Good morning. How's everybody today? Well our launching point this morning will be Luke chapter 9 verse 51. But we'll also be going at some point spending a little more time actually in Jeremiah 31 and Romans chapter 3. So we'll kind of be all over the place this morning but I want to begin here with Luke 9 51 because There's such a concise statement that gives such a brilliant illustration of the ministry of Jesus, because we're taking a look at the ministry of Jesus. We will take a break from this for the next few weeks. I will be doing series on Thanksgiving, on being grateful. And I think that'll be very edifying, and then we'll have the holidays, and I want to take a look at the covenants, and then we'll come back into the life of Christ early next year, starting in the last week of his ministry. And so with this as a breaking point, I wanted to take a moment to kind of sum up and refocus us because we've learned so much from the life of Christ. We've learned about the fact that he was completely man, but he was also completely God. We've learned about the great miracles that he did. We've learned about the great teaching that he shared, and all these things, and it can be confusing sometimes you can kind of lose sight of what the main purpose of his first coming was. And so we're going to take a look at that today to really get us in focus because everything that he is and everything that he did has at its core and at its focus him providing himself as a sacrifice for sins. And that becomes the really core central issue and everything else we learn about the life of Christ and everything else we learn from the Bible, it kind of comes together there at the cross and then the resurrection being tied closely to that as being of the two things of most importance and most significance in all these things that we study. So we're going to look at, in Luke 9, verse 51, there begins to be a transition in his ministry. He turns his focus to his final trip to Jerusalem, and it reminds us of the primary purpose of his ministry. He turns toward Jerusalem knowing full well what is to take place there, and even begins to share that with his disciples, though they never seem to understand it until after the resurrection. And this is an important time because if we look at the four Gospels that we have, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, and we look at the chapters and what they're devoted to, are they devoted to teaching, to healing, to his birth narrative, to the genealogy, things like that, we find all in all about one-third of all the chapters in the Gospels are focused upon his last week leading up to his crucifixion, the crucifixion and his resurrection. And so of all the material in the Gospels, roughly a third of it is focused on a period of about 10 or 11 days. And it's very profound for us to understand what happened during those days, what happened during that time, and to take the cue from the Gospel writers that, hey, this is really the main thing. And all these other things are important, and all these things add to this, but the main thing is this, that he went and he offered himself for sins, and then he rose again. So we're gonna look today at Luke 9, verse 51, and you know I very rarely just use a single verse to start off, but I think you're gonna understand when we read it. It says this in Luke 9, 51. When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem. Let's pray. Father God, we praise you this day for your word. We thank you for this verse. We thank you, Lord, for the weight of meaning that it has. And I pray, Lord, that you will impart that meaning to us today, that you'll help us to understand, and that you'll help us, Lord, to respond to it in a way that is pleasing to you. We thank you in Jesus' name. Amen. It's very interesting the way this is phrased in Luke 9.51, because it says, when the days drew near for him to be taken up. In other words, there was a timeline that Jesus was on. And in his earthly ministry, he was not in charge of it. Now he was in charge of himself completely. He was even in charge of laying down his life and taking it up again. But there was a timeline and things already set in motion by the father, commanded by the father to take place in a particular way. And he was marching toward his destiny on the cross. Purposefully, it says he set his face to go to Jerusalem. The big thing we want to understand today is this, Jesus said and did many incredible things during his earthly ministry, but the primary purpose of his first visit was to offer himself as an atoning sacrifice for the forgiveness of sins. So that answers our question then, why did Jesus come? If someone were to ask you why did Jesus come, or you were to ask somebody that question, That's an excellent way to begin to understand what they understand about Jesus, is to ask the question, why did Jesus come? So many times we go to share our faith with somebody, and they say, yeah, I already go to church, and then we don't know what else to say. And yet you know that they're not faithful in church, or you know that they go to a church that doesn't necessarily preach the truth, and you want to say more, but you don't know what to say. I'm gonna give you today what to say. Here's what you say. Are you ready? What is your understanding of the purpose that Jesus came for? That's your question. How do you understand why it is that Jesus came? Why did Jesus come? And ask them that question, because indeed, if they have claimed Christianity, they have brought you into their circle of Christianity, and now you can talk about Christianity. And so you talk about Jesus Christ. Why did he come? Well, as we saw last time, when we looked at Matthew chapter 20, in verse 28, Jesus said that the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. He's giving that there as his purpose for coming was to be a ransom. But I'm gonna take you on a quick tour through the Bible and show you that this is not an isolated thing. If we go all the way back to the beginning, Genesis chapters 1 through 3, we saw that God put Adam and Eve in the garden. Everything was perfect, but there was one rule. Don't eat from the tree of light, or the tree of the knowledge of good and evil that's in the midst of the garden. And he gives a consequence for disobedience, for in the day you eat of it, you shall surely die. Well, every covenant of God contains both law and promise. And the promise came after they had sinned, after they took a bite of the apple, as you and I probably would have done in the garden. So let's not hang all the trouble on Adam and Eve. He gives a promise. He promises that a seed of the woman would crush the head of Satan. In other words, that someone, an individual, would come from the lineage of the woman and would defeat the source of temptation, Satan himself, but that this one seed that would come, he himself would have his heel bruised. In other words, he would suffer in this exchange. There would be a cost to it. The very first mention of Christ is a mention that he will come and solve things, but indeed it will cost him. And we see later in that same chapter kind of a picture of Jesus Christ as Adam and Eve, after they sin, they look around, they realize they're naked because they were totally okay with it before. Without sin, they were okay with that. And I know that's hard for most of us to imagine, and I ask you not to try to imagine it too much. But all of a sudden they realize now we're naked. They try to make clothes for themselves and God looks at that and he shows us something. He shows us that no covering that we can make for our own nakedness, our own shame, our own sin will be sufficient. He instead offered them clothing of skins. Now most of you are farmers and can handle this information. You understand that you cannot have the skin of an animal without sacrificing the animal. And so that's a picture of Jesus Christ, that there was a sacrifice that provided a covering for the man and the woman. It was a picture of what Jesus would do when he came and offered himself a sacrifice for sin. If this is cutting out, can you bring me a couple batteries? They're back there on the table back there. Because I have a feeling the batteries are dying in this thing, so. We'll bring those up here, and if need be, I'll change them in a bit. But all the way back there in Chapter 3, we see that a death would be necessary to cure sin, and that we cannot make a suitable covering of our own, that there's going to have to be something made for us by God. Well, the balance of the Old Testament is primarily about a nation called Israel. And it begins with a man called Abraham. And Abraham is called by God in Genesis chapter 12. And he is called and he is given a great promise. He is told that all nations will be blessed through him. And we understand that to be speaking very clearly after having seen Jesus Christ and learned of him of the New Testament, it's talking about that nation would bring forth Jesus Christ and then people from all nations could be saved. Then he gave a law to the people of Israel. He gave them a land to live in and he began fulfilling in these people, he began fulfilling prophecies. And as you read the Old Testament, you understand very clearly that Israel struggled. They had many failures and eventually went into exile. And so God had made a deal with them. In the last chapters of Deuteronomy, you read about it. And he goes, look, if you follow me, everything's going to be great in the land. You're going to have food. You're going to have peace. You're going to have plenty. But if you don't obey me, then you'll have enemies come upon you. You'll have difficulty and famine and sickness and all kinds of things in the land. And then eventually I'll have to take you out of it. And he did it all. Oh, okay. Thank you. So eventually God had to actually take them out of the land. And this is powerfully important because taking them out of the land cured them of their idolatry. That was their primary problem. that brought them into exile was that they were worshiping all these other gods. When they came back, they didn't worship all these other gods. But they had other problems. They still didn't follow God in the way that he showed them was necessary. They struggled, they returned to the land, but they still weren't following in the important way with their heart. And so the whole revelation of the entire Old Testament, if you wanna know what the point is of this much of your Bible, The point is this, the problem is sin. The problem with the world is sin. The problem with me is sin. The problem with you is sin. This is the revelation of the Bible. Our problems are not foreign policy. Our problems are not ignorance of the law or a lack of laws. Our problem is not a lack of therapy or lack of medication or lack of education. Our problem as mankind is sin and it's illustrated through the entire Old Testament in the people of Israel. And I want you to think about this for a moment. Adam and Eve were placed in a garden. There was perfect peace. There was nothing that they had to work for. They had work to do that God gave them to do as a blessing, but to eat, they just had to walk up to a tree and pick it and eat it. They could know God. They walked with him in the cool of the day. They knew him personally. They had perfect peace. They would have lived forever had they not sinned. They would have had no sickness or difficulties. But they sinned. You see how important that is? Because how many people blame their sin on their circumstances? The crowd they run with, their upbringing, they didn't know any better. Well, here's mankind in a perfect situation and they sin. And then he does it again with the nation Israel because he says, I'm going to give you a land and I'm going to tell you my laws. I'm going to tell you exactly what is expected and none of it's too hard for you to do. And I'm going to give you a land. Not only am I going to give you acreage, I'm going to give you cities that you didn't have to build. I'm going to give you farms that you didn't have to plant and vineyards you didn't have to tend. And all these things will be set up ready for you. It's like another garden experience. And you know they failed? It's kind of what the balance of the Old Testament's about. And he gave them a sacrificial system. He gave them a way to meet with him at a tabernacle, which later became the temple, and he gave them a system to go through. You need to offer these particular offerings, these animals, for the atonement of sins for the people. And so we read those and we get a headache about halfway through Exodus, right? You know, the first part of Exodus is real exciting. Genesis is real interesting. Then we get about halfway through the book of Exodus and it starts with all the rules and all the laws and all the sacrificial system. And we're like, what could this possibly be all about? And it turns out it's all about Jesus. Turns out it's all about Jesus. Because God made it clear, look, these things will serve as a covering, but what you really have to do is love me with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself. He said that in the Old Testament. And he said, you know, the sacrifices you do, those are nice, but what I really want is your heart. And he says through the prophets time and time again, he's like, I would rather you stop the sacrifices and treat your neighbor like you're supposed to. Stop bringing me sacrifices when you're not living in a way with a good heart. And so the Old Testament was very clear these things are about the heart, about the sin in the heart. Listen to how Jeremiah says it. In Jeremiah chapter 31 are very significant verses because Israel had broken the covenant with God. They had ruined their chances, so to speak, with God. But he reveals that he's gonna bring a new covenant. And listen to the nature of the new covenant starting in Jeremiah 31, 31. He says, behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke. Though I was their husband, declares the Lord. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days declares the Lord. I will put my law within them and I will write it on their hearts and I will be their God and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother saying no the Lord for they shall all know me from the least of them to the greatest declares the Lord for I will forgive their iniquity and I will remember their sin no more. And so God says, I'm going to take obedience to me, and I'm going to take knowledge of me, and I'm going to put it in their heart. Now that's very interesting because he also reveals elsewhere in the Old Testament that God cannot be in the presence of sin. So how can he take himself and put himself in the heart of a human being? Well, it gives the answer at the end of the passage. He says, for I will forgive. In other words, all this is going to be possible because he will forgive their iniquity and will remember their sins no more. It's the forgiveness of sins that makes it possible for the Holy Spirit. Now, we understand that's what it means by the Lord writing the things on their hearts. To provide the Holy Spirit, it requires a forgiveness of sins because the Holy Spirit cannot dwell with sin. You say, well, wait a minute, then I'm a believer and I have the Holy Spirit and yet I still sin. How is all this work? Because legally, you have no sins, they are not remembered anymore. Because they were paid for by Jesus Christ. The really fascinating thing about all this that he announces here in this new covenant and everything is that he actually gives a timeline for the atonement of the sin. In Daniel chapter nine, we find the servant Daniel. He's in exile. This is at the time when finally Israel got the boot out of the land. They had pressed God all the way to the point where he's like, okay, you're out of there. And the temple gets destroyed and the Babylonians come and carry a bunch of them off into exile. And Daniel's one of those people, carried off in exile. He's out of his land. The temple's been destroyed. His people are in a disgrace, scattered around the world. And he begins to pray to God. And he repents to God for the sins of the nation. And he says, we've done wickedly, we've done wrong, and everything you've done to us has been right. If you ever want to pray a good prayer, just tell God he's right. Because he is. And this is what Daniel's doing. He's pouring out his heart to God. And he's, you know, he's so contrite over this. He was physically ill over this, and he was fasting for days over this. And then God gives him a revelation, which disturbed him even more, but was a blessing to him because God gave a great answer that these things aren't over. In Daniel chapter 9, verses 24 to 27, and I'm not going to go through it here. I've gone through it before, and you can find it on the website. He sets a timeline that from a decree to rebuild Jerusalem to the coming of the Messiah would be 69 weeks, 69 weeks of years. And it turns out the math works out to the time that Jesus came and presented himself in the triumphal entry. See, Jesus had a timeline. God had set it in motion hundreds of years before. Daniel was some 600 years before Christ. But what's very telling about Daniel chapter 9 verses 24 to 27 is this. There are some things in that list of things he says this amount of time, 70 weeks is the total amount of time he's dealing with, to deal with particular things. Some of the things on the list are fulfilled and some are not. The ones that are fulfilled already by Jesus is to atone for iniquity. To anoint a most holy place, we'll find later in the book of Hebrews that Jesus, the priest will go into the Holy of Holies once a year to offer sacrifice for the sins of Israel. He'd sprinkle the blood in the holy place, right? The Holy of Holies. Well, the book of Hebrews tells us Jesus did that in the real Holy of Holies in heaven, offering himself, his own blood. That's been done. And then he also says to seal up vision and prophet. The prophecies are sealed up. They're done. The apostles revealed a great deal and they wrote it down in the New Testament and this is all sealed up now. It's done. But there's some things in the list not fulfilled to finish transgression. We know there's still sin, right? It says to put an end to sin. Well, that's not done yet completely. And to bring an everlasting righteousness, we know that happens when he returns and comes back the second time. He's going to bring an everlasting righteousness. Sin will be at an end. And so he actually set a timeline to these things. He's going to put an end to sin. One of our favorite passages about our Savior that comes from the Old Testament is in Isaiah chapter 53. And the emphasis in chapter 53 when it comes to Jesus is this, that he was pierced for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities. Upon him was the chastisement or punishment that brought us peace. And with his wounds we are healed. The emphasis of that whole passage is his sacrifice that he makes for sins. Now, it's an important passage to understand because you'll find very often quoted, by his wounds we are healed, and people will claim that is, that means if I'm in Jesus, I'll be physically healed of everything all the time. No, the healing there is speaking of sins quite clearly from the context. The word sin appears in every form the Hebrews add multiple times in that passage. The emphasis is the sin and his sacrifice for it. That's just an overview of what the Old Testament says about the coming of Christ, why he came. What does the New Testament say? Well, in the announcement to Joseph, an angel appears to Joseph to announce to him, yeah, indeed, you're going to have a son, but it's not going to be in the usual way. And he tells him to name him Jesus. And it gives the reason, because he will save his people from his sins. The very name Jesus, which is the Greek version of the Hebrew Joshua or Yehoshua, means Yahweh saves. It means he saves. God named him that. In John 1.29, it's interesting, when John the Baptist sees Jesus coming, he says, behold the Lamb of God, who does what? Makes our lives better? Behold the Lamb of God who gives us purpose and peace. No? He said, behold the Lamb of God who will grow your business. He didn't say that. He said, behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. See, the lambs were what was offered in the Old Testament, sacrifices, many of them. He calls Jesus the Lamb of God who will take away the sins of the world. You get into the letters and you find many interesting things. In Galatians 1-4, Paul says of Jesus, he gave himself for our sins to deliver us from the present evil age according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen. God gets all the glory for that. And if you go to 1 Corinthians chapter 15, Paul sums up the gospel as a very important verses in the beginning of 1 Corinthians 15, because this is what Paul believed the most concise statement of the gospel to be. And in those verses, in Paul's very concise summary of the good news, the only purpose attached to Jesus' life and ministry is that he died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures. Are you convinced that the primary reason Jesus came was to present himself an offering for sin? Good. Let's go to the book of Hebrews, chapter 9, verses 11 to 14. And all these cross references are in your bulletin, so you can kind of look at them later and follow through. But in Hebrews 9, verses 11 to 14, the book of Hebrews relies very heavily upon a knowledge of the Old Testament. It was written to people assuming they had some knowledge of the Old Testament. and the sacrificial system and the priesthood and things like that. Listen to what it says about Jesus. And it's telling the reader that Jesus is the fulfillment of all those things. He's the purpose of all those things. It says, when Christ appeared, starting at 9-11, when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, Then through the greater and more perfect tent, not made with hands, that is not of this creation, he entered once for all into the holy places. Not by means of the blood of goats and calves, but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption. For if the blood of goats and bulls and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer, these were all practices they did, if those sanctify for the purification of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal spirit offered himself without blemish to God, to purify our conscience from dead works, to serve the living God. It's summarized this way by me. The overwhelming testimony of the Bible is that sin is the problem and Jesus' death on the cross is the only solution. So what do we take from that? Well, what this means, it is so clear and so throughout all of scripture that this is the reason Jesus came. For us to attach any other purpose to our faith in Jesus Christ as being primary above it is an error. In other words, if we say Jesus came mostly just to show us the way, we're wrong. If we say he mostly just came to set an example, we're wrong. If we say he mostly just came to bring a message, he was a good prophet and teacher, he mostly came to encourage us, all those things, if we say those are primary, we're wrong. Now all those things are true. He did show the way. He did set an example. He did bring a message and teaching and encouragement. But those weren't the primary reasons he came. The primary reason he came happened in Jerusalem when he set his face toward Jerusalem to go there and fulfill it right on time. It's very common in our time. The reason why I spend any time on this at all is that it's so common in our context for people to attach other purposes for Jesus in hopes that it makes the gospel more attractive to people, but it makes the gospel not the gospel. We're told in 2 Timothy 4 that there'll be a time when people will have itching ears. In other words, they want to be told something, and they want to be told what they want to be told. And so they'll gather around them people who will tell them exactly what they want to hear. And this is exactly what we see in our times with regard to Jesus. People surround themselves with false teachers who tell them what they want to hear. They want to hear that Jesus will improve your life right now. They want to hear that Jesus will help you get what you want. They want to hear that Jesus doesn't care about your sin or the way you act. Hear that? People saying that all the time. And all those desires, those are all fleshly desires. We all want to be justified in what we're doing. We all want to have it our way. As a matter of fact, right now this world is tolerating Jesus and the gospel as long as we don't talk about sin. Because the law is written on our hearts. Every human being, the law is written on our hearts. Our conscience bears witness to these things, that sin is indeed the problem. And so when it's brought up by a Christian preaching the gospel, it makes people uncomfortable. This is when real persecution will begin in our own context. It'll begin against those who don't give up on the sin. Now the churches that compromise and say, oh, no, no, everybody's welcome, doesn't matter how you live. You can do whatever you want and claim Jesus. They'll go on. They'll be all right. They'll be left alone. But let it be a sign to you that the world approves. And the Bible says that friendship with the world is enmity with God. Well, the last passage I want to go to is Romans chapter 3 because what comes to us is how does this work? I get that Jesus came to offer himself a sacrifice for sins. In Romans chapter 3, a chapter that is worthy of your study very closely. Starting in verse 21, here's what it says. It says, now the righteousness of God has been manifested, that means it came into being, it's materialized, apart from the law, although the law and prophets bear witness to it, the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction, all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, but are justified by his grace as a gift. Through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. Now here's where it really begins to talk about how this works. Verse 25. Whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood to be received by faith. A propitiation is a satisfying payment. It is an appeasing offering. It is something given to God for which he says yes. That pays for it, and they're good now. He's a propitiation for sin. And it goes on to say, this was to show God's righteousness. See, we have no righteousness. He's made three chapters. He's made the point we have no righteousness of our own to offer. But he says this was to show God's righteousness because in his divine forbearance, that is his patiently putting up with this, he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. At the end of verse 26, there's two words there that are closely related that need to be explained. This is done this way. that Jesus is put forth as a payment for our sins by his death on the cross so that God can be both just and the justifier. To be just means that God has done everything legally. The law has been fulfilled. The law that said, in the garden, in the day you eat of it, you shall surely die. The laws that he gave to the people of Israel, he said, this is your condition as being a human being in relationship with me. All those laws, all that revelation, the Ten Commandments, everything, God is totally right with all those to forgive us. because payment's been made. He didn't ignore the sin. He didn't just forget about the law and rewrite it. No, he fulfilled the law by saying, okay, punishment has been done and it's been done on Jesus, on our behalf. So you see what it means by he is just. But he's not only just, because He is just in that way in offering Jesus for our sins, He is also the justifier. In other words, the one who makes us right with Him. He is the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. He is just, He kept the law, He did everything in its proper order, and payment was made, and then He is the justifier, the one who makes us righteous through his own righteousness. Well, what does this matter to me? Well, first of all is this, you notice at the end of verse 26, it's very clear, the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. That means the one who believes in Jesus. First thing, you must believe on the Lord Jesus Christ to be saved. And this kind of belief is not just being convinced or not just accepting. It's a kind of belief that is a trust. You ever go off to camp or something for the summer or whatever and they do a trust fall? I was never particularly good at those because I don't trust people. But you just fall backwards and someone's supposed to catch you. That's what it's talking about with God. You're not holding on to anything of your own. You're not grasping at anything. Your good works. You're not trying to take hold of sin and keep a hug on it. You're just letting go and letting God. And he will catch you. This is true belief in Jesus Christ. Once you have that belief in Jesus Christ, then this is an encouragement, knowing that the whole thing's about sin, and that that's the primary purpose of Jesus coming the first time, you're going to want to live a holy life now. If you believe in Jesus Christ, if you really believe that he took your place, what should have cost you eternal death and torment, if you really believe he took that upon himself, then you're going to want to live in a way that's appropriate now. 1 Thessalonians 4, verse 3 says, this is the will of God, your sanctification, your further setting apart. In other words, you being more and more holy the longer you live, growing toward God in your behavior. Paul put it this way in Romans 12, he said, offer yourself a living sacrifice. Give yourself over to him. This is the primary sign That you're a believer in Jesus Christ is that you are given over to him. That you are more concerned about what he says about things than what you think about things or what the world thinks about things. And that you are concerned with living as he would have you live. It doesn't mean you perfectly do it, but it means that when you fail, you go to him and you repent and you say, help me to do better. And your real heart's desire is to give it up. You go and offer yourself as a living sacrifice day by day, and every moment's a new start for a believer in Jesus Christ. You have not messed up too bad to get right with God right now, today, and any day. And finally, go and make disciples. Go and make disciples. Not gonna give a full altar call to, you know, put you into the ministry or anything else, but do you understand that if Jesus is the only way to receive forgiveness of sins, and that the alternative is an eternity of suffering and death, you will want to tell others about it. Because there's others you want to see saved. So go therefore and make disciples, teaching them all that Jesus taught. And that means you'll be able to go to them with the truth, with the gospel, with the real emphasis that the gospel has, and that being that Jesus came to pay the price for sin. Let's pray. Father God, we praise you this day and we thank you so much. And Lord, we recognize that we must, because your story is so big and so incredible, We often just have to focus in on a particular thing in order to understand that and how it fits in. We understand that Jesus coming to pay the price for our sins is the biggest piece of the puzzle. There are many other pieces, many other things that are very important. That you're concerned about our lives, you're concerned about our hearts and how we live and all those things. But Lord, help us to know that of primary importance is the sin issue. especially Lord when we share the truth with those around us. Help us to find the words to share it in a way that that is meaningful not judgmental but in a way that is inviting to come to the Savior and be healed of sin. Lord I pray this day that everyone hearing this indeed is experiencing this healing from sin but if they have not Lord I pray today you would open their heart to truly see their need for the atonement of Jesus Christ, and to give themselves over to it this day. We thank you for this great encouragement, and as we move forward, Lord, let us learn everything we can about everything the gospel has, but keep it in proper perspective. We thank you, in Jesus' name, amen.