Dear congregation, let's continue to worship our God this morning by considering His Word. I invite you to take your Bibles this morning and turn to 1 Peter 3. And we're going to be considering three verses in particular, verses 17, 18, and chapter 4, verse 1, and we'll get there in just a moment. I have a heavy heart this morning. for a number of reasons, but one of them is that we are coming before the table this morning. And it's been a lot that's gone on during this week. I've had a tough conversation with some family members, not from this church, from a different place, and they're considering leaving a very healthy church for, let's say, a less healthy church. One of the reasons why is because the preacher makes them feel good. They just said that straight up. Preacher makes them feel good. And I think that there is a trend in evangelicalism that when we come to church on Sunday morning, we want to be made to feel good. We want three thoughts on a happy life, three thoughts on a happy wife, three thoughts on a happy career. And we just walk Monday through Saturday in lightness and frivolity, and we think that when we come on Sunday, that momentum should continue. And my concern as a pastor is that we get away from the frivolity and the lightness as we come to this table, and that there be some gravitas and some grit in our soul as we come before the living God through the mediation of Jesus Christ, and that we do business with the Lord. The Lord has a controversy with us if we have unconfessed sin to Him. And though it is something that we should confess every time we have it, it is especially on the occasion of the Lord's Supper, when we feast with and upon the risen Lord Jesus Christ, that we must make sure that our souls are pure through confession, that our souls have ran for refuge to Jesus Christ, that we have abandoned all hope in the cheap promises of this world, that we have abandoned all pursuit in the pleasures of this world, and that we find our satisfaction and our joy and our eternal hope in Jesus Christ. That's why I have a burden on my heart this morning, not just for me, but for all of us. And you know, in pastoral ministry, As much as I love it, there are often times when we have to have hard conversations with people. And I distinctly remember having a conversation with a man right back there in my office, a man who had walked away from the Lord Jesus Christ. And I asked him there with my fellow elders, why have you walked away from so great a salvation? You know what he told me? He said, because I got sick and tired of feeling like trash. He didn't use that word. I'm substituting another word. And I immediately responded by telling him, wait a minute, it's not the gospel that makes you feel like trash. It's the law that makes you feel like trash. The law comes to you and says, do this and live, be perfect and live, walk before me blamelessly and live. And if you do this, you will have life. But the gospel doesn't say that. You see, the law is meant to drive us outside of ourself. We always say this, we always harp on this for a reason, because the law is a vessel, an instrument in God's hand to drive you outside of yourself so that you could be undone. And you can say, God, what is there outside of myself that can give my soul peace with you? And He says, I have good news for you. The Gospel comes not with a command. The Gospel comes in the form of an indicative as a declaration. And the Gospel says, Christ has done it for you. Christ has taken your sin upon Him. The train of God's wrath came and devastated the son and crushed him under its weight for you. This is not the law, dear children of God. It is the gospel. The gospel does not make you feel like trash. The gospel says we now have peace with God through the person and work of Jesus Christ. But this man, for whatever reason, either ignored the gospel or forgot about the gospel, or specifically put it out of his mind, why? Because he preferred to cling to something that in his mind, listen to me very carefully, was better. He wanted to cling to something that was better in his mind than Christ. And my question this morning is this, is there anything on earth or in this life that is better than the good news of the gospel? Is there? In the grand eternal scheme of things, is there anything that is better than the gospel? But I think sometimes, oftentimes, we are tempted to think along the same lines as this man. And it should be no surprise. I mean, after all, the more we give ourselves to the world, the more God seems to us as an enemy. He seems as a hound that is coming after us. He seems as a cosmic killjoy that doesn't want us to have the pleasures that we think our soul needs and craves. But James says as much, he says, you adulterous people, you do not know, do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore, whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. Those are strong words. When we snuggle up to the world and partake of its delicacies, the gospel seems to lose all of its attractiveness. And how does God intervene when our attraction to the world becomes more attractive than the gospel? How does God intervene? You know what he does? He may send suffering in order to wean us from this world and prepare our hearts for eternity. Now when you think of that, that seems incredibly counterintuitive, doesn't it? Doesn't it seem incredibly counterintuitive that if we start gravitating toward the world and God sends suffering our way, that we would go toward God? Wouldn't that push us away from God? Not for the true believer. Listen to what Paul says in Philippians 3, 8 through 10. Just listen, listen to this. Apostle's heart aflame to try to communicate to the people of God what it means to count everything else as loss to obtain Christ. He says this in Philippians 3, 8 through 10. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ. the surpassing worth of knowing Jesus Christ my Lord, for His sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as, in the Greek, skubalon, rubbish. I count everything in my life as rubbish in order that I might gain Christ and be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith. And then he says this in verse 10, listen very carefully, that I might know him and the power of his resurrection and may share in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death. I like the old King Jimmy and be part of the fellowship of his sufferings. Did you catch that? He counts everything as lost because of the passing worth of Christ and His righteousness. But did you also catch that He said that I might know Him and the power of His resurrection and may share in His sufferings. Paul counted it better to forsake this world and all its cheap pleasures in order that he might share in the sufferings of Christ. Have you ever considered that the gospel gives us a baseline and a blueprint, not just for suffering, but for suffering well? It gives us the kind of heart and attitude that doesn't necessarily go looking for suffering, but when suffering comes as a result of naming the name of Christ, when suffering comes as a result of doing good, we willingly embrace it as Paul did here and count it all joy. And as we approach the Lord's table this morning, a table that among other things is a symbol of suffering, I want us to consider how to suffer well as a Christian. Maybe your marriage ended in divorce because you resolved to be more faithful to Christ than to your husband. I have a question, was it better to suffer for Christ's sake? Maybe you have a strained relationship with family members because you tend to turn the conversation toward the gospel every time you get a chance because you are more concerned with their souls than your reputation or their opinions of you. Was it worth suffering for Christ's sake? Young people. Maybe some of your peers think that you are just the proverbial stick in the mud because you don't laugh at their dirty jokes. You refuse, you refuse to give up your virginity. You determine to stand up for truth or you have the audacity to say in a climate such as our cultural climate that men are men and women are women and to try to change that up? is an abomination. Was it better to suffer for Christ's sake? Maybe you had an opportunity to take your dream job, a dream job that you've been waiting for for 10 years, but they said, we will give it to you on one condition, that you work on the Lord's day, every Lord's day. And you said, oh, it was just in my grasp, but I can't do that to my Lord. My soul needs to be fed by the means of grace, and I cannot forsake the assembling together of God's people, and you turn it down. Was it better to suffer for Christ's sake? or perhaps your kids get frustrated with you because everyone else on their sports team plays games on Sunday instead of going to church, but you draw the line in the sand and you say, as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord on the Lord's day. And we will not bow the knee to the idols of this culture, the idols of the sportsplex, the idols of sports in general, we will serve the Lord. Was it worth it to suffer for Christ's sake? Peter answers that question for us in no uncertain terms in chapter 3, verse 17. Look at the text. He says, for it is better, 1 Peter 3, verse 17, it is better to suffer for doing good, if that should be God's will, than for doing evil. There was a reason why Peter said it is better to suffer for doing good than for doing evil. Peter says that the person and work of Jesus Christ gives us what Excuse me, Peter says that what the person and work of Jesus Christ gives us in the gospel is so infinitely better than giving up, is so infinitely better than compromising, is so infinitely better than throwing your lot in with the world as they in the end will fall off that cliff into eternal damnation. It is so much better to suffer for doing good than to throwing in your lot with the world. And as we come to the table this morning, I want you to consider this one idea. The gospel gives the ground for saying it is better to suffer for Christ than anything else this world has to offer. The gospel gives the ground for saying it is better to suffer for Christ than anything else that this world has to offer. And I wanna connect three ideas for you very quickly this morning. I want you to look in the text, look at what he says in verse 17. He says, it is better to suffer for doing good, and then I want you to look at those first few words of verse 18, because Christ also suffered once, and now I want you to look at chapter four, verse one. Since therefore Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves with the same way of thinking. I want to connect these three ideas this morning. It is better to suffer for doing good. Why? Because Christ has suffered for you. And therefore, result, I'm going to arm myself with the same way of thinking. What? That in my suffering, I am fleshing out in this fellowship of sufferings the sufferings of Christ. I am walking in His footsteps. I am doing as He did. I am identifying myself with Him. And better to identify myself with Him than with any empty, cheap, plastic, temporary promise of this world. So what I wanna do in taking these thoughts this morning is I just wanna highlight four ways in which it is better to suffer for Christ's sake. Four ways in which it is better to suffer for Christ's sake and then consider how we, as he says in chapter four, verse one, can arm ourselves with the same way of thinking. Number one. It is better to suffer for doing good because Christ also suffered once. It is better to suffer for doing good because Christ also suffered once. You know, there's one sense in which the sufferings of Christ, they are unique. And what do I mean by that? What Christ accomplished in his sufferings is something that I or you could never accomplish in our sufferings. Our sufferings could never bring another people to God. Our sufferings could never be a substitute, the righteous for the unrighteous. And in that sense, Christ is the chief sufferer. He is the arch sufferer. He is the Lord paramount of suffering. He is the paragon of suffering. There is no sufferer as has been in the person and work of Christ. Christ was without sin, but he was not without suffering. In fact, Peter here, it is interesting to me, Peter does not say Christ suffered once in his death. That is true, he suffered once in his death. But I think Peter here, as he draws back and looks at the whole of Christ, he is referring to all of Christ's life. All of Christ's life was suffering. His suffering was not limited to the cross. Think about it for a moment. He was born to a poor family. There was no place in the inn for him. He was forced to flee the wrath of Herod into Egypt in the arms of his parents. And as an adult, his ministry commenced with his baptism, and then he was immediately thrust out into the wilderness, where for 40 days and 40 nights, he fasted and was accosted by the attacks and temptations of Satan. Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of God had nowhere to lay His head. There's a sense, beloved, in which our Lord was homeless. We don't often think about that. We don't often make that connection. But the Lord didn't have a luxurious home in which He dwelt. He suffered in his life and throughout his ministry, he was misunderstood throughout his ministry. He was slandered. He was the religious leader sought numerous times to kill him. He was betrayed. by a close friend. He was betrayed by the people, listen, who on one day were singing, Hosanna, who comes in the name of the Lord, and they were receiving Him with palm branches, and then not but a few days later, they joined the throng and lifted up their voices and said, what? Crucify Him. He was betrayed by His close friends. He was betrayed by the people. He endured the beatings of the Roman soldiers, a cat of nine tails which ripped off the flesh from his back. He suffered thirst on the cross, and what did they give him? They gave him sour wine. He suffered the agony of death. And in the face of all these sufferings, Christ thought it better to endure them for the sake of the glory of God and your good. In Christ's sufferings, you know who he had in his mind, in that infinite mind of the God-man? He had your face. He had your face in mind, dearly beloved. He had your face in his thoughts and in his heart as he suffered every tear. As he walked through the veil of tears, he had your face in mind. So Christ's once for all suffering was unique in what it accomplishes for his people, but there is another sense. There is another sense in which his suffering is a pattern for our suffering. Peter says in chapter 2 verse 21, you don't need to turn there, but he says, and this is in the context of speaking to slaves or servants, he tells them to endure suffering for doing good under their cruel taskmasters. And then he says, for to this you have been called because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example so that you might follow in his steps. Do you know that Jesus so loves the church? Do you know that Jesus so loves his people that he oftentimes in scripture identifies himself with his people? Do you remember on the road to Damascus, Paul was confronted by the risen Lord? Paul, who had been putting Christians in prison, and putting them to death, and oppressing them, and persecuting them, and the risen Lord appears to Paul, and what does he say? He says, Paul, or Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting what? Me. Jesus so loves his bride, he so loves his church, that he oftentimes identifies with them. And the hatred and the violence and affliction shown toward Christ did not end when they put his body in the tomb. In fact, the affliction and the hatred has continued to the present day, but it is not against Christ, the person, it is against whom? His people. And I think that this is what Paul's getting at when he says in Colossians 1.24, I think that's what Paul's getting at. I don't think that Paul is saying there was something lacking in the atonement of Christ, and so I, Paul, as a servant, am making that up. I don't think that's what he was saying. I think what he is saying is everything that needed to be done for Christ to obtain our justification was done, and yet The hatred and the animosity that is shown toward him continues as a trail and a wake in the life of his people. We suffer as a result of clinging to our head Jesus Christ. And Paul says this is a cause for rejoicing. Rejoicing when you are afflicted for Christ's sake. When we do, we are entering into the fellowship of suffering. As bad as your suffering is, Remember this, you will never suffer the full brunt of God's wrath as Christ did for that, as he suffered on the cross. Why? Because he suffered, the text says, once. It is almost as if the apostle said, you have none of you, none of you have suffered when compared with him, or at least, that he is the arch sufferer, the prince of sufferers, the emperor of the realm of agony, the Lord paramount in sorrow. You know a little grief, but you do not know much. The hem of grief's garment is all you ever touch, but Christ wore it as his daily robe. We do not but sip of the cup he drank to its bitter dregs. We feel just a little of the warmth of Nebuchadnezzar's furnace, but he dwelt in the very midst of the fire. That's why, beloved, he is the arch-sufferer. The next time you are called to suffer, when pains of body oppress you, let this text whisper in your ear, Christ also suffered once. When you are poor and needy and even perhaps homeless, recollect that Christ also has once suffered. And when you come even to the agony of death, then still hear the soft whisper, Christ has once suffered. I know of no better armor for us than this. Arm yourselves likewise with the same mind and be prepared to count it your honor and glory to follow your master with your cross upon your shoulders. So it is better to suffer because our chief head, Jesus Christ, has suffered, and we are part of the fellowship of his sufferings. But now consider secondly, it is better to suffer for doing good because you have a substitute who took your punishment. You have a substitute who took your punishment. Verse 17, Peter says, chapter three, verse 17, the righteous for the unrighteous. Here we see the deep consolation in Christ's substitutionary atonement for the sins of his people. Substitutionary atonement, what does that mean? That means, as the old divine said, he stood in my room, he stood in my place. The wages of sin is death. And we, through sin, not only inherited from our father Adam, but piling on top of that our own sins day in and day out, have received the penalty and the wages of death, separation from God forever. Separation from the goodness and the kindness and the grace and the mercy of God. but Jesus stood as a substitute in our place on that cross and took the brunt of God's wrath for us. I want you to consider right now that the greatest, the greatest suffering that Christ endured was that bleak moment on the cross when he belted out the words in Aramaic, Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? This was his cry of dereliction. This was his cry of abandonment. Did God really abandon the Son on the cross? When I was a missionary in Mexico, I met this other missionary. He was a good man, but he was a charismatic, and we got together and we started talking. We started to talk about the cross and we were glorying in it and we were having a good time and then all of a sudden I mentioned to him, I'm like, yes, my salvation is based on the fact that Christ took my punishment on the cross and as a result, the Father abandoned him. He turned his back on him so that he would not turn his back on me. He stood in my place. And this man told me, he said, Oh, I don't think that the Lord abandoned Jesus. I said, what are you talking about? He said, well, the Lord told me, the Lord told me that God did not abandon his son. As an aside, devastating effects of charismatic theology, okay? But you know what I told him? I said, my friend, if the Father did not abandon the Son on the cross, that is not good news. That is horrible news. Because if the Son was not abandoned on the cross when He stood as sin itself, then somebody else is going to have to take that punishment. And if Christ has not taken it, and He has not sealed my redemption, then I must do it, friend. You think that in saying that God did not abandon the Son there is some relief to that, but there is no relief to that. God abandoned His Son because as Paul said, for our sake He made Him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God. Jesus Christ is our substitute. If you remembered anything from the book of Habakkuk, you remembered Habakkuk 1.13, God, you cannot look upon sin because you are holy. And so as Christ stood, or hung on the cross, he hung on that cross, taking upon himself all the sin of his people, and you better bet that God cannot look upon that with favor. He abandoned his son for that bleak moment, and he poured out his unmitigated wrath. And the comfort that we have as fellow sufferers in Jesus Christ is that because Christ did that, you will never have to suffer that unmitigated wrath. As we come to the table this morning, arm yourself with this very thinking that Christ suffered for me and let it be the very motivation which drives you far from sin. Let it be the motivation that causes you to detest sin. Oh, that we had the suffering servant in our mind's eye when sin's temptation stands before us. Oh, that we had the crucified Savior in our mind's eye and our mind's heart as the tempter comes and puts the apple before us. Oh, that we remembered the benefits that we have in redemption when temptation comes our way. The psalmist says in Psalm 103, bless the Lord, oh my soul, and forget not all his benefits, who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy, who satisfies you with good so that your youth is renewed like the eagles. Dear congregation, Do you remember in the suffering of our Lord Jesus Christ, the benefits that accrue to you as a result of his suffering? The benefits that accrue to you as a result of him standing in your place. And one of those benefits is that he not only takes our punishment, but he also gives us his righteousness. And because we have that righteousness, we can stand before God Almighty. But now thirdly, a third reason why it is better to suffer. It's better to suffer for Christ's sake because he brings us to God, verse 17. This is the only place in the New Testament that says that Christ brings us to God. I have a question this morning. Have you been brought to God? The repentance and faith have you been brought to God. You know how the Bible describes us as those who have been brought to God? You know how the Bible describes us as Romans 12, verse one, living sacrifices, holy and acceptable, and that living sacrifice is, as some versions say, your reasonable service of worship. As you come to the table this morning, Christ has made you to live through his death, and as a result, he has brought you to God. Here's my question for you this morning. Do you come as a living sacrifice to this table this morning? Do you come as a living sacrifice? And what a paradox that picture is, a sacrifice which is meant to die, but living at the same time. What is the picture that Paul means to communicate to us that though we die to ourselves, we live to Christ? What does that mean in the context of the table, dear congregation? That means that whatever sin is unconfessed in your heart this morning, you slay it, you kill it, you give it over to the Lord as a living sacrifice, or as a living sacrifice, are you squirming off the altar? Are you trying to get away from God? Are you running from God, trying to go as high as you can, as low as you can? Friend, you cannot escape from God. And be sure of this, your sin will find you out, whether it is today or tomorrow or 10 years from now. I vividly remember hearing the story of a pastor who 10 years prior had committed adultery and he told himself. He told himself week in and week out as he got into that pulpit, oh God has forgiven me. God has forgiven me. Never confess it to his wife. Never confess it to his elders. And for 10 years that hypocrite stood in that pulpit and told people about the gospel of Jesus Christ. And after 10 years. God's hand was so heavy upon that man, he couldn't breathe. And he had to confess his sin to his wife. He had to confess his sin to his elders. And the Lord forgave him. God will hunt you down, my friend. He will not let you rest at night. You think it's insomnia? You think you can just pop some pills and you'll be okay? You think you go to therapy and they're going to help you through the insomnia? Get away from psychology and get to the Bible and realize it may be your sin. You hide your sin and I'll tell you right now, it'll drive you crazy. It'll drive you crazy. Nebuchadnezzar was driven crazy. And if you are not careful, unconfessed sin, that heavy hand of God will drive you crazy. But listen to me. There is hope in the gospel. You need not view God only through the lens of law, but you view God through the lens of gospel. And he tells you, come to me, all you who are weary and heavy laden. I will give you what? I will give you rest. Crucify your pride. Crucify your shame. Crucify your guilt at the foot of the cross. You say, well, you don't understand, Pastor, what I have done. If I confess it, I am going to be shamed out of my marriage. I'm gonna be shamed out of my career. And I just, you know, I can't do that, friend. Look to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame. Despising the shame. Are you willing in this fellowship of suffering with your head Jesus Christ, like Him, to despise the shame? If that means that you lose your job, so be it. If that means that your marriage ends in divorce, so be it. If you have God, the nearness of God is my good. You know what that's called? That's called ruthless, ordinary Christianity. That's called ruthless, ordinary, hating sin, loving righteousness, pursuing God with all my heart, no matter what it means, putting my hand to the plow and not looking back because the nearness of God is my good friend. You have been brought to God. Have you been brought to God this morning? Finally, suffering for Christ is better because it leads to glorification. Look at verse 17. He says, for it is better to suffer for doing good, if that should be God's will, than for doing evil. Verse 18, for Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit. As I said last week, that refers to his resurrection. You will walk this veil of tears in the footsteps of Jesus Christ, and you will suffer. And sometimes suffering means the suffering of working through your own shame and pride and agony of confessing your sin, but it will result in resurrection. It will result in exaltation, just as he says in verse 22, Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God with angels, authorities, and powers having been subjected to him. in all your suffering for Christ, in all your doing good, dear people of God, look beyond the immediate suffering of temporal circumstances, and instead look to the result of resurrection and ultimate union with Christ. If you can just clear your mind of all these temporal things, and you could focus on Jesus Christ who is seated at the right hand of the Father, You will be able to come to this table with a clear conscience. You will be able to confess your sin. You will be able to commune with the risen Lord Jesus Christ. Well, just two words of application before we actually come to the table this morning, and I want to address the youth in our congregation. I don't care if you're a high school or middle schooler. I don't care if you're eight years old, four years old. I want you to listen to me. Next week, we're going to witness the baptism of three teenagers, and I'm exceedingly grateful for that, along with my fellow elders, and I know you are as well. And they're not the only ones. There are many of you children, many of you teens in this place, who are confessing Christ, and you are walking with Christ, and you are talking of Christ. And sometimes I come up on some of your conversations, and I don't hear you talking about Lady Gaga or some YouTube video, but I hear you talking about Jesus, and it just warms the cockles of my heart. But I want you to know this, I want you to know that right now you're in something of a cocoon. You're in a cocoon where in walking after Christ and pursuing Christ and loving Christ, you have the affirmation of your peers. You have your fellow friends, your brothers and sisters, young ones here who are also walking with Christ, and maybe they're in a homeschool or a Christian school, and it's a little bit easier to do that, and you have the affirmation of them. They are booing you up. Even when there's other peers in school that maybe are doing stupid things, throwing in their lot with the wicked ones, you at least have this network of security in your peers. Likewise, you also have affirmation of your parents. Your parents are exceedingly grateful that you're walking with Christ. And for many of them, it is the answer of many, many years of prayer and tears that they have given up to the Lord through prayer. But not only that, you have the affirmation of your pastors. Your pastors are here, and we are encouraging you. We're giving you the means of grace. And through them, you're growing up in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. And then beyond all that, in my fourth alliteration, you have the people of God. People of God are coming alongside you and affirming you in all that you do. But one day, that cocoon's gonna break. That cocoon's gonna break, and you're gonna be out on your own. And then will come the true test of your willingness to suffer. And for some of you this morning, that test will come And whether you're gonna give your body over to some man or some woman outside of the confines of marriage, will you sacrifice your virginity on the altar of temporal pleasures? Will you cave in to this world's definition of truth? Will you say that it's relative and it doesn't matter and what God says doesn't matter? Will you cave in to different definitions of what a man is and what a woman is, or will you? in the context of the world, when you don't have the affirmation of all these people who have once been in this warm, cozy cocoon, will you decide to suffer with Christ and be a partaker of His sufferings with Him? I pray that the Lord would give you grace to do that. I pray, dear children, that your faith will be your faith. That it will not be the faith of your parents, it will not be the faith of your uncles, it will not be the faith of your pastors, but your faith is something that you own. You make it your own. And now finally, to unbelievers. We have some in the congregation this morning. And you hear of all this talk of suffering for Christ and you think that we are just out of our minds. Let me tell you this, friend. You may suffer now in this world, but your suffering now in this world is nothing compared to the suffering that is coming to you when you will be separated from God and thrown into the pit of hell. And you know why? Because you have not a substitute who has suffered once for you, and therefore when you stand before God, you will have to answer for your own sins. You will have to atone for them. And my question this morning, unbeliever, is with what will you atone your sins? With what will you cover your sins? Your works are worthless before God. Your kindness is worthless before God. Your upbringing is worthless before God. In the grand scheme of things, on the day of judgment, all that matters to Him is perfect, perpetual, and personal righteousness, which you do not have. What will you do? You can kick the can down the road, think, well, tomorrow I'll believe in Christ, or next year, or once I get done with college, or once I get married. Let me tell you something. Just last week, my wife and I were talking about some dear friends that we have, dear friends who love the Lord, are in church, but they had a son who I think at the age of 27 was killed in a car accident. And as far as we can tell, he did not confess Christ. And don't you know that that weighs on that mother's heart? And as I got to thinking about that young man, he had been in church all his life. And then he grew up and he got a job, he got married. And you know what he was doing, he was just saying, oh yeah, yeah, Christianity, I'll get to that, I'll get to that. Not once did he consider. that he did not have control over the day of his death. And it reminds me of that parable that Jesus told in Luke chapter 12, the rich man who had all this abundance, and he said, oh, tomorrow I'll build a barn and I'll store all my grain. And the servant came to him, the messenger came to him and said, you fool, tonight your soul is required of you. My friends, you do not know when the Lord will take you. And the best thing you can do for your soul is run for refuge to the Lord Jesus Christ and be hidden in His perfect righteousness so that on the day of wrath, you will be shielded from it. This morning, you have the opportunity to avoid the guilt, the shame, the agony of an afflicted conscience through the active and passive obedience of Christ. If you turn from your sins and believe on Him, you will be saved. Let's pray. Dear Father in heaven, I pray, Father, that you would send your spirit from heaven and break hearts that need to be broken this morning. You know better than we, Father. You know better than the pastors of this place who is running from you, who is fighting you, who is trying to get away from your grip. But Father, may they be seen. May they see their foolishness. May they see the imbecility of trying to get away from the omnipresent God. And may you give them a deep-seated conviction of sin that would cloud out every other consideration of temporal concerns and run to the fount that is higher than they. Father God, bring conviction to this place right now. Give us grace and mercy and forgiveness through your son, Jesus Christ. May his glory loom large in our hearts and minds right now as we come to the table and feed upon him. We ask these things in your son's name. Amen. And ask the deacons to come forward this morning