Every now and then I'm asked to go someplace that our folks are aware. Folks might not have heard anything like what I preached before. And somebody asked me, sir, are you going to be comfortable there? And I'll respond, I'm going to be comfortable. They might not be. And I'm sure comfortable here. We go back a long ways. I thank God for your friendship. 42 years ago, a little more than that, first time I stood preach to you folks. I remember the first thing that happened very well, with a mayhem sitting behind me, and I got up to say, open your Bibles or something. And when I did, Brother Henry jumped up and grabbed the microphone, been way down under the pulpit, and he said, I forgot to tell you, this young man learned to whisper in a sawmill. At along about that same time, oh, I was 26, 27 years old, Brother Charlie Payne preached a sermon. I don't remember anything about it except the title. And we've used it so many times, I can't forget the title. He preached to you from Exodus chapter 32. The title of the sermon was Blame It on the Flame. Some of y'all might remember it. Every time something goes wrong in a bar or a shop there, I look at each other and say, blame it on the flame. But that's where I want you to turn to tonight. Exodus 32. The pastor was kind enough to read it for me before the message. The Soldier Bible is open in Exodus 32. The heart is deceitful above all things who can know it. How we prove that incessantly, day by day, the heart is deceitful above all things who can know it. Brother Eric read to us back in pastor study Hosea 14, the very last line of the chapter, speaks the righteous walking in the way of the Lord, and the wicked shall fall therein. Because the heart is deceitful above all things, who can know it? How deceitful, how fickle the heart of man is. When Moses read the book of God's law to the children of Israel upon Mount Sinai, back in Exodus 24, the congregation spoke in immediate response with unanimous voice. And this is what it said, all that the Lord has said, we will do and be obedient. Less than six weeks later, we come to Exodus chapter 32. while Moses was in the mount receiving the heaven-lit pattern for the tabernacle. Moses was in the Mount of God and God showed him all the redemptive work and glory of the person of our Lord Jesus Christ. And he said, now you show this in picture. And he gave him the candlestick and the mercy seat and the Ark of the Covenant, table of showbread and the brazen altar and the altar of incense and the veil and all those things pertaining to the tabernacle, all of it together. portraying God's salvation and God's glory revealed in that salvation by Jesus Christ the Lord. While Moses was in the mount receiving that pattern to give instruction to the children of Israel, Aaron and the children of Israel were awaiting his return. And they made a golden calf. Moses came back and he heard the sound. what was going on. And Joshua says that it sounds to me like some, some fellows who've been at war and they've won the victory. Moses said, no, that's not the sound. This is sounded men and women in revelry. They had made them a golden calf and in their revelous idolatry, they're dancing naked around the calf and they called it the worship of God, worshiping the works of their hands. They called it the worship of Jehovah. Now we know that even this sad, sad portion of scripture and this sad portion of Israel's history came to pass according to the will and purpose of our God, that Israel might stand before us as a beacon, a warning, an example, lest we should follow them in the pursuit of our heart's lust. The Holy Spirit in first Corinthians 10 specifically tells These things happened that they might be an example to you, lest you also fall in the pursuit of your heart's lust. The scriptures are so very instructive here. I want to just call your attention to five lessons found in this record of the Golden Calf. Five lessons from the Golden Calf. Here's the first one. We are all, by nature, superstitious idolaters. We are all, by nature, superstitious idolaters. Till the day she died, my mother would make a statement, knock on wood. It's called superstition and idolatry. Superstitious idolaters. But while we smile at that, we also are guilty. The Egyptians had among their many, many gods, the image of an ox, and they worshiped the image of that ox. I can think of better things to worship, but they worshiped the image of an ox. And it must have been a very impressive image of strength because the Jews remembered it and they made a replica of it as an image, only they called it Jehovah. Can you imagine that? They took an image of the Egyptians ox god and they said, this is Jehovah. Aaron said, these be thy gods, O Israel. Tomorrow is a feast to Jehovah. Look at verse one and two. When the people saw Moses delayed to come down out of the mount, the people gathered themselves together unto Aaron and said unto him, up, make us gods, which shall go before us. As for this Moses, I had Shelby read this to me coming down the road this afternoon. She did amazing. After all that God had used Moses to do for those folks, as for this Moses. And so this old man Moses, we don't know what's happened to him. This man that brought us out of the land of Egypt, we want not what's become of him. And Aaron said unto them, break off the golden earrings, which are in the ears of your wives, of your sons, of your daughters, and bring them unto me. Now, Aaron was obviously a good orator. He was Moses mouthpiece, but he wasn't a good leader. God's priest was responsible to be a leader. Aaron failed miserably. God's priest was responsible to lead his people. Aaron failed miserably. Here I am, a pastor, a preacher. There sits your pastor. It is our responsibility to lead God's people, never to follow them. Never to follow them, to lead them in all things. The folks who were so avidly supportive of Mr. Spurgeon's ministry used to call him Captain, Captain Spurgeon. How come? Because he is the one responsible for the sailing of the ship. God's servants must be leaders. Aaron lacked backbone. He was apparently one whose heart craved approval. I say that because it's obvious the children of Israel knew they could manipulate Aaron. They knew Aaron would obey their wishes, their whims. They didn't ask him for counsel. They simply said, get up and make us some gods. And immediately Aaron complied willingly. The fear of man bringeth a snare. especially for men who are supposed to lead them. Look at verses three and four. And all the people break off the golden earrings, which were in their ears and brought them unto Aaron. And he received them at their hand and fashioned it with a graving tooth after he had made it a molten calf. And they said, these be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. The psalmist records the history this way. They made a cast in Horeb and worshiped the molten image. Thus they changed their glory, that is changed their God into the similitude of an ox that eateth grass. They forget God, their savior, which had done great things in Egypt. Exodus 32 verses five and six. And when Aaron saw it, he built an altar before it. And Aaron made proclamation and said, tomorrow is a feast to the Lord. And they rose up early on the morrow and offered burnt offerings and brought peace offerings. And the people sat down to eat and to drink and rose up to play. At the very moment when the Lord God was in the mount with Moses, ordaining Aaron to be his priest with peculiar honors as the great high priest of Israel, Aaron was aiding the Israelites in idolatry. Well might the Apostle say, the law maketh men high priest which have infirmity. The law maketh men high priest which have infirmity. But blessed be our God Our great savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, our great high priest is a priest without infirmity. Read about it for a minute, just a minute. Hebrews chapter seven, Hebrews chapter seven, verse 26. Such an high priest became us. This is the kind of priest we had to have. One who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and higher than the heavens. One who needeth not daily as those high priests to offer up sacrifice, first for his own sins and then for the people's. For this he did one time. When the Lord Jesus was made sin for us, he died under the penalty of God's law, making one sacrifice for sin when he offered up himself. For the law maketh men, high priest, which have infirmity. But the word of the oath, which was since the law, maketh the son who is consecrated forevermore. Thank God we have a priest who has no infirmity. Hold that. Harmless, undefiled. One touched with the feeling of our infirmities, a man, so that he is able to succor them, they're tempted. But one who has no corruption, no evil, and no weakness. adding insult to insult and blasphemy to blasphemy, Aaron and the children of Israel called their sin, their sin. They called it the worship of the triune God. The spirit of God describes their religion and their ceremonies and their activities in these words. They sat down to eat and to drink and rose up to play. That's a pretty good description of man's religion throughout history and especially today. I didn't pay any attention as I was coming in to Ashland today, but I suspect you've got several buildings in this town and around it that used to be called church buildings. Now they're called family life centers. That sounds so wonderful, doesn't it? because the people in their idolatry sat down to eat and drink and they rise up to play and they call it worshiping God. Lasciviousness, foolishness always accompanies idolatry. Idolatry is filth and it always leads to filth. And so the commandment is flee from idolatry. Well, pastor, how does that apply to us? Every form of religious imagery is idolatry. Every form. Every form. If it represents something that's supposed to be spiritual, religious, or heavenly, it's idolatry. Every addition to the worship of God is idolatry. Doesn't matter what you put in. Every mixture of false religion with the worship of God is idolatry. Every effort of man to mix the works of his own hands with the glory of God is idolatry. Read the scriptures one more time. As you go throughout the Old Testament scriptures, men engaged in idolatry. Do you remember how it's described? The work of their hands. The work of their hands. The work of their hands. The work of their The gods they worshiped were gods made by their hands. And every effort to mix the work of your hands with the work of Christ our Redeemer is idolatry. What was it that these people did that cost the lives of 3,000 of them in one day? What was their crime? They kept the feast of the Lord. They offered burnt offerings and peace offerings as God required. They used the strongest images possible to represent Jehovah's might and power. They spared no expense. This was a huge calf made of gold. They spared no expense. They ascribed their deliverance from Egypt to Jehovah, their golden calf. That didn't make the calf Jehovah, and that didn't lessen their idolatry, but it eased their minds and consciences, and especially Aaron's. What did they do that was so terrible? They worshipped the work of their hands and called it the worship of God. They worshipped themselves and called it worshipping God. Here is Paul's description of Antichrist. You see him setting himself up in the house of God, demanding that men worship him as God. What is that? It is the work of all free will works religion, call it badness, Buddhist or papist, it doesn't matter. When men ascribe to man power that belongs only to God, when men ascribe to man work that belongs only to God, it is nothing but antichrist and it's idolatry. Men ascribe to man the power of salvation. Men ascribe to man the power of redemption. Men ascribe to man the power of atonement. Men ascribe to man the power of salvation. Men ascribe to man the power of righteousness, to his will, to his work, to his decision. I had a Baptist preacher in my office. Oh, this had been 40 years ago, close to 39 years ago. And he asked me, what's the difference between what you preach and what I preach? And I took the time to tell him. And I said, if I understand this correctly, this will just summarize the whole thing. I said, you believe that Christ, when he died, made it possible for all men to be redeemed, justified, and saved, but it didn't actually redeem, justify, or save anyone, but rather made it possible. And man, by his faith, gives efficacy to the blood of Christ for his salvation. He said, yes, that's right. I said that's damning heresy. That's a false gospel. That's called idolatry. So it is with the idolatry of our age in all parts of the land. God save us from the religious idolatry that runs deep in the depraved heart. The love of self-righteousness, the delight of will worship, the sweet bondage of legality and works religion. The Apostle Paul speaks plainly. He said to the Philippians, finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things to you, to me, indeed, is not grievous, but you flat need to hear it. For you, it's safe. Beware of dogs, especially the one with collars. You'll get that in a minute. Beware of evil workers. Beware of the concision. Folks who subdue and mutilate their bodies to make themselves whole. Beware of folks who circumcise themselves or are circumcised to make themselves righteous. Folks who go through certain disciplines to the flesh to make themselves nearer God. The concision. We are the circumcision. We are God's true covenant people. We are the men and women who've been born of God, circumcised at heart, which worship God in the spirit, worship Him in the deep recesses of our souls, in our hearts, and we worship Him in the spirit of God being born again and rejoice in Christ Jesus. That is, we place the whole of our confidence in Jesus Christ, our Redeemer, and place no confidence in the flesh. No confidence in who we are, where we came from. No confidence in what we know or what we've experienced or what we've done. We rest in Christ alone as our all before God, our wisdom, our righteousness, our sanctification, and our redemption. Beware of this horrible tendency to idolatry. Flee from it, oppose it in yourself all the time. Second, Israel's sin was horrible. It was inexcusable. Their idolatry can't be justified or lessened by any consideration. But in verses 7 through 14, we see that Israel was spared because Israel had a mighty intercessor with God. Israel had a mighty intercessor with God. Hear me, my friends. The wrath of God we deserve has been turned away by one, one whom God ordained, one that God raised up, one whom God accepts as our representative and mediator, one who is himself God in the flesh, Jesus Christ, our Lord. This is beautifully portrayed in verses seven through 10. And the Lord said unto Moses, get thee down, for thy people which thou broughtest out of the land of Egypt have corrupted themselves. They have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them. They have made them a molten calf. and have worshipped it, and have sacrificed thereunto, and said, these be thy gods, O Israel, which have brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. And the Lord said unto Moses, I have seen this people, and behold, it is a stiff-necked people. Now, therefore, let me alone, that my wrath may wax hot against them, and that I may consume them, and I will make of thee a great nation. These Jews fully deserve God's wrath. They were corrupt and wicked, more corrupt, more wicked than the Egyptians God destroyed in the Red Sea. These were people like you and me, far more deserving of God's wrath than multitudes who've gone to hell before us. They corrupted themselves with a willing hand, not only with their natural depravity, they corrupted themselves, looking out for ways to make themselves more vile. They turned aside quickly out of the way God had revealed to them. They made a molten calf. They worshiped the calf. They called their handmade God, Jehovah, our Savior. They were stiff-necked people. They would not bend. They would not bow. Lord God said to Moses, Moses, get out of my way. I'll destroy these people and I will make of you a great nation. Oh, and Moses intercedes for them. He said, Lord, destroy me and spare them. Destroy me in their stead. Look at verse 11. And Moses besought the Lord, his God, and said, Lord, why doth thy wrath wax hot against thy people? God had said, I'll destroy your people, thy people. Moses said, no, Lord, they're your people. Your people which you brought forth out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand. Wherefore should the Egyptians speak and say? Notice how Moses argues with God. I'm not talking about arguing in rebate, I'm talking about pleading his call before God. He said, why should the Egyptians speak and say? For mischief did he bring them out to slay them in the mountains and to consume them from the face of the earth. Turn from thy fierce wrath and repent of this evil against thy people. Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel. That's a strange way to speak. We almost always say Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, don't we? Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel. God remember you called him Israel. You turned him from a deceiver to a prince with God. You turned him from one who is a debauchery spreading man to one who is a man of grace and peace. Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, thy servants. to whom thou swearest by thine own self, and saidst unto them, I will multiply your seed as the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have spoken of will I give unto your seed, and they shall inherit it forever. And the Lord repented of the evil which he thought to do unto his people. Now, I don't have to tell you of this congregation. You've been taught, you're instructed better by your pastor. No, God didn't change his mind. but he appeared to. No, God didn't alter what he purposed to do, but it appeared so. God threatened to destroy the people, but he never intended to destroy them. Because you see, the Lord God had given them an intercessor before ever they transgressed. So it is with us. So it is with The Lord God provided a mediator, an intercessor, a substitute long before we transgressed in our father Adam. Surely it is the spirit of God's intent that we hear lose sight of Moses and behold him of whom Moses was a type, our Lord Jesus Christ. He saw that there was no man and wondered that there was no intercessor. Therefore, his own arm brought salvation unto him, and his righteousness, it sustained him. And notice the arguments Moses uses here. Giving God reasons why these sinful people should be spared. Lord, they're your people. They're your people. You redeemed them. Thy people, which thou broughtest forth out of the land of Egypt, and your name's at stake here. Your honor is pinned to the salvation of these people. God Almighty has pinned His honor, His glory to the saving of His people. I had just been overwhelmed with that thought in the last several months. God's glory. We like to use religious words and religious expressions. We talk about God's so holy. Holy. He's whole. In the totality of His being, He's distinct from everything and everybody else. That's called holiness. Sanctification. God's glory. God's glory is wonderful. Set forth in this your kind of glory. You know what God's glory is? God's glory is the saving of your soul by His Son. God's glory is pinned to the salvation of his people. When you get to Exodus 40, this tabernacle, God designed it so that one man could raise it up in one day. And Moses did. Because Christ promised, I will remove the iniquity of the land in one day. And he did. And when Moses raised up the tabernacle, he couldn't enter because the glory of God filled the tabernacle. Now hear me, hear me. The glory of God is revealed in the saving of sinners by the merits of Christ. That's where it is. That's what Isaiah saw in Isaiah 6. That's what John saw. That's what Ezekiel saw. That's what every sinner comes to understand in the experience of grace. How we thank God for our all glorious Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who like Moses, stands in the breach for us. The psalmist said, nevertheless, he saved them for his namesake. He said, therefore, he said that he would not, he would destroy them had not Moses, his chosen, stood before him in the breach to turn away his wrath, lest he should destroy them. and he remembered for them his covenant, and repented according to the multitude of his tender mercies. Now here's this third lesson, verses 15 through 19. It's given to us in vivid, clear symbolism. God's broken law demands and will have satisfaction. God's broken law demands and will have satisfaction. I have, in recent months, had a good bit of correspondence from people who have gotten smarter than me and smarter than God, too, and they want to take you to task for preaching eternal judgment, eternal damnation. They say, no, no, no, no, no. When the ungodly die, it's all over. There's no such thing as eternal punishment. You think God would create men just to send them to hell forever? Read what God says. God says the soul that sinneth, it shall die. And in not talking about mere physical death, God punishes sin forever. Deny eternal judgment, eternal punishment, and you deny the necessity of the atonement. Paul said he denied the resurrection. He said the resurrection is already past. That's a denial of the whole gospel. No, no, no, no. Don't ever give in to this idea that somehow or another God's not life. He says he is. The soul that sinneth, it shall die. And the reason hell's eternal is that you can't, by all that you suffer of the wrath of God in infinite darkness and damnation, in the pit of separation from God in everlasting death. You can't, being isolated in the company of multitudes, alone in the company of multitudes, in bitterness with a gnawing conscience in the company of multitudes, cursing you and you cursing them. You can never satisfy the justice of God. That can only be done by one work, by one man at one time. by a man who is God. Jesus Christ, the Savior, satisfied the justice of God. Look at verse 15. Moses turned and went down from the mount, and the two tables of the testimony were in his hand. The tables were written on both their sides. On the one side and on the other were they written. And the tables were the work of God. And the writing was the writing of God, graven upon the tables. And when Joshua heard the noise of the people as they shouted, he said to Moses, there's a noise of war in the camp. And he said, it is not the noise of them that shout for my strength. Neither is it the voice of them that cry for being overcome, but the noise of them that sing do I hear. And it came to pass as soon as he came nigh to the camp that he saw the calf and the dancing and Moses' anger waxed hot and he cast the tables out of his hands and broke them beneath the mount. Did you ever wonder why Moses was never reprimanded for that? Why? He took the law written in tables of stone by the finger of God and threw it down and smashed it. He saw the reveling of the children of Israel. And he cast God's law to the ground. By this action, he displays that God demands and God works perfection for his own. God demands and God works righteousness. God demands and God works eternal salvation. His broken law, I repeat, demands satisfaction. But God alone can repair the law that man has broken. You can't do it. You can't perform righteousness. You can't perform holiness. You can't pray your way into God's favor. You can't reform your way into God's favor. Only God can perform what he requires, the requirements given in his law. Walk before me and be holy for I am holy. Be thou perfect for I the Lord thy God am perfect. And Bob, God won't take anything less from you or me. Perfection, holiness, righteousness. He won't take anything else. Now, these tables are the broken law. Do you know where you find them? God gave the law to Israel again on tables of stone, and they demanded that they put in the Holy of Holies an ark of the covenant, covered with a mercy seat, where the blood of atonement is from God. Stick the law right there. Stick the law right there. The whole thing is accomplished by the doing and dying of the Lord Jesus Christ, our Savior. I'll come back to this in a minute, but let's look at this fourth thing. There's no reconciliation to God until in our hearts we justify God against ourselves. I want to tell you something. I hear folks who lose their conviction when someone close to them dies. You may think your son gets killed, robber of a bank or gets killed in a drug overdose, or wife gets killed doing something in rebellion, or husband, or mother, or father. And how could God? Oh, God told me this. If ever you take sides with God against yourself, you won't have trouble taking sides with God against everybody else. If ever you find yourself rightly judged by God, you will recognize the righteousness of God in the judgment of anyone of us. Anyone of us. Let's look at what he said. Exodus 32 verse 20. And Moses took the calf which they had made, and he burned it in the fire, and ground it to powder, and strode it upon the water, and made the children of Israel drink of it. Moses said unto Aaron, what did this people unto thee that thou hast brought so great a sin upon them? And Aaron said, let not the anger of my Lord wax hot. Thou knowest the people that they are set on mischief. For they said unto me, make us gods who shall go before us. For as for this Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we want not what's become of him. And I said unto them, whosoever hath any gold, let him break it off. So they gave it me. Then I cast it into the fire, and there came out this calf. And when Moses saw that the people were naked, for Aaron had made them naked to their shame among their enemies, then Moses stood in the gate of the camp and said, Who is on the Lord's side? Let him come unto me. And all the sons of Levi gathered themselves together. Moses took that calf and ground it to powder and scattered it on the water. And he said, Now, drink your iniquity. And each man had to take his sin and drink it, confessing his guilt, his sin, and the just judgment of God upon the people. Against thee, thee only have I sinned and done this great evil in thy sight. There's no salvation for any sinner until he takes his place before God as a sinner. No salvation for any sinner until he acknowledges and confesses his sin. Not his sins, though that's included his sin. If we confess our sins, He's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. How do you do that? Some of you can remember days when folks would be called down to the front of the church to the altar or morning bench and they confessed they sold a watermelon or they cheated on a test or they lied to a neighbor or something, you know, confessed their sin. You know, it's what you do. You come clean with God. Open your heart. and acknowledge what you are. Nothing but evil. Nothing but corruption. No goodness. Just sin. Just sin. I can't do that. I know you can't. I won't do that. I know you won't. Unless God shows you your sin. And if God convinces you of your sin, believe him not on his son. you will confess your sin and cry like the publican, God be merciful to me, the sinner. Now, in verses 27 through 35, we learn this fifth thing. The children of Israel were spared because satisfaction was made by a legal atonement. He said unto them, thus saith the Lord God of Israel, put every man his sword by his side, and go in and out from gate to gate throughout the camp, and slay every man his brother, and every man his companion, and every man his neighbor. And the children of Levi did according to the word of Moses. And there fell of the people that day about 3,000 men. For Moses had said, consecrate yourselves today to the Lord. Even every man upon his son and upon his brother, that he may bestow upon you a blessing this day. And it came to pass on the morrow that Moses said unto the people, ye have sinned a great sin, and now I will go up unto the Lord per adventure. I shall make an atonement for your sin. And Moses returned to the Lord and said, oh, this people have sinned a great sin and have made them gods of gold. Yet now, If thou wilt forgive their sin. Pastor, I can't think of another place in our translation where there is a long dash used, can you? It's as if Moses said, no way, let me, let me be sure I know what I'm saying here. If thou wilt forgive their sin, and if not blot me, I pray thee out of thy book, which thou hast written. And the Lord said to Moses, whosoever hath sinned against me, him will I blot out of my book. Therefore, now go lead the people into the place of which I have spoken unto thee. Behold, mine angel shall go before thee. That angel, I hope you know who he is. Nevertheless, in the day when I visit, I will visit their sin upon them. And the Lord plagued the people because they made the cake which Aaron made. None were spared except those for whom intercession was made. And all were spared for whom intercession was made. None were spared except those for whom Moses made intercession. And all were spared for whom he made intercession. So it is with our great intercessor. None are spared, God's wrath, except those for whom He makes intercession and blessed be his name. The father hears him pray his dear anointed one. He cannot turn away the presence of his son. All are spared for whom Christ makes intercession for whom he made intercession as our covenant surety before the world was. for whom he made intercession as he went to the cross of Calvary, for whom he made intercession upon the cursed tree, for whom he makes intercession to this day at the right hand of God on high. How sweet are the waters of forgiveness flowing from a satisfied God. Jesus Christ, by the sacrifice of himself, has fully satisfied the justice of God. With one tremendous draft of love, he drank damnation dry. Do you remember what you read, Eric, back there in Hosea 14? God said, all right, I'll forgive him. For I have turned my anger from him. I have turned my anger from Him, Him who bore the wrath of God for them, Him who was made sin for them, Him who died for them, Him who satisfied the justice of God for them, Him who makes us the very righteousness of God in Him. Moses made a symbolic atonement, but atonement could only be made by one great substitute, our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us under the curse of God's holy law, being cursed when he was made sin for us. God in justice, God in justice, drew forth his dreadful sword and slaughtered his son in the fury of his anger. He says to Jacob, fury is not in me. Fury is not in me. Fury is not in me. You understand those words? Here I am. A man who is nothing but sin, who can do no good. No. And God Almighty never, listen to me now, God Almighty in all his strict holiness, justice and truth, never has a reason be angry with me. She does. You do. Not God. Not God. Beauty is not in me. Justice is satisfied. Oh God give you grace to trust his son. Take sides with God against yourself and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. and go home justified. Forgiveness flowing freely from God who has no reason to be angry with any sinner for whom Jesus Christ has died. Amen. Well, that's the gospel. As simply and completely as it can be preached in one sitting, that's the gospel. I'm so thankful I was here. God gave us faith to believe it. I thought as Don was preaching, I remember 41 years ago when you were preaching. I remember it. I didn't believe it then, but I remember it. And from then until today, 41 years later, this tells you something. His message hasn't changed. Not a whip, it hasn't. But the gospel hasn't changed. And those of you who are around here 41 years from now, the Lord hasn't returned, you seek out this gospel that you heard preached tonight, you find it. You make it your business to be under it. You make it your business to hear it. Because that's how God saves sinners. It won't change. It simply won't change. Ever. And throughout eternity, it won't change. That's the gospel. Let's bow in prayer. Our God, how we thank you for this clear declaration of salvation in our Lord Jesus Christ that we've heard preached tonight. Father, I pray that you give us faith to believe, that you give us faith to believe the Lord Jesus Christ. Deliver us from in our sin and our rebellion over-complicating matters. And know I'm the sinner that needs a Savior. Run to Christ the Savior. Father, give us that faith, I pray. Father, I ask that you bless our brother Don. Bless him and Shelby as they travel back home tomorrow and continue to bless that ministry in Danville and places that you've allowed Don to go preach. Father, bless. Bless in a mighty, special way, we pray. Thank you for the Friendship we've had all these years. Pray that you'd bless our time of fellowship to go this evening. It's in Christ's blessed name we pray and give thanks. Amen. Let's turn now to 216. We'll stand as we sing, please.