days earlier Jesus had been crucified by essentially the same crowd here. And it's the time of the evening prayers at the temple. People are filing into the temple. They've done this for a thousand years since Solomon had built the temple. They filed in for the sacrifices and the things like this. I don't know if you can see it in your mind's eye and try to envision this, but week after week, and year after year, the people filed up the stairways into the temple, they would pray, they would file down out of the stairways, out of the temple, and they would go home. And this ritual that went on year after year after year after year. We've sat on those steps before, you could see the way the steps were designed, it was kind of interesting. how they may have came up and came down. People have made note of the pattern of how the stairs were designed, possibly to keep them from stampeding down and up and slowing things down a little bit. I don't know, everybody has their own thoughts about how that is. But we sat there on those temple stairs on the Temple Mount and they're not like our stairs, right? They're massive stones that are just, makes these great stairways. And it's an interesting and it's an awesome thought to sit there and think for how many years those stairs have been traversed up and down and up and down in their religion to carry out what they believed God had wanted them to do. And so here we are in Acts chapter 4, in Acts chapter 3 and chapter 4, and we see that week after week and year after year, as the people ascended up into the temple and back down into the temple, they would have come into They would come into a certain man at the Gate Beautiful who had been there. The Bible says he was 40 years old. He was lame from his birth when he was not able, when he was old enough to beg, no doubt. They brought him to the temple and they would lay him out there and he would beg for alms, right? A-L-M-S, alms. That's hard to say. And of course, they didn't have welfare, right? They didn't have anything like that. And so he had to go get his money somehow, and year after year, think about this, I don't know how, no doubt some of those people that went up into the temple year after year, their entire life they may have ran into this man. They may be 20 years old, 30 years old, and for their entire life that they've gone into the temple, there he was. He was a fixture that's, it's just whoever he is, that's Zed, that's, I don't know, think of a name, that's Joseph, oh, Joe's out, hey Joe, you know, here's some money, I mean, just year after year after year. And so this would have gone, it would have been normal for them to see. But this Pentecost, this day, was different from all of the other days. I will point out to you, you can go back and look it up, but the Bible says when the day of Pentecost had fully come, right, and there are some that believe that word fully there means, right, that Pentecost had come to such a full point It was filled up, watch, there was no more room. It didn't need to be filled anymore. Let me say it this way. It was fully come, meaning there wasn't another one coming. Right? The coming of the Holy Spirit of God. No, in the Old Testament, the Spirit of God, Jesus said, He is with you, but soon He's going to be in you, right? And this is what happened at the day of Pentecost. Jesus started His church, right? He said, I'll build my church. It's a called out assembly. When did He start calling out His assembly? Well, He called out the disciples, right? And He had started His church in the upper room. The day of Pentecost, there are the disciples. There is 120 in that upper room there waiting for the coming of the Holy Spirit. And so here it was on the day of Pentecost that the Holy Spirit of God descended and has indwelt believers, right? So we know this today, right? He can't leave us, right? He can't leave us. In the Old Testament, He could come and go. But this is the fact of the matter that that shows you that Pentecost had fully come. There wasn't another one coming. We're not going to experience another Pentecost, okay? There was only one. It had fully come. But this one was different from all the other ones, right? It had fully come. About three o'clock in the afternoon here, the Holy Spirit had come upon his church. The Holy Spirit is now indwelling believers in this church. And here it is, 3 p.m. in the afternoon, Peter and John, they're going up into the temple, the time of the evening prayers, and they meet this beggar. Here he is. He's been there for most of his adult life. As long as he's been begging, he has been there. And something happens as they're coming up. eye contact. You ever make eye contact? It makes you nervous sometimes, doesn't it? Especially when the preacher looks. Can I tell you this? I make eye contact. It doesn't mean anything sometimes, okay? Sometimes I've made eye contact and you think, well, that was an awkward place to notice them. I'm always looking at Chris. I mean, he's just right here in front of me. But sometimes eye contact, what do you do? Especially, have you ever met a beggar out on the road? You ever been in a big city and they're coming up to you, what do you do? You're like, you do not want to make eye contact. You've been at the stoplights up in Springfield, right? And they're sitting out here, they got their dog, they got their bags, they've, I mean, they've got all this stuff, their sign that who knows what it says, right? And you're sitting there looking at the light. You're looking out of the corner of your eye. Do not look at them, right? Don't do it because they'll start walking towards you, right? And then, boy, then it's awkward. So I'll tell you about my business plan I've got later and it's an online store. I'll tell you about it later. Anyway, they made eye contact. And what did he say? We know the story, right? Everybody in this room, you know. Do you have any alms? Do you have any alms for the poor? Do you have any alms? Do you have anything for me? And what did Peter say? Hey, silver and gold have I none, but such as I have give I thee. In the name of Jesus Christ, rise up and walk. And the Bible says, he took them by the hand and stood them up. And what did he do? He took off running. I mean it was awesome. I love it. He went running. He was making a big commotion. He was hollering and praising God and running around and I like that. Harold Sightler, his church one time, they were out there running laps in the church and he's sitting up there going, Amen, glory to God, Amen, Amen. He said, some of you aren't going to like heaven. You're not going to like heaven. They're having a good time. They're running wide. Boy, he hit some truth and boy, it got him excited. Hey, this guy, there's the truth in this guy's life, in this beggar's life. What happened? The beggar was met by Jesus Christ who healed his body physically. He's going to get healed spiritually too. And he got healed physically and he's running around giving glory to the one who did it. And what are they doing in the temple? They're going, what is going on? This is a time of prayer. What's this crazy doing? And they're like, wait a minute. That's Joe. What's Joe doing running around? For as long as I can remember, Joe's been sitting here. For as long as I remember, for 30 years, I've given Joe some money. And he's out here and he's running around. And so here comes the crowd. They're coming out to the front of the temple, Solomon's porch. They're gathering and out there. And you know what a good preacher does? He sees a crowd and he sees an opportunity to preach, right? It's what he does. And so he gets them together and he begins to preach to the crowd that is gathered here at the place that has come together to perform the religious rituals. Watch, they came for religion, some of them, many of them, but they're going to hear about Jesus today. And so here it is, he's praising God and running around The onlookers are left with no, listen, they had no other thing to do but to acknowledge that God did this. I mean, they know the guy, they've watched him for years. They can't say, well, I don't know who did that. I mean, he was probably faking it. And they're out there, there's some fakers out there, right? There's videos going around, this lady that her arm grows, and somebody goes, yeah, I've seen that in like five different videos, it keeps growing back. There's some weird way she holds it, I don't know, it's funny. But listen, this guy, you couldn't deny this one. You couldn't deny it at all. They couldn't deny it. So you know what they're saying? And he's praising God. So you know what they're going, oh, what's this? This is new. And Peter begins to preach. And in chapter 3 of Acts, He's preaching about, Peter begins to preach, he's preaching about the trial of the Lord Jesus Christ. He's telling them about the trial. He's telling them about their rejection of the Lord Jesus Christ. He's telling them that you are an accessory to the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. How do you think that went over? You talk about a nervous audience, right? And I'm sure they didn't like that at all. And when Peter got down and he preached the message and he gave the message and he brought it down to an application, he laid the facts out there. He laid it all out there and when he brought it in and he brought the net in to make application, the application, it didn't get any better. He said this, you killed the Messiah. Well, I didn't, I mean, Norman Vincent Peale's, I think I read that, How to Win Friends and Influence People. I don't know if I finished it. I probably didn't, but that wasn't in the book. That wasn't in the book. He said, you killed the Messiah. You killed the one that was foretold by the prophets. This guy was prophesied. You killed the prophesied guy. You killed the guy who was healing everybody. You killed the guy who was Savior. Look at chapter 3. Look at verse 13 and 15. If you don't believe me, please don't. Read this. Look at this. Look what Peter said, verse 14, But ye denied the Holy One, and the just, and desired a murderer to be granted unto you. You had a choice. Jesus, okay, even if you rejected Him as He's Messiah, He still wasn't a murderer. He was a healer. He gave life. He raised the dead. He fed you guys. You know how much food He gave you? I mean, how many of those people were at the miracles that were eating the food every time it came up, right? Jesus was like an EBT card, right? He was just, they were just checking in every time, getting the free food. He's like, you killed Jesus when you could have killed the, you chose a murderer, right, over Jesus? It's incredible. You killed him. Oh, I lost my place. I got so excited about this. Verse 15, and killed the, not only he granted unto you a murderer, look at verse 15, and killed the prince of life, whom God hath raised from the dead, whereof we are witnesses. Andy Stanley's out there doubling down. that we need to unhinge ourselves from the Bible and find better ways to validate the Christian faith. I'm not making this up. He's looking for other ways. He said there's other ways to validate the Christian faith. Eyewitnesses. How do you find a better way to validate the faith other than the eyewitness account that were there, that were at the crucifixion, that walked with them for three and a half years, that saw the miracles, that saw the crucifixion, that witnessed the resurrected Christ, that walked with them for 40 days after it, amen? They were there for 40 days after it, and then they sat there and watched him go back up again. What better account do you have? heretic? No, he is. He's a heretic. He's an outright heretic. And here we have, he said, how did I get on that? Oh, I know how. It says it right here, of where we are witnesses. That was it. We're witnesses. We saw him. John said it over in 1 John, whom we have seen with our eyes and handled with our hands, the prince of life. Look at verse 16, "...and His name through faith in His name hath made this man strong, whom ye see and know. Yea, the faith which is by him hath given him this perfect soundness in the presence of you all." There is nothing of this man's crippledness, there is not one ounce of crippledness left in this man's body. He said he was completely, perfectly sound of body. And he said Jesus did this. I like that. And this is the guy you killed. Yeah, you killed him. Okay, can I say this this morning? There are the anti-Semites going around really big time today. See them online, you hear them, you know? And they're going around saying, well, the Jews, they killed Jesus. They killed Jesus. Do we need to get technical? Yeah. You killed him too, friend, and I killed him. It was my sin that put them on a cross. It was your sin that put them on a cross. Hey, listen, the Jews may have been used by God, absolutely, and they were in a backslidden condition, and they rejected their Messiah, but hey, the Roman government carried it out too, right? You don't see these guys going around, ah, Rome, ah, Rome. They just ruin everything. No, they go after a country the size of Rhode Island and say it needs to be wiped off the map. Isn't that crazy? No, your sin put him on the cross. My sin killed him. We're responsible. We are. But boy, this is what Peter leaves them with. This crowd. They just saw this great miracle. This is like, ah! And they said, well, yeah, Jesus did this and you killed him. What a letdown. But I love this. He leaves them with a remedy. He leaves them with a remedy. What's he say? Repent and be converted. Yep, look at verse 19. Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord. What is repentance? We just saw this in Sunday school. Just briefly, it's a change of mind, really. You were living your life according to this body of truth, what you called truth. And then truth came in, and you went, oh, yeah, this is truth, and this isn't. So what do you do? You go, uh, and you go, huh, we'll take this. That's repentance. But notice what he says. He says, repent and be converted. So what is conversion? Well, conversion is the turning back and returning. Now realize his audience here. Who's his audience? It was Israel. The seed of Abraham, the lineage that brought forth the Messiah, the seed that had the family of Abraham that got the oracles of God, that saw the miracles of God, that were living in the promised land of God so a Messiah could have a place to be born. They had left God. They had walked away from God. I mean, look at the Old Testament. We end the Old Testament with the last prophet there, and then we have 400 years of silence. But for 800 years, God had been drawing Israel back to themselves. They walked away from God, and they went after idolatry, and paganism, and self, and all of these things. And Peter said, hey, here's the truth you've just been given of Jesus Christ. Repent. And here's some evidence of repentance. Be converted. Go back. I find this fascinating how precisely fitting it is that Peter would use this word to accompany the command to repent to Israel. Be converted. Go back. What did they do? They had walked away in a spiritually adulterous and idolatrous relationship with the non-existent gods around them. They walked away. Hey, this is what happens to all of us when God gets distant. It's never Him. It's never Him. It's always us. God doesn't move. He's unchangeable. He's the same yesterday, today, and forever, right? He said, I change not. His feelings for me never change. His decision towards us never change. His response to us doesn't change. We change. We walk away. And Israel walked away, but watch, God wants them back. God wants them back. So after 400 years of silence, after John the Baptist, after Jesus himself, after the miracles, after the resurrection, the nation as a whole is still refusing to come back to God. They're in a place where they're divorced from God. And Peter says, repent, be converted. Change what you believe, watch this, and change who you're living with. Because you should be living with God and you're living with your idols. You know what happened after that message? 5,000 believed. 5,000, it says, men believed the gospel. Isn't that incredible? I love that. But you know what happens when the gospel gets preached and people get saved? Satan gets mad. And He manifests Himself through people. And here He is in chapter 4 in our text this morning. We see that was all introduction so we've got just a few minutes left and hopefully we'll get to it. But the rulers were mad in chapter 4 where the gym read this. They heard the commotion. They came down to the temple to see what was going on. And you know what they do? They arrest Peter and John and bring them to jail. And so then the next day after being in jail for the night, they haul him out for questioning. Look at chapter 4 and verse 6. And Annas the high priest, and Caiaphas, and John, and Alexander, and as many were of the kindred of the high priest, were gathered together at Jerusalem. And when they had set them in the midst, they asked, By what power, that's authority, or by what name, who gave you the authority, have you done this? Who's the person that gave you the authority to go out into the temple and preach this man, Jesus Christ? Why don't they like this? Well, there goes 5,000 people, men alone, that are walking away from the stranglehold of the religion that Judaism became. And they don't like it because that's where their power is. So they question Him. And notice in verse 8, Peter responds, full of the Holy Ghost, look at this then Peter filled with the Holy Ghost said unto them ye rulers of the people and elders of Israel if we this day be examined of the good deed done to the impotent man by what means he is made whole be it known unto you all and to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth Whom ye crucified, here he goes again. Oh, he doesn't hold punches, does he? Whom ye crucified, whom God raised from the dead, even by Him doth this man stand here before you whole. Peter, where did you get your authority? Jesus. Where did you get your authority? The One that heals. The One that feeds. The One that saves. Hey, the one who created, the one who raised from the dead, Peter said, that's my authority. Do you realize at any time which most people do that are not true? Most of those false prophets out there, some way or another, they direct it back to themselves. Oh, some of them might even say, well, God did this, right? But they'll still argue that they have this special connection to God, that God would use them and over everybody else. Do you realize Peter never does that? He never says, well, I was the inner circle of Jesus. and I got a little insight that nobody else got. I got an inline that nobody else has. I have a better language. I speak better with God because I have a connection through a different language than everybody else has, right? That's what they say, right? It all comes back to them, right, and how they're better than somebody else. Peter, no, he doesn't do that. He constantly and over and over again directs them his answer. Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ, this is the answer that he gives you. gives them, is giving these people. It's Jesus. It's Jesus. It can't be that simple. Yes, it is. It is that simple. It's Jesus Christ. Look what he goes on to say. Look at verse 9. I'm sorry, look at verse 11. Look what he says. This is the stone which was set at Nod of you builders, which has become the head of the corner. See what he says? This is the one you crucified, the one that God raised from the dead. This is that stone that was set at naught. This was the stone, listen, the one that didn't, it didn't, the cornerstone that didn't fit the building that you were building. See, this is the problem. They were building their own religion. They were building their own system. And when Jesus came and contradicted the system, you know what they do? They take the, like you do if you're a bricklayer or, you do concrete, you ever do bricks? You get a brick and it doesn't fit and it might be wrong for, I don't know. Anyway, or you're trying to patch something, you got there, you know, they might chuck it. Well, that's not the right one. We'll find, oh, hey, this one fits. This one fits, right? Try to build a puzzle. You ever try to build a puzzle forcing pieces in it? The Morley's, they build puzzles. They're puzzle machines, right? They build lots of puzzles. You ever try to fit a piece in, doesn't fit? What do you do? Well, you don't chuck it. I mean, you might put it aside to use it somewhere else. That's why I don't build puzzles, because I'm like. That's what they did. Peter tells them, you set at nought the cornerstone. Why? Because you're trying to build something else and he didn't fit your agenda. He didn't fit your system. He didn't fit your religion. Hey listen, Jesus will never, Jesus will never fit man's religion. If your religion crashes heads with Jesus Christ, you're wrong and he's not. You're trying to fit Him into your system. You're trying to fit Him into the foundation that you're building. You're trying to fit Him into the religion. Listen, He will never ever fit. Here's what you do. You take down what you're building and start building around Him. That's how it works, amen? That's how it works. If there's any other questions that they might have had, listen how Peter brings it to conclusion in verse 12. This is the text this morning. He finishes it this way, above all of that, neither is there salvation in any other. Why? For there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved. What's your answer, Peter? Why are you doing this, Jesus? How did this lame man get healed, Jesus? Who gives you your authority, Jesus? Why does He have all of this authority? Because there's no other way to be saved but by Jesus Christ. That's it. What am I saying this morning? Well, He was the answer. He was the answer for the lame man. He was the answer for Israel. He was the answer for the governmental leaders. He was the answer for the religious leaders. Listen to me this morning, ladies and gentlemen, I'm telling you, Jesus was the answer then, and it's more emphatic today than it has ever been, and more self-evident than it has ever been, that Jesus is still the answer today. Amen. Are we good with that? He's still the answer. Amen. He's the answer for the Muslim. He is. Well, I thought they had Mohammed. Well, wrong stone. Doesn't fit. Then you quit building around that and build around Jesus. Then they wouldn't be a Muslim anymore. I heard a wonderful testimony the other day. One of the better testimonies I've ever heard of a former Muslim. I'm going to tell you something. kind of more in a public scene here. I really struggle with Muslims that come to Jesus by a dream. I struggle with that. They need the gospel of Jesus Christ. And I heard a testimony of this Muslim, what a testimony it was, and how he came to Christ, because in Iran he kept hearing the gospel over twice. Twice he had heard the gospel, and he didn't know what to do with it. He struggled with it. And time went on, he tried to get deeper and deeper into Islam. He thought, if I appease Allah more, and pray to Allah more, and do more, and this, and he said he never filled it, never filled it, and he came to the end of himself, and he heard the gospel again. And he said, I got alone. I said, either this is true or it's not. I don't know. I don't understand who Jesus is. But he went on to believe as he got the gospel again. He believed Christ. He put his faith and trust in Jesus Christ. He prayed and received Christ. He said, that day I walked home and my mother, she said, I walked to the house and my mother said, what happened to you? He said there's a glow about me. He eventually had to leave Iran for his life. But his testimony was incredible. What happened to this Muslim? He met Jesus. He met Jesus. Muhammad couldn't do it. Allah couldn't. And listen, Allah is not another name for God, okay? It's not another name for the God of the Bible. Allah could not do it. He couldn't do it. Why? Because He doesn't exist. He's not real. They need Jesus Christ. He's the answer to the Muslim. He's the answer for the Buddhist. He's the answer for the Hindu. He's the answer for the American, right? He's the answer for the atheist, for the transgender, for the agnostic, for the homosexual, for the politicians. Oh, they need Jesus, amen. Absolutely they do. He's the answer. He is. I wish we could drive this into our mind and into our heart and into every fiber of our being that Jesus Christ is the answer. He's the answer for the prison system. He's the answer for the drug epidemic. He is the answer for the debauchery that we call the college campus in America today. He's the answer for the public school system. Boy, I got riled this week You know what the average GPA of a certain school system there is out of one of our school systems in the county that I live in? You know what the average GPA is? 1.0! And we're pouring money after money after money into these schools. You know what would help them a lot more? Put the Ten Commandments back in the hallways and preach Christ. You know what would help them with their education? It's a spiritual issue. There's no reason a child of God should do that poorly unless they're mentally challenged, right, in this education system that we have available to us today. What am I saying? The public school system, it needs Jesus. They need Jesus. He's the answer for the lonely. He's the answer for the rejected. He's the answer for the unloved. He's the answer for the broken hearted. Yeah, He's the answer. I'm not talking about other religions this morning. I'm talking about a real, viable relationship with God Himself through Jesus Christ. He's the answer. All of Israel's religion couldn't save them. because salvation isn't in a religion. It isn't in a system. It isn't in what your family brought you up in. It isn't in what your family believes today, right? It is in a person, Jesus Christ. I've told you this before, out on visitation, asking people their testimonies after they tell us they're saved. And how many times I've heard in one way or another, one form or another, them relying upon the position and the belief system and the religion of their family that determines whether they believe they're saved or not. I had a young man tell me, I said, when did you become a Christian? Goes to a big church east of town here. When did you become a Christian? You were with me, remember that? I guess the second day my parents brought me home from the hospital, I don't know. Yeah, nice young man, nice guy. It wasn't the first time. I hear it a lot. You hear it a lot. Yeah. That's not where a relationship's found. No, listen. You might get, if you start with a relationship, the right relationship, you'll get a right religion, but you will never get a right relationship from religion. Because it's not available. It's not what it is. Yeah. So he's the answer. Do you believe he's the answer? No, I'm asking you, do you believe He's the answer? He's got to be preached. If He's the answer, He's got to be preached, right? It's one thing to know there is an answer, it's another thing to know the answer. You know, there's people out there, could you imagine taking a test? Imagine a test that you've never received the answers for? You've never been educated? You ever get a pop quiz and you're going, you ever had this at school? You're going, no, they never talked about this. No, we, usually in my case, they always had, right? I was convinced. They had never talked about this. We never went over this. Well, then how did she get a 100, right? Obviously, somebody talked about it, right? But could you imagine getting the test and, no literally, you didn't know the subject, you didn't know the question, you definitely didn't know the answer, and then you're judged for it? That'd be terrible. See this morning there's a dying world that needs to know the answer to the questions. Do you know the questions the world are asking today? You know what young people are asking today? You know what they're asking? Where did I come from? Why am I here? What is the meaning of life? Why am I here? Where am I going? Where am I going? I think we're getting more and more in a culture, in a society, that doesn't even think about heaven at all. They don't even think about, you know, we've got a track back there I'm really debating on changing the front cover of. Because when you ask somebody and tell somebody, hey, you know, you can know 100% sure you're going to heaven, they're, well, what's heaven? Who cares? 30 years ago, it's like, oh, really? I want to go to heaven. Everybody wanted to go to heaven. Everybody's like, no, today's like, what's heaven? I don't know. There's a dying world that's looking for answers. They're all around us. They're in your neighborhood. They're at the grocery store. They're at the gas station. They're everywhere you go. They are all around us. They may not come out and ask you these questions. Eventually, sometimes they do. But these are the questions. How on earth does life have meaning? You mean I'm just going to breathe air for 50 or 60 or 70 or maybe even 90 or 100 years and then cease to exist? No. So then what is the meaning of this life? Well, it's Jesus. He's the answer to every one of those questions. But watch, the world will never get the answer unless he's preached. They will never get the answer unless Jesus comes out of our mouth to them. It'll never happen. You say, well, they have conscience and creation. Oh, sure. Absolutely. We all do. We have light. We have a natural revelation that helps us to be aware that there's a God. But once we get that revelation and respond to the light we have, hey, we've got to hear the gospel. And listen, I know this. I know that God will move heaven and earth to bring somebody the gospel who has responded to the light that they have. But here's the problem. Why don't you want it to be you to deliver the light? Or why don't I want it to be me to deliver the light of the gospel? Why don't I care at times? Why don't we care at times? That's the bigger question, isn't it? Yeah, we all agree. We agree is the answer, right? And he's the only answer. We agree it's not Muhammad. We agree it's not in Buddhism. We agree it's not in self, in atheism or anything like that. It's another religion. But we agree that. So why don't we tell them what the answer is? I'm trying to think where to go. Let me just bring this to a close this morning. Let me close it up. The world needs Jesus Christ. Even if you live 100 years on planet Earth, You're gonna be dead for a billion billion times a thousand billion to the 10,000th power longer than you've ever been alive. Got thinking the other day, we were talking about this yesterday, I think. Methuselah, hey, he lived to be what, 969? Pretty good. He's been dead for about 5,000 years. Maybe a little less. Been dead a long time. Listen, if you make it 110 years, there's some lady that's 104, they said, how'd you do it? Three Dr. Peppers a day. She was convinced. But you know what? Even if that works for her, she's still going to put this earth suit off someday, and she's going to stand in the presence of God, and she's going to give an account whether she received His Son, Jesus Christ, or whether she did not. That's all it comes down to. and the rest of her eternal existence, the rest of our eternal existence is going to be determined by what we do with Jesus. Hey, you might figure out how to live this life without Jesus, but you will never figure out how to live the next life without Him. It won't be possible. You will live separate from Him for the rest of your eternal existence, sadly, in a place called hell. That's what Jesus said. Yeah. Really? It's just Jesus? Well, why? Well, how about, for starters, every other religious leader that has ever been on this planet is dead and in a grave somewhere. How about that? Yes. No other religious leader claimed to be God. No other religious leader that I know of could, with a straight face, get up and say, which of you convinces me of sin? I wouldn't do that. That'd be stupid. No other religious leader said he'd take your sin away. I was talking to a Muslim up in Canada. I think I've probably told this one before. Like I said before, I need to go on a new trip to get new stories. I was talking to a Muslim in Canada and he was telling me the virtues of Islam and around and around we go. And he's from Indonesia. And eventually I asked him, I said, do you sin? Have you sinned, right? Ten commandments? Have you ever stolen anything? He said, yeah. You ever lied about anything? Yeah. You ever lusted? Yeah. I mean, his head's going down a little bit more and more each time. I said, you know, you have a load, you have a load of sin on your shoulders. You have a load of sin on you. And Muhammad never has offered to take it. He's never even offered. Beyond He can't, He has no ability. He has not even offered. It's that only Jesus Christ has offered to take away your sin. And only Jesus Christ has proven that He has the ability to take your sin. That's the truth of the matter, isn't it? It's Jesus Christ. Hey listen, in no other religion in the world does the God of their religion, watch, love them back. But Jesus loves you before, He loves you during, and He'll love you eternally. Amen. He's the answer. Question number one. Do you know Him? Do you know Jesus? No, not do you know religion, not are you excited about church, not do you like the things of God, not do you like the Bible, right? I liked the Bible before I got saved. I didn't have a problem with it. But do you know, when did you meet Jesus? Personally, personally. When did you come before God, between you and Him alone, and confess, yes, I'm a sinner, I understand my condition, I know I am lost and without Christ, and I believe what Jesus did. I believe the blood is sufficient that Jesus shed, not the blood of the Old Testament of bulls and goats, but the blood Jesus shed is sufficient to wipe away all sin and make it possible so I can have that relationship back with God again. I believe that. When did you stand before God and say, I know what I am, and I believe what Jesus is, And I want that. When did you do that? Do you know him? If you know him, you need to know him today before it's too late. I told the church Wednesday night some family friends of ours that we've known for years, years and years and years. Brother Eddie got saved a couple months ago. He's got to be close to 80. Been in a church his whole life. Been in a good independent Baptist church his entire life. His parents were in that church. He's been in that church. He's almost 80 years old, I think. And Eddie got saved. And I had this thought. He was that close to going to hell at 80 years old. You talk about the grace, the long-suffering, and the mercy of God. Do not put it off. do not put it off. He's the answer. He is the answer. You need Him. You need Him. You say, well, I believe Him. I love Jesus. Yeah, but have you put your faith and trust in Him? Was there a day? Hey, was there a day? Listen, people remember when they get married and say, I do, right? There's a day. There's a time. It's personal. A friend of mine, a pastor in Ash Grove, his son got saved a couple years ago. Came to his office after church. And he said, Dad, how did he get saved? Kid was probably late teens, early 20s. He said, are you sure? Are you sure? What is it? And he goes, it has never been personal for me. It has never been personal. It has never been between me and God. And he said, oh, OK. OK. He's the answer. Do you know Him? Number two, He's the answer. Are you preaching Him? Preach Him. That's why we give to missions. This is why we're giving to missions. Because He's the answer. Amen? Right? Could you imagine giving money to something that's not the answer? Do you know how much money goes out of our bank accounts for things that aren't even the answer? Father, thank You this morning for Your Word. I'm so thankful that Jesus is the answer. It's so simple. It's so simple. I thank you for Jesus. I thank you that he reeled me in year after year after year. He just kept reeling me in, showing himself, proving himself, loving me, loving me through people. And I'm so thankful that he does that with every person on the planet. I'm so thankful for the testimonies in this room this morning of those that have been born again of the Spirit of God. They put their faith and trust in Jesus. And you saved them, because you said you would. And you're not a liar. I thank you for that. Father, it could be that there's somebody here today, like a Brother Eddie, who needs to get saved. I pray today they'd come to Jesus. You set aside their religion. set aside their experience and come to Christ today. And then Father, for those of us who know Jesus, would you help us? Would you grip us with the reality that He is the only reason and He's got to be preached. The world has got to hear the name of Jesus and the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Would you help us to get busy? Well, thank you in Jesus' name. Amen. Let's stand this morning. The instrument's going to play, however the Lord has spoken to you today. However He's spoken to you today, you come. Some have been praying already. However, the Lord has spoken to you. Are you giving? Are you preaching? Are you giving the gospel? Are you saved? Is it between you and Him? Do you remember the day that you came to Jesus? Acknowledging, knowing that you were a sinner and you needed to be born again. You can come today and be born again. However, God has spoken to you. Maybe there is something else that the Holy Spirit put upon your heart and talked to you about and you need to come to Him. You come today. How ready are you like Peter and John to be searching out an opportunity at every given moment, at every given circumstance to have an opportunity to speak the name of Jesus. May God help us in that. Praise the Lord. We'll have discipleship again tonight.