Our Lord and God, we pray that you, Lord, would be glorified above all else. Lord, we are in awe at your majesty, your wonder, your strength and power, but also, Lord, your gentleness and your loving kindness towards your servants, towards your inheritance, towards your sheep, Lord. Send your Holy Spirit to rest on our hearts that we would have eyes that can see, ears that can hear, hearts to understand, that we would delight in you, and that we would give you all praise and glory as we open up your word. So we ask this now in the name of your Son, Christ Jesus. Amen. Okay, so as I said, Jesus' third words from the cross, and borrowing heavily from a Bible study that my wife did, I'm calling this lesson Christian Behold Your God. And you'll see why that comes out here as we continue going through the verse. But I'm gonna start by saying I've got lots of teaser passages in this. We're gonna get to the actual words from the cross about midway through. I am. I am recording. So I said that for the recording. So they will know. So lots of teaser scriptures, lots of things that I want to kind of whet our appetite to get us excited to hear what is this crisis gonna say on the cross? And really put it in a context where we can understand the magnitude of what he says. Again, just a few words. This is God we are talking about. He can put power behind four or five words. So I wanna start asking a few folks to pull out their Bibles and read this. Jim, front and center, sir, could you put up Isaiah 40, chapter 10, or excuse me, chapter 40, verse 10. Charles, do you have your Bible with you, sir? Could you pull up verse 11? So 40, 10, or 40, 11. I'll just have you go 10, 11, like that. Hunter, you got your Bible? Yes, sir. Just a few pages over, Isaiah 42. and starting at two, basically to three and a half. So, and let's see, Keith, sir, do you have your Bible with you? There we go. All right, so again, Isaiah 42, starting at three and verse three through four. Everybody got those? Jerry, you've got yours, sir? I'll have you do the last one. All right, so Matthew chapter 11 and 28 through 30. Yeah? So as I'm asking these folks to read these scripture passages, they're just really short little snippets, I want you to be thinking, what does this reveal to us about the character of God? Okay? So these are, you know, pulled out by the author Hamilton here because they illustrate some things that we kind of take for granted about God. So let's see, Jim, are you ready, sir? All right. and is recompensed before Him. So our God is one who's strong, He is mighty, He is powerful, He exerts His authority over His creation, okay? Pretty common thing for us to consider when we think about God. Let's see, Charles, you've got the second, or verse 11 there. Yeah, verse 11, Isaiah 40, 11. He will tend His flock like a shepherd. He will gather the lambs in His arms. He will carry them in His bosom and gently lead those that are with Him. So right on the heels of talking about his majesty, his power, his might, we hear about his gentleness and his kindness. Scripture's really good about whenever we see God depicted in his attributes, he doesn't just anchor it on one thing. Very often he shows the two sides of a coin or he emphasizes many different attributes of God's nature. So remember, God is immutable. He does not change. His nature is what it is. He is and he is faithful and he is consistent. Let's see, Isaiah 42, who did I ask without Hunter, you got it? Okay. He is gentle. God is very compassionate to his weak people. Here he is, he can create the universe, bigger than we can conceive, with the word of his power, and yet one little mite of that creation, he still has compassion for it. This is compassion that we can't fathom, okay? And then, Keith, you had 30, or sorry, 42, three, and four. 42, three, and four. Faithfully burning wit, he will not quench, he will faithfully bring forth justice. He will not grow faint nor be discouraged till he has established justice in the earth and the coastland wait for his law. So we see God's faithfulness there, his consistency. He will do what he says, okay? So we've seen a really brief picture of God's attributes. We see a picture of God that really is delightful. If any person I knew had these traits, I'd wanna be their friend. I would wanna be around them, okay? So let's see, who had Matthew 11, 28? Jerry, 28 and 30. 282930. Yes, sir. So that's a great verse, one that many of you may have memorized, and it illustrates for us how gentle, tender, he's inviting, he is generous, he's compassionate, he relieves burdens. This is a God who heals the sick, who comforts the sorrowful, he mends the brokenhearted. Our God is many, many things. and I wanted to have that as kind of our foundation to then talk about, well, how do we often think about God? We know what scripture says about God. How do we often think about this? So in your mind, consider these misconceptions. I know I'm guilty of these frequently, but I wanted to bring up two parables that Christ uses, parables you'll be very, very familiar with. So we'll start with the parable of the talents. This is in Matthew 25, and the verse in particular that I'm calling out is in 24. But you all are familiar with the parable of the talents. There's a master who has significant resources and servants that work for him. He takes five talents, gives them to one, two to another, and then one talent to the last servant. Then he goes away and says, do well with the talents I've given you, okay? Now, what does the five do? Well, the one with five, he invests it, he trades, he makes five more, and when the master comes back, he says, I've taken your five, I've made five more, and then he is rewarded. The same with the one who's given two, he's rewarded. What do we hear about the one with one? What did he do with that one talent? He buried it, okay? So let's step back and think about the master that's giving the talents. What can we see revealed about the character of the master that gives? He's generous, he trusts, he gives them responsibility, but then he also has high expectations of them, that they will do what he has said, okay? Now let's think about the one with five and one with two. What is assumed in their thinking about their master. They love him and they want to obey him. They want to do what he said. And yet, did he tell them exactly what to do? No. There is an element of trust in their master that if things go sideways, there is mercy there. Now, I know that's not explicitly said, but they go and they do what he said, trusting him ultimately, okay? So with that kind of groundwork in place, what does the one with one talent say to his master when the master comes back? He says, I know you to be a hard man. That is what he says to his master and goes on to explain, I know you extract where you've not, you take seed where you've not sown and so forth. But here's the point I'm trying to make with this. This servant has a singular view of his master, okay? The other servants, they have what I would say is probably a broader view of their master. Now is God a hard God? Could we say that? He is just. He is unchanging. He has a very clear line of what holiness is and what it is not. Does that line change and blur? Absolutely not. So our God, you could say, in a sense, our God is a hard God. It's not untrue. But I would argue that this is a fantastic way for an unbeliever to think about God. All they see is his hardness, and they never see his mercy, his justice, his love, his kindness, anything else. They don't see him as a God to appeal to his mercy. They don't see him as a God to lean upon in their need, to love and delight in his goodness. This is a hard God, okay? I would say, if an unbeliever did think of God as hard, they might become a believer, if that were the case, truly. But see how this servant only sees his master in one lens, and he does something that is not what the master desired. So the second parable that I want to bring to our attention, this is the parable of the prodigal son. Again, a very, very familiar passage to us. So we're familiar with how that younger brother takes his inheritance, wants to leave, he spends it in licentious living, famine comes, and then he goes back to his father. But so again, let's start with thinking about how does that younger brother think of his father, okay? His servants, well, let's back up even more. He's gonna give me what I ask him. I want to ask for my inheritance. This father is generous. He loves me. Even this wayward, foolish son knows that his father loves him and will be generous with him. He then takes that, lives licentiously, and when he's in the pigsty, unable to feed himself, his thought is, my father provides for his servants. He knows that his father is a provider. He knows that his father is generous, that even in an ongoing famine, my father's servants are gonna be fed. They are gonna be taken care of. He also presumes upon the forgiveness of his father. He doesn't say, he's never gonna accept me back. He just throws down whatever he was feeding to the pigs and goes. Okay, so that is the way this younger brother, errant though he is, thinks about his father. Did he disrespect his father? Did he fail to honor him? Did he absolutely dishonor him by his conduct? Absolutely. And yet how he thought of his father, was accurate and honoring to him, okay? How does the father think about this younger son? We know that he delights in him, he's waited, he's yearned for this moment when the son is gonna come over the hill and he'll see him and he meets him running, okay? So we are familiar with how the younger brother and the father view one another and how appropriate that is. But let's fast forward to the older brother. Okay, we often hear about the older brother, and he's been out in the field, slaving away, working. He comes back, he hears the sounds of a party, asks one of the stewards, what is going on? He says, your father, your brother who was lost is found. He's come back, and your father's throwing this big party for him. So then, this older brother goes and confronts his father, and what does he say to his father? He says, look, these many years I've slaved for you, and you've never given me a goat to enjoy with my friends. Okay, so think about the misconceptions of this older brother. The younger brother, as foolish as he was, got it right. If I ask dad for something, he's gonna give it to me. He's generous to me, he loves me. Even if I ask him for something I shouldn't ask for, he's that kind and merciful and generous. And so this older brother never even asked. He doesn't know his father to be merciful. He also doesn't know his father, think about this, who was on the front porch, if you will, looking down the road waiting for that brother to come? It was the father. Who wasn't standing next to him? The brother, he was not standing there sharing in the love of his father for that younger brother. He wasn't, he did not understand the mercy of his father. He did not understand the love of his father. And it just boggled his mind that when the brother comes over the hill, dad's gonna be delighted. He does not understand his father. He sees his father as a slave master, as a lawgiver, as a judge. Are these ways that we view God? I know I am often in error when I do that, okay? I'm gonna check the box, I'm gonna do the right thing, I'm gonna obey God, I come to church every day, I do the things, we do the steps. This is a message particularly that strikes for those of us who are you know, raised as covenant children. We've been in the church maybe our whole lives or a long part of our lives. We do the thing, we turn the crank, we come to church, we pray, we maybe do our devotions, and we're doing it maybe out of duty, we're doing it maybe out of just this is what my parents taught me, this is what I've always done. Now not to say that there is wrong in the faithful diligence, but I know I can often think of God as just, I gotta do what God says. I don't particularly want to, but I have to. I don't delight and enjoy the fact that God has given me laws, rules, guidance, wisdom, that when I follow it, I can enjoy the providential blessing of his commands, okay? So we've laid out, kind of in the first verses that you all read, This is probably an accurate view of God. We've also read and seen in some of Christ's parables, this is the way we're often failing in viewing God. We err and we think of God at only maybe one of his attributes. Remember, God is immutable. All of these attributes are true of him. He is never just and not merciful. He is him. There may be instances where he applies his justice, but it doesn't change the fact that he's no longer merciful. The same God that is going to judge sinners, or I'll put it this way, in the context of here, the very same God that was pouring out his wrath on Christ, unmitigated, unthrottled, 100% of the wrath of God, he was still personally, mercifully praying for the thief right next to him, and for the people that were nailing those nails into his wrists. God is all of his attributes at all times. So, here's the question. How do we behold this king of ours? How do we not see him wrongly? How do we not see God wrongly? One way that we've done already is to read His scripture, read His words. Behold Him as He reveals Himself to us, okay? And we've seen that in Old Testament and some New Testament passages right here. But I wanna pause it, and this'll be a big duh moment. Christ is the perfect representation of God. So here's our last teaser verse before we get into the actual word from the cross. I'm gonna read this. This is John. several verses here. So it's just the beginning of the book of John, and I'm going to skip around a little bit, but these are going to be very, very familiar passages to all of you. This is John chapter 1, starting in verse 1. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. I'll skip ahead to 14. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen His glory. Glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. And then just jumping down to 16. And from His fullness we have all received grace upon grace. For the law was given through Moses, grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. And here is the clincher verse. No one has ever seen God, the only God, who is at the Father's side. He has made him known." Do you want to know God? Do you want to behold God? Look at Christ. Again, the errors are just so rife in my own mind. I often err on the Trinity and think, oh, well, you've got this God who's Father, and He's kind of, He's all justice, He's all law. He's kind of cold and hard. And you've got this Jesus who's pretty awesome. He's a nice guy. Like, I'd imagine the surfer dude, like, he's just cool, right? Right? I mean, do we see these depictions in our culture? This is how God is depicted. And the Holy Spirit's kind of like, yeah, I don't know. I don't know, just floaty, something. Right? Like, wrong! Wrong! We have one God. We have one God, three persons. We need to say that that is beyond our ability to wrap our heads around. We're gonna do our best, we're gonna follow scripture, we're gonna obey what scripture says, and we're gonna assent to the things that scripture says about the Trinity. But let's not err in thinking that there is separation between the persons of God, okay? When we look at Christ dying on a tree, And what he says, we are looking at God, and we are hearing from God the Father, okay? God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. There is no distinction there. So finally, we get to our word of Christ from the cross. So this is John chapter 19, and we'll read 25 through 27. All right, John chapter 19, verses 25 through 27. But, so this is just after the garments have been divided by the soldiers, and the horror of this crucifixion is continuing, okay? But, standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother and his mother's sister, Mary, the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said this to his mother, Woman, behold your son, Then he said to the disciple, behold your mother. And from that hour, the disciple took her to his own home. So again, this is a passage we're very familiar with. We've heard it again and again as we've read the crucifixion account. I'm not sure about any of you all, but I grew up going to a Roman Catholic high school, and that was interesting as a OPC kid growing up and saying, man, I don't know if I understand this. This is one of their proof texts that they have for the honor that they give to Mary, that they errantly give to Mary. And he's saying, wow, this is why they call Mary mother. is because she, they interpret that she is the mother of the whole church. And so there's a great many errors that come from this. But I want to point out that I think what Christ is saying here is much simpler and much more profound than to say, hey, there's this really special woman that you need to use as your co-redemptrix, your mediatrix between the church and God, right? Jesus, yeah, he's the mediator. I get that scripture says that. But really, you need a mediator kind of between you and Jesus, like a mediator's mediator. That is not what's being said here, okay? What is being said here, I think, is far more delightful and far more profound, because we are seeing not Mary in the spotlight, not John, the disciple that Christ loved, in the spotlight. We are seeing God and his nature and his character in the spotlight. And if we can come away from this with our hearts unmoved, then we've not been listening. Okay? We need to be paying attention to what our Lord is saying right here. So, some of the first things, to put a little context to this, He is, you know, on the surface, He is saying to John, I need you to care for my mother. And saying to his mother, There you go, John is the one that I want to be in charge of you. So you might kind of ask the question, why John? Scripture doesn't explicitly answer that question. But where were the rest of the disciples? They weren't there. Where were the rest of Jesus' brothers? They weren't there. So it kind of begs the question, who else would he be in charge of? give his mother to for her provision, right? In that world, she would have been in a hard spot to not have a son to provide for her, to love her, to make sure she was not taken advantage of as a widow and as a, you know, now a mother who's lost her son in an ignominious way, right? The law is after her son and has killed him. Things are not gonna go well for Mary. So on the surface, we can see that he is providing for her and for her needs, her physical needs in the here and now on earth. And he's calling on John to do that. So what are some things that this teaches us about Jesus? He's a provider. He cares for his sheep. We pray that for God to give us our daily bread. Logan said this in training, do we expect manna to fall out of the sky? God uses means. He makes it clear that he uses means. Why did I get the job that I have? Why did I have the job I had before that? Why are any of your jobs been provided or taken away? Well, because God said, you need this, or maybe you don't need this. Maybe you need to be unemployed right now, because you need the humbling more than you need the bread. God provides for his people, and he uses means to do it. So he is saying, John, guess what, buddy? You're the means. Right now, you're the means, and I'm making it clear to you. In the same way that he says to a parent, this little helpless infant, you are the means. I am providing for that child, and it's through you. So he's saying that to John. Christ had, at previous times in his ministry, kind of minimized the role of family ties or biological ties. And so there's a passage here in Mark that really highlights this. Jesus is teaching to kind of a congregation of his disciples that are around him, and Mary and his brothers are outside of the congregation trying to get in to talk to him. We don't know what about, but they're trying to reach him. So the disciples kind of, I guess, telephone, they're passing the message forward. Hey Jesus, your mother and your brothers are outside, they'd like to see you. Does anybody remember what Jesus says in response to that? Who are my mother and brothers? Now, we don't want to errantly say that Christ doesn't care about family ties. There's a commandment about this. It makes it pretty clear. Scripture is abundantly clear that he has provided the family, as the covenant means, providing for the growth of children, providing for the elderly, providing for the raising and the fear and the admonition of the Lord. The biological family is a big deal to God. But what I want to say is rather than lowering the value of the earthly family, Christ is trying to emphasize and elevate the nature of the spiritual family, your ties to God's people, okay? Because the way he responds when they say, who are my mother and my brothers? Does anybody remember this response? Whoever does the will of God, these are my mother and brothers and sisters, okay? What a sweet delight. I love my biological family, and the best thing I can imagine for them is that they also be my spiritual family. I mean, what a sweet delight. I have four kids and I yearn to say, you know, I am raising them as covenant children. They are Christians. I am going to act on them as they are Christians. Not as though they are Christians. I almost said it that way. They are Christians. They are in God's covenant family. And yet there's an element in which they may choose folly, foolishness. Let's get the words out right. They may, and it may be that that's God's providence, that's how he brings them back, I don't know. But my hope is that my biological relationships, I am also sharing a spiritual relationship with them. Part of why God commands us not to be unequally yoked. What if you were to miss out on the biggest part of your life with this person with whom you share so much, right? God is consistent in his encouragements there. So Jesus' kind of minimization of those natural family ties, we shouldn't take that to eliminate our responsibilities to them or to use that as an excuse not to. And some immediate evidence to that is the fact that right here, Jesus is obeying the fifth commandment. He is honoring his mother by commending her to John and commanding John, commissioning him, to responsibility over her. He is loving her and obeying that fifth commandment. To the end, Christ is actively dying. because he's falsely accused, right? But he knows he's actively dying for the sins of his elect. He knows why he's dying. He knows why. God is pouring out the very wrath that he has stored up. The cup is being drunk in full, right as we speak. And is Christ saying, whatever, I might as well be disobedient. I'm being punished for it. He or he is obedient to the end. To the end. He is obeying the fifth commandment and he is honoring his mother. So this is kind of what we see on that superficial level. He's caring for his mother and he's caring for John by commissioning him. I mean, as a guy, I know this. Sometimes if somebody says, hey, do your thing, I'm lost. Right? What is John thinking? He's the only one there in front of the cross. The rest of the disciples scattered, fear to gone. John's there. What is he thinking? He is fearful. I've had so many hopes that this was the Savior. We thought he was the Messiah. John is in turmoil, I would imagine. Christ gives him a command. You don't know what's happening, big picture. Just do the next step. We used to say, closest alligator to the canoe. Like, I'm not gonna worry about the alligators over there, man, I'm worried about the one right here, okay? God says, you focus on caring for this woman. Let's just let it be there. And John has his commission and move forward. Is that not a microcosm of the Christian life? We often do not know where things are going, but God's word will sometimes make clear the next step. What should I do? I'm gonna be faithful in the mundane things right now. Right now, I know the next step. I don't know the second or the third or the fourth, but I know what God has commanded me to do right now, and that's to be faithful in my marriage. Get up and go to church in the morning. Discipline my children. Obey the commandments. God makes clear what those next steps are, and he, today's worries are enough for today, right? We need to not be putting ourselves on the throne and thinking, I need to know how the whole weave of history's gonna work out. No, I don't have the capacity for that. What a mercy it is that God says to his servants, take care of her. Just do that. Let me take care of all of redemptive history. and you just take care of Mary. I know that she is my commission. I am commissioned in covenant to her to protect and to love and honor my wife. She has a responsibility to me. We have a responsibility to our children and to our parents. We know what the Ten Commandments say. We have our marching orders. We don't have the end answer, but we know our marching orders. This is a tremendous mercy from God that he gives us those and we can rest in them rather than trying to be bigger than our britches. So we talked about kind of the superficial level in which John's commissioned for Mary, Mary is told, rely on John, he's your guy, okay? But, and I want to emphasize that this is not clearly said in scripture, but it's kind of, the question is there, when Jesus says, woman, behold your son, who is he talking about? The next sentence would imply the context is, hey, look at John. But you can't help but wonder, is there a double meaning to this? Woman, interesting he doesn't say mom. He doesn't say Mary. It's not a term that lacks endearment. He has referred to her as woman before. Does anybody remember the? Wedding of Canaan, woman, right? Because was she asking for Jesus, her son, to go get an urn of wine? She was saying, God, God, Could you turn this water, like we need to do something. She didn't say water to wine, but she's like, you can do anything. Can you do this? She was not talking to God. And so Jesus, her son, did not answer. Woman, my time has not yet come, okay? We gotta remember that while Mary was the mother of God, It is appropriate to say that. Well, she was the mother of Jesus, yet he was her Lord. This is the God who had been in the beginning. He was the word, incarnate, in flesh. Okay, here he is speaking to her as God. Woman, behold your son. This is the Mary who had been visited by an angel. who had been overshadowed by the Holy Spirit, who knew full well the non-natural nature of her conception. She knew. There may have been people in the crowd doubting, saying, I'm faithful, I'm faithful, I'm faithful. She knew she wasn't. She's storing these things up in her heart. She was the one there when John leaped in Elizabeth's womb. She spoke the Magnificat when the Holy Spirit descended on her. She watched her child not disobey. And then she watched her subsequent children just be urchins, like, I mean, rascals, right? This woman knew that He was different. There was no doubt in her mind. Woman, behold your Son. And so what I want to encourage you is, Christian, behold your God. This is who we are looking at. Do you want to know what God is like? There He is, dying for you and for me on a cross, bearing the very fire of hell on him. There can be no worse treatment than what he experienced. I could go to the cross in an hour, right? Someone could crucify me and my suffering would not even begin to approach what Christ suffered. As awful as that earthly suffering was, the wrath of His Father poured out, drunk the cup to the dregs. That pain and suffering just overshadows anything that we can fathom. This is the Son who is on the cross, who is dying for us, while we were yet sinners. Behold your God! This is who we worship, and he is worthy of worship. He's not just a nice guy that had a bunch of nice sayings and said, oh, do to people as you'd have them do to you, you know, good morals, you know, like secularism, like God, Jesus was a good person. That is not who we worship. We don't worship a good guy. We worship a God who is vastly beyond our ability to comprehend. He is powerful and needs nothing. He needs nothing from us. And yet, purely because of His love for us, the mites, these little bits of chemicals that He created in the first place, He loved us enough to bear the burden of our sin and inequity. This is the God that we worship. Christian, behold your God. Look at Him. And you are seeing a God worth worshiping. This is who we see on the cross. So a few words of application. We see Christ in His moment of grief and agony. loving his mother, loving his disciple. We can extend that loving his church, giving us this picture of him and of his nature. This is the fruit, or this is the means that the Holy Spirit uses to enliven our hearts. When we read these words and we think about what God is saying about himself, this is the stuff that he uses to say, wow, my God is great. We are going into worship. My God is great. I am delighted to be here to worship Him. This is not a check in the box, Sunday morning complete. Sunday morning complete. I can't wait for Sunday evening. Let's be worshiping this God the whole day. I want to be with Him. You know, forget the golden gates and forget the golden cobblestones. I wanna be with the God who's there. I don't, yeah, it'll be awesome to not be sick and have infirmities fixed and have all these broken, fallen things about my body, no longer as I'm in a glorified body. But forget that, I wanna be with Christ. The guy that did this for me, I want him. And he said, come, that God is worthy of our worship. So as a word of application, obey God's commands. That seems so simple. But does he delight in sacrifice? He delights in obedience. As a parent, I get that so much more. My kids will give me little gifts and trinkets right as they disobey and I'm like, you're trying to buy me off. You are trying to buy me off. I want your obedience. I delight in your obedience because why do I give you rules? Is it capricious so I can say they obey me? I'm in charge, I'm the big man. I love them, don't stick the fork in the socket. When we, disobedience to the laws of God is sticking a fork in a socket. Our world tries to flip it on its head and says, what a cruel God that wouldn't let you engage in all sorts of licentious behavior. What a cruel God who wouldn't even let you enjoy yourself. No, God doesn't let us stick a fork in the outlet. Obey our God. He loves us enough to give us the commandments. Love the brotherhood. love one another. We are going to be known by how we love each other. We want the world out there to say, I don't, I mean, I don't know what to think about church and organized religion. And I got wronged when I was a child and I didn't, but man, I want to be with those people. They love each other. They have each other over for meals. Like they walk up and they say, how you doing? And they don't just say, good. They say, I'm struggling right now. Wow, who talks like that? We're gonna be known by how we love each other. So love the brotherhood. This is one of the commandments, but honor our father and mother. A few months ago, I was convicted that I had not honored my father a decade or so before. And it was a big deal, had to do with my parents' divorce, and I was angry, and I just lashed out against my dad. And then I was flying with this captain who was also divorced, and we'd get talking, and he was telling me about the grief in his heart with his estranged son. He's saying, I wronged my son, and now I am trying to make that relationship right. Call your dad! And this man, I don't know, I got to the hotel and I called my dad because I felt convicted that I had dishonored him. Now, I didn't see any fruit from that. I did not. I have yet to see fruit from that. But I obeyed God and I'm letting him be in charge of redemptive history. And I'm just gonna obey what he says as best I can. And lastly, I want you all to think, remember that you have been bought for a price. Jesus is actively dying for Mary's sins. She was not without sin, by the way, just to make that point clear. She was of natural origin, just like us. He was dying for John. He was dying for that thief that was next to him. He was dying for the centurion, very likely. He was dying for untold hundreds in that crowd, the thousands that were gonna come at Pentecost, the thousands more that were gonna be added to the number in the years that followed. He was dying for those people. He died for you. He died for me. He did not die to open a way He did not die and open a door and then say, if you want to, go on in. He died that you might be his and he bought you. That moment you were his, done, it is finished. You were bought with a price. Praise the God who bought you and live in delight and excitement that this is the life you get to live. Not a life that is wandering and lost, but a life that is spent obeying and delighting in your God who loves you and looking forward to the great hope that is to come in Christ's kingdom when he comes down and brings heaven to earth. What sweet excitement and delight that puts life in context. So, just kind of to close, and Mikhail shared this phrase with me, you become what you behold. How do we do these things? How do we obey God's commandments? Is God just a lawgiver that we have to check the box? How do we actually obey God's commandments? Do we set our eyes on the text and memorize them and say, I gotta do this, gotta do that, gotta do that, gotta do that, gotta do that? What about the young ruler who said, yeah, I've done all these things. It wasn't about doing all the things. Sell everything and follow me. Oh, and he went away discouraged. Set your eyes on Christ. Behold him. Look on him. and the obedience to his commands that comes, that will happen. The love for your brothers and sisters in Christ, that will happen. When you look on Calvary and you say, how can I not love my brothers and sisters? How can I not love and care for the lost and dying world that's out there? When I look on what Christ has done for me, and that yet while I was a sinner, he died for me, that inflames our hearts for compassion for those outside of the church. How could we not when we set our eyes on Christ? So you become what you behold, delight in Christ, look on Him, consider what He has done, and the rest falls into place. God's means work. Enjoy the sacraments. Enjoy His means of grace. Enjoy the public. worship of God, enjoy the fellowship of the saints, pray without ceasing, delight in one another, delight in God above all else. This is what we can do. And I