Two Ways - Ps 1

It in Christ alone my hope is found. He is my light, my strength, my song this cornerstone, this solid ground Firm through the fiercest drought and storm what heights of love, what depths of pace when fears are still, when striving cease My comforter, my all in all Here in the love of Christ I stand in Christ alone who took on flesh fullness of God in helpless babe this gift of love and righteousness scorned by the ones he came to save Till on that cross as Jesus died the wrath of God was satisfied for every sin on him was laid here in the death of Christ I live there in the ground his body lay the light of the world by darkness lay then bursting forth in glorious day up from the grave he rose again and as he stands in victory since curse has lost its grip on me For I am his and he is mine. Born with the precious blood of Christ no guilt in alive, no fear in death this is the power of Christ in me. From life's first cry to final breath Jesus commands my desolate. No power of hell, no scheme of man can ever blood me from his hand Till he return what calls me home.

Here in the power of Christ I will stand through every battle, through every heartbreak, through every circumstance. I believe that you are my fortress. Oh, you are my portion, you are my hiding place. Oh, I believe you are the way, the truth and the life I believe you are the way, the truth in the life I believe through every blessing, through every promise, through every breath I take. I believe that you are provider oh, you are protector, you are the one I love.

I believe you are the way, the truth in the life I believe you are the way, the truth, the life I believe you are.

Oh, you are, oh, you are and it's a new horizon. Oh, I'm set on you and you meet me here today with mercies that are new. All my fears and doubts, they can all come too because they can't stay long when I'm here with you. It's a new horizon and I'm set on you and you meet me here today with mercies out of new home yeah, my fears and doubts they can all come too because they can't stay long when I believe you are the way. The truth, the lies I believe you are the way.

Oh, in the truth the life is a new It's a new horizon and I'm set on you and you made me heal it. Mercy's out. My fears and doubts they can all come to because they can't stay long when I be with you I believe you are the way. The way I believe.

How deep the Father's love for us. How vast beyond all measure that he should give his only Son and make a wretched treasure. How great the pain of searing loss. The Father turns his face away as wounds which mar the chosen One bring many sons to glory.

Behold the man upon his cross, My sin upon his shoulders. Ashamed, I hear my mocking voice call out among the scoffers.

It was my sin that held him there until it was accomplished. His dying breath has brought me life. I know that it is finished.

I will not boast in anything. No gifts, no power, no wisdom. But I will boast in Jesus Christ, his death and resurrection. Why should I gain from his reward? I cannot give an answer but this I know with all my heart.

His wounds have paid my ransom.

Why should I gain from his reward? I cannot give an answer, but this I know with all my heart. His words have paid my ransom.

Father, thank you for this day that you have given us. Lord, thank you for your blessings and your mercy and all good things that you have given us. Father, we thank you that we can be here today. And we thank you, Lord, for your wounds that have paid our ransom. Father, I pray as we go into study tonight that your spirit will be with us.

And I pray, Lord, that you will move within us today. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.

Good evening, everyone, and welcome back. It's gonna take me just one minute to get up and going because we have not had Internet until right now. In fact, the only reason I'm in here is because it's coming through my mobile hotspot. So I need just one moment. I'm sorry, brother.

She sh.

All right. I am sorry about that. It. During worship, we were rushing to try and get everything connected and working and it just. Yeah, we didn't even get.

I literally got Internet turned on at the very last second as worship was ending just in time to say the prayer. So today we're going to begin a new sermon series. We ended the the series through the Epistles of John and we're gonna go through the Book of Psalms. In fact, I'm gonna go ahead here and just get our Psalms pulled up. I'm gonna begin in psalm chapter one today.

But just so you know, I am not going to go through chapter by chapter, per se. There's 150 chapters in the Book of Psalms and normally I go chapter by chapter and I'm not going to do that here. I also, at this point would normally give some form of a Introduction to the book. But I'm not gonna do that with the book of Psalms. And the reason being is the book of Psalms does not have just one theme, one recurring theme, or one purpose and message, but it's rather a collection of several songs or prayers, and not even from one author, but from various authors.

So we're kind of gonna work on it as a kind of a. I don't know. It's gonna be different each week, and we'll figure it out as we go. So with that said, we are gonna look at Psalms chapter one today. And I just want to begin with first one.

It says, how happy is the one who does not walk in the advice of the wicked, or stand in the pathway of sinners, or sit in the company of mockers. We begin here with a simple statement, how happy.

I find this opening statement intriguing because if you ask a lot of atheists or a lot of peoples about Christianity or about religion in general, they'll tell you that it's about restricting happiness, restricting freedom, restricting your ability to have free will, in essence. And so this begins. It says, how happy is the one who does not walk in the advice of the wicked, or stand in the pathway with sinners, or sit in the company of mockers. We're gonna spend the vast majority of our time today. I'm actually on this one verse.

There's six verses in the chapter. We're gonna spend the bulk of our time here in this one verse. And I want to begin by addressing real quick happiness. So he says here, as the Father has loved me, I have also loved you. Remain in my love.

If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commands and remain in his love. And I have told you these things so that my joy may be in you, and your joy may be complete. This is from John 15, right? And here's what he says. He says, as the Father has loved me, I have loved you.

And he says, to remain in my love, right? Most translations are gonna say abide right there. Not remain right, but remain in his love. He's loved us with such a great and deep love, right? The same love as the Father.

And he says, remain in that. And then he says, if you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commands and remain in his love. So he tells us that if we remain in his love, if we sit in it, that we will keep his commands. I want to point out that's not because we have to notice. He doesn't say, you have to keep my commands or I order you to keep my commands, but he says, you will.

We've talked about on Wednesday services and Sunday services now for several weeks, that love and God cannot be separated and that all of the commandments of God can be summed up in love. So when he tells us to keep his commandments here in verse 11, he says this. He says, I have told you these things so that my joy will be in you and your joy will be complete.

So God doesn't just tell us to obey his commands so that we will be miserable or so that we won't have freedom, or so that we can exercise our free will. But he tells us to remain in his commands because he wants us to be happy. He wants us to be truly happy. Have you ever noticed? Right.

Look at. Look at the sinners. And that's not to say, you know, in a pharisitical way that we're not sinners, but look at the wicked of the world. Those who don't know God are. Are they happy?

I don't think so. They're all chasing after a solution. They're all looking for something. There is no true joy in their lives. They have moments of happiness and moments of joy, but nothing that is lasting, nothing that sticks.

And Jesus wants us to not just be happy in the moment, but he wants us to have happiness, right? Joyfulness that persists through life's tragedies, through tribulations, through persecutions, through. Keep in mind, who is right in this. This is a psalm of David, right? And anyone who knows who David is knows of the persecutions and.

And the sufferings and trials and tribulations that he went through in his life. We're not talking about a temporal or worldly happiness, but an eternal one. So now that we've addressed happiness here, he actually, he tells us who is happy. And he gives us three. Three identifying things that we need to look at.

First, the person who does not walk in the advice of the wicked. This is critical. What is the advice of the wicked?

I guess before I say what I was gonna say, let's just address this by looking at Romans, chapter one. We're gonna pick up. In verse 18, it says, God's wrath is revealed from heaven against all godlessness and unrighteousness of people who by their unrighteousness, suppress the truth. So big thing right there. Suppress the truth, since what can be known about God is evident among them because God has shown it to them for his invisible attributes.

That is his eternal power and divine nature have been clearly seen since the creation of the world, being understood through what he has made. As a result, people are without excuse. For though they knew God, they did not glorify him as God or show gratitude. Instead, their thinking became worthless and their senseless hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man, birds, four footed animals and reptiles.

Therefore, God delivered them over in their desires of their hearts to sexual impurities so that their bodies are degraded among themselves. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie and worshiped and served what has been created instead of the Creator who is praised forever. Amen. For this reason, God delivered them over to disgraceful passions. Their woman exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones.

The men in the same way also left natural relations with women and were inflamed in their lust for one another. Men committed shameless acts with men and received in their own persons the appropriate penalty of their error. And because they did not think it worthwhile to acknowledge God, God delivered them over to a corrupt mind so that they do what is not right. They are filled with all unrighteousness, evil, greed and wickedness. They are full of envy, murder, quarrels, deceit and malice.

They are gossip, slanderers, God haters, arrogant, proud, boastful inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, senseless, untrustworthy, unloving and unmerciful. Although they knew God's just sentence that those who practice such things deserve to die. They not only do them, but applaud others who practice them. Them.

What a. What a description of the wicked, right? So what is the advice of the wicked, right? It can be summed up, I think, right there in that final verse, right? There's a lot of, a lot of things that describes, from murderers, rapists, thieves, right?

Unloving, envy, people. But just that last verse, right? If we just put that right back up here, that last verse, they know the just sentence of God, but not only practice these things, but applaud others who do them. One thing that I do debate, when I do debate with people, which isn't much anymore, but when I do get into a debate, one of my favorite things to debate, especially when it comes to proving God, is absolute morality. And what do I mean by that?

Absolute morality means that there are certain laws or certain actions that are always wrong, regardless of whether or not humans exist or don't exist, and regardless of whether or not we recognize those morals or don't recognize them, as opposed to moral relativism, which would say that morals are relative to culture or history or times or what a particular government thinks is right or thinks is wrong. And there's a problem with that. And the problem with moral relativism is this. A relative moral viewpoint gives no basis to actually prosecute or punish any type of action. If morality is relative to what I think or what you think, then murder is okay just because I think it's okay, and rape is okay just because I think.

Think it's okay, regardless of what. Of what you think. Right. That's a relative. That's a view of relativism.

And the way that this view is supported by such people, such people who would debate that is if you look through history, there were times where slavery was okay and now it's not. And so they'll pose it as a question, has morality changed or were they always wrong? Right. And I would submit that slavery, especially in the 19th century context that we think of that was always wrong. But they'll also look at other things and point out other things.

For example, the fact that culture today is shifting in terms of sexual rights, right, where gay rights are becoming more accepted and more widely appreciated among cultures, especially US Culture, they'll argue, isn't that shift in acceptance proof that morality is subject to relativism and subject to culture? The problem with this view, again, is that that means that murder is not always wrong or that rape is not always wrong because it's relative. And when you walk in the advice of the wicked, you fall into this trap. You fall into this trap where there is no true right or wrong, but what you want to do and what, what you can convince culture to allow you to do is right or wrong. And when you walk in the advice of the wicked, when you walk in that type of a mindset, then you have an issue where you.

You're not happy for one, and for two, you are leading others down a path of destruction. Again, the two verses that we can use here to show the issue about walking in this type of wisdom. Verse 18 of Just what we read. God's wrath is revealed from heaven against all godlessness and all unrighteousness of people who by their unrighteous, suppress the truth. Notice that.

Suppress the truth.

It is not uncommon for the wicked. Look at governments, right? All governments. The bigger and more corrupt they get, the more they become concerned with censorship. What they claim is we're censoring.

We're censoring false news or censoring false media. Censoring false, whatever. But what they really mean is we are censoring anything at all that could persuade you against us. Right? So God's wrath is revealed from heaven against all godlessness and unrighteousness of people who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.

So that's the first thing. The counsel of the wicked is to suppress the truth. And then verse 32, that even though they know God's just sentence, that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them, but even applaud others who do them. So walking in the council or advice of the wicked leads to a decay of morality, leads to a decay of happiness, and leads to a decay of the truth. All things that are bad.

Notice the second thing that it said in here. It says, happy is the person who does not stand in the pathway with sinners.

This is an interesting piece of this verse, and here's why. It depends on the version of the Bible you read how it says. My version says, stand in the pathway with sinners. The KJV says standing in the pathway of sinners. And that slight change can actually make a tremendous difference.

Standing in the pathway with sinners is pretty obvious in what it means, and we'll address that. First, the problem here is with making friends and acquaintances with sinners. And I say this from a perspective not of don't sit down and dine with them, don't invite them to church, don't share the gospel with them, but if you are in the pathway with them, with them, joining and partaking in their sinful and wicked ways, then you are not walking in the way of God, you're walking in the way of sin. And so we are advised here to not stand in the pathway with sinners, to not partake of their acts. And I know some people who actually partake of said acts and do so to say, well, I'm trying to get them to warm up to me, to like me, so that when I share the gospel with them, they'll accept it.

And the problem is that a person who walks with God cannot walk with such a mindset. Even though Jesus did dine with the sinners, even though he did at times walk down the pathway, right the road with them and talk with them, even though he sat down and fed them in large groups, he never walked in their ways. He loved them, he was able to engage with them, he was able to be around them without partaking with them in their ways. But then, like I said, if you look at other versions like the kjv, it doesn't say Stand in the pathway with sinners, but stand in the pathway of sinners. And that slight change actually can make a lot of difference.

I do. I do believe the version that we have here is the more correct way to understand it, to interpret it, but by adding that word, standing in the pathway of. There's two other things here that, that I think we can look at. You can stand in the pathway of sinners in the sense of you get in their path to share the gospel with them. Right?

We're interceding and we are. We're sharing the gospel with them. And that's what Jesus did. That is what Paul did and Peter. That's what they did.

They got in the pathway of the sinners as an interception to share the gospel. And that is the right thing to do. But again, that's different from joining in their ways, in their activities. That is not what we want to do. But then there's another way to interpret standing in the pathway of sinners, and that is to oppose or prevent the Gospel from reaching them.

I think we all know people who will do that. We all know people who will do anything they can to get between a lost person and the gospel of Christ to make sure that they do not hear the gospel. That's something we don't want to do as well. And then finally it says, or sit in the company of mockers.

Sit in the company of mockers. We just talked a little bit about the advice of the wicked, but the mockers. Just, just one more time. I don't want to be a bush that I've already been beating, but I'm going to bring it up again. Look at verse 32 of Romans, chapter 1.

That although they know God's just sentence, and those who practice such things that they deserve to die, they not only do them, but applaud others who practice them. Is this not a mockery of God? To not only know that what I'm doing is wrong and to not only know that what I'm doing deserves death, but to encourage somebody else to do the same thing and to applaud them when they do it, is that not a mockery of God's wisdom, of his justice? Right. They know that it's a just sentence.

A perfect example of this we read a few months ago, several months, maybe even a year ago now. Wow. We studied Revelation, right? And what happens in Revelation? We get to the end of Revelation and there's this millennial reign.

People who live with Christ for a thousand years of no sin, no death, no illness, no Sadness or grief or any such thing. And then the moment that Satan is turned loose, turn against him.

How about again in the Book of Revelation, if we go through, we go just through the judgments. How many times does it say that the people cursed God for their judgment? Right? The angels went through the heavens and declared repent, right? Woe, woe, woe, and repent.

And instead of repenting, they cursed God for pouring out his judgment.

To sit in the company of mockers is a problem, because to sit in a company of mockers. What happens when you sit with people? I've used this before, so I'm going to use it again. If you get a group of people together and start hanging out, who is more likely to become like who?

If I'm a Christian and my group of friends consist of 10 unbelievers, what's more likely to happen? Are they more likely to become converted to Christianity, or am I more likely to get involved in their schemes? Same thing with sitting in the company of mockers. For one, if you love God, why would you even want to sit in the company of mockers? That means you're sitting in the company a group of people who are mocking you for following and loving God.

Why would you want to do that?

But second, you become like your company. And that tends to work unfortunately into the direction of wickedness, not the direction of righteousness. So now not only do you sit in the company of people who mock God and mock righteousness and mock that which is just, but then you begin to mock such people and you begin to mock God in those same ways. So the three things that we see in the wicked person, they walk in the advice of the wicked. They say, that which is right is wrong, and that which is wrong is right.

They stand in the pathway with sinners, they partake in the sinners actions, they walk with them in those ways, and they sit in the company of mockers who mock God and who disgrace those who follow him. Let's contrast that now with a happy person. So the happy person is one who does not do that. But instead verse 2 and verse 3, his delight is in the Lord's instruction, and he meditates on it day and night. He is like a tree planted beside flowing streams that bears its fruit in its season and its leaf does not wither.

Whatever he does prospers.

Notice the difference right from the person who walks in counsel of the wicked, who mocks God, who walks in evil and wicked deeds. Instead, the happy person, his delight, his hope, is in the Lord's instruction. My version says instruction. Other versions, when I study this, say law. And I like instruction better for one reason that certainly includes the law of God.

But there's a whole lot more to happiness and to delightening God than just his law. We have the entire New Testament, which consists of the Lord's instruction that was not available at the time of the writing of the psalm, but to delight in the Lord's instruction. Here's what I mean by that and what it means by that. Not a burden. Look at this right here.

It says that everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father also loves the one born of him. And this is how we know that we love God's children, when we love God and obey his commands. For this is what love for God is, to keep his commands. And his commands are not a burden, because everyone who has been born of God conquers the world. This is the victory that has conquered the world, our faith.

So we actually went over this about three weeks ago. This is first John, chapter five, and it's the first four verses. But the key verse right here is in verse three, that his commands are not a burden. The happy person is the person who delights in the Lord's instruction, who is happy to walk in his instruction, who is happy to keep his commands, and who doesn't feel burdened to those who feel it's a burden. Man, I can't go around and hate my neighbors.

Man, I can't go around and look at every woman I see and imagine what she's like undressed. Men, I can't go around and covet my neighbor's wife, right? That type of attitude, that type of doing what God has asked me to do is a burden to me. If it's a burden to me, then I do not walk with God. I don't have the love of God.

But if I can delight in his commands, if I can delight in his instruction, it's not a burden, but rather it is actually a freeing force. When the Spirit of God resides inside of us, it frees us. It really does. It's not as restrictive as people as atheists make it out to be. I would argue that it actually brings true freedom.

Whereas, and. And ask people, ask people who have gotten caught in adultery, who have gotten caught in theft or armed robbery, bank robbery, car robberies, or all of these other things. Ask them if. If it truly was freeing, right? Do they truly have happiness in that?

And then what happened when they got caught? That consequence, right? That. That Fleeting moment of joy and happiness. And whatever they thought they were doing that would bring joy brings years and a lifetime of consequence that actually takes away your joy and happiness.

And then it says, he meditates on day and night. Look what what God says to Joshua. He says in Joshua, chapter one, verse eight, he says that this book of instruction, that is the. The books of Moses, just to be clear, must not depart from your mouth. You are to meditate on it day and night so that you may carefully observe everything written in it, for then you will prosper and succeed in whatever you do.

Now, anyone who knows me knows that I push back against prosperity gospel. I push back against this idea of naming it and claiming it. I push back against the idea that pastors should tell you that everything you do will be successful and everything you do will prosper. And when we come across verses like this, it is easy to take it and to do just that. But we need to be careful about how we interpret this and how we teach it.

Does he mean to say that everything I do will prosper and succeed? Well, no. The evil and wicked things that I do are not going to prosper and succeed. We find the same thing that we find in the New Testament. When Jesus says that if you ask anything in my name, it will be given to you.

We find that there's a catch there. And that catch is, if you remain in him and he remains in you. But what happens when you remain in him and he remains in you? Your mind becomes more like the mind of God. And so the things that you want and desire and ask become aligned with the same things that God desires and wants.

And so when you ask, why would he not give you the same thing that he desires and wants for you? And we find that is the way that this context works right here. If this book of instruction does not depart from your mouth and you meditate on it day and night so that you can observe the things written in it, then you will prosper and succeed in whatever you do. Why? Because the things that you set out to do will be the things that God wants you to do.

Right? And you will succeed. You will be prosperous in that. You will be prosperous in whatever God directs you and sends you and tells you to do. Look at John 15 again.

I am the true vine, and my father is the gardener. Every branch in me that does not produce fruit, he removes. And he prunes every branch that produces fruit so that it will produce more fruit. You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. Remain in Me and I in you.

Just as a branch is unable to produce fruit by itself unless it remains on the vine, neither can you unless you remain in me. I am the vine, you are the branch, the one who remains in me, and I in him, produces much fruit because you can do nothing without me. Notice what it says in there. And Jesus, I think he articulates this thought very well. If you remain in him and he remains in you, he says, you will produce fruit.

Not that you can or might or hope to, but that you will. This is something I've pointed out many times. To be in Christ produces fruit. That's what it does. That is why there's the misinterpretation of James.

Right, People, when you say that, that you do not have to do anything for salvation, that you do not earn it, you do not deserve it. People will point out James when he says that faith without works is dead. But they miss the point, right? They take that one verse. If you continue to read what James says.

James tells us that our faith is evident by our actions. Because faith produces fruit. That which is in the heart will always manifest itself in action. If it is in my heart to lie, to steal, to kill, to commit adultery, it will manifest itself in those type of actions. But if I really have faith, if I have the love of God in my heart, because that's in my heart, it will proceed through my actions.

Your actions are a mirror, a reflection of what you believe, of what's inside of you. Somebody who says, I believe that a man, a husband, should work and support his wife, and yet does not go to work, but sits on the couch playing video games day after day. He does not actually believe that he should, that husband should work and support their wife. You know, he doesn't believe it because his actions manifest something different. And that is what James meant when he said that faith without works is dead.

But here's what Jesus says. If you are in me and I am in you, you will bear much fruit. In other words, you will be successful and you will prosper. In what? In the things of God, in righteousness, in the things that God tells us to do.

It's important that we keep that in context if we continue to read this verse here, it says that he is like a tree planted beside flowing streams, and he bears its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers. We're going to jump back to the wicked here. The wicked are not like this. Instead, they are like shaft that the wind blows away.

Therefore, the wicked will not stand up in judgment, nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous. For the Lord watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked leads to ruin. All right, so picking up just right here with verse four, the wicked are not like this. The wicked will not prosper and succeed in everything they do. Again, let's put this into the perspective of God and the perspective of eternity, because we might be tempted to actually look out on the world right now and say, it looks like the wicked are pretty prosperous.

It looks like the wicked are doing pretty darn good, right? But you have to remember it's temporal, right? Even the shaft of the plant, it grows and it has to prosper for an amount of time. It's part of the plan. But eventually what happens, it blows away.

Look at John the Baptist said about this type of thing. To put it in a New Testament context, he says, I baptize you with water for repentance. But the one who is coming after me, this is to say, Jesus, right, who is coming is more powerful than I. I am not worthy to remove his sandals. He himself will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.

His winnowing shovel is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the barn. But the shaft, he will burn with fire that never goes out, right? The wicked will not prosper, but will be burned with fire that never goes out, right? So he says here, it says that it ends in verse 6. This chapter of Psalms 1 ends, says, the way of the wicked leads to ruin.

Look at this. Romans 6:23. The wages of sin is death.

That's what we earn. That's what we deserve. The wages of sin is death. If you break the law, you get fined or go to jail. And if you break God's law, then you die.

That's what his justice, that's what holy justice demands. The way of the wicked leads to ruin. Or more specifically, the way Paul put it, leads to death.

And I praise God. This verse continues. There's not a period there, but there's a comma. The gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. So the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

So there is an alternative. Even though that we have sinned, even though we have earned undiscerned death, there is a gift.

So what can we do here, right? If we know God, first thing that we need to do is look at those first three verses and make sure that we're not doing those three things. Right, just to pull those three verses up again. Or. Sorry, not three verses, but the first verse, right?

We. We do not walk in the advice of the wicked, or stand in the pathway with sinners, or sit in the company mockers.

And we will have happiness if we remain in the love of God and the love of Jesus. We will have everlasting joy and joy that exists through all seasons of life and all difficulties and all manners of trial. But what if you're not there? There's a solution, but there's only one solution. Look what we're told here.

Christ tells us this in Matthew 7:13. He says, Enter through the narrow gate, for the gate is wide and the road broad that leads to destruction. And there are many who go through it, and how narrow is the gate and difficult the road that leads to life, and few who find it. This idea that any way you walk anywhere you want to go is going to lead you to where you want to be is a bad idea. That, again, is the advice and counsel of the wicked.

That's what Satan wants you to believe, that there are many ways, not just one. Right? But it says, narrow is the gate and difficult the road to life. Few people find. Why is it.

Why is it narrow? Why is it difficult? Well, for one, it's narrow because it's. It's a singular road. A There's only one way.

And it is difficult because it requires that we give up our pride. That way is through Jesus. Look what he Sundays in John 14. He says, I am the way, the truth, and the life, and no one comes to the Father except through me. If you know Me, you will also know my Father from now on.

You do know him and have seen Him. So it's a narrow road and a difficult road because it requires that we accept and give up this ideology that we can do enough to enter heaven, or that we can earn our way into heaven, or that there is another way into heaven. That is the stumbling block of Christ. I'm going to tell you tonight that this right here is the hour. This is the time to do it.

Second Corinthians. Paul says this at an acceptable time. I listened to you, and in the day of salvation, I helped you, right? So at the acceptable time, God will listen to you and help you. And here he says, now is the acceptable time, and now is the day of salvation.

Not tomorrow, not next week or a month from now. Because you cannot guarantee tomorrow or next week or next month, right? Once you die, it is no Longer. The acceptable time to make your case to God today is now, right here. And here is how.

If you confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

If you can do those things, if you can confess that Jesus is the Lord, right, that he is God king over your life and believe that he was raised from the grave, you would be saved. What a wonderful promise that begins right. We admit that we're sinners. We've talked about that a lot today. We admit that we're sinners.

We admit that our way is not God's way. And that the only way to walk in God's way is to be in Him. And we believe that he is Lord, that he's our God and King. And we confess him not just privately, but we confess him to our fellow men. And if you can do that here in our closing prayer, I will invite you to do that with me.

As we, as we close tonight, I want to remind everyone we'll be back here 6:30 on Wednesday night to continue our study in the book of Luke. There will not be Lord's Supper tonight at the end of service just as a result of everything that's going on here with our on our side. But I do want everyone to be back here. You know, I want to see you all and excited to see you all, all Wednesday at 6:30. With that said, we're gonna go to our closing prayer.

I invite you. If you do not yet know Jesus, if you do not yet have him in your heart and in your life, I invite you. Please, right now is the acceptable time. Right now is the day of salvation. And you can have that simply by asking God for it.

Let's pray. Father, I know that I am a sinner. I know, Lord, that my ways are wrong. I know that my ways lead to destruction. I know that.

That there is a penalty for what I have done. And I believe Jesus, that you did come in the flesh and that you did die for me. And that you did raised from the grave. And I know that you are the truth, the way, the life. And that true joy only comes through you.

And I confess you as my God and king. I remove my crown and submit to yours. I ask you for this gift. Your word says that the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ. So I ask for this gift.

In Jesus name I pray. Amen.