We're in Matthew, we'll just look at the last few verses of chapter 11 before we go on because we gave them very short shrift last week. Matthew 11 verse 25, it is page 10 of 11 in the Scofield Bible that's in the pew in front of you, or if you're using one of those. And it says, at that time Jesus answered and said, and who's he talking to? He's talking to his Father. I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes, for even so, Father, for so it seemed good in thy sight. All things are delivered unto me of my father. No man knoweth the son but the father, and neither knoweth any man the father save the son, and he to whomsoever the son will reveal him." Quite a statement. He's having a good fellowship with his father and saying, I need to reveal people I need to reveal you to people and you need to reveal me to people. And then he changes his address from the Father in heaven to the lost people. Come unto me, all you that labor and are heavy laden, burdened down. I will give you rest. Think about the criticism he's taking because of the Sabbath and see here he's promising not a technical rest where you can't do anything or else, but a rest from labor and a rest from burdens, a rest from the works that even in his day many people thought the only way to be right with God, works, works, works. Come to me, I'll give you rest. That's an invitation to salvation. Come to Jesus. Believe in Him, He'll give rest. from the works that won't work in any case. And then he gives a different invitation for those that do come to him for salvation. He now says, and if you want to follow me, take my yoke upon you and learn from me, follow me, get in yoke with me, pull the same direction I'm pulling. He says, this is my yoke. I am meek and lowly in heart. You'll be comfortable in yoke with me. You shall find rest to your souls. My yoke is easy and my burden is light. It's not the only passage in the Bible about salvation and discipleship, but it's a good one and reminds us that it can't be by works that we have right standing with God, but only by faith in Jesus Christ. We go on to the next chapter. At that time, at that time, Jesus went on the Sabbath day through the corn, some kind of grain, and his disciples were and hungered and began to pluck the ears of corn and to eat. But when the Pharisees saw it, they said unto him, Behold, thy disciples do that which is not lawful to do upon the Sabbath day. Oh, my. This is innocent activity, walking through a crop, not their own field, somebody else's field, gleaning, they call it, taking some of the food just to eat right then, right there. You couldn't go in with a basket and work all day and take somebody else's food, but if you're hungry and you're walking through a field with food, you could have some. Well, it's the Sabbath day, they yell, it's the Sabbath day, they can't do that. Well, it wasn't, a violation of the distance they were allowed to walk on the Sabbath day. The tradition of the Jews walking less than 2,000 cubits, 2,000 cubits, one and a half, it's about 3,000 feet, three-fifths of a mile, a little more than half a mile, that's okay. And where'd they get that from? They got that from just the way they thought about it. of the dimensions given to the cities and the surrounding land given to the Levites. In Numbers 35 verse 4, talking about what would go to the Levites because they didn't get a tribal region, they got cities. The suburbs of the cities which you shall give unto the Levites shall reach from the wall of the city and outward a thousand cubits. Roundabout, all the way around the city. They got the city and 1,000 cubits out. And from that, by some mechanism of their theological imagination, they devised the idea that, well, they could go, if they're Levites, they could go from one side to the other. It'd be all right. 1,000 cubits each way, so about 2,000 cubits was acceptable. It's not too much travel. It was not that wasn't the problem at all. And they said, no, they're doing what's not lawful to do on the Sabbath day. Maybe they were saying, they're harvesting. Well, they're not harvesting their own field. The notes that I wrote down say, looking out for the state of your own crops would be considered servile work. These were not their crops. They're just walking through. They weren't going to Matthew's field and making sure the crows weren't eating the grain. And then the third idea, well, it's somebody else's food, but plucking grain, rubbing it, and eating it to satisfy hunger was allowed. Deuteronomy Chapter 23, verse 25, says pretty plainly, this is page 242, when thou comest into the standing corn of thy neighbor, then thou mayest pluck the ears with thine hand, but thou shalt not move a sickle into thy neighbor's standing corn. Don't bring your harvester over. but go ahead and get something to eat, that's all right. So, back to where we were there in Matthew. The objection, it's not that it was too far to walk, it's not that they were tending their own crops, it's not that the taking of the food was illegal. The objection was that doing this on the Sabbath was, according to the lights of the Pharisees, the same as reaping, harvesting, which was servile works. And one of their commentaries, one of their rabbis said, he that reaps on the Sabbath day ever so little is guilty, deserving of stoning. That's where they were coming from. Jesus wasn't going to have it. In verse three, he said unto them, haven't you read? What's he starting off with? God's word. Here's the book of God. It says David, when he was hungered, and they that were with him, how he entered into the house of God, and did eat the showbread, which wasn't lawful for him to eat, neither for them which were with him, only for the priests." He said, not only did it on the Sabbath, but took the bread that had been set in front of God. In verse 2, by the way, it says, the Pharisees addressed their complaint to him, but in Luke, where the same event is recorded, he says that the Pharisees fussed at them. They probably fussed at both Jesus and the disciples, and Jesus is answering for them all with the Word of God. So here we're going to look briefly at 1 Samuel 21, 3 through 6. That's where what happened that Jesus mentioned happened. David is on the run. David's a servant of King Saul, and King Saul is fixing to kill him. The king has commanded me a business and has said to me, let no man know any of this business where I have sent thee and not have commanded thee, and I have appointed my servants to such and such a place. Therefore, what is under thine hand, high priest? Give me five loaves of bread in my hand, or what there is present. The priest answered, David said, there is no common bread under my hand. There is hallowed bread, if the young men have at least kept themselves from women. And David answered and said, with truth, Women have been kept from us about three days since I came out, and the vessels of the young men are holy. And the bread is in a manner common, though it was sanctified this day in the vessel. So the priest gave him hallowed bread, for there was no bread there but the showbread that was taken from before the Lord to put hot bread in the day when it was taken away." So that's what Jesus referred to saying was good for David. And then he goes on. in chapter 12, and says, or have you not read in the law how that on the Sabbath days the priests in the temple profane the Sabbath and are blameless? On the Sabbath day, when you can't do any work, the priests continue to light the lamps, take care of the fuel for the lamps, put new showbread on the table, take the old showbread off. Everything that needed to be done in the temple, in the holy place, they did seven days a week and are blameless. And then he said this, I say unto you that in this place is one greater than the temple." By the way, about that business of the priests, the rabbis had a saying, that which is forbidden to be done on the Sabbath is lawful to be done in the sanctuary. They thought this thing through and they said, well, because it's in the sanctuary and God commands it, it's all OK. It's not a Sabbath violation, even though it is a Sabbath violation. And so it makes sense that Jesus would respond to them in this place here today, right now talking to you. There is one greater than the temple. And then he takes them to one more place in the Old Testament, one more passage of scripture. He says, if you had known what this means, he doesn't even tell him where to find it. It's Hosea 6.6, Hosea 6.6. He says, I will have mercy and not sacrifice. That's the quotation from Hosea. Hosea 6.6 says, I desired mercy and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings. Jesus had already referred to this when we studied chapter 9. He made reference to the same passage. He had it on his mind. God is happier with kindness and mercy than with religious ritual. And you go back here to where he is in Matthew. He said, if you knew what that meant, if you knew God according to that scripture, you would not have condemned the guiltless. You would not have condemned the guiltless. Why? Pharisees, why are you fussing with these few hungry men? What's your point? And then he says in verse 8, the Son of Man, that's me, he said, is Lord even of the Sabbath day. The Jews had agreed that the Messiah which is a term they used, the Son of Man to refer to the Messiah. The Jews agreed that the Son of Man, the Messiah, could command the law of the Sabbath and could dispense with it. You might remember when the walls of Jericho were keeping God's people out, they had a strange battle plan. They were to march around six days silently. And on the seventh day, they were to march around seven times. And at the end of the seven times, they were to blow the trumpets and shout. That's a good way to win a battle, but it did. Well, you realize at least one of those seven days was a Sabbath day. And even if it was a Levitical-sized city, the circumference is bigger than a Sabbath day's journey. They did this on the Sabbath day. The Jews looked at that. of the fall of Jericho, they said, on the day which Jericho was taken. It was the Sabbath day. They said it was the Sabbath day. Though they slew and burnt on the Sabbath day, he that commanded the observation of the Sabbath, he that commanded the observation of the Sabbath commandeth the profanation of it. You recall who was in charge of the armies of the people of God in that day? Why, was it Joshua? Oh no, he might have been second. But he met the commander, big guy, and he said, whatever you say. And the angel of the Lord in armor with a big sword came and appeared to him and said, this is what you do. And so he that commanded the observation of the Sabbath commanded the profanation of it. So, he has claimed this messianic title, and given that as a reason why his people were not guilty of any violation of the Sabbath, because he said, have at it, boys. Well, we go on to verse 9. It's another Maybe the same day they go into the synagogue, it's still the Sabbath day. When he was departed thence, he went into their synagogue. They're going into the place where they meet to hear the word of God and sing the songs. And behold, there was a man which had his hand withered. And they asked him saying, is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath days? that they might accuse him. What was their motive? They just wanted to know if they could go out and heal people. No, they wanted to accuse him. They wanted to either embarrass him if he couldn't do it or condemn him if he could and did. Jesus was not impressed with the question. Is it lawful? He said unto them, what man shall there be among you? that shall have one sheep and fall into a pit on the Sabbath day, will he not lay hold on it and lift it out? Won't you? Will you let the sheep die and rot? No, you'll jump in and keep their sheep. How much then is a man better than a sheep? Oh, and then he gave his sentence, his judgment. Wherefore, it is lawful to do well on the Sabbath days. But he did nothing. He didn't do anything, in verse 13, except speak, and speaking certainly was lawful. Stretch forth thine hand. So who did the work? It was restored whole like the other. Who did any work? The Lord spoke, the man just extended his hand and it was well in hold. The unseen Father did the work. And they went out and celebrated and said, it's so great, this guy's hand works again now. No. The Pharisees went out and held a council against him, how they might destroy him. He already knew their thoughts when they said that they might accuse him. Now they're having a secret council, how they might destroy him. And it says in verse 15, Jesus knew it. You don't keep secrets from God. You can make counsels and plans and private meetings and all, and you might remember that there's somebody listening in. The microphone is always on, and the speaker is always in God's ear. When Jesus knew it, he withdrew himself from tents. But he didn't go in secret. Great multitudes followed them. It's still the Sabbath, and He healed them all. Great multitudes, He healed them all. Charged them that they should not make Him known. Maybe He just didn't want the Pharisees to come and try to put Him to death right then, right there. But then, well, Matthew says in the next verse that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the prophet. Matthew here remarks that this healing ministry of Jesus and his departing from among the Jews even to go to the Gentiles was prophesied. We have it in Matthew this way, it's at the bottom of the page of notes there. Behold my servant whom I have chosen, my beloved in whom my soul is well pleased. I will put my spirit upon him, he shall show judgment to the Gentiles. He shall not strive nor cry. He's going to walk away from the offered fight. Neither shall any man hear his voice in the streets. A bruised reed shall he not break. He's not here for doing physical stuff. Smoking flax shall he not quench till he send forth judgment into victory. And in his name shall the Gentiles trust. Matthew, who is mostly writing for the Jews, had to quote the whole of Isaiah 42, including the part about the Gentiles trusting in him. Look at the passage, slightly longer passage in Isaiah. Same, you can compare them looking up and down the page of the notes there. Behold my servant whom I uphold, mine elect in whom my soul delighteth. I have put my spirit upon him. He shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles. He shall not cry, nor lift up, nor cause his voice to be heard in the streets. A bruised reed shall he not break, and the smoking flax shall he not quench, till he shall bring forth judgment unto truth. He shall not fail, nor be discouraged, till he have set judgment in the earth, for the isles shall wait for his law." I believe this looks forward to the kingdom time. Thus saith God the Lord, he that created the heavens, and he that stretched them out, he that spread forth the earth, and that which cometh out of it, he that giveth bread unto the people upon it, and the spirit to them that walk therein, I the Lord have called thee in righteousness, and will hold thine hand, and will keep thee, and give thee for a covenant of the people, for a light of the Gentiles." And it goes on about his healing ministry after that as well. And passing, since we're in this passage in Isaiah, the reference in verse 5 to the creation has an interesting concept in it that helps us understand the objection of science, so-called, that says, couldn't just be six or seven thousand years ago, couldn't, because those stars are a long way away. and measured in light years, which is the distance light travels in a year. And how could they be so far away if the whole creation was only 6,000, 7,000 years old? But it says, He created the heavens and stretched them out. Huh. It's like in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth, Right? But this says he created them and stretched them out. Huh. I don't know, but that gives a little bit of insight that somehow the At that time of creation, what we call a universal constant, the speed of light, wasn't. As he stretched out the heavens, the light from those stars was already near us. Anyway, I just like that. I thought you might, might not. But that's one of the partial explanations about that business of how far away the stars are. Well, finishing up this, a bruised reed shall he not break and the smoking flax shall he not quench. My note says he would avoid striving and crying, avoid the madness of the enemy until it was time for victory. And going back to Matthew, it says, in his name shall the Gentiles trust. Chapter 12, verse 21, the Gentiles will trust in His name. The next verse, it's another occasion. He's back in Galilee again. It's not the same day, the Sabbath day. He comes back to Galilee. And it says, then was brought unto him one possessed with a devil. We should read demon probably. There's only one devil, but there's lots of demons. This devil made him blind and dumb, that is to say he could neither see nor speak, perhaps not see nor hear. It's an odd thing the Greek word translated dumb is also translated deaf. It is weak in both directions. You can't hear and you can't speak. They brought him somebody that was possessed by this demon. And it made him blind, and it made him unable to hear or speak, and he healed him, insomuch that the blind and dumb now spake and saw. The symptoms of this man that was possessed with the demon were blindness and dumbness. The healing made him able to speak and see. The healing is put in a different order than the affliction. The blind saw, the dumb spake. And all the people were amazed and said, is not this the son of David, another of the titles of the Messiah? The covenant God made with David, the promise he gave to David was that he would have a son who would sit on the throne of his kingdom forever. Now Solomon was good, but he wasn't that good. And after Solomon was Rehoboam, and he wasn't anywhere near that good, But there's a son of David promised who would be the son of man and who would rule over Israel forever. And these people, knowing the prophecies about the Messiah, the healing that he would do, said, is not this the son of David? Well, the Pharisees didn't like that. They're still in the crowd listening, and when the Pharisees heard it, they said this. Notice fellow is in italics. This is a slam. It's like saying this thing. They wouldn't even call him a man. They used neuter, this whatever he is, this thing. doth not cast out devils, but by Beelzebub, the prince of the demons, the prince of the devils. There's a reference to Satan by another name, Beelzebub, Beelzebub. You break that apart, it means lord of the refuse heap, the dunghill. They're saying what he does, he does it because the power of the Satan is on him. Once again, their thoughts are not secret. Jesus knew their thoughts. How many times does it tell us this? Jesus knew their thoughts. And he said unto them, Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation, and every city or house divided against itself shall not stand." We're coming up to the observation of what I would call Washington's birthday or Lincoln's birthday. But you recall that President Lincoln had reference to this passage as the Civil War began. He said, a city or house divided against itself shall not stand. He made reference to this passage of Scripture. Jesus was saying that what you're saying makes no sense. If Satan cast out Satan, he's divided against himself. He wouldn't do that. How could his kingdom stand? If I by Beelzebub cast out devils, by whom do your children cast them out? the Pharisees had exorcists among them. They were imitating Jesus. They were trying to do like the magicians in Egypt did, imitating the miracles God gave Moses to do. So if I'm using the power of the devil, how are your boys doing this? And then in verse 28, he says, if I cast out devils, demons, by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God has come unto you. It's time. I'm the king. That's what he's saying. The king is coming. The king has come. The king has come. Verse 29, he says, how could somebody go into a strong man's house and spoil his good, except he first bind the strong man and then he will spoil his house? He's saying, I'm the strong, stronger, if you will. I can bind the devil who empowers these demons, and then I can take care of this business, spoil his house, this demon-possessed house that he doesn't get to control anymore. In verse 30, he says this in the middle of this discussion, he that is not with me is against me, and he that gathereth not with me scattereth abroad. And I didn't have too much to say about that. Go right on to the next verse. But Jesus was saying, you ought to be with Me. Your fellows that are casting out demons, they ought to be with Me. And then He said this, "'Wherefore, I say unto you, all manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men, but The blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men. Whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man, it shall be forgiven him. But whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the world to come." Oh, this is that troubling passage that people stumble over and they think, I might have done that. I might have done that. I hit my thumb with a hammer and said, oddly, oh, holy ghost. Probably not, but what does that mean? What sin did Jesus die for when He died on the cross? not quite all sin, all of mankind's sin. He did not die for the demons and the devil, the angels that had fallen, but he did pay for all the sins of mankind, all the sins. And God said, it's accepted. He's satisfied. He shall look upon the travail of his soul and be satisfied. And yet this is a threat of never forgiveness. What's that about? I think he's addressing the Pharisees and saying, you've been watching all of the prophesied signs, the blind see, the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, the lepers are cleansed, the same list he gave to John the Baptist's disciples that said, I'm the one that's to come, you don't have to look for another one. And after they watched all these things, they said, the devil did it. And he says, you know what? Calling the Holy Spirit Satan is not a good plan. But I do think the only people who could ever have committed this sin were people who personally observed Jesus healing the sick, raising the dead, cleansing the lepers, the ones of that generation that saw him prove that he was the promised one and said, nah, it was the devil. So, you can't do that. None of us have seen these things that are recorded in the New Testament, and so we're not in danger of committing this blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. He goes on in chapter 12 in this list of things that all flow out of this conversation about the cleansing of the demons. Either make the tree good and his fruit good, or else make the tree corrupt and his fruit corrupt. A tree is known by his fruit. That's just a true statement. A tree is known by his fruit. In another place, he's talking about false teachers, and you judge them by their fruits. He's not talking about another person's salvation. He's talking about whether a teacher is true or false, that you can judge by their fruits. And so he makes that statement again in this particular place. And then he addresses himself a little more specifically to the Pharisees. O generation of vipers, who's your daddy? Satan. He called them children of the devil. He did it again in John chapter 8, a passage very familiar to some. You're of your father, the devil, and the lusts of your father you will do. He's a murderer from the beginning and abode not in the truth. When he speaks a lie, he speaks of his own because he is a liar and the father of it. That's John 8, 44. And that's a lot like saying this right here, you children of snakes. How can you being evil speak good things out of the abundance of the mouth, the heart, the mouth speaketh? good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things." He would have said, happy day, that man is cleansed of the devil. That man can speak and see. That's what a good man would have said. An evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth evil things. You'll say, Sabbath breaker, doing it by the power of the devil. He says in verse 36, I say unto you that every idle word that men shall speak They shall give account thereof in the day of judgment. By thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned." Not works, words. Words reflect what we're thinking. There's going to be a judgment, there's going to be a time when those who believe will be rewarded according to their words and works. There will also be another day of judgment, a time when all those who are not believers give account of the words, the idle words that they spoke. I kind of think the judgment of the great white throne for the lost is largely focused on how did what you said and did help people to be saved or keep them lost. I don't think God has too many other priorities bigger than that one. What Jesus did when he died on the cross was the greatest work of all mankind, of all time, and God doesn't like that work to be diminished at all. You'll give an account in the day of judgment. Well, the scribes and the Pharisees answered that, they wouldn't quit. We would like to see a sign. Where have they been? Hiding under a rock? Couldn't we just see a sign? And he said, you're not paying attention. An evil and adulterous generation, generation of vipers, seeketh after a sign. There shall no sign be given unto it but the sign of the prophet Jonas. He said, everybody else was watching. The dead are raised up, the lepers are cleansed, the demons are cast out, the deaf hear, the blind see. You're not paying attention. Here's your sign. The sign of the prophet Jonas. Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly social, the son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. What's that? I'm coming back. I'm going to be killed. I'm going to get back up. By the way, sometime you read the account in Jonah and you realize it doesn't say he lived three days in the whale's belly. It says he went to the depths of the ocean. He went to the roots of the, he went to the heart of the earth. He died. He died. And God said, get back up there. You've got something to do still. His body stayed three days and three nights in the whale's belly. He went to the place of the dead. And when he said, salvation is of the Lord, and prayed in the place of the dead, God said, I still want you to go to Nineveh. And so he did. But the sign of Jonah, dead three days and three nights, was the sign that was given to the ones who wouldn't believe all of the signs that he'd already given. Verse 41, the men of Nineveh, that's the ones Jonah went to preach to, shall rise in judgment with this generation and condemn it, because they repented at the preaching of Jonas, and behold, a greater than Jonas is here. It's interesting, if you read the account in Jonah, who repented was not the people, it was the king. I'm sorry, it was God. God said, I'll put off this destruction that I've promised for a little bit because they all changed their mind about me. That's what it says. They repented. They changed their mind at the preaching of Jonas. They were, who were the, the Ninevites are the, that's the capital of Assyria. You read the history of Assyria. You know, they're the ones that took the ten northern tribes, as well as the rest of the ancient world before Nebuchadnezzar. They took it, and they were the awful, awful destruct. The book of Habakkuk is about God's promise He's going to send the Assyrians to destroy Israel. I had a teacher, a preacher one time say, that's like saying we got a little problem in our small town local high school with some bullying going on. So we're going to send out to Los Angeles or we're going to send over to New York and get all the bloods in the crips to come in and take care of our bullying problem. And Habakkuk said, God, that's a little extreme, don't you think? But God did it. These are the Assyrians. This is why Jonah didn't want to go. These are bad dudes. They're bad people. We don't want to save them. We don't want them to be in heaven forever. Anyway, he says a greater than Jonah is here. Then he mentions Solomon, the queen of the south shall rise up in the judgment of this generation, a generation of vipers, and shall condemn it. She came from the uttermost parts of the earth, from down in Africa, to hear the wisdom of Solomon. And behold, a greater than Solomon is here." Now, he says, let's talk about those demons again in verse 43. When the unclean spirit, that demon, is gone out of a man, he walks through dry places looking for rest, finds none. I can't sleep on the park bench. I need a person to live in. And he says, I will return to my house, that fellow that he was in possession of, for whence I came out. And when he's come, he findeth it empty, swept, and garnished. Jesus, I think, is warning about the demons that have been exorcised by the Jews themselves. And he says, this demon's gone out. You clean your life up. And he goes and takes with himself seven other spirits more wicked than himself. And they enter in and dwell there. And the last state of that man is worse than the first. Ooh, be careful about seeking exorcism without salvation. The last state of that man is worse than the first. Even so shall it be also unto this wicked generation. He's warning them that they're the wicked generation. They're the generation of vipers. They're only going to see Jesus rise from the dead, and they're going to be still in opposition when that happens, this wicked generation, this wicked nation. And then this cute paragraph comes up at the end here. While he yet talked to the people, behold, his mother and his brethren stood without desiring to speak to him. He's up at the front of the auditorium, and they don't want to wait in line. One said unto him, Behold, thy mother and thy brethren stand without desiring to speak with thee. And Jesus gives this answer, which sounds strange to our ears. He answered and said unto him that told him, Who is my mother? Who are my brothers? And he stretched forth his hand toward his disciples and said, my mother, my brothers. Whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven, the same as my brother and sister and mother." You want to have a close relation with Jesus, you don't have to be connected by natural birth. You have to be connected by spiritual birth. You have to be saved by being born again into the family of God, and then if you really want to be close to Him, you should be His disciple, His follower who learns from Him. Salvation is by faith. Discipleship is by works. And he says, you do the will of my Father in heaven, and you'll be as close to me as you can be. Behold, my mother and my brethren. Now, he took care of his mother Mary, and his brothers, who didn't believe before he died and rose again, did believe and become leaders in the church. And some of them, I believe his half-brother James and his half-brother Jude wrote the books that we have, the letters in the New Testament. But he said, these disciples are really close to me because they're doing what the will of the Father, which is in heaven, is. He wasn't cold. He took care of her. Even from the cross, he looked down there's his mother, and there's John the disciple, the only one staying near the cross. And he said to his mother, nodded at John, said, behold thy son. And he said to John, behold thy mother. And John took care of her from that day on. Well, that is the end of chapter 12, and that's a good thing because we're also at the end of our hour. I would remind you Matthew is not the one who presents the gospel most of the time. He is telling the story of Jesus for the Jewish people, and yet he still makes reference to the gospel plainly in chapter 11, verse 28. He doesn't say, come unto me and follow. Come unto me and do good works, and I'll make you my... He says, just, you're working, you're heavy laden, you've got the works of the law thrust upon you by these Pharisees. You come to me, I will give you rest. rest from the works, rest from the law, salvation by grace undeserved through faith, not of yourselves. It's a gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. Would you pray with me? Father in heaven, as we wander on through your word here and try to make things plain and understandable, we do ask that if there's someone listening that has been caught up with the idea that he had to do the will of God in order to be saved, that he'd see the only will of God that can be done in order to be saved is to believe in Jesus, the one the Father sent. Believing that he was the promised one understanding perhaps that He went to the cross to pay for sin, was buried and rose again, it'll make sense that He can be trusted and give the gift that He promised, the gift of eternal life. Now, Father, take charge of the rest of the services here this morning. Bless the choir as they present music, bless the preacher as he presents Your Word, and give him fruit for his labor. In Jesus' name, amen.