but isn't this Joseph's son? I wondered how many evolutionists start to believe and it's like, man, I kind of feel like Instead of understanding what God says in the beginning, God created it. Catholics, Hindus, Muslims may start to believe, but then they think, but then if that's true, then all the religion that I grew up with, how could that be? If that's, they can't both be true, and maybe they started to believe, but they looked back at their life, and based on what they could see, they didn't put their faith in Christ anymore. Here they started to believe, but then they demanded visible Jesus is saying this but he knows what's in their heart as he speaks to them about it and says, you say to me, physician, heal thyself. Do thy It reminds me of those words at the crucifixion. He saved others, himself he cannot save. If you come down from the cross, then we'll believe it. We can just see a mighty mirror, but that would bring us to faith in you. You know, as I read that, or thought about that as I studied it, I wondered, these Jews that were here, I wonder, and I don't know that I've had this thought before, to think at the crucifixion of Christ, was there, were there people there that he looked at from his own village of Nazareth, that would crucify him, that maybe said those things, if thou be the Christ, save thyself. You know, if you want to see it, you're admitting you do not believe. And that's a problem, because salvation is They started to believe but were too familiar with Jesus. Verse 24. He said, verily I say unto you, no prophet is accepted in his own country. You know, we fear more greatly somebody that's unfamiliar to us. You know, I guess Kim Jong-un had a childhood. Hard to believe, right? You look at that serious man and that oppressor of his people. But he studied in Switzerland, and there at the college, there would be some of his classmates that were there, and I read an article that said, you know, his classmates would love to see him again, you know, and have the opportunity to catch up. And they look at him, but they don't see him like the big dictator that those that are maybe less familiar with him have a greater respect and a greater awe of him, because they didn't see him grow up. You know, again, Jesus is back in his home country, and he's just too familiar. They saw him grow up, they're too used to having Jesus around to recognize that they've got the Messiah opening up to them, the Word of God. You know, very sadly today, Britain is too familiar with Christ. Britons are looking to Buddhism and Hinduism and all these other things because surely Christianity isn't the answer because that's too familiar. Is your heart hearted? It kind of scares me sometimes that we have somebody come up and they don't get saved. earned their salvation by doing all these wonderful works, and the Jews were like that. They thought, you know, we're in favor with God, and God just loves us and adores us for all our hard work and our self-righteousness. And Jesus is gonna shock them with two powerful stories, stories of faith. The first is of a Gentile woman that's ready to receive God's word by faith. It says in verse 25, It says, but I tell you of a truth. Many widows were in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the heaven was shut off three years and six months, when great famine was struck all the land, but unto none of them was Elijah sent, save unto Sarepta, a city of Sidon, unto a woman that was a widow. Interesting, Jesus unveils something that I don't know. In my Bible study, if I was reading through the Old Testament, I wouldn't stop and really meditate on this because of the godliness of the nation, the prayers of the prophet, and saying to God, God stay the rain, as you said, because you said if a nation turns, if Israel turns its back on you, you're gonna withhold rain, God withhold the rain. And God takes care of his prophet first, remember, by the brook Cherith, and he goes there, and the ravens fly in with food, and they're feeding him. And then God says, I've got a widow, But he says, first give, and then take yourself. And that woman, by faith, obeyed the word of God. And I read what Jesus is saying. He's speaking about one woman that God sent the prophet to, and it was not a Jew, it was a Gentile. Why is that? Perhaps it is because that woman had faith, but the Jewish widows maybe didn't. She'll believe God's word, or maybe they wouldn't. The Gentile man that the Bible speaks about next, that was ready to receive God's salvation by faith, is said in verse 27. And many lepers were in Israel at the time of Elisha the prophet, and none of them was cleansed, saving Naaman the what? Syrian. He's a Gentile. This afternoon at Wim Hall, we're gonna study the story of Naaman, all right? That's what we're gonna look at, pray that God uses that to show the residents there that God can cleanse them of their sin, just like He cleansed Naaman of his leprosy. But if you look at Naaman, Naaman goes to all that trouble of going there, he gets there, the prophet says, go wash in that river, dip yourself seven times, and he almost doesn't do it. he had what? Faith. It wasn't much, but he had faith. And again, Jesus says there are all sorts of lepers at that time. But it was only a Gentile that got it. What's he saying to them? He's saying the answer to the greatest need that's in your heart is what? It is faith. And he's telling it to them in some difficult truth because they're having to listen to that Jewish man, to him speaking about the Gentiles receiving God's mercy, because they are ready to respond by faith. You know, the Bible says about this story, Jesus, Mark 6, 6, a parallel passage, he knew there was no mighty work, and he marveled because of their unbelief. In the Matthew passage, it says, he did not many mighty works there because of their unbelief. Again, this morning, all right, is our, when you're ready to what? Receive Him by faith. Anybody can get saved if you come to that point of obeying what God says in His Word, turning from your sin to the Savior in faith. You find Jesus there. And then, this morning, you find Jesus when you find the world's object of greatest wrath. When you identify what the world hates more than anything, you find Jesus. Nobody's more hated than Jesus. And all day in the synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled with what? Rapture. Does our world love Jesus? You know, when they take God's name in vain, they stuff their toe, or they get really angry, they want to swear. Whose name do they use? Jesus Christ Lord. Our world hates Jesus. Our world is actively seeking to destroy Jesus. Verse 29, it says, they rose up and thrust Him out of the city. They led him up to the brow of the hill whereon their city was built, that they might cast him down headlong." In 2017, I was there in Nazareth, and our bus journey took us there, and it was kind of one of the neater places where I kind of thought about the Lord a lot. He's not there. Anyway, you go to Israel, you kind of expect Jesus is there. He's not, okay? When you get there, it's to think, you know, as that bus was going along and winding its way up to the village of Nazareth, kind of on a hillside overlooking where Jesus Christ physically walked. Wow, that's kind of cool. And I stared at the brow of that hill. And it's to this point, and it makes sense from the story, and that's the lovely thing about going to Israel actually and seeing the geography and everything, it just affirms your faith because it's like, it's just like the Bible said, like the place where the swine ran down into the Sea of Galilee and sloped down. I mean, this is a neighbor, this is a village kid that's in his 30s, and they're gonna take him and they're gonna throw him off that hill like he's a hater. You know, sexual perverts are not the most hated people in Britain. And by the way, we don't hate homosexuals. We don't hate lesbians. We're accused of that, but we don't. But they're not the most hated people in this nation. I'll tell you who's the most hated people in this nation. It is God's church. Somebody that believes the Bible, Somebody that speaks out the truth of the Word of God, just like Jesus did. You're like the world, just like Christ. That's a hated person, like as they, and they'll seek to destroy that, and they're trying to destroy that, but praise God, they'll never succeed in destroying Jesus, verse 30. But he passing through the midst of them went his way. You know, they've tried to destroy the Word of God, but they couldn't do it. They tried burning bibles, they said, get out and buy one of these, you know, we've got to have Latin mass. But the printing press was designed to print bibles. And God allowed his word to proliferate. They never succeeded. They tried to take Christ in some, and let me say, in some ways they have succeeded. They've taken God out of the schools. They're trying to marginalize him. like a rock, undaunted, amid the raging storms of time. His pages burn with the truth eternal, and they glow with the lights of life. Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away. They're actively seeking to destroy, then, God's church. Luke 21, 17. And you shall be hated of all men for my namesake. Now, praise God, the church is still here. But I just say, and I use this in evangelism. men ate, and you'll find Christ. That's what we see in her story. Finally, you find Jesus through the eternal conviction of God's Holy Word. Verse 31, 31 They came down to Chordium, the city of Galilee, and taught them on the Sabbath days, and they were astonished at his doctrine, for his word was with life. and is preaching so much so that they send men to arrest Christ in the story of John 7-44, that some of them would have taken Him, but no man laid hands on Him. You know, praise God for the power that God has to work in hearts. As a preacher and in our evangelism, you know, rejoice in the grace of God and the power that God possesses to touch hearts. John 16, verse seven says, nevertheless, I tell you a truth, it's expedient for you that I go away, for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you, but if I depart, I will send him unto you. And when he has come, he will reprove the world of sin, of righteousness, and of You know, as a preacher sometimes, and pastor, I'll just say this. I sometimes, I'll look at the word God, and I think, man, I want to convey that as best I can. I want to get it right up there by the grace of God. He can run that, read with it, so that when you grab hold of it as a church and say, thus saith the Lord, and it would stir our hearts. But I'll tell you this, if it ever hits the heart of man, it's not because of this pastor. And I rejoiced in that this morning. I praise God. God has some power by His Spirit to convict harms. Because I'll look at it sometimes, I'll just tell you this, there are some of you that are praying and praying and praying and praying, asking God, God, work in the heart of that lover, work in their heart so that they love God, seek God, find God. And I'll tell you this, again, as a people, we just back up from that and say, you know what, I praise God today. God has some power today. You find Jesus when, with that internal conviction, not somebody's cleverness or somebody's ability or anything like that, but when the Spirit of God begins to work in our heart in such a way that there is just conviction there, praise God, let's respond to that and say, okay, that's Jesus knocking on my heart's door. I want to let him come in. God help us to do that. I think it's a very true statement that's on our track. Scotland needs Jesus. We want to do our best to help them find Him. This morning, you might hear a part of you might just say, well, the pastor got to speak in my part. I need Jesus Christ as my Savior. I need to obey the gospel. Is there anybody like that this morning? Let me ask this as well this morning. Is there anything specific that God spoke to your heart about that you can change? Alright? Not something just immaterial, but something real. Maybe God spoke to your heart about it this morning as a pastor. There's something God spoke to my heart specifically. morning. I just want to join us once. That's got to speak to my heart about something. Amen. Let's go over here. Father, I just praise you for your grace this morning, for the time I've been able to spend in the Word of God, looking at the truth and the story of the life of Christ. And Savior, it's such a sad statement to there do no many mighty works because they're unbelief, save that he laid his hands on a few sick folk and healed them. The Father just makes us wonder as a church family, could God do mighty things here at Southside Free Baptist Church? Is our faith such that you could work? Would we have been present at the synagogue? Jesus, you were there, but would we have been there on that day? And this day, the scriptures fulfilled, the Messiah opened up the word of God to a messianic passage and presented himself as the answer. Father, as a church, I just pray, God, give us grace to be faithful. And Father, for this one, it's specifically about something that you're speaking to heart about. Pray, God, give victory and give grace and even at times when we can't sense it, we just don't see it, Lord God, we know that God's are faithful. And Father, we praise you for your faithfulness and your power. It's in Christ that you pray. Amen.