your Bibles to Acts chapter 13. Acts chapter 13 and this sermon will begin on verse 13 in just a moment, titled the sermon, The Primacy of Preaching. The Primacy of Preaching. Acts 13 and it's actually 13 through verse 43. John Stott wrote a book titled Between Two Worlds. And in that book, the very first sentence of that book reads, preaching is indispensable to Christianity. Preaching is indispensable to Christianity. And as Jesus himself told his first disciples, he said this, and proclaim as you go, the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Enoch was a preacher. Noah was a preacher, Moses was a preacher, all the prophets were preachers, the apostles were preachers, and most importantly, the Lord Jesus Christ was a preacher. The church has been founded, upheld, nourished, established, and kept through the means that God ordained, and those means are the preaching of His Word. I know it's only an illustration but just to set it in your mind and so just hopefully it helps you to grasp what's trying to be communicated this morning. There is a fervor in our land for sports. I'm not here to condemn sports or to beat up on sports, just to state the obvious. People gather in stadiums by the thousands, hundreds of thousands, painting their faces, wearing a little bit of clothes and cheering their lungs out at the top of their voice for hours in the rain, the wind and the cold because they love the game. Or they love a person on the team. Something about it drives them to the stadium to pay $75 to park their car, to walk 15 miles, and to pay $8 for a bottle of water in order to watch their team and to cheer crazily. And so, everybody's there, at least in some sense, for the game. You with me? It's not hard to follow. They're there for the game. But there's a lot of things going on that never get mentioned. You know they have trash cans at the game? They do, they have trash cans and you put trash in them. All the cans are empty before the game. Did you know that they have concession stands and they have water? Did you know that they have information people and if you say I'm in section K, row 10, they'll tell you where to go? Do you know they have security because there's a bunch of crazy people in our world and security's monitoring things and running around the place making sure everybody's safe? Did you know the players have water bottles already filled and they have towels? Do you know all these other things that have a PA system, an announcement system, and they have somebody to speak on the announcement system? And all these things are happening, why? So the game will go forward, right? But if you reverse that, it really falls apart. Gather in your great stadium at UT for the Longhorns to play and get everybody there, and the announcer says, for the next 30 minutes, we're going to announce the people who take out the trash. And we're not going to play a game because we're going to talk about the people who work in the concession stand. If you make these other things the main thing, everything will fall apart. It's not totally different in the church. I just want you to understand as a church body, this is an illustration, that everything we do is to function to make the main thing happen. We have trash cans, we have a kitchen, and right now, blessed be the Lord, there's some women back there changing baby's diapers. There's all kinds of things that happen in a church that go on all the time. All these functioning things, diaper running sound, things on the screen, electricity, all this stuff. But why? Because we want the gospel to be thundered from the pulpit, we want it to go out into the world, and so all of these things are working together. But we cannot make the trash can the most important, right? There's a lot of things churches make the most important. This church is about music, this church is about drama, this church is about, hey, let's get rid of the pulpit and have a couch and we'll just have conversations. And so we replace preaching, and when you do, something else becomes primary. And here, we don't want that replaced. We want to hold to the primacy of preaching. You work hard, you travel, you do all the stuff you do all week. When you get ready and you come to church, we believe that God speaks to His people through the means of preaching from the Bible. And so when you come here, your expectation is what? I need to hear from God. I need to hear what God's Word says to me. I need conviction. I need application. I need Christ to be exalted. Pastor, do you have a word of exhortation? Do you have a word of comfort for us today? I've heard all the media all week. Could you tell me what God has to say?" That's why I got up and came. I didn't come for anything else. I need God to speak to me. And so, preaching must be primary. You guessed it, the central idea of my text, John Stott, preaching is indispensable to Christianity. I propose to you this morning that when preaching is not the priority, something else is. And my purpose this morning is much akin to my text, to exhort you to value preaching as a gift that God has given you. Value it. Here we go, verses 13 through 15. I won't spend long on point one or point three. Point one priority, verse 13 through 15. Now Paul and his companions set sail from Paphos and they came to Perga in Pamphylia. and John left them and returned to Jerusalem. But they went on from Perga and came to Antioch and Pisidia. That's not, there's two different Antiochs. This one's up north. Antioch and Pisidia. And on the Sabbath day, they went into the synagogue and sat down. After reading from the law and the prophets, the rulers of the synagogue sent a message to them saying, brothers, if you have any word of encouragement, the word encouragement, exhortation, you can translate it as comfort. Do you have a word of comfort for the people? If you do, say it. Now, I'm just going to paraphrase this a bit for the sake of time, but let's track what's going on. I have a lot to say about missions, but I'll hold it off for some of the day. But three men leave Antioch, not this Antioch, but the Antioch that's further south. They leave Antioch and they go down to Seleucia and they get them a boat. And they're going on a missionary journey and they get on a boat and they sail about a day's journey and they end up on the island of Cyprus. They end up on the east side of the island of Cyprus and that's where Barnabas was born at. He's a native of Cyprus. And these three men, Barnabas Saul and John Mark, began to minister how? They preached the gospel from the east coast of Cyprus to the west coast of Cyprus. I'm not sure how long it took, not sure how many days were involved, but they used up their time making Christ known on the island of Cyprus. And then for whatever reason, it was time to depart and we're going to get on a boat and we're going to go north up to Pamphylia. Something happens right here. I'm not sure what happens. I just know that John Mark decided he was done with the missionary journey. He's done. And so he returns to Jerusalem. And I know that this issue really rubbed Paul the wrong way. And so he didn't really want to take John Mark on any other missionary journeys at this point because it let him down. He goes back and so there's some level of disappointment because John Mark has gone back to Jerusalem. But Barnabas and Saul, they go ahead and they go forward. And so they travel across the sea again. How long did it take? The wind's blowing, the storms, good weather, bad weather. I don't know how long it took. They get to Pamphylia, and they move up to this place called Antioch of Pisidia, and they come up there, and here's what I want you to see. Even for the missionary, church is important. We're not skipping church because we're on a mission trip. We're not skipping church because we're doing disaster relief projects. We're not skipping church because this is going on or that's going on. We're not skipping church because we're on vacation. We're not skipping church because we're camping. We're not skipping church because I need a break. They don't skip church, and on top of not skipping on the Sabbath day, they go to a Jewish synagogue where there are works-based mentality and ceremonies being carried out, but it's the only place they were having church, and so they go to this Jewish synagogue and they sit down because at least at the Jewish synagogue, the Bible will be read. And Paul and Barnabas hear the Word of God read out loud in that sanctuary, in that synagogue, and they're sitting there taking in and grabbing what they can out of it. And then by the providence of God, they come and said, you guys got anything to say? Just submit something very simply to you this morning when they're asked if they have a word of Encouragement to give to the people. I just want you to understand it doesn't happen if they're not there That's all I'm telling you it won't happen Like for you, your child who's unconverted and closer today to hell than they've ever been will not hear the gospel thundered from the pulpit if you're not here. They won't hear it. You say, well, you know, I know my kid's going to hell, but we can afford to miss the Gospel. Really? Your child's soul is not more important than that? You know how much you miss when church is vacated? And what do you vacate church for? TV, mow your grass, shoot your deer, catch your fish, shop for your clothes, eat at your restaurant, or lay your lazy bottom down and just sit on your couch and you rob yourself of all the spiritual exhortation that God would have given you had you gave yourself to His day. You just give it up. You throw it away for trinkets and junk. Here, Paul and Barnabas were in the church and he got a word of encouragement. And it happens because they are there. Secondly, preaching. Verses 16 through 43. We'll do them in sections, not all at one time. Verse 16. So, after being asked, they have a word of encouragement, Paul stood up. Motioning with his hand, he said, men of Israel, you who fear God, listen. The God of this people, Israel, chose our fathers and made the people great during their stay in the land of Egypt. And with uplifted arm, he led them out of it. And for about 40 years he put up with them in the wilderness. And after destroying seven nations in the land of Canaan, he gave them their lands as an inheritance. All this took about 450 years. And after that he gave them judges until Samuel the prophet. Then they asked for a king. And God gave them Saul the son of Kish, a man of the tribe of Benjamin, for 40 years, and when he had removed him, he raised up David to be their king, of whom he testified and said, I have found in David the son of Jesse, a man after my heart, who will do all my will. Of this man's offspring, God has brought to Israel a savior, Jesus, as he promised. Before his coming, John had proclaimed a baptism of repentance to all the people of Israel. And as John was finishing his course, he said, what do you suppose that I am? I am not he. No, but behold, after me one is coming, the sandals of whose feet I am not worthy to untie. Jesus fulfills the Old Testament. Paul begins to preach. I remind you, it shouldn't be hard for you to track. I've said it so many times throughout my ministry, but the foundation for Gospel preaching is the Old Testament. The apostle Paul thunders the gospel by bringing forth the Old Testament before the people in the synagogue, laying out a Christian heritage or history in order to come forth with a promise and to set Christ evidently before the people. You cannot understand the Old Testament apart from it being fulfilled in Christ. All of these things are pointing to Christ. That's the way the gospel is to be preached. Now, Paul takes and he relates to them things that they ought to know, but he's going to make that exclamation point to drive something home. He's going to say something like this, God raised up His people. God delivered His people. Not Moses, not anybody else. God chose them. God raised them up. God delivered them. And not only did God do that for these people out of Egypt, but God was patient. It'll get amen this morning. God is patient with you. How many times have you forgot to pray? How many times have you not read your Bible? How many times have you been in some sin and unwilling to repent? How many times has God not snuffed you out? He's put up with you, the text says. He's labored with you. He's not turned his back upon you. You learn that from the Old Testament. For 40 years, these people did some really dumb things But God was merciful, God was kind, God was patient, and God was good. On top of that, God gave them a whole land. He ran off seven nations and said, now it's your land. You're going to inherit wells you didn't dig. You're going to inherit cities you didn't build. It's all going to be yours. God was generous and good to these people over the course of 450 years. God gave them judges. Why would God give them judges? Truth could be established. Issues could be dealt with. God is bringing order and order to His people in order to take care of them in the trials and the difficulties that they have in life. And then, because of their sinfulness and their shallowness and wanting to be like the other nations, they demand a king. He even lets them have a king, even though it's going to cost them dearly to have a king like Saul. He gives them Saul. He also removed Saul and he chose his own king. This is the king you chose, now I'm going to choose one. I'm going to choose David because he's the man after my own heart. But it's far more than that. I'm going to choose David because down the road, several hundreds of years, there's going to be one that comes through his lineage that is far superior to him. It's going to be Jesus our Savior. Imagine yourself in that synagogue that day and here he is preaching these things and saying all of this is fulfilled in Christ. And then you have this one last prophet, John the Baptist enters the scene. He's got this weird clothing and he's standing out in the wilderness. And he said, behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. All these sacrifices, all this slaughter, all this blood, all these years, now here's the Lamb. Sacrificial system's over, we've got divinity in flesh and His blood is sufficient, efficient for the saving and redeeming of His people. Here is Christ, everything the Old Testament was saying, John the Baptist, I'd love to have been in his shoes. He got to say, this is the one. And Paul is preaching the same message. Jesus fulfills the Old Testament perfectly. Now, I know in our society it may not be the same and your interests may lie somewhere else, but this is huge to preach such a message to a bunch of Jews who hold so adamantly to the law that Christ has fulfilled it all. That's what he preached. Secondly, he preached that Jesus is innocent. sinless, without defect, without blemish. Look at verse 26 through 28. Brothers, sons of the family of Abraham and those among you who fear God, to us has been sent the message of this salvation. For those who live in Jerusalem and their rulers, because they did not recognize him, nor understand the utterances of the prophets, which are read every Sabbath, fulfilled them by condemning him, and though they found in him no guilt worthy of death, they asked Pilate to have him executed. Jesus, the sinless Son of God, condemned to death at the hands of religious men. In that passage, here's one thing I do want you to hear this morning. They heard the Word read every Sabbath with no benefit. Can you imagine the tragedy? that you would be in, by the word, Baptist Church for 20 years, 10 years, five years, with exposition verse by verse, line by line, every Sunday, every Wednesday, every Sunday night, and it never makes sense to your mind, and it never takes up residence in your heart? Can you imagine that somebody in this room wakes up in hell after having heard this many verses exposited? You hear the word thundered and there's people in the room saying amen. That's my Savior Yes, he's sinless and they're happy and other people in the room are saying it makes no sense It changes them not and they leave the room and they just keep living like they've been living and they're worldly They're carnal and they're selfish and they're on their way to hell sitting under these very words It happened here in this story in this preaching and it happens here in this church Oh be not the one sitting under the preach word of God and not be moved." How could you be so hard or so cold that you're never moved by the Word of God? God is speaking to you. He says, there's a Savior that I sent who's sinless, spotless, perfect in every way, and I have given Him that if you would believe, you could have everlasting life. But yet these people sitting under the Word of God, he says, are the very ones that said, let's execute him. Let's kill him. Because they didn't like the level of conviction that came through him, so let's get rid of him. Jesus fulfilled the Old Testament. Jesus was sinless. Thirdly, Jesus died. Verse 29. And when they had carried out all that was written of Him, they took Him down from the tree, and they laid Him in a tomb." They carried out this execution, and there's a lot of things we could take a whole sermon upon. I'll just take a few phrases. What things did they carry out? They spit in His face. They weaved a crown of thorns together and shoved down upon his head. They mocked him. They railed against him. They took a spear and jabbed it through his side and blood and water came forth. They stripped him and nailed him to a tree and hung him before the world just outside of the city of Jerusalem and let him hang there and bleed and die. Jesus died a physical death. He didn't swoon, He didn't faint, He didn't pass out. The Son of God and the Son of Man on that tree, His body, He died. His blood was poured out and he was taken down off of a tree, a dead man. They took a dead man and they wrapped him in garments. They carried him to a tomb and they put him in the tomb because that's what you do with dead men. Christ died in the place of sinners. It's not a myth. It's not a fictitious story. Everybody there knows that Christ died. Their greatest fear is that he would be raised. They knew He was dead. They were afraid somebody was going to steal the body. Nobody thought He wasn't dead. Christ died in your place and in mine. His body taken down and placed in a borrowed tomb. Jesus fulfills the Old Testament. Jesus is sinless and Jesus died. Fourthly, Jesus was raised from the dead. Verse 30, but God, you got to love the but God's scripture, but God raised him from the dead and for many days he appeared to those who had come up with him from Galilee to Jerusalem who are now his witnesses to the people and we bring you The good news, that what God promised to the fathers, this he has fulfilled to us, their children, by raising Jesus, as also it is written in the second Psalm. You are my son, today I have begotten you. And as for the fact that he has raised him from the dead, no more to return to corruption, he has spoken in this way. I will give you the holy and sure blessings of David. Therefore, he says also in another Psalm, you will not let your holy ones see corruption. For David, after he had served the purpose of God in his own generation, fell asleep and was laid with his fathers and saw corruption. But he whom God raised up did not see corruption." Jesus Christ was raised from the dead. Verse 30, verse 32, verse 34, verse 37. You see it four times. Verse 30, God raised him from the dead. Three, raising Jesus. Verse 34, for the fact that he raised him from the dead. Verse 37, God raised him up. Undoubtedly and assuredly, Christ comes out of a tomb. No longer there. He is seen, not just by his disciples, who you might think would make up a story over here, not just by them, but Corinthians would tell us, by over 500 people at one time. Everybody is aware of the reality of Christ's resurrection. It is a resurrected body. It's not a spirit, it's not a ghost. He eats fish, He cooks, He drinks, He talks, they can touch Him. They can touch His hands, they can touch His feet. He's a real body that's been resurrected from the dead. You say, I've heard all this stuff before. Well, hear it again. Hear it again. One day, you will be raised from the dead in Christ to never die again. Look, there's hope here. I mean, could that be some type of celebration? Yes, my body's wearing out, my health is going, and the days are getting older. My parents are gonna die sometime, they're 83, 85. Our health is going away, people are getting sick, but bless God, this is not it. Our Savior has been raised from the dead. There's hope that one day we will be raised too. That's why we don't fall into a spirit of depression and just cast all of our stuff away and say there's no hope. Yes, there's hope, because the tomb's empty. If you're in Christ, you have the assurance of a resurrection. If you're not in Christ, there's nothing but dread, nothing but judgment and hell to see. Christ has been raised. What preaching from the Old Testament? Psalm 2-7. He quotes Psalm 2-7, you're my son, they have begotten you. He brought Christ forth from the grave. The next one in your Bible, there in verse 34, it doesn't give a footnote at least in my Bible. I'm pinning it as Isaiah 55-3. Isaiah 55-3 says, incline your ear, come to me, hear that your soul may live. I will make you an everlasting covenant, my steadfast, sure love for David." And you hear Isaiah, didn't he love the Gospel? Isaiah loves the Gospel. Isaiah says, incline, hey, listen, listen to me, incline your ear, please listen. Come to God, come to Christ, come, hear, listen, hear. Why? That your soul may live. You want to live? You want to have life? Then come. Come to Christ. What are you waiting on? What are you playing around with? Even people here in this church, what are you doing? Come to Christ and say, I believe Christ. Pastor, I want to be baptized. I want to be in fellowship with Christ. I believe he died. He rose from the dead. Would you come? Would you come today? Would you come right now? Would you stop playing with the world? Would you stop playing with money? Would you stop playing with all the carnality? Would you throw it all away and say, give me Christ lest I die? Would you, would you come now? Would you invite someone to come? Would you tell them about your Savior? Would you tell them that He's been raised from the dead? Would somebody love Christ enough to pull and to draw people? Oh, that we would understand these things. Quote Psalm 1610 as well, four Old Testament references here, all to preach the gospel of Christ. Why would he invite? Why would he plead? Why would he urge people to come? Why am I urging you? My preacher's just goofy and he gets passionate about these things. Look, get over yourself. I see eternal realities here because they're in my Bible. Here's what I'm trying to tell you from this sermon that Paul preached. You can be forgiven of all your sins. Verse 38, verse 39. Let it be known to you therefore, brothers, that through this man, through this one, forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you. And by him, everyone who believes is justified. ESV says freed. Not a difference necessarily, but the Greek word is justified. Believes is justified from what? Everything. Everything from which you could not be justified by the law of Moses. Verse 38, let me translate it differently to bring forth some clarity in verse 38. So hear it this way. It's a command. Therefore, be it known to you. Be it known to you. men, brothers, that through this one forgiveness of sins is preached to you." The question I have from such a text is this, what is it that you must know? What is it that you must know? Be it known to you, you must know this, I must know what? That it is through this one, nobody else. The preacher can't forgive you, grandma can't forgive you, and as they teach in prisons most of the time that you need to forgive yourself, that don't wash. You can't forgive yourself. Only Christ has the power and the efficacy and the blood to forgive you. You must know this one is the only one who can forgive of sins. That's why I and others, we preach Christ. Because he's all our hope. Everybody in this room, you come to the fountain and you are washed and you are set free. Your heart is changed and you're like, I love Christ. Because he forgave you of all your sin. Can you not see Pilgrim's progress? Can you not see him looking at the cross? Can you not see the burden untying itself, falling off and rolling down the hill into the sepulcher? Can you not see him making three leaps of joy because he's been set free from the burden? What happens? Because Christ forgave our sins from all that the law of Moses was not able to do. The law of Moses was unable to justify. Why is that? Romans 3.20 would answer good. Why is it that the law of Moses could not justify? Well, Romans 3.20 says, for by works of the law, no human being will be justified in his sight. It's through the law comes the knowledge of sin. Or if you look in Galatians 2.16, we know that a person is not justified by works of the law, but through faith in Jesus Christ. And then if we look at Hebrews chapter 10, verse one, Since the law is but a shadow of good things to come instead of the true form of these realities, it can never, by the same sacrifices continued offered every year, make perfect those who draw near. It couldn't do it. It's almost like you want to say, well, is there a problem with the law? Psalm 197, the law of the Lord is perfect. There's not a problem with the law, then why is it unable to make the believer right with God? The problem's not with the law, the problem's with humanity. We keep breaking the law and so we're unable to ever be made right by it because we don't have the ability. Nobody in this room or in this world can keep the law. You can't do enough good to gain your favor with God. It don't work. You're going to have to have someone keep the law for you and then believe in Him and His perfect work. And that's what Paul's preaching. He forgives of sin because He is the one who has fulfilled all the law's demands. All my faith, all my hope, all my righteousness is in Christ. It's not a future justification. It's not something far off. It's something that by faith that is received now for any man, any woman that would repent and believe on Christ right now today. And then a warning, verse 40 and 41. Beware, therefore, lest what is said in the prophets. Now, I have to say it again. All of that I just preached, this gospel preaching, I repeated it from Paul, and all of that he preached was from the Old Testament. What is said in the prophets should come about. And now he's going to quote Habakkuk. Look, you scoffers, be astounded and perish, for I'm doing a work in your days, a work that you would not believe even if one tells it to you. Habakkuk 1.5 is what is quoted. If you study the book of Habakkuk, you'll find that Habakkuk's question has to do with the law. justice and the perversion of justice. And if you keep searching through the book, you'll find in the central core of the book a phrase that sounds just like this, the righteous will live by His faith. The question is problematic about the law, the solution is faith in Christ. The law, breaking the law, justice, Habakkuk's concern, faith in Christ is what's going to fulfill and clarify. If you won't listen. You fall into the category of scoffer. You fall into the category of being obstinate to the things of God. And what's going to happen? The Babylonians are going to come down, they're going to sweep you away in a form of judgment because you wouldn't hear the words of the prophet Habakkuk. Here in this text, Paul's thundering the gospel. You won't listen to it, you won't receive it, you won't hear it. Then in 70 AD, here comes judgment and the whole temple's going to be wiped out. There's going to be no more sacrifice and great judgment is going to come upon that land like they've never seen before. In my words to you, if you don't hear the gospel this day, and you won't receive the gospel, and you won't respond to the gospel, you can expect nothing different than the serious and true judgment of God to come on your life. That's the way it works. You say, where's the good news? The good news was in the gospel I preached to you, that if you would believe Christ, you could be forgiven. But if you won't listen to that, you can't expect any other outcome than the serious judgment of God. Verses 42 and 43. Here's the response that I hope that you would have at By the Word Baptist Church. 42 and 43. As they went out, church service is over. They're going out the foyer, if you will, and as they're going out the foyer, they're shaking Paul's hand and Barnabas' hand and begging that these things might be told them the next Sabbath. And after the meeting of the synagogue broke up, Many Jews and devout converts to Judaism followed Paul and Barnabas, who as they spoke with them, urged them, urged them, continue in the grace of God. The response was, We need to hear the Word of God every week. Please come back and preach. Please continue in the grace of God. God revealed these words to you. You spoke them to us. This is a gift of grace. Keep staying in that grace. Dear preacher, keep preaching. Give us the word, we need to hear God's word every week. I need it Sunday morning, I need it Sunday night, I need it Wednesday night, I need the word preached to me on a regular basis because I'm sinful and I'm carnal. I need encouragement, I need rebuke, I need discipline, I need direction, I need guidance, I need wisdom, I need all these things and they're only in this book. So keep preaching, continue in the grace of God. It should be your lifelong response to preaching. Please, you say, come back next week and preach. That brings us to point number three, which is shorter than point one and two, obviously. So what's the purpose of preaching? To save sinners. That's why we preach, that people be saved. Purpose in preaching is to exalt Christ. We said a lot about Christ. Don't you love a guy leading the music? He puts the songs together that go with the message. And then everything we sang went right along with what we're doing here. I want to see Christ. That's what we sing. That's why we preach. To reveal God's glory. To make His name great among the nations. To build the church and make her healthy. That's why we preach. It's the only way she can be healthy. In conclusion this morning, to be fitting with the sermon, I turn our attention to the Old Testament. My conclusion is just the reading of a text in Nehemiah. And so I ask you by the Word Baptist Church that you might respond to preaching the way they did in Nehemiah's day. Quote, all the people gathered as one man into the square before the water gate. And they told Ezra the scribe to bring the book of the law of Moses that the Lord had commanded Israel. So Ezra the priest brought the law before the assembly, both men and women, and all who could understand what they heard on the first day of the seventh month. He read from it facing the square before the water garden from early morning until midday in the presence of the men and the women and those who could understand. And the ears of all the people were attentive to the book of the law. And Ezra the scribe stood on a wooden platform that they had made for the purpose. Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people. He was above all the people. As he opened it, all the people stood. Ezra blessed the Lord, the great God, and all the people answered. Amen? Amen. That's what my God said. Amen. They read from the law and all the people said amen. You gotta like pay $50 to get amen in a Baptist church. You go to a college football game, you can't get them to shut up. At least here in a church, when God's Word is preached somehow, something to hear out and say, yes, that's what my God says. Amen. Lifting up their hands, oh my, they went charismatic, they lifted up their hands, they bowed their heads, they worshiped the Lord with their faces to the ground, and men came alongside and helped the people to understand the law. While the people remained in their places, they read from the book, from the law of God clearly. And they gave the sense. so that the people understood the reading. Christ fulfilled the Old Testament. Christ is sinless. Christ died. Christ was resurrected. Christ is the only one who can forgive your sins, and if you will not listen, Christ will be your judge. That's the sense and the clarity I can give you, and I preach that so that you'd put all of your hope and all of your trust in Christ, because he is enough. with Jeff, if you'll come and lead us in song.