High cotton. This perfectly fine, if not certainly adequate, doormat is made in the USA from 100% chafing indoor-outdoor carpet and printed with colorfast inks. Wash with hose and brush. Dry flat. Do not machine wash. To best preserve your mat, use in sheltered areas and avoid prolonged exposure to sunlight and water. Important things you should know about your new floor mat. Doormat. Warning, do not use mat as a projectile. Sudden acceleration to dangerous speeds may cause injury. When using mat, follow directions. Put your right foot in, put your right foot out, put your right foot in, and shake it all about. This mat is not designed to sustain gross weight exceeding 12,000 pounds. If mat begins to smoke, immediately seek shelter and cover head. Caution, if coffee spills on mat, assume that it is very hot. This mat is not intended to be used as a placemat. Small food particles trapped in fibers may attract rodents and other vermin. Do not glue mat to porous surfaces such as pregnant women, pets, and heavy machinery. When not in use, mat should be kept out of reach of children diagnosed with CFED, compulsive fiber eating disorder. Do not taunt mat. Somebody had too much time on their hands the other day. I just thought that was, who did that? All right. Today, on a more serious note, is usually recognized around the Christian world as Palm Sunday. Some places might have it different, but we do that calendar. Palm Sunday, the day that Jesus rode into Jerusalem to the acclaim of the country people that came with him and the criticism of the ones from Jerusalem. And after all, the Hosanna, save now, son of David, glory to God in the highest, a week later, they said, let him be crucified. We have no king but Caesar. And then three days later, he got up. And that's what we celebrate next Sunday. But today we just remember he had to come to town to die. And although received with joy, he was not. there to have fun. This is the last two verses of Isaiah 52, which really logically belongs with Isaiah 53. I'd like to read these 14 verses to you, and then we'll have a song and a prayer and get started. Behold, my servant shall deal prudently. He shall be exalted and extolled and be very high. That looks forward to his return, I think. As many were astonished at thee, his visage was so marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men. So shall he sprinkle many nations. The kings shall shut their mouths at him, for that which had not been told them shall they see, and that which they had not heard shall they consider. I think Isaiah knows that the gospel is going to go out to the Gentile world. Who has believed our report? To whom is the arm of the Lord revealed, the Messiah? He shall grow up before him as a tender plant, as a root out of a dry ground. He has no form nor comeliness. When we should see him, there's no beauty that we should desire him. If you see an artist's conception of Jesus, a painting or artwork, and it's beautiful, it's wrong. There is no form nor comeliness, no beauty that we should desire him. He is despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from him. He was despised and we esteemed him not. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. Yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace was upon him with his stripes. We are healed. Are we like sheep gone astray? We've turned everyone to his own way and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth. He's brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he opens not his mouth. He was taken from prison and from judgment. Who shall declare his generation? He was cut off. out of the land of the living, for the transgression of my people was he stricken. He made his grave with the wicked and with the rich in his death, because he had done no violence, neither was there any deceit in his mouth. Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him. He has put him to grief. and thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. He, I think the father, shall see the travail of his, the son's soul, and shall be satisfied. By his knowledge shall my righteous servant, the Son of God, justify many. He shall bear their iniquities. Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great. He shall divide the spoiled with the strong. Because he's poured out his soul unto death, he was numbered with the transgressors. He bared the sin of many and made intercession for the transgressors. In the hymn book, Number 212 fits this time of year. It's an old, old song. If you'd like to sing it with me, I hope you will. I just, I think one and three this morning. He was wounded for our transgressions. He bore our sins in his body on the tree. For our guilt he gave us peace. For our bondage gave release, And with his stripes, And with his stripes, And with his stripes, Our souls are healed. We had wandered, we all had wandered, Far from the fold of the shepherd of the sheep, But he sought us where we were, on the mountains bleak and fair, and brought us home, and brought us home, and brought us safely home to God. Amen. Good song. All four verses are good, but we'll leave it at that. Father in heaven, as we open your word again this morning to continue our journey through the gospel as written down by Matthew, we pray that you'll take your word and help us to understand it and to see Jesus and to see the disciples and to see the opponents and to see the multitude and find our place in the best place for us to be as we learn your word and go out of this place looking forward to his return. In Jesus' name, amen. The notes had to back up a bit because we didn't quite finish chapter 16 last week. So the new notes drop back to chapter 16. verse 20 and then on to the end of the chapter. It's page 1022 in the Schofield Bible and we'll put that up here. Whoa, what's that doing up there? You know what? I didn't set this up this morning. That's all right. We'll just find our way the old-fashioned way and use the bookmarks over here. Matthew 16, I forgot what I do, what I always do here. At verse 20 of Matthew 16, he charged his disciples to tell no man that he was Jesus the Christ. What he'd just... done, he'd had this great confession from Peter. And then Peter said, no, you're not going to go die. And Jesus said, get behind me, Satan. That's where we ended up this last week, I think. But we're almost into that there. The great confession, thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus said on what you just said, I'm going to build my church. And then in verse 20, he charged them, they should tell no man that he was Jesus, the Christ. On the notes, I've got this perhaps thing written here. Perhaps lest his enemies, the scribes and Pharisees, be more provoked and seek his death before the right time. Perhaps lest the Romans be stirred to action. Perhaps lest the people move to make him king. The disciples were to attest this truth, Jesus is the Christ, the son of the living God, with the evidence of the resurrection, after his death and resurrection. In chapter 17, in verse 9, he does it again. This is after the transfiguration, which we will get to in a minute. They came down from the mountain, and Jesus charged them, saying, tell the vision to no man until the Son of Man be risen from the dead. Don't tell him. Well, we'll read the rest of that, but he has to repeat himself. He has to repeat himself in his admonition to the disciples. In 1621, still on page 1022, From that time forth began Jesus to show unto his disciples how that he must go unto Jerusalem and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes, not to mention the soldiers, and be killed. and be raised again the third day. He is now serving as a prophet, isn't he? Telling them what's about to come. He must go to Jerusalem. He must suffer many things from the elders, from the chief priests, from the scribes. The chief priests, there's really only one at a time, but there was a family that controlled that high office in Jerusalem, and so there were the new chief priest and the old chief priest and the next one coming up, and so the chief priest, plural. The elders are the rulers of the Sanhedrin, the great Sanhedrin. Every Jewish town had a council, a Sanhedrin, but the great Sanhedrin in Jerusalem was the one that were the elders, and the scribes, those lucky fellows that could read and write, all of them were his opponents. I'm going to suffer many things in Jerusalem, I'm going to be killed, I'm going to be murdered, and I'm going to be raised again the third day. And Peter objects. Peter took him and began to rebuke him and said, Be it far from thee, Lord, this shall not be unto thee. Do you know you can't put those words together like that? Lord, no. He's either your master and you're his follower or you agree. I mean, if you agree with him, you agree with him. If you don't, you don't. Otherwise, you're you know, you're taking yourself out of the equation here. Jesus was rebuked by Peter. That's not appropriate. Peter could be rebuked. And he was immediately after that. He turned. Jesus turned and looked straight at Peter and said, get thee behind me, Satan. Thou art an offense unto me. Thou savorest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men." How much is directed at Satan and how much is directed at Peter, I think you could have to decide for yourself. But Peter was, as you might say, enjoying reduced fellowship with the Lord Jesus at that time. Get behind me, Satan. It's a proper name. We use it that way. It's also a word that means adversary, opponent, enemy. And then to the rest of the disciples, after he's told them he's going to be killed and rise again, he's going to go to Jerusalem and be killed. He says to the disciples, disciples, If any man will come after me, you really want to be followers, be disciples? Deny yourself. Take up your cross and follow me. And then he says in the next verse, lose your life for my sake. That's what is involved in discipleship, not wear a little cross around your neck. But get rid of the plans you had for the rest of your life. Deny yourself. Take up the cross. This is like saying embrace the electric chair. Go for the legal injection, the firing squad. It's just a description of an ugly, gross method of execution of common criminals. Take it up and follow me. Follow Him. I just told you I'm going to go get killed. Lose your life. He says in verse 25, if you're going to save your life, you're going to lose it. You try to keep what you can. One of the missionaries, one of the five men who died at the hands of the Indians, the men, the missionaries, had weapons and refused to use them, and they were all speared to death in the 1950s down in the jungles of South America. But one of them, Jim Elliott, wrote, that man is no fool who gives up that which he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose. You try to cling to life because surely I'd do more good alive than dead. For that tribe of Indians that had had nearly no contact with the civilized world, we call it the widows. and relatives, the sister of Jim Elliott, I think, and the widow of one of the other men killed, went in on foot to those same people. The men had flown in in a little aircraft and landed on a beach. The women walked in and lived with them and won them to the Lord. The son of one of those murderers went to college with me in Florida Bible College. You don't know what you can do by giving up what you can't keep. You can gain what you can't lose. You find your life when you lose it for Jesus' sake. Verse 26, what is a man profited if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul? What shall a man give in exchange for his soul? There's some relative things to consider here, not aunts and uncles, but which is worth more? I've got money, I've got cars, I've got a house, I've got property. But if you were lost, what good does it do? Everything we've got here is temporary. Everything we've got here is going to be gone. You cannot give anything in exchange for your soul, but you can gain great eternal reward by giving to the Lord. This morning I found a cup of hot coffee on the communion table and I was very impressed thinking that somebody had given their hot coffee to the Lord and that's like giving everything for some people. It was perhaps misplaced. Verse 27, Jesus follows up this challenge to discipleship. He says, the Son of Man shall come in the glory of the Father with his angels, and then shall he reward every man according to his works. He says, this life isn't it. I'm going, I'm gonna be murdered. I'm gonna rise again. I'm going to come back. I'm going to come back with my angels in the glory of my Father. And he, the Son of Man, I'll reward every man according to his works." Those rewards last. Those rewards are eternal. And then he gives kind of a prophecy that must have confused them a little bit. Verily I say unto you, there be some standing here that shall not taste of death till they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom. Somebody once said the man that put the chapter divisions and the verse divisions in the Bible must have done so with a pen and ink when he was riding on a horse that was down a bumpy trail, because there ought not be a division between 1628 and 1701. After six days, Jesus taketh Peter, James, and John, his brother, and bringeth them up into a high mountain apart, and was transfigured before them, and his face did shine as the sun, and his raiment as white as the light. And behold, there appeared unto them Moses, and Elias, Elijah, talking with him. Wow, that's what he had just prophesied. It is what he had just prophesied. Luke, in Luke 9, verse 30, adds a detail that I think is worth glancing at. Luke 9, verse 30, about this same event, the transfiguration. There talked with him, with Jesus, two men, which were Moses and Elijah. who appeared in glory and spoke of his decease, which he should accomplish at Jerusalem. We use the word deceased these days, not so much as a, we talk about the deceased, meaning the person who's passed away, who's died. And they were talking about what he had just prophesied earlier to the disciples, I'm gonna be killed. And they were talking about his decease, which he should accomplish at Jerusalem. Moses knew. Elijah knew. Moses. Did he write about it? A prophet, he said, that God's going to raise up like unto me. Elijah, he's going to come back and be the forerunner before the second coming. Unless that was John the Baptist, if only they would have accepted it. And Luke still will stay just for a moment. Peter and they that were with him were heavy with sleep. When they were awake, oh, they saw his glory. Who turned the light on, you know? The two men that stood with him. And Peter, and we'll stay here just for a second, it's in Matthew 2, but came to pass as they departed from him, Peter said to Jesus, Master, it is good for us to be here. Let us make three tents, three tabernacles, one for thee, one for Moses, and one for Elijah. Do you know God's not real big on Jesus being put on the same plane as anybody else? He made a mistake when he said, we'll make one for you and one for him and one for him, putting them all on a high place. While he thus spoke, there came a cloud. and overshadowed them, and they feared as they entered into the cloud. It's like when Moses, Moses knew this back at Mount Sinai, appeared before the Lord. There came a voice out of the cloud saying, this one, this is my beloved son, and when the voice, hear him, and when the voice was passed, Jesus was found alone. Go back to Matthew. Whoops, wrong button. Sorry, I'll eventually find my way. Peter said, oh, Jesus, Lord, it's good for us to be here. If you will, let's make us three tabernacles, one for thee, one for Moses, one for Elijah. While he got spake, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them. A bright cloud, wow. Behold, a voice out of the cloud saying, this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased, hear ye him. Not them. When the disciples heard it, they fell on their face and were sore afraid. My wife read something to me the other day. She said, two blondes walked into a building. You'd have thought one of them would have seen it. Anyway. They fell on their face. I'm just thinking one of them had a long face and tripped. Jesus came, they're laying on the ground afraid, and touched them and said, arise and be not afraid. When they had lifted up their eyes, they saw no man save Jesus only. As they came down from the mountain, Jesus charged them, saying, Tell the vision to no man until the Son of Man be risen again from the dead. He doesn't have to repeat. They were talking about His death. He doesn't have to repeat He's going to suffer many things. But He does repeat, The Son of Man is going to be risen from the dead. That's when you talk about this that you've seen. That's when you talk about it. And you do talk about it. When Peter was in Carnegas' house, he said, he's ordained us who have seen him after he rose from the dead to testify. To him give all the prophets witness that whosoever believeth in him should have forgiveness of sins. Well, the disciples are a little confused. They've just seen a lot. The disciples asked him saying, wait, the scribes say that Elijah has to first come, we just saw him, is this when he's... Jesus answered and said unto them, Elias truly shall first come and restore all things. It's in Malachi chapter four, the last chapter of the last book of the Old Testament. In almost the last verse, verse 5, Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet. That's page 984 if you can't figure out Malachi 4. I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord and he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children and the heart of the children to their fathers. He's gonna restore family relations because in these last days and especially in the tribulation, there's gonna be a lot of unnatural affection. It's described in Romans chapter one. Haters of fathers and haters of mothers. Mothers and fathers hating their own children. My mind drifts to the idea that it's a good thing to call it pro-choice. It's just a lump of tissue, it's not a child. That's going to be over with. The Lord's going to fix that. Elijah is going to come before the great and dreadful day of the Lord to do some fixing of that. And in asking this question, they knew the scripture, but they didn't understand what he's saying. I mean, you're going to Jerusalem, you're going to die, you're going to rise again. What about the Elijah coming first prophecy? And Jesus answered and said unto them, Elias truly shall come first and restore all things. Confirming the prophecy, but I say unto you, Elijah is come already, and they knew him not, but have done unto him whatsoever they listed. Likewise shall also the son of man suffer of them. And the disciples understood then that he spake unto them of John the Baptist. He spake unto them of John the Baptist. There's another passage that makes this reference. where he said, I don't have the reference right here, but where he says, if you will receive it, this is Elijah which was for to come. addressing the Jerusalem crowd and saying if they're ready to receive the king of the kingdom, then John the Baptist was Elijah and I'm back, I'm here. But they didn't, and so Elijah is still to come again before that great and terrible day of the Lord. We get down to chapter 17 and verse 14, and it shifts gears. We're not just talking with Jesus anymore. When they were come down from the mountain, down from the transfiguration, down to the multitude, There came to him a certain man kneeling down to him and saying, listen to the description of the symptoms. Lord have mercy on my son, for he is lunatic and sore vexed. Oftentimes he falleth into the fire and often into the water. Lunatic, that's an old word for crazy, insane, and sore vexed. He falls in the water. He falls into the fire, often. And he describes him that way. And then the man says, I brought him to thy disciples and they could not cure him. And then Jesus offers a rebuke, and it's not to the disciples. First, he rebukes the generation. The generation, we usually use that word to refer to how long it takes to bring another generation to be, you know, a period of years where children grow up and get married and have children. That's what we use it for. But this is the word that usually means nation. Faithless and perverse nation. I don't do this every time, but you'll see if I play around with this computer here. We get up a dictionary and we put strong there. Jesus' rebuke was to the generation, and that's the Greek word genea. which does mean generation or an age, but it also is a word that means this nation. Jesus is saying, your place of your father, your place of your birth, your face of your inactivity. When Peter preached on the day of Pentecost, after his great invitation and Wonderful response, thousands saved. At the very end of the chapter, or not quite the end, in verse 40 of Acts chapter two, with many other words did he testify and exhort, saying, save yourselves from this untoward generation. Well, we got 3,000 saved and baptized out of a crowd of maybe a million, maybe more. Everybody came to Jerusalem for Pentecost. So Peter's not saying, everybody gets, he's saying, if you understand this, if you believe, well, you're taking yourself out of the untoward generation. Toward would be going the right direction. Untoward is going away. So the nation, the generation, I think is the nation of Israel, he rebukes, oh, faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? And John, he says, I'm the light of the world. Walk while you have the light. The day comes when no man can walk. How long shall I suffer you? Bring him hither to me. What did God say when he was grieved about the creation of man in the day of Noah? He said it in Genesis chapter 6. Verse three, my spirit shall not always strive with man. He also was flesh as the eight days shall be 120 years. And it repented the Lord that he'd made man on the earth and it grieved him at his heart. He says, I'm going to destroy him. That's. What Jesus perhaps is meaning when he says, how long? Shall I be with you? How long will I suffer? How long will I put up with you? How long will I put up with you, allow you? Just a note for what it's worth, the Greek word suffer is Pasco. Some of you know where Pasco is, it's just north of Hillsborough, it's a place of suffering. Anyway, I used to live there, it's all right. Bring him hither to me." First he rebukes the faithless generation. What were they lacking? Faith. Faithless. They didn't have faith. And Jesus didn't rub medicine on it, didn't anoint his eyes. He rebuked the demon. It says devil. This is not Satan. This is a daemonion. Does that show up there? I don't know. Not in big enough print you can see it. Just a second. Daimonion. A spirit being inferior to God. It's a demon. We get our word demon from this. A demonic being. A devil or a false god. He rebuked the demon. But the guy was sick. He had a mental illness. He was insane. When Jesus didn't address the mental illness, he rebuked the demon. And he, a demon as a personal being, departed out of him. I think Jesus probably used the equivalent of the one word phrase in English, git. That's all he wanted to say to the demon, get begun, if he was speaking in old-fashioned language, right? And the child was cured from that very hour. The disciples kind of miffed. They came to the disciples to Jesus privately apart and said, why could not we cast him out? Jesus said to them, it's kind of a rebuke because of your unbelief. You didn't believe you could. Verily I say unto you, if you have faith as a grain of mustard seed, you might remember mustard seeds, the tiniest of seeds, according to his parable. Even if you've got a little tiny bit of faith, you say to the mountain, remove hence to yonder place and it shall remove and nothing shall be impossible unto you. Why? Because the strength is not in the faith. Hudson Taylor, the missionary to China, said, strong faith in a weak plank will land you in the river. Weak faith in a strong plank will take you safely across. It's the plank that matters. He said, if you had a tiny bit of faith, I'm big enough to do this. Mountain remove and it shall remove. What happens when the Lord Jesus comes back? Where does his foot touch down? The Mount of Olives. And what does that mountain do? Splits in two. Mountain, remove, hence to yonder place, and it shall remove. Nothing shall be impossible unto you. Are you praying for the Lord's return? I am. Some people think that's a hyperbole. I think it's literal. God's gonna move mountains when he wants to. We can pray for it. And then he said to the disciples, to make them feel just a little bit better, how be it this kind, goeth not out but by prayer and fasting. He says, I can say get, you're not me. You need to pray with focused prayer. You need to pray without even thinking about food. Prayer and fasting. Fasting is to do without food for a spiritual purpose. Watching is a word that's used in the New Testament. Watching is to do without sleep for a spiritual person, a spiritual purpose. Watch and pray. There's no religious power in doing without food or doing without sleep, but it gets you, when you focus your attention on spiritual things to the point that you don't even care about sleep and you don't even care about food, then your prayer is taken seriously by God, perhaps. Well, they abode in Galilee, Jesus told them again here in verse 22. The Son of Man shall be betrayed into the hands of men, and they shall kill him, and the third day he shall be raised again. And apparently they didn't hear the last. They were exceeding sorry. And we're pretty sorry sometimes ourselves. The son of man shall be betrayed into the hands of men. He hadn't given that element before, I don't think. They'll kill him. And the third day he shall be raised again. That's the theme that continues. Death and resurrection. Death and resurrection. He always tells them. He doesn't say they're going to kill him. OK, let's go. He says they're going to kill him. And the third day he shall be raised again. Well, they come to Capernaum, still there on the shore of Galilee. Peter had some old friends. What was Peter's job? Not Peter, Matthew had some old friends. What was Matthew's job before he was a disciple? Tax collector. He's a publican, he's no democrat, he's a publican. He came, these guys that received the tribute money. The tax collectors came to Peter. I don't know, they didn't want to bug him. They didn't dare talk to Jesus. Does not your master pay tribute? And Peter says, well, sure he does. Everybody does. That's the law. When he was come into the house, Jesus got in front of him and said, hey, what thinkest thou, Simon? Didn't call him Peter. Simon, that's his old name. Of whom do the kings of the earth take customer tribute? Of their own children or of strangers? Peter said, well, of strangers. That's Governor DeSantis' plan, I think. We're going to keep the sales tax up and knock the property tax out from underneath. That way, then, people that come down from Canada, or if they come, or Ohio, or Michigan, they'll pay the tax. It's not a bad idea from my point of view. Of strangers, Jesus said unto them, then are the children free. But we don't want to cause them to stumble, notwithstanding lest we should offend them. Here's my tax-paying plan, Jesus said. Go to the sea, Galilee right there, cast a hook. You don't need a whole net, just a hook. Put a marshmallow on it or something. Take up the fish that first cometh up. Don't worry about big, little. When you get the hook, you open his mouth, you're going to find a piece of money. and you take it and give unto them for me and thee. And without explanation, that's the end of the story. So that's my plan for paying taxes in the future. I'm just gonna go over to the Lake Tarpon and throw in a hook. and I'll give it to the tax collector and it'll be for me and Jesus. I don't think that's probably the plan for today. I'd like to go back to where we started before we started. Such a wonderful passage. How many times in this passage from 2.13 to 53.12 does it say He took my sin, or does it say, He gave me His righteousness? How many times? Let's look. Verse 4, if this represented the Son of God, the shepherd that died for the sheep. He has borne, this is you and me and us with all of our sin, he has borne our griefs. He has carried our sorrows. We thought he was stricken and smitten of God and afflicted, but no, verse five says, he was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace was upon him, for we can have his righteousness. With his stripes, we are healed. Twice in four, four times in five, in verse six, all we like sheep, we've gone astray. We've turned everyone to his own way. We have wandered, we all have wandered, far from the fold of the shepherd of the sheep. The Lord God the Father, Jehovah, has laid on him his servant, the Son of God, the Messiah, the iniquity of us all when he died on the cross. He was oppressed and afflicted. He didn't open his mouth. He's brought as a lamb to the slaughter and as a sheep before a shearer's is done, so he opened not his mouth. Peter quotes that about Jesus in his first epistle. He was cut off out of the land of the living for the transgression. For the transgression, the sin of my people was he stricken. It pleased the Lord to bruise him. He, the Lord, has put him, his son, to grief, when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin. then he does have seed, he has children. He'll prolong his days as we are living and as the Lord promised to the disciples in the upper room, you'll do greater works than I've done because you're still gonna be here working and I'm gonna be gone. The pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. The father shall see the travail of his soul and be satisfied. By his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many." Because he's already taken their iniquities. He's poured out his soul unto death. He was numbered with the transgressions. And in the last verse, one more time, he bear the sin of many and made intercession for the transgressions. Two more times. The plan of salvation in the Bible is not get in the right church, be baptized, go through the right rituals, keep the Lord's Supper, observe the Mass. None of the religious things that we can do. The plan of salvation in the Bible is all what he did when he died on the cross under my sin. is buried and rose again. Whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. 2 Corinthians chapter 5 verse 21. Isn't that clever? 2 Corinthians chapter 5 verse 21 says he made him who knew no sin to be sin for us. That we might be made the righteousness of God in him. Let's pray. Father in heaven, as we think through this day and this week and the events of this week and what Jesus repeatedly said was going to happen, that he talked with Elijah and Moses about his decease that he was soon to accomplish in Jerusalem. He told the disciples he was going to be delivered into the hands of men. He'll be betrayed to men. And he will suffer many things at their hands. and be murdered, and rise again, that he rose from the dead. gives us this great assurance that this plan was accepted by God, that God not only planned it, but worked it, and now has paid for sin. And everyone that believes in Jesus, that Jesus did that for them, that Jesus was the one fulfilling the promises. Everyone that believes in him is covered up with his perfect righteousness. And when we die, having believed in Him, we stand before God as righteous as Jesus Christ. Help each one that's thinking about this, if they've never believed in Him, to do so in the moment of time, just as we're talking now. In Jesus' name, amen. God bless you. Pray for Brother Gary as he comes to present the message this morning.