Well, this time, if you have your Bibles, would you turn with me to Matthew's gospel, the gospel according to Matthew, and the 9th chapter? We're going to look this morning at specifically verse 13 of Luke's gospel and chapter 9, but we'll read the context of that and also connect it to its Old Testament roots. So many times what we see Jesus quoting in the Gospels is actually a direct quotation from something that had been written many, many years before. And today, Jesus' statement comes from the prophet Hosea, one of the minor prophets, not minor in the fact that he was a lesser prophet, but minor in the perspective that he wrote lesser than those that we consider the major prophets. But Hosea is an interesting book. And as I was studying the context of Hosea and where this statement that Christ himself declares, he had inspired it to Hosea, and then he repeats it in the gospels. And now here we are, thousands of years later, we're repeating the same word. And I'm thankful to relay to you that the truth is still the same, amen? It's irrelevant, it's important, and it's powerful. And so today, as we study Matthew 9, verse 13, I'll do my best to bring a message to you today entitled, Christ Came for Sinners. If you found Matthew and you're able and willing, would you stand with me in honor of reading God's Word? Again, for context sake, we're going to read verses 9 through 13 with our text coming directly from verse 13. Matthew 9, beginning to read in verse 9, the Word of God says, As Jesus passed on from there, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax booth, and he said to him, Follow me. And he rose and followed him. And as Jesus reclined at table in the house, behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and were reclining with Jesus and his disciples. And when the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners? But when he heard it, that's Jesus, he said, Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick, see, and not sacrifice. For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God shall stand forever. Amen. You may be seated. We have a powerful, powerful verse here, and we will do our best to understand it. And I framed the message today from three perspectives, and that being that true Christianity, I would first say, true Christianity is recognizing that Christ came for sinners. But as we study this text, I want us to understand that the meaning of true Christianity is found in verse 13. And then second, we see that the mission of true Christianity is found in verse 13. And then finally, we're going to look at the message of true Christianity found in Jesus Christ. Himself now, it's obvious to us based upon the statement that Jesus makes here in verse 13 that he desires mercy he desires Mercy, what does Christ want? What does God want he desires? mercy and mercy It is held out here for in this account, but there's also something that I need to point out, and I think it's good to do it now, is that this offer of mercy is always and forever held out with a call to repentance. Now, if you have a King James translation of the Bible, you'll find following, or at the end of verse 13, it says, but sinners to repentance, to repentance. In other words, there's a call to sinners to repentance. The ESV, it's not there because the manuscripts that the ESV used to translate our translation that we have did not include that phrase for sinners. However, or to sinners, but I'm sorry, to repentance. But it's absolutely positively implied here, and I want to show you that. And I can't go into the discrepancies and the arguments on the manuscripts. We don't have time, nor would it be fitting for this today. But suffice it to say, it is in fact implied without the mention of it. And there's an important thing that we need to understand about this. And so I'm going to define mercy on the front end. I know I have it in my notes a little bit further, but I think it's so important that we understand what mercy is. We know the word, we use it often, at least I think I do, and I hope that it's part of your thought process in your vocabulary, but what I think is really important to understand about the idea of mercy is that mercy Mercy doesn't just mean that that that you say forget about it It's done and over with and nothing nothing has to happen right but but mercy actually if it's true mercy it it includes a transaction okay so so because God is a just God he cannot offer mercy without dealing with the offense okay and so so God is merciful in that He extends mercy, and that means that He doesn't give us the penalty that we deserve. The wages of our sin is death, and there's a consequence to our sin. Why do people die? It's because of sin. And there's nothing that we can do, earthly speaking, to escape the physical aspect of that until Christ comes again. That will be finally and fully dealt with I'm thankful that the Bible clearly tells us that the last enemy to be defeated is death That in the eternal state there will be no more death. Praise God. We will live forever But but praise God for those in Christ but It's scary to think about the alternative, right? Someone who does not receive Christ, who rejects Him, will live forever as well. But it's not going to be in the blessing and glory of heaven, but in hell. And so there is the point I want to make, though, is that mercy requires Transaction if you give somebody mercy that is to say they have wronged you say you somebody owed you a hundred dollars and And they they come to you and they they said I'm sorry There's no way that I'm going to be able to repay you that hundred dollars now unless somebody else comes along and says here I'll pay their bill, right and You you have a they owe you a debt. They are your debtor They are they have now become an offender and you are the offended You have the power though to extend to them mercy and by doing so you cancel their debt. I Now, who is the one who takes the obligation of their debt on themselves? It would be you, the lender. And so mercy includes a transaction, and that transaction always includes somebody making a payment or somebody assuming someone else's debt. In the idea or the context of our sin, our sin is just not miraculously and mysteriously done away with, but rather God can give to us mercy because someone else pays our penalty for us. We have incurred a great debt of sin, and the Lord Jesus comes in His perfection and in His righteousness and in His sinlessness, and He lives the life that you and I cannot, therefore making Himself worthy to suffer the penalty of the guilty. In other words, a sacrifice has to be able to take that debt. Listen, I cannot pay your sin debt. My blood is tainted with sin just the same as yours is. And so it took a sinless sacrifice. It took the sinless lamb of God to come and to have our sin laid upon him. But don't miss this. The mercy that God gives to us is completely rooted in and founded upon the sinless life and the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ taking your debt and taking it to death. That is to say, he absorbs the full penalty of our sin. Therefore, God can extend to us mercy, right? And not require of us the debt that Christ Now, I'd love to go into a discourse on why particular atonement is biblical and necessary, but against my better judgment, I'm not going to do that. So let's, based upon that, okay, I think, I hope that it's clear to you now what mercy means. That you don't suffer the punishment that you in fact have incurred and Christ is the one who pays the debt in your place. The offended, takes the place of the offender. All right. So notice again, what, what our verse says here, go and learn what this means. I desire mercy and not sacrifice for, I came not to call the righteous, but sinners. So first here, as we, we define what true Christianity is, Jesus gives a command. He says, he says, go and learn what this means. Now he is speaking to people here in the context of Matthew 9, who are by all means what we would define as self-righteous. And so he tells these self-righteous people to go and understand what this actually means. And when he says that, he's not just simply saying, I want you to grasp this concept. He's actually delving deeper and saying, I want you to understand this according to who says it and what it's rooted in, right? So understanding what it means to desire, that God desires mercy and not sacrifice is actually rooted in who God is. in his very nature, in his very character, in his very word. And so when Jesus says, go and learn what this means, he is really calling them to a deep dive into understanding the very heart and nature of God. And listen, let me just let me just apply that to you and I, if we are ever going to under the of God's word, I don't care. I'm sure that your your cousin and your uncle and your friend or maybe your grandma or your great grandpa, I'm sure they were great people. But if they gave you an understanding of Christianity that was not rooted and founded upon the principles and the authority of God's word. It's worth two cents, maybe not even that much. Our understanding of who God is and what He has defined for Christianity, for our faith to be, it must be rooted in the study of God's Word. And then notice what the command points to. It says, I desire mercy. and not sacrifice. Now I mentioned earlier that this comes from Hosea, the Old Testament prophet Hosea, and it is quoted specifically from chapter 6 and verse 6. Let me read that for you. Hosea 6 and verse 6. It says this. For I desire steadfast love, and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God, rather than burnt offerings. So the call, the command to us is, understand what this means. I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings. So we've already defined what mercy means, but I think it's important to just recognize this word desire, that God has a desire. And I think we can misinterpret this word and end up in some crazy places that we don't want to be. When God desires something, it is the same as saying He purposes something for a specific task. Or we could also say, He wills something. That is equivalent to God's desire. God's ordained will is whatsoever comes to pass. And when God desires something... Now, there are times when God's desire and what happens don't actually... line up, so to speak, right? We would have texts like people would run to Peter where he says, it's not God's desire that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. And man, I wish I wouldn't have went there because now I have to make some explanations that I really don't want to. But nevertheless, a careful reader would say, well, if God's desire is that none should perish, but that all should come to repentance, And if He means all, right, in the aspect of every single man, woman, boy, or girl on the face of the earth in every generation, one would step back and ask themselves, well, has God's desire failed, right? Did God fail in accomplishing what He desired? Well, I don't think we could ever say that God ever fails at anything, amen? He doesn't fail. He never fails. So it can't mean that. Whatever it means, it doesn't mean that. And so, again, it's really important how we use the word desire and also the context of the desire or the intended purpose, the intended will of God Himself. And so Him desiring mercy, He wills mercy, He purposes mercy, and not sacrifice. Now, again, we could say, but the Old Testament law required sacrifice. And so He willed and He purposed that they would offer sacrifices for the atonement of their sins, and that's true. But what does He really mean here? What does this actually mean to us, or what does it mean for us? What does it mean, period? So again, it's rooted in what mercy means. Withholding punishment deserved with a supreme act of loving kindness in its place. withholding punishment deserved with a supreme act of loving kindness in its place. Now, Hosea's context is super, super important in thinking about this. If you're in Hosea, I wanna point some things out in chapter number one, because the entirety of the book of Hosea, it has to be interpreted through the lens that God lays out for him, for Hosea and this prophecy in chapter number one. We find here that Hosea is written about a man named Hosea who was to take a wife, and his wife was a wife of, the words is whoredom. In other words, it was an unfaithful wife. And God uses the relationship between Hosea and this unfaithful wife as an analogy, as in a metaphoric way of describing his relationship with the people of God. And specifically, we draw it into the context of the nation of Israel, the people of Israel. And, and it's at this point in time, it's a divided kingdom. There's a Northern kingdom and there's a Southern kingdom. One is referred to as Israel. The other is referred to as the kingdom of Judah. And so he makes a separation here between the two. Verse two of Hosea chapter one says, when the Lord first spoke through Hosea, the Lord said to Hosea, go take for yourself a wife of whoredom and have children of whoredom. And then he makes this comment, for the land commits great whoredom by forsaking the Lord. In other words, Hosea, I want you to do this, and this is the reason why. Because the land, the people, they commit whoredom. How do they commit whoredom? By forsaking the Lord. In other words, their crime was idolatry. Their crime was replacing God with of the things. And, and so immediately when we put it into that context, every single person under the sun is guilty of this, of this very sin of this very transgression that the land, the people commit whoredom by forsaking God. Listen, anytime, at any place, in any way that you have replaced God with something else, you are guilty of committing the same thing. that Hosea was told of the people of God. They commit whoredom by forsaking the Lord. That's their crime. And then in verse four, we see their punishment. The Lord said to him, to Hosea, who went and took Gomer, to have children with her. And the Lord said to him, he has a child, and it was a son. And God says, call his name Jezreel, for in just a little while, I will punish the house of Jehu for the blood of Jezreel, and I will put an end to the kingdom of the house of Israel. In other words, the crime, they've forsaken the Lord, and the punishment, God is going to put an end to the kingdom. Then we see he goes on and in verse 6. He says she'll conceive again and bear a daughter They named this one No mercy why for I will have no mercy on the house of Israel to forgive them at all and then verse number 9 and the Lord and he has another one another son and the Lord said call his name not my people for you are not my people and I am not your God and In other words, there is a crime, there is a punishment, right? God says, because you have forsaken me, I am going to forsake you and you will not be called my people. We pause, think about this. Would God be just in doing this? Absolutely. Absolutely. Why? Because they are guilty. plain and simple. They are guilty and therefore God would be absolutely positively just to forsake them and to punish them. But yet, but yet, we see the mercy of God. Verse 10, it says, yet the number of the children of Israel shall be like the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured or numbered. And in the place where it was said to them, the very place that it was said to them, you are not my people, it shall be said to them, children of the living God. How can God take somebody who he says, I will not give mercy, you're not my people, and turn around, turn around and say, you will be children of the living God. Something has to happen. And that is God gives them mercy. And he gives them mercy through the Lord Jesus Christ paying their penalty. Did you get it, Scott? It's dead. The wasp is dead, everybody. There's been a bee flying. I'm sorry. I had to interrupt because I seen it land right on his glasses. And we've been watching that bee for months flying around here. It's finally dead. Praise the Lord. Hopefully he doesn't have any friends. All right. Just derail myself right there. You understand. You understand now in the context of Hosea and Jesus using this. He's showing, he wants them to understand. And listen, we need to understand this. We need to understand this. Jesus says, go and learn this. I desire mercy and not sacrifice. And by this, this is what the gospel teaches us. Again, we want to define the meaning of true Christianity, and I would sum it up in one sentence. God's gospel, the gospel of grace, the gospel of Jesus Christ teaches salvation and not self-righteousness. The gospel teaches salvation and not self-righteousness. I desire mercy and not sacrifice. Why does God desire mercy and not sacrifice? Because you can give a sacrifice from a wrong heart. You can come to God and offer something physical and have a heart that is absolutely positively in the wrong place. In other words, we have grown up as children. We did this all the time and some things in order to to to appease whoever it is that has been offended. I'm sorry, mom, that I didn't clean my room like you told me to. I really love you, mom. I'll clean my room right now. Well, the only reason they're doing that is because you just took away some privilege that they had and they want it back Amen, right I desire mercy and not sacrifice now Listen a child is absolutely positively right as well as an adult is absolutely positively right to seek forgiveness For a wrong they've committed, right? We desire our parents, our spouses, our friends, our family to be merciful to us when we commit a transgression against them. But here's the thing, is our heart in the right place? Are we actually seeking mercy in the sense that we're not just going around taking advantage of people? Because listen, I believe this wholeheartedly. There's a lot of people would confess to be a Christian And they have no affection whatsoever for the Lord Jesus Christ, period. All it is to them is, well, if I believe in my heart and I confess with my mouth that he's Lord, I get to go to heaven. But I don't want nothing to do with him between now and then, right? Well, all you did was make a sacrifice of your lips. It was a sacrifice in your lips. but there was no mercy in the heart. You didn't comprehend the love of God. You didn't lay hold of him because of who he is and what he's done. Jesus says, I desire mercy and not sacrifice. And therefore, the gospel is about salvation and not self-righteousness, that we would try to do something in order to earn something else. But instead, the Bible teaches us who God is and what his plan and purpose is through the God-ordained means of covenants. So we go back to Isaiah and we say, well, why would God do this? Why would he give them mercy? Because obviously they were guilty of committing this great whoredom. Well, he did so to be faithful to his own promise. that he was not going to see his own plan of redemption go without fruit. In other words, listen folks, when God changes your heart to trust in Him, that is based upon His covenant faithfulness to Himself, because He doesn't have to change your heart. He doesn't have to. But He desires not only that you would see how merciful He is, but that you would embrace that mercy, and that you would take that mercy received and do what? extend it to others, right? That is the meaning of true Christianity. God's desire of mercy is rooted in his unchanging promise and faithfulness to his own covenant to redeem and to restore his own creation. And listen, when we understand this and we understand the magnitude of our sin, God's mercy suddenly becomes incredible. God's mercy suddenly becomes indescribable. When we see ourselves as we are, and this is the most important thing, that we see ourselves as we are, because notice what the next phrase is, for I came not to call the righteous, but sinners. So the mission here is first of all, that Jesus came, uh, you may have in fact dressed yourself and, and God in your car and drove to church this morning, but it was by the grace of God that you did. So, uh, you may have trusted in the Lord Jesus Christ generation or decades ago, and you have been walking with the Lord for many, many years. It's by the grace of God that you've done so because Because you were not able to go to him. He came to you the mission of the gospel the mission of true Christianity is God coming to man that Jesus would leave the the glories of heaven to come and and Be humbled by being born in a manger right in a in a no-name town to a no-name family in order to come and to save that which was lost. Listen, Jesus is the one that comes. So the mission begins with Jesus coming to man. Secondly, notice that the mission is one of calling. It's one of calling, I came not to call. He states it first of all negatively in defining to us who he's not calling, but recognize that it is in fact a calling. The gospel, the mission of true Christianity includes a call, or I would just simply like to say it this way, the mission of true Christianity includes preaching. There is there is a a proclamation that must be done in the process of the mission of the gospel because Jesus establishes it for us. He comes to call. And now as his ambassadors, as his representatives, as his as his redeemed, we make this same call. And listen, our message is the same as Jesus message. The message hasn't changed. We're going to get to the message in a minute. But it is, in fact, a mission of preaching, a mission of calling, and Jesus makes Himself the mission call, right? We go back to our text in Matthew 9, and in verse 9, what does Jesus call to Matthew? He just simply says, what? Follow me, right? There's the call. Hey, what's the mission of the gospel? You're calling people to follow. Not you, not me, but who? Christ, the mission of the gospel. It comes to us by Christ, and it's a call to follow Christ. Thirdly, notice the exemption of the calling. He says, I did not come to call the righteous. The just, the right, those who are without fault, without flaw, they have no call to Christ. Now, this is extremely important, again, based upon the context of Matthew 9 here. Because we see Jesus going to a place where people did not approve of Him going, right? He goes, it says, and He came to the house of many tax collectors and sinners, and they came and were reclining with Jesus and His disciples. In other words, He was hanging out with people who society would look down on and say, they're rotten, right? They're not good people. Tax collectors and sinners and hear the word sinners. It's just simply it's Hama Amartya. It's it's somebody who transgresses the law that they they missed the mark there. Again, these are people who who are who are flawed, but but don't don't rush past the fact that Jesus didn't come to call the righteous. Now, I want us to think on this. How you view yourself will categorize where you are in this call. Because if we know our Bible, we know that the Bible says there's none righteous, no not, one. However, listen, That is a text of scripture that people like to overlook, right? Because, again, it seems like I always end up here, is that people think to themselves, well, I'm pretty good. I'm pretty good. Like, I look around and I see what's going on around me and I'm just gonna be honest, tell ya, I'm pretty good. Can I tell you that the call's not for you? If you think, again, the way you view yourself classifies you in this text. If you think you're pretty good and it's based upon the fact that you're not nearly as bad as other people, and I would even be willing to grant you that, you're probably not as bad as some. You know, everybody wants to immediately go to somebody like Adolf Hitler, right? And we think, man, what a rotten person. What a rotten person, and hey, he was, he was. But if you think, if you think, listen, here's the key. If you think standing in front of God Almighty, that somehow because you weren't as bad as a man like Adolf Hitler, that God's just gonna say, hey, come on, come on, you were pretty good. Let's be honest, you were pretty good. I mean, you weren't that bad. You weren't always right, You're pretty good. Sorry, it doesn't work that way. Let me say it again. I'm not sorry. It doesn't work that way. It doesn't work that way. Jesus says, I came not to call the righteous. And then he uses this analogy there in verse 12. He says, those who are well have no need of a physician. In other words, listen, if you fall into this category, you think to yourself, you know, Jesus is nice and all, but on the day of judgment, I'll be just fine. And usually, usually this is what follows. I know I've done more good than wrong. I know my good outweighs my bad. I mean, let's be honest. I mean, I gave, you know how much money I gave to charities last year? Do you know how many old people I helped cross the street? Do you know how many times I went in and visited an old friend in prison and just, you know, I just went to encourage them. All good things, right? But that doesn't erase the sins of our heart. Not even a little bit. Not even a little bit. Not even a little bit. Jesus said, I came not to call the self-righteous. Didn't not come to call people who think they're pretty good. So who did he come to call? He says, but sinners. But sinners. People like the tax collector. and these folks that had gathered around them. Now, the truth is the Pharisees were just as sinful as those men, but in their mind, they were better than, right? In their mind, they weren't at all like those people. No, I'm not like those people. I'm much better than they are. And Jesus says, hey, that's fine. The call that I'm coming, the offer that I'm making, the gospel that I'm bringing, it's not for you then. It's not for you. And listen, Jesus' blood will not be on any man's hands because of him. He has made it abundantly clear that he is not to blame if someone does not come to him. Right? He is not to blame if you reject him the entirety of your existence. He's not the one to blame. You're the one, we're the ones who set ourselves up against him and are not honest. I'll put it this way. You will not agree with God against yourself. Therefore, you're the one who sits on the throne of your heart. And Jesus says, I didn't come to call the righteous, I came to call the sinner, the one who misses the mark, the one who understands and realizes and sees that in the face of the glory and the majesty and the perfections of God, that they are sinners and they are desperately in need of a savior, that they themselves cannot stand before a holy God and not be slain because of their sinfulness. That's who he's come to call. And I want you to do that. I want you to picture yourself, picture yourself standing all alone in the presence of God. And what would be your plea? What would be your, what would be your defense of yourself, right? And you could come up with a lot of things, but can I tell you, there's only one, there's only one that makes any sense. and it's rooted in mercy. If we were to stand and, hey, the truth is, one of us or many of us could be doing it today yet. You understand that? None of us are guaranteed another breath. But if you find yourself today or in 70 years, 80 years, there's some pretty young folks here today, should the Lord tarry, they may have decades and half a century, whatever, before them. Truth is, most of us don't. Most of us don't have that long. We're standing in the presence of God. What's your defense? What's it gonna be? Well, I was a member of Jack's Mountain Community Church, and I was there Christmas Sunday, December 22nd, 2024. And man, it was a good service. We sang some really good songs for once. That preacher didn't mess it up. Right? Scott Stahl killed that wasp. It was a great service. I was there, God. I was there. I checked the box. I punched the ticket. I was there. Standing in the presence of God, what's going to be your defense? What are you going to offer a holy God standing in his presence? You know, I think the greatest thing that we could say in that moment is, God, I am a miserable, wretched sinner, and I deserve the punishment that my sin, that my sin truly deserves. But I trust fully in your son, that he lived and died for me, and that he rose again that we know that You accepted His sacrifice because there was this glorious resurrection. And He now is my advocate. He's my intercessor. And God, don't ask me, ask Him. He knows that I believe in Him. He knows that I trust in Him. And it's only by Your grace that I can be here today and say, I have no other defense but Jesus Christ. and His righteousness. That's what it means that God desires mercy and not sacrifice. Finally, what is the message? What is the message? Man, we've already made it abundantly clear. The message of the gospel is Jesus Christ Himself. Jesus is the gospel. Jesus is our salvation. Jesus is our Lord. Jesus is our savior. Jesus life, his divinity, his humanity, his perfections, his obedience and life and death, his sufferings. his substitution for our sin, his satisfactory atonement, his victorious resurrection. All of these things are the message of the gospel. The message of the gospel is not about you and me. It's all about Jesus and what he has done and who he is. And these people, these people in Matthew chapter nine, were standing there in the presence of a very God, a very God. and all that they could think of was, they're not as bad as someone else. Listen, listen. When we stand in the presence of Almighty God, when we are face to face with Jesus Christ, we should see salvation in our eyes, not in us, not in who we are, but in spite of who we are, that God loved us and gave himself for us. while we were still sinning against Him. That's mercy. That's mercy. The message of the gospel is what we proclaim, and that is, like Paul says in 1 Corinthians 1.23, he says, but we preach Christ. Crucified it's a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but those who are called both Jew and Greeks Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God Again, the Apostle Paul says in Romans chapter 1 verse 16 I am not ashamed of the gospel for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes to the Jew first and also to the Greek Jesus supplies perfectly and permanently what He desires. Do you hear that? I desire mercy. And Jesus supplies perfectly and permanently what He desires. And you, in response to that, you must trust Him fully, not as a self-righteous person, but as a sinner. You must embrace him fully as a sinner and receive not a merit of your achievements, but you must receive his mercy. You must receive his mercy that you would lay hold of the payment made for your life. I hope and pray that today the gospel is abundantly clear to everyone here who has the ability to understand, who has eyes to see and ears to hear. Jesus is our salvation. We add nothing to it but the sin that made it necessary. And today, if you will trust in Him, if you will throw yourself upon His mercy, can I tell you, He will save you. He will save you, and He will save you right now. Let's close our eyes and bow our heads this morning as we go to the Lord in prayer. I confess that so many times I rush the end of a service. Today, I'm going to make my best effort to not do that. You've heard me now for the past 40-some minutes. And now this morning, you must make a response. A response that no one else can make for you. And I simply ask you, do you understand that God desires mercy and not sacrifice? Oh yes, there's a cross to bear. We're called to follow Him. Do you understand that He is the one who empowers us to do so? You say, well, I can't do it. That's right. Now you're getting it. You can't do it. Can I tell you that He's more than able? He's more than able. Do you trust Him today? Have you cried out to Him and said, Lord, help me, I'm a sinner and I need to be saved? Do you trust Him today? Heavenly Father, I pray that as You have spoken hopefully, Lord, in spite of me, Lord, by Your Spirit to hearts today, God, as you work in our lives, that Lord, those who have trusted, Lord, they can rejoice today in the mercy that we have received, and that mercy that remains. That God, your mercy is new every single day. Your mercy does not fail, and God, we're so thankful for this. Lord, maybe there's somebody here today who's never embraced the mercy of God, and they're trusting in their own righteousness one day to make a defense. I pray that you would help them to understand that the gospel demands us to empty ourselves and to fall prostrate before you humbly and say, we have no righteousness. We are sinners, and we need saving, and Jesus is our only hope. Father, we thank you for this word today. Lord, as we think about this Christmas season, we think about this reality. that the reason that Jesus came was to save sinners. Last week we talked about it was for your glory, and the two are not competing with one another, but serve the same purpose. Because God, You receive glory as You save sinners. Father, thank You for what You've done. Thank You, Lord, for what You're doing. Thank You, Lord, for that which You will do. And we pray these things in Jesus' name,