Jesus The Revealer

Who is Jesus, and why did He have to come? Open to Hebrews chapter 1 with us, and we'll answer those questions.

Hebrews chapter 1, verse 1 states, "God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed the heir of all things, and through whom He also made the worlds." Jesus, who is the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, upholds all things by the word of His power. When He had by Himself purged our sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, having become so much better than the angels, as He has by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they.

Jesus, we believe that You have that more excellent name, and it is by Your name, by Your nature, that we come before You, Father, this morning. We ask that You would continue to transform us by the renewing of our minds. May this time spent here today, considering Your word, be in some sense a preparation for the good works that we will walk through this week. You have prepared good works from before the foundation of the world that each of us should walk in those things. I pray that You would help, by Your word and by the work of Your Spirit, to thoroughly equip us for those good works this week. We ask this in Jesus' name, and all those that agreed said, "Amen." You can be seated.

Have any of you ever spoken through a translator before? A few people have spoken through a translator before? It can be a challenging thing to speak through a translator. It becomes even more challenging when you're not just speaking through a translator but when you're teaching through a translator. I had the privilege and opportunity back in 2004 and 2005 to move to northwest Germany to teach at a small international Bible school there for a year. There were German students and American students, as well as students from other places, but predominantly English speakers and German speakers. Several of the classes that I taught were classes with translation.

Teaching through the book of Romans is challenging enough. It's hard to read through and comprehend the book, let alone teach it in a way that German speakers can understand. The translator must also grasp what you're saying to translate it effectively. In one sense, I felt like I had to relearn how to teach to articulate those concepts clearly, so the translator wouldn't give me a blank stare. That would happen from time to time. I would say something, and as I watched the students, the translator would just stand there looking at me, as if to say, "Really? How am I supposed to translate that?" They would often tell me, "That's not going to work; you're going to have to fix that." Speaking through a translator can be difficult.

One time, I had the opportunity to travel about four hours away from Siegen, Germany, with several other people from the Bible school and the church I was working with. We went to another church where a brother from China named Brother Yun was speaking. Some of you may have heard of him; he has written a book called The Heavenly Man, which shares an amazing testimony of his life for the Lord while growing up in China. He had relocated to Germany and was going to speak at this church, which had about a thousand attendees.

Brother Yun stood up in front, passionately and excitedly speaking in Mandarin Chinese, and he had a translator. However, he was not giving the translator any time to speak. Brother Yun was just speaking loudly and quickly in Mandarin, while the translator was trying to keep up and translate into German. I kind of understand German, but not enough to follow what he was saying. I was seated in the very back with a friend named Jeremy Kirby, who has since gone to be with the Lord. Jeremy was listening to the translation in German and relaying it to me in English.

So, here was Brother Yun speaking in Mandarin as fast and as loud as he could, another guy translating into German, and Jeremy trying to keep up with the translation into English. It was a very interesting situation. I can tell you that there are things that are lost in translation, and not everything translates perfectly.

I'll never forget one Sunday night when I was attending the church in Siegen, Germany. My good friend, Pastor Nick Long, who has spoken here before, was up front speaking in English, and it was being translated into German. Nick can be very animated and excited, and he was sharing his testimony about how God redeemed him. At one point, pardon my language, but Nick said, "I'm just thankful that the Lord..."

has forgiven me for all the crap that I did. The translator was in translator mode, which means she was just speaking and saying what she heard. There isn't a great translation for that word. So when he said it, everybody in the room, English speakers and German speakers alike, sat forward, just waiting for Christina, the translator, to translate. There was a laugh that came at the end of that translation, and she turned a little bit red. Some things just don't translate well.

Pepsi learned this the hard way. A number of years ago, they had a slogan, "Come Alive with Pepsi." When translated into Chinese, it came out as "Pepsi brings your ancestors back to life." McDonald's faced a similar issue when promoting the Big Mac in France; instead of "Big Mac," it came out as "Big Pimp." I'm serious. KFC's slogan "Finger Lickin' Good" translated into Chinese as "Eat Your Fingers Off." "Got Milk?" translated in Mexico to "Are You Lactating?" Things don't always translate well.

If you ever have the chance to go to Rome and travel around to some of the cathedrals, you will see some amazing artworks in these churches, many in sculpture form and some in paintings. At the Church of St. Peter in Chains in Rome, there is a sculpture done by Michelangelo of Moses. However, many people viewing this sculpture don't realize that it's Moses because there's something really strange about him in this sculpture. It's not just in this sculpture; it's also in some other artwork from that same period. Moses has horns on his head. Some people looking at this sculpture of Moses think, "That's not Moses; that's something quite on the other side."

You might wonder, why on earth does Moses have horns on his head? This actually dates back to the fourth century AD when St. Jerome translated the Greek translation of the Bible into Latin, known as the Latin Vulgate. In the book of Exodus, when the passage describes Moses coming down from Mount Sinai with the law, the scripture says in Hebrew that his face shone with radiance.

The word "radiant" is very close in Hebrew to the word for "horns," and Jerome translated it to "horns." For many centuries after that, there were pictures of Moses, including a great sculpture of Moses with horns on his head. There are certainly some things that are lost in translation or sometimes are not understood by the translator.

In fact, one of the most comical things of our day is to see the pictures that people snap of signs in places like China that have been translated into English. Have you ever seen the translations? Sometimes, if you've received a product shipped from China, you might look at the instructions that have been almost entirely translated using Google Translate. It often does not work at all in the translation. There are things that are lost, misunderstood, or misinterpreted as we translate.

This can be a problem because we read in Hebrews chapter one, verse one, that God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in times past to the fathers by the prophets, is revealing Himself. One of the wonderful truths about Scripture is that God, the Creator, has spoken to us. He has revealed Himself to us. We've already talked a little bit about this over the last several weeks, discussing some of the ways, the methods, or the modes by which God speaks to us in various ways and at various times, as the author of Hebrews states.

One of the ways is through general revelation. The heavens declare the glory of God, and the earth shows forth His handiwork. Day unto day they speak. Creation is one of the ways that God reveals Himself to us. Not only in creation, as noted in Psalm 19, but also in the book of Romans chapter one, where the Apostle Paul speaks about creation being a means through which God reveals Himself.

In addition to creation, God speaks through the conscience that He has given to every single one of us. God speaks through creation and through the conscience. But God also speaks, as we see here, to the fathers by the prophets. We move from general revelation through creation and conscience to special revelation through the law and the prophets. God has spoken through the law and through the prophets.

When God speaks through conscience, through creation, and through the law and the prophets, there are certainly things that are misunderstood by us. This is very clear because I'm sure some of you have had that conversation with a neighbor.

A co-worker, a friend, a family member—these conversations often move into the area of things spiritual. Have you ever interacted with a person who says, "Listen, I don't know about this whole God thing. Maybe there's a God, but the problem is, if there is a God, then He's not very good, or He's certainly not very powerful." They come to that conclusion because they see the same revelation that you and I do in general revelation in creation. They say, "Look at the world around us. There's so much death, so much suffering, so much sorrow, so much sickness, and so much wickedness in the world." Therefore, if there is a God, then He is either not very loving or certainly not very powerful.

Does anyone ever have that conversation with someone? I know I have on a number of occasions. If you talk with someone about God and come to the point of saying, "Well, listen, the Scriptures speak about sin, and the Scriptures speak about judgment. One day, God is going to judge sin," someone might object and say, "Hold on a second. I thought the Scriptures say God is love. If God is loving, then He would never send anybody to hell."

Through creation, through the conscience, through the law, and through the prophets, we can misinterpret and misunderstand the things of God. Are these conclusions about God correct, or has something been lost in translation, misinterpreted, misunderstood, or even misused? Certainly, you've met someone— I know I have—who has misused something from the law or something from the prophets in a way that certainly doesn't help.

How do we answer these questions? There are many questions like this in our culture today, and there will be more as time goes on. God spoke through creation, through conscience, through the law, and through the prophets. We still have the record of all these things. We can look at the data of creation and consider the conscience that every single one of us has.

Even to that, some people object and say, "Listen, I've seen people who don't have a conscience." It's not that they don't have a conscience; it's that that conscience has been seared. It has become calloused. You know how callouses work? Let's say you're walking over and over again on hot pavement or hot sand. After a while, you begin to sense a deadness. There's not a problem there any longer because, for a long period of time, you've been walking on that hot ground and developed a callous. It doesn't mean that the ground is no longer hot; it just means that there's a deadness to it because you've overcome it and rejected it.

Some people have gone against their conscience so much that now their conscience is dead; it has been seared and calloused. That is a scary thing when you find someone who seems to have no conscience. However, we all have the same data: creation and conscience. We can all go back and look at the law; we can study the prophets. Yet, those things are often misinterpreted and sometimes misused.

So, what do we do? The author of the Book of Hebrews says in Hebrews chapter 1, verse 2, that God has in these last days spoken to us by His Son. Point number one on your outline is that Jesus is the ultimate revelation of God. This is what the author of the Book of Hebrews is proposing, and it is the truth that is set forth here: Jesus is the ultimate revelation of God.

Creation reveals God's existence; the heavens declare the glory of God, so that man is without excuse regarding the existence of God. Creation shows forth God's existence, revealing His power and intelligence. The conscience that I have, and that you have, reveals God's morality. It challenges us and convicts us of wrong thoughts, wrong words, wrong actions, and wrong motives.

We have creation, which demonstrates the power, presence, and intelligence of God, as well as the conscience, which reflects the morality of God. The law and the prophets show God's nature and His will, yet people often misuse or misunderstand these things.

In the 19th century, a minister, poet, and novelist by the name of George MacDonald wrote that to give revelation or truth to someone who does not love it is to provide them with more plentiful material for misinterpretation. A person who does not have a love for the truth or a love for revelation will simply have more material for misinterpretation.

Another author in the 20th century, Richard Weaver, a professor at the University of Chicago, stated that nothing good can come when the will is wrong. If your motivation is wrong, then you will perceive the data in a different, incorrect way. This is why we have the discussions we do today about alternative facts, which has been a new topic in the news, and there has been all kinds of uproar about fake news.

News and truth can often be difficult to discern, especially in our current culture. It is important to recognize that different people, with different motivations, can see things in various ways and can draw different conclusions from the same data. When we look at the heavens declaring the glory of God, some people may say that God must not be very nice, or that He must not be very powerful. They might conclude that He is certainly not loving because of the fallen and terrible world we live in.

However, God sent forth His Son. When the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son to speak in these last days. God has spoken in times past through the prophets, through the law, through creation, and through conscience. We still have the record of those things, and we can look back at them. But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son. Jesus was sent to reveal God's character, nature, and will, to reveal Him perfectly. He is the ultimate revelation.

In this passage, Hebrews chapter one, as well as Galatians chapter four and other places, Jesus is revealed in the Scriptures as God's Son. This can sometimes cause confusion for people, as they wonder what exactly that means. How does this work? Was Jesus descended from God? Was He created by God? Is He from Him at another level, or is He God? Is He less than God, or is He the same as God? These questions challenge people's thought processes.

To discuss this, we can look at what the author of the book of Hebrews says. He goes on to explain that in these last days, God has spoken to us by His Son, whom He, God in heaven, has appointed heir of all things, and through whom He has made the world. Who is this Son? Who is this one that is given the name Jesus and the title Son? We are told in Hebrews chapter one, verse two, that He is the owner and sustainer of all things. Jesus is the owner and sustainer of all things; through Him, everything was made. Hebrews one, verse two, states that He is the heir of all things. Therefore, He is the owner and sustainer of all things.

Where else do we see this? How else do we comprehend this?

Well, if you would turn in your Bibles to the Gospel of John. If you're in the book of Hebrews, turn to the left. You'll pass a whole bunch of books like Corinthians, Romans, and Acts, and ultimately you will get to John, the fourth Gospel.

John chapter one, verse one, is one of the very famous passages of the Bible, which is sometimes, quite honestly, misinterpreted or mistranslated, causing misunderstanding by some of the cults. But this is how we read it: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." He, the Word, is not just a thing, but a person, an individual. He was in the beginning with God, and all things were made through Him, and without Him, nothing was made that was made. In Him, the Word was life, and that life was the light of men.

Again, this might be a familiar passage to some. It starts in very much the same way as the Bible starts: "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth," as Genesis chapter one says. Here we read, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God," and He, this one that is called the Word, was there. All things were made through Him.

This is a powerful passage of Scripture. These four verses tell us a number of things about this individual who is revealed as the Son in Hebrews chapter one and as the Word here in John chapter one. We learn that this individual, called the Son, bears the title of the Word. This individual called the Word existed before creation. "In the beginning was the Word." He preexisted everything that began when God said, "Let there be light."

Not only did He exist before creation, but this individual called the Word is God. However, the Word is distinct and separate from God. This is challenging and can cause our brains to time out, leading to a little blue screen of death in your mind from time to time. You have to control, alt, delete the whole thing. How do you fix this? He is God, but He is separate and distinct from God. This gets into what we call the doctrine of the Trinity: that God is one God who exists in three persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

And then there is also the Holy Spirit. People say that's hard to wrap our brains around, and yet here it is, revealed this way in the Scriptures. He is God, but He is distinct and separate from the Father, and He is the Creator. All things were made through Him, and without Him, nothing was made that was made. John states this both in the positive—"all things were made through Him"—and in the negative—"nothing was made that was made." Therefore, there is nothing that does not fall under the category of His creation. He causes all things to exist in Him as life. Anything that is alive comes from Him. He is the source and the sustainer of everything.

John tells us this in John chapter one, verses one through four. But wait, there's more. As the infomercial salesman says, there is so much more. Keep your finger in John's Gospel and flip back to Hebrews chapter one. We read more about this individual there, who is called the Word and the Son. God has, in these last days, spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed the heir of all things, through whom He also made the worlds.

Look at verse three: "who being the brightness of His glory, the express image of His person, upholding all things by the word of His power." John and the author of the book of Hebrews, who we discussed last week and I believe is very likely Timothy, are both saying very much the same thing about this individual called the Word, called the Son. His name is Jesus. They are both saying that He existed before creation, that He was active in creation, and that He is the sustainer of all things that we see.

Again, flip back over to John's Gospel, chapter one, and skip down to verse fourteen. John one, verse fourteen states, "And the Word, the one we were introduced to back in verses one through four, became flesh. He dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth." The author of the book of Hebrews says that this individual called the Son, whom John says is called the Word, is the brightness of the glory of God, the express image of His person. He upholds all things by the word of His power.

And John says that the Word became flesh and dwelt among us so that we could see, perceive, understand, and comprehend the grace and the glory of God. He is full of grace and full of truth.

Skip down to verse 16 of John chapter one: "And of His fullness we have all received, and grace for grace." For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus. Christ is His title. No one has seen God at any time, the only begotten Son who is in the bosom or presence of the Father. He has declared Him or proclaimed Him.

John tells us further in John chapter one, verses 14 and 16 through 18, that this Word, introduced to us in verses one through four, became flesh. He comes down here; He is the Word, but He is also the Son. Hebrews one says His name is Jesus, Jesus Christ. He has the name Jesus, which means God has saved or Jehovah brings salvation, but He has many titles. He is called the Son, the Christ, which means the Anointed One, and the Lord, which means Master. He is also called the Word. All these titles are applied to Him, and sometimes that can be confusing.

The fact is, every single one of you in this room has different titles that you go by as well. You have a name, but you may also have the title architect, engineer, construction worker, police officer, mom, dad, brother, husband, wife, or sister. There are many different titles that can be applied to you, but you are still the same person.

So, Jesus is His name, but He is also called the Christ, the Anointed One, and the Lord. He has been given the title the Son and the title the Word. He came to reveal the glory of heaven: the Son, the Word, Jesus, the Christ, the Lord. He is the embodiment of the glory, grace, and truth of God.

Point number three on your outline: Jesus is the manifestation of all of God's glory, grace, and truth. Jesus is the manifestation of all of God's glory, grace, and truth.

And this is why He is given the title "Son" and the title "Word." Some people say, "Well, why would we call Him the Word? That doesn't make any sense to me." He is given the title of the Word because a person's word is the fullest, clearest, and most complete revelation of who they are. Let me say that again: a person's word is the fullest, clearest, and most complete revelation of who they are.

You see, I might know your face, and I might even be able to assume or deduce various things about you. For example, I might think, "Oh, he drives a truck. Maybe he's a construction worker." Or, "Oh, he carries a mug. Maybe he likes coffee." I can deduce all kinds of different things just by observing and watching your pattern of life. That person's a morning person; they rise at four in the morning. I don't know why, but you might. So I can watch you and see various things about you, and I might be able to deduce certain things about who you are and what you're like. However, until you and I communicate and you talk with me, I don't really know you. A person's word is the clearest and most complete revelation of who they are.

So, Jesus is called the Word of God. Why? How do we know what God is like? We can look around and see His creation, and we might be able to deduce certain things about Him. We can even read His revelation, but those things can be misinterpreted, misunderstood, or misused. How will we know what He is like unless He communicates to us? Therefore, Jesus is the clearest and most complete revelation of God. That's why He is called the Word.

He is also called the Son, which again confuses some people because they say, "Well, that must mean that He's lower than or less than the Father in Heaven." No, not necessarily. What does the idea, the concept of "Son," put forth to us? It helps us understand this very thing. You see, my sons are after my nature; they have the same nature as their father. Now, my daughters too, but we're speaking in the term of "Son" here. The Son has the same nature as the Father. You see, the son of a horse has the nature of a horse, of course. The son of a dog has the nature of a dog.

Has the nature of a dog. It doesn't change natures. I know that we are told by evolutionary biologists that if you give enough time and random chance of mutation over billions of years, you can have transpeciation, and one species can move from another species. However, we've never observed that. We have no evidence of that in the fossil record. The Bible speaks otherwise and says everything after its kind.

Jesus bears the same nature as God in heaven in human flesh. Therefore, he is given the title of the Son of God so that we will understand that he has the nature of God in heaven. Jesus has these titles, the Word and the Son, to express exactly who he is. He is the perfect manifestation of all of God's glory, grace, and truth.

In John chapter 14, verse 8, one of Jesus's disciples, Philip, said to Jesus, "Lord, show us the Father, and it will be sufficient." He wanted Jesus to open up the heavens so they could see God the Father. But there's a problem. John told us previously that no one has seen God at any time.

Jesus responds in John chapter 14, verse 9. He said to Philip, "Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known me, Philip? He who has seen me has seen the Father. So how can you say, 'Show us the Father'? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father in me? The words that I speak to you, I speak not on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does the works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father in me, or else believe me for the sake of the works themselves."

Jesus says, "Philip, if you've seen me, you've seen the Father." Why? Because he is the clearest and most complete revelation of God. He is that revelation in human bodily form, in human flesh. That's why he is called the Son of God, bearing the exact nature of God in human flesh so that we can behold the glory of the one true God.

Well, okay, he came here to express, to reveal, to show the glory of God. Is that it? Is that the only reason he came? Go back to Hebrews chapter one, verse three. Jesus being the brightness...

Of God's glory, the express image of God's person, upholding all things by the word of His power, when He, note this, had by Himself purged our sins. We know creation and the conscience, the law and the prophets, the general revelation and the special revelation make something very clear to every single one of us.

Looking at creation, our conscience, and the scriptures, we see very clearly that we live in a broken and fallen world. We are confronted by it every single day. There's not a moment that goes by that we do not experience the brokenness of this world. In creation, we see that there are a lot of problems: suffering, sickness, sadness, pain, death, and sorrow. All these horrible things are happening in our world at any given moment.

Our conscience convicts us all the time of wrong motives, wrong hearts and thoughts, wrong actions, and wrong words. That little voice in your head, that little feeling that says, "Yeah, you shouldn't have said that," right? Or, "You shouldn't have done that." It's not even always after the fact; many times, it's before the fact. "Yeah, don't say that," right? Come on, guys. You've been there. I've been there. Just this last week, the conscience reveals that we are fatally flawed.

Revelation shows those flaws. The law expressly identifies and exposes those areas of inconsistencies. It identifies our sin, and the prophets foretell, predicting the judgment that is going to come upon that.

So consider this for a moment: general revelation and special revelation show us that we live in a flawed and broken world. We are flawed and broken people. One day, judgment is going to come upon us because of our sin. In all of that, we find our complete inability to fix it. We keep trying. We keep hoping that the UN will fix it, that the new president will fix it, that getting rid of debt will fix it, or that whatever might fix it will come along.

New medical science will fix it. Let's get off this planet and go to Mars; that'll fix it. Virtual reality—let's just check out from all of it; that'll fix it, right? We're still trying to fix it, but we find all the time that we are completely impotent to help fix it.

Then we read in Galatians chapter four, "When the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son." In Romans chapter five, it says, "When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time." For what? He died for sinners, point number four in your outline. Jesus fully dealt with the penalty, power, persistence, and presence of sin. His death on the cross occurred at just the right time.

He addresses the problem that we see in creation, through our conscience, through the law, and the coming problem that's predicted by the prophets of judgment upon sin. We see all of that in general and special revelation, but we are completely powerless to fix it. Jesus comes just at the right time, and He dies, dealing completely with the penalty of sin. His death addressed the righteous requirement of the law. His resurrection deals with the power of sin. Sin's power is death, and He raised from the dead, declaring victory over sin and death.

Right now, by His power and grace, He is working in you and me to deal with the persistent problem of sin in our lives through sanctification. One day, He will deal with the very presence of sin. He will glorify you and me and take us out of this world. This corruption will put on incorruption; this mortality will put on immortality. In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, we will be with Him and like Him—no more sin.

How do we know that He fully dealt with it, though? I'll go back to Hebrews again, Hebrews chapter 1, verse 3. "He, being the brightness of God's glory, the express image of His person, upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, what did He do? He sat down at the right hand of Majesty on high, having become so much better than angels, as He has by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they." What is this? Point number five.

Jesus sits enthroned in glory above all powers—earthly powers and angelic powers. He sits on a throne in heaven in a position of rest, no longer working. Why? Because on the cross, His last words were, "It is finished." He is now seated in heaven, no longer working like the priests described in the Old Testament, who worked every single day, every single week, every single month, and every single year for centuries to try and deal with the problem of sin. He did it once for all and is now seated at the right hand of God because the penalty, power, persistence, and presence of sin are dealt with by Jesus.

As we conclude, in light of all these points—point numbers one through five—if these things are true, which is what we're studying as we go through the book of Hebrews to prove their truth, we must consider the implications. If it is true that Jesus is the ultimate revelation of God, that He is the owner and sustainer of everything, that He is the perfect manifestation of all of God's glory, grace, and truth, that He completely deals with the penalty, power, persistence, and presence of sin, and that He is seated on a throne in heaven in glory above all powers, how does that affect the problems you are facing in your life this week?

What are the problems you are facing? I'm sure that as I ask this, there are some issues weighing on you. When you woke up this morning, or even yesterday, you were likely thinking about what will happen on Monday and Tuesday and how you will deal with these problems. Every single one of us has a problem, and probably several problems. In light of the truth of who Jesus is, how does that truth affect those problems? Are you still trying to deal with your flaws on your own? Are you still trying to address all of those failures by yourself to fix them?

Let me clue you into something that you already know at a deep level: you have no power in and of yourself to fix it. But Jesus came at just the right time. He came to die for the ungodly. I don't know about you, but I fit in that category—ungodly. There's none righteous, no, not one. Yeah, that's me. I need His power in my life, His authority, His goodness in my life. And so do you. Because there's nothing we can do apart from the grace of Jesus Christ.

So God, fill us with Your grace. Amen? Would you stand with me as we close in prayer? Jesus, we need Your grace. I am so grateful that this very book that we're going to be studying through says that You sit on a throne of grace and that the access to that throne of grace is open always. We can come boldly at any time before that throne of grace to obtain mercy and grace in our time of need.

I am certain that at this moment, as we stand here, there are many in this room who are in need of Your grace and Your mercy. We thank You that we have access through You, Jesus, to come before that throne. We come, we stand right now, and we say, "Jesus, we need Your grace." We need Your grace to face the problems that we're dealing with this week, to address the issues of our failures and our sins. We need Your grace.

It may be that as we're standing here this morning, you realize for the first time your need for the grace and forgiveness of Jesus. If you want to receive the forgiving grace, the salvation that Jesus freely gives because of what He did on the cross, and you want to receive that today, would you just lift up your hand this morning? Anyone here? God bless you up here in the front. Anyone else? If that's you and you realize your need, just lift up your hand; we want to pray with you.

Again, if you're that person today, would you just pray out loud with me: "Dear Jesus, I recognize my failures. I know that I am a sinner."

Everything I see reminds me of it every day. Would you come into my life, forgive me of my sin, help me to follow You by faith, and to serve You with my life? In Jesus' name, amen. God is good. Amen.