Acts 17:16-21 | Do Not Rebrand Jesus | Pastor Daniel Banna

It's good to be with you again to share the word of God. If you would please turn with me to the book of Acts chapter 17. The book of Act chapter 17. Let us bow our heads and pray. Our god and father, we again come before you to thank you for your word.

We know your word is the truth, the eternal truth that never changes. Lord, we come before you with fear and trembling as we look at your word, lord. We take it very, very seriously. It is your word. Lord, we pray that the Holy Spirit this afternoon would lead us to understand your word.

Lord, we don't want an interpretation of man. We want to understand what you have said, what you mean by every word you have given us, Lord. Lord, help us have ears to hear and will to obey and do your will, Lord. We give you the glory and the honor. In the name of your son, we pray.

Amen. In, Acts 17, we see Paul, the apostle Paul, in Athens. What does he do? Paul observed the culture. That is very important.

He observed the culture. Someone has said correctly, we need to be observers of the culture, but not consumers of the culture. Amen. Many of us, unfortunately, have become consumers of the As Christians, we need only to be observers of the culture, but never consumers of the culture. Paul was a Jew.

He was born in Tarsus. He was raised in Jerusalem. He had a very religious upbringing. His culture was very different from that of Rome or Athens. But the need in Jerusalem or in Rome or in Athens or in Chicago is the same.

The message is the same. Paul might use different approaches to reach different kind of people, but he does not change the message to fit the culture. Rather, the culture must change to fit the message. Now in verse 16 in chapter 17 of the book of Acts, we see Paul's righteous indignation when he saw the city full of idols. We read these words.

Now while Paul was waiting for them in Athens, his spirit was provoked within him as he saw that the city was full of idols. This is how every true man of God and woman of God feel when they see and when they hear the evils of this world. You have this holy indignation. Your love for the truth. Your love for what is right will provoke your spirit within you.

Do you feel this sometime? That's one indication to have the spirit of God within you, provoking you to a holy indignation and holy anger. Look at verse 17. We see Paul doing the usual thing. So he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the devout persons and in the marketplace every day with those who happened to be there.

Every city Paul visited, first, he went to the synagogue of the Jews to preach there. When he's done with that, he would go to preach to others. Now in verse 18, we read of his first encounter with the pagan Athenians of that day. Some, verse 18, some of the Epicorian and Stoic philosophers also conversed with him, And some said, what does this babbler wish to say? Others said, he seemed to be a preacher of foreign divinities because he was preaching Jesus and the resurrection.

Now the first word that came out of their mouth, they called Paul a babbler. He is a big mouth. He is a nonsense talker. Literally, babbler means a seed picker, the one who picks seed and spit them out. He does not think about what he is saying.

They insulted him. Now you see, Paul was not a smooth, seeker, sensitive preacher. Let us change the message content to please the crowds. He wasn't like that. He wasn't, you know, let me be very careful not to offend anyone.

That what some or many of our today's preachers do. They want to be loved by everyone. They want to be invited to popular talk shows. What was Paul preaching? Something foreign to them, very foreign.

Does not belong to their culture. At least, this is what they thought. He began preaching Jesus and the resurrection. He is not sugarcoating his message. Paul did not say, oh, you know, I need to preach another gospel here.

Paul did not say, oh, these are smart, intelligent, educated, well read philosophers. Let me tune. Let me tweak my message a little bit to make it more attractive to them and more acceptable. He didn't do any of that. Let me talk maybe first about something in common between us Jews and Gentiles, and maybe later, hopefully, in my next visit to Athens, I will share more about the truth, more about the way of salvation.

He did not do that. Paul knew that most of those educated pagans would reject his message. He knew that. He knew that the majority is going to despise him, mock him, and ridicule him. He knew all of this.

Now he told us he told us in first Corinthians chapter one verse twenty three and twenty four. He told us what the Jews want. He told us what the Gentiles are looking for. He said, for the Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom. What should I do then?

Let us come with sign and the wisdom from this age. Right? He would not say that. What did he say? But we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles.

Jews seek signs. Gentiles seek wisdom. I preach stumbling block and a folly to them both. This is what I preach. He knew that his message would be folly to the majority.

He knew he would be perceived foolish and a babbler. Nevertheless, he preached the same message, the same gospel, the same truth, for there is only one truth that is in Jesus Christ and his death and resurrection. There is no other truth. There's no other way of salvation apart from the cross and the resurrection and the shed of lust of Jesus Christ for each one of us. Now Paul might use and he have used different methods.

To the Jews, he used the Old Testament. This is what they had in their hands. He used the Old Testament to prove to them that Jesus is the Messiah, the promised Messiah. The Athenians had no knowledge of the Old Testament. You must present the gospel using a different message, but the gospel remains always the same.

The message will always remain the same, never changed, never altered. Our method of delivery might change. Now those who have watched the last Super Bowl have seen a commercial. Not sure how many of you have watched it. I did not.

But they have seen a commercial, a Christian commercial, but a group called He Gets Us. Now if you're not familiar with with this group, I I went to their website to show you who are these. They are a group of Christians, but let us see what they say about themselves and about their message. They spent, $20,000,000 on this, commercials. But let me read a little bit about, what they say about themselves.

He Gets Us is a diverse group of Jesus followers with a wide variety of faith journeys and life experiences. That sounds so far good. Right? Our work represent the input from Christians who believe that Jesus is the son of God as well as many others who who, though not the Christians, share a deep admiration for the man Jesus was. Now the $20,000,000 they spend is only, part of of a much, much larger campaign we are, going to spend on on really advertising Jesus.

Now I would say that there is no amount that it's too high to spend to save the lost. That will include money, time, sacrifice, and all of our resources. All the sacrifice is worth it to win one single soul to Christ, to save one single soul from hell. But is the message of this campaign the same message that Paul preached? Is it Jesus of this campaign is the same Jesus Paul preached?

Now the Jesus of the he gets us is a Jesus being preached in so many evangelical churches today. If it were not been so, I would have left it alone. If it's only that he gets us message, I would have left it alone. But because I see a trend in so many evangelical churches, I cannot leave it alone. So I want to go slightly deeper.

This is the contemporary Jesus they preach. From the He Gets Us website, I give these things. First, they describe Jesus as the one who always loved others despite of their identity, beliefs, and values. Now some things of these things could be very, very true, by the way. Two, you see Jesus who did not want us to act like adults.

Three, Jesus who had so much fun and acted so freely around the dinner table. Again, I'm getting this from their website. Number four, Jesus was homeless. Five, Jesus was refugee. Number six, Jesus was a leader of a movement that became so impactful because he resisted and rejected participating in culture war politics.

Seven, Jesus supported women's equality. Number eight, Jesus is a social justice warrior. He was a rebel, a refugee, an influencer, even sound like a feminist when I read their stuff. But also, at the end, they claim that conservative Christians hijack Jesus. They want to rebrand him.

Now after two thousand years, a group coming, they want to rebrand Jesus. Now you are here maybe because a church you attended have been taking that route and you felt compelled to leave and to attend a church where Jesus of the gospel is being preached. But is this Jesus of the New Testament? Is this Jesus that Paul and Peter and James and John preached? You see, the world has many faiths many faiths, many religions, many opinions, many gods, and, yes, many Jesuses.

Muslims believe in Jesus, and they respect him. They believe he's a prophet. Jehovah witnesses believe in Jesus. Mormons believe in Jesus. Multitude of people admire Jesus and Jesus' teaching and consider him a great role model.

But do you know what all this faith all these opinions have in common? All are blasphemous. You heard it correctly. All are blasphemous. To see Jesus only as a prophet, to to see Jesus only a great great teacher, to see g to see Jesus only as a great role model, this is blasphemy.

This thing is leading millions of people to hell. You have to see Jesus of the Bible, the savior. What is missing what is missing from this message, from this website, there's no word about repentance, no word about out appointment, no word about the gospel of Jesus Christ. It's only about the man, Jesus. Paul began to preach Jesus and the resurrection to the pagan Athenians.

See, there's so much to say about Jesus. I'm not sure what Paul really talked about. This is only a brief summary we have in in in in in Acts chapter 17. But in the New Testament, we have all what we need to know for salvation about the lord Jesus Christ. And today, just for a way of reminder, I want to remind you a few things about Jesus that all of you knew.

You know it very, very well, but we need to be reminded again and again and again of this truth. Maybe this truth would stir our hearts again to follow Jesus wholeheartedly, to worship him as the only lord and savior. I want to look briefly at few truths about Jesus that all of us know. The first thing, his virgin birth, his perfect life, his bold claims, his living and divine word, his person, his work, his return in kingdom, and his mission. I want to talk briefly about each of these points again as a way of reminder.

I want to look at his virgin birth. Christ is different than all others, that he is alone born of a virgin without a human father. Now, this is impossible. Yet, seven hundred years before Christ, Isaiah the prophet prophesied that the virgin will conceive and bear a child and shall call his name Immanuel, and in the fullness of time, Jesus was born of a virgin in Bethlehem. There is no one, no prophet, no man has ever was born of a virgin, but Jesus Jesus is unique.

Look at his perfect life. Jesus did not inherit Adam's sin. All of humankind did. All the prophets did. All have sinned.

All means including all, all the prophets, including our dear Mary, the mother of Jesus. He alone is the perfect lamb of God who never sinned, never made a mistake, never had to apologize for anything ever wrong he did because he never did anything wrong. He never made a mistake. When his parents, remember, when he was 12 years old, went home after visiting Jerusalem, On the way home, they realized Jesus is missing. Where is Jesus?

They went back to Jerusalem to find him. He's there in the temple. He did not apologize to his mother for his actions, did he? He did not. Why?

Because he was right. He is always right. Even at 12 years old, even at five years old, he was always right. He is the son of God. He never make mistakes.

He told his parents, why are you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my father's house or I must be in in about my father's business? You should have known better, mom. Look at his word. Look at his claims.

You see, no one in history made the claims that Jesus did. No one. No one. But, you know, it's not enough to to to make some claims. False prophets always do.

False teachers always do. Right? They did make a lot of claims. Not enough to make claims, but you have to prove that your claim's right. He has claimed to be God.

He has claimed that he is the beginning and the end. He has claimed to be perfect. He has claimed to be the only way to salvation. Now when he claimed he's the bread of life, he fed the thousands. When he claimed he's the light of the world, he opened the eyes of the blind.

When he claimed he's the resurrection of the life, he said to Lazarus, Lazarus, come forth. He raised the dead. When he claimed he's perfect, no one ever can find a sin or mistake on him. Every word came out of his mouth was true. Every claim he was able to prove it.

Look at his word. Look at his word. With a word, he healed the sick. With a word, he raised the dead. With a word, he calmed the storm.

With a word, he rebuked and cast out demons. With a word, he created this universe. And, yes, with the word of his power, he upholds it. There is no one like Jesus. Look at this person.

Look at this person. He is truly man. He is truly god. He has no beginning and he has no end. Before Abraham was, he was.

Before the universe came to existence, he was. He is the creator god and he is the savior. You see his surpassing power in the creation and you see his amazing love on the cross. This is Jesus. He is perfectly holy.

He is perfectly just. He's perfectly merciful too. Can you compare him to anyone else? Look at his work, and I would put it in one word, the cross. The cross.

Paul preached with him what? Jesus and what? And the resurrection. That includes the cross. Look at the cross.

Jesus was a great teacher. He was the best preacher, the best teacher ever lived. He was a great role model. His teaching and his principles will endure forever. He identified with us in our pain, in our sickness, in our suffering, in our need.

Yes. He loved, unloved, unloved, and continued to love. He has shown mercy unmatched, compassion unparalleled. But this is not why Jesus came. This is not why Jesus came.

He not primarily came to be a great teacher. Not even to heal the sick primarily and feed the hungry and have compassion on the on on the needy or even set examples for us to follow him even though we must follow him. But his primary reason for coming to earth was the cross. Was the cross to die for the sin of his people, for your sin and my sin. You can talk about everything Jesus was and everything Jesus did, but if you don't talk about the cross and the resurrection, you have not talked about anything at all.

You missed it all. You missed it all. We are not saved by only the teaching of Jesus. We are saved by the blood of Jesus. Our salvation, our destiny, heaven and hell, life and death, all depend on the cross and the resurrection.

Where you spend your eternity, where I spend my eternity will depend on how I look at the cross. He can save me by the blood of the cross that he shed there for me when I truly repent and put my trust in him. That substitutionary work, he became my substitute there on the cross. He took my penalty. He took my sin.

He took my curse. He was nailed on the cross. I deserve to die. He does not, but he died for me. That what saves me, my trust and my belief in that cross.

I we we must realize that. Then let's let's look at his return and his kingdom. No other person, the prophet spoke of his coming and kingdom, but of Jesus. No other person spoke of his own coming and kingdom, but Jesus. All prophet died, and their bones or whatever left out of their bones, still in the ground.

Only Jesus rose from the dead. Only Jesus is coming back. He's coming back for his bride. And if you are one, he's coming back for you. He's coming back to establish a kingdom of peace and righteousness.

He's coming back to save the elect and, yes, to judge the wicked. His kingdom will never, never, never end. But lastly, let's look at his mission. His mission is to save sinners, to save sinners, those who acknowledge, who admit that they are sinners in need of a savior. Has he saved you?

Have you come to him as a rich sinner in need of forgiveness and salvation, eternal life? That is his mission, to save sinners. You see, Jesus did not come to improve society. Jesus did not come to rehabilitate people. You see, we have hospitals.

We have institutions. We have prisons to do that. Maybe. Jesus has come to save the lost, give life to the dead in sins and trespasses. He has came to create a completely new person, a completely new identity.

He did not come to bring together Jews and Arabs, black and white, Africans, Asians, and South Americans in order to improve how they relate to each other while continuing to identify each one with their own race. No. He did not. He came to create a new race, one race and one identity in Jesus Christ. Listen to what Paul says, for in Christ Jesus, you are all sons of God through faith.

There is neither Jew nor Greek. There's neither slave nor free. There's no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. The apostle Peter in the first epistle, chapter two verse two chapter two verse nine tells us these words. First Peter two nine, but you it's talking to the believers.

But you are a chosen race, one race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, one nation, a people for his own position. This is who you are. This is who we are. A new race, a new identity, a new people, the people of God, God's own position. You see, these things are so essential for salvation.

To be a Christian means to know and believe these truths. You cannot preach Jesus without speaking about this truth. That will be another Jesus, another gospel. These are the essentials that save you. These are the truth that saves me and saves everyone.

This is the Jesus of the bible. Now the trend today is to talk about none of these things in details. They might tell you to join a church or visit a website that tells you really a lot of things about Jesus, but nothing about salvation. They tell you Jesus loves you. He loves you the way you are.

He cannot live without you. Really. You need to change nothing. He wants to give you all the blessings and all the privileges as a son and a daughter without any strings attached. Is this the message of the bible?

Now the prevailing idea among many evangelicals today is this, in order to impact the culture, we should become like the culture. We need to adopt the methods of the culture that we live in. You see, to look not much different is not enough. We need to look the same. And only then we are able to impact the culture.

Let us then present a one-sided image of Jesus, an image that everyone loves, an image that many will identify with. I mean, who would not love to hear about love, about peace, about equality, about success, about prosperity? Everyone. Right? And every day there is a trending ideology.

Today, you need to present a Jesus who is woke. Trendy, maybe homeless and refugee, Jesus who identifies with sinners, hangs out with them. Jesus is a social justice advocate. Jesus never judges anyone who loves everyone equally. Doesn't he?

Does he love everyone equally? That's a little challenge. Does Jesus love everyone equally? What does the Bible say? No.

He does not. You may be surprised. He does not. Not according to the Bible. God loved the world.

And what did he do? He sent his only begotten son to the world. And how did the world respond to Jesus whom God the father sent? They hated the son. They mocked the son.

They ridiculed the son, and they crucified the son of God. Didn't they? They did. And they continued daily to reject the son, ridicule him, ridicule and despise his bride, the church, what do you think is left for the wicked world who hates the son and hates his bride? What is left?

Listen what Romans that of Paul in the row in in in the letter of to Romans one eighteen says, what is left for them? He says, for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. That what remains for this world who hates god, the wrath of god, unless they repent. Jesus does not love everyone equally. Jesus loves his bride more than anyone else.

He loves his church. He loves his people to whom he died. He loves them when unmatched, unparalleled, exceptional love, a love that has no equal. You have to understand Christ's love toward you is a special, unique love. He does not share with anyone else.

Listen, it's required of every husband to love his wife as Christ loves the church, isn't it? It's not required of me to love other man's wife, is it, that would be unfaithfulness? Right? To see that Jesus loves everyone the same, that's unfaithfulness. No.

He loves his church. He's bright with an unequal love and match love. The love of Jesus to his church has no parallel, a unique love he wouldn't share with anyone else. So don't tell me God loves everyone equally. No.

His love to the church is unique. Now look at verse nineteen and twenty, back in the book of Acts. And they took him, little Paul, and brought him to the Areopagus saying, may we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting? For you bring some strange things to our ears. We wish to know, therefore, what these things mean.

He preached something new and familiar teaching, strange things to them. He was never afraid of doing that, never hesitated to preach the truth, all truth and new truth. Now he's not intentionally being offensive, and we should never be either. Now Paul said, I became as a Jew in order to win the Jews. What does he mean by that?

I was ready to forfeit my own privileges to win the Jews, not God's privileges. No. No. No. I would never be able to forfeit God's principle.

He has no right to do that, but I will forfeit my own privilege privileges, my own rights to win the Jews. I became a Jew in order to win the Jews. I have become all things to all people that by all means, I might save some. Now listen. The Jews had their worldview.

The Gentile world did not share the Jews' worldview. They had their own worldview. What does Paul do? Simple. He He would bring both the Jews and Gentile to the Christian worldview.

And that's what we need to do. This is what Paul is doing here. No fear, no shame, no embarrassment, no no hesitation. I'm preaching the truth of god. Now Paul presents to the Athenians the craziest things to them possible.

Now beginning with the creation. Look at verse 22. No. He's not avoiding talking about what seemed to them be to them be foolish. No.

No. No. He's targeting these things. So Paul verse 22. So Paul standing in the midst of the Areopagus said, men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious.

For as I passed along and observed the object of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription to the unknown god, what therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. The god who made the world and everything in it, being lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man. Let's go to verse six 26. He said, and he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth. Apostle Paul.

Apostle Paul. Maybe you should not talk about the creation yet. No one will listen to you. This is something you can bring up later. And this is how the argument will go.

Let me let me teach you Paul some the art of preaching and and and the art of evangelism. I mean, you see, Paul, there are so many interpretations for Genesis one and Genesis two. You don't necessarily have to take it literally. You don't have necessarily to look about it right now. These people don't believe in the creation.

To bring it up right now would be foolish. This is the argument. This is how it goes. Talk about God's love toward them the way they are. Right?

How he identifies with them. How he is an all inclusive God. Talk about the universal salvation of Jews and Gentiles, and and maybe use a vocabulary that is familiar to them. And if I were you, Paul, I will change this outfit view of of of yours. You look a Jew.

Just take this outfit. Look at Athenians. I mean, look at them. They're wearing this Italian and Athenian fashion. Change your outlet.

Look like them. Maybe wear shorts to preach at church. Show your tattoos. Just just just just be like them, sings that how they sing, talk like them, act like them in order to win them. This is a trend.

This is not a new ideology. This an old ideology. But this is the ideology, I believe, with those who don't believe in the sovereignty and the election of God. They believe they can change people's hearts. They can influence people to change and to become believers.

They don't believe in the transforming power of the Holy Spirit of God. Otherwise, I don't believe they will use or or or or resort to such practices. God can reach sinners wherever they are by his own power. We don't need to entice anyone. We don't need to bribe anyone.

We need to attract anyone. We need to preach the gospel. The gospel. And God the father would draw to his son as many as were appointed to eternal life. No one more and no one less.

This is the sovereignty of God. And look at verse 30. The times of ignorance, God overlooked. But now he commands all people everywhere to repent. Now this is the next crazy thing to them Paul is saying.

He's telling them that this god, the creator, commands everyone to repent. Repent from your idolatry. Repent from your adultery. Repent from your pride, repent from your homosexuality, repent from all sins, and turn back to god. But also he shows god's great mercy by saying the times of ignorance god has overlooked.

But he's telling them that those time of ignorance now passed. And God is telling the people today here and everywhere, the time of ignorance passed. Now is God asking everyone to repent. He's merciful. He wants to forgive sins.

He offers salvation to everyone. Listen. There is no true true preaching without the call for repentance. Those preachers who speak of everything else but repentance, I would say better not to talk at all. I heard one of them saying, god has called me only to talk about god's love and god's grace.

He did not call me to talk about repentance. What love? What love? You can't explain, and I want you to get this. You can't explain god's love fully without explaining first his hate.

Let me explain it to you. God's love would be a weak, superficial, and very limited if it's not spoken of in the context of his hate toward sin and wrath toward sinners who reject him. What does it mean when you tell someone God loves you? Jesus loves you. God loves you.

You wanna talk about the depth of God's love? About the immense and immeasurable love of God? You want sinners to understand it? They must understand how God looks first at sin. They must understand God's hate of sin.

They must understand what sin has done that has separated them from God eternally. They must understand the penalty of sin that is death and eternal separation from him. It's hell. The wage of sin is death. No escape.

No way out. But God, who is rich in mercy, he is loving while we were still sinners, dead in our trespasses and sin. Before we have done anything right because we could not, nobody can, no one does good, not even when, God who is rich in mercy sent his son Jesus to die for us. For rebels like us is how we were. He sent him to be our substitute.

We deserve to die for our sins, but Jesus on that cross, that is the love. That is the love when you talk about Jesus on that cross. He showed the love of God toward us by taking my sin that I deserve. Take my penalty. The holy one of God, the one without plum blemish or spot, the one who's never sinned.

He was ridiculed. He was he has suffered. He took all the pain and the shame and the curse of God there for me on the cross. That is the love of God. You cannot talk about the immense love of God without talking about his hate towards sin.

You can't. Yes. You can't. It would be a weak superficial love that means very little, if anything at all. That would be that would be a mockery to God and his love if we talk about it without making clear people understand his hate towards sin and what sin has done.

Look at the third crazy thing that Paul has mentioned to them, and that would be very, very laughable to them. In verse 31, he says, because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed, and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead. Look at verse 32. Now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked, but others said, we will hear you again about this. So Paul went out from their midst, but some men joined him and believed.

The resurrection from the dead, that's something new, Something new for them. How could anyone rise from the dead? How could anyone believe that? I mean, they are pagans. Maybe for some Jews could have believed it.

There's a couple of instances in the old testament about people rising for it. But for pagans, this is a laughable matter to them. Maybe Paul should have have mentioned this in his first encounter with them, but he did, and we're glad he did. Sometimes I wonder at some of the strategies some missionaries use. They spend years building relationships and very little effort to talk about Christ and the resurrection.

Very little effort. Now I understand the limitations in some countries, and I believe absolutely the importance of building relationships and building trust. But often, we must do what Paul did here, present the gospel of Jesus Christ upfront, because you might not have a second chance to do that. And the the result is always going to be this, the majority will mock. Few will believe.

Just get it. The majority will mock. Few, very few maybe, will believe. But the pure gospel of Jesus Christ must be always preach preached as is. Christ of the Bible must be always presented as a Christ of the bible.

Don't dress him in different clothes. Don't color him in different shades. Do not present one side of him without the other. Only the Christ of the bible saves. The Christ who is truly man and he's truly God, the savior, and the judge.

And this how always we need to present him. A loving god, but he also hate who hates sin. A savior god, but also he will judge the wicked. Being born as a Christian does not save you. You're not a Christian because you your parents are Christians.

Joining a church does not save you. It never saved anybody. Getting baptized in water does not save you. Partaking in the communion table does not save you. Keeping some rules and some commandments don't save you.

Being good, being nice, giving to the poor, even helping missions don't save you. Praying and fasting don't save you either. Christ saves. Christ saves. Don't let anyone deceive you.

In order to be saved, in order to have eternal life, to enjoy eternity with Jesus, you need to come to Jesus as you are. Sinner, guilty, unworthy, rigid. You need to realize that you can never produce anything good by yourself. We are inherently evil. You hear people saying we are inherently good.

No. We're not. We're inherently evil. Genesis six five, we read these words. The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every intention of the thought of his heart was only evil continually.

In Romans three, we read none is righteous. No. Not one. No one understands. No one seeks God.

All have turned aside. Together, they have become worthless. No one does good, not even one. How many time he repeated no one, no one, no one. You know what the one means.

Right? It means no one. We are inherently evil. So come to Jesus. Acknowledge your sinfulness, unworthiness, and repent.

Put your trust in Jesus and in his finished work on the cross. And, yes, follow-up with getting baptized, acknowledging your death, burial, resurrection with Jesus, and follow him in the newness of life in the power of the resurrection. Let us pray. Lord, we we thank you that one day we will meet you not as a judge because you have taken our judgment all away. You have been nailed on the cross for us.

We have received you. We have believed in you, and you are our savior now and forever. If we're going to be judged by you, we're going to judge only according to our works to be rewarded or not too rewarded of what we have done. But thank you. Your mercy has been given to us, and your mercy is still extended even now to everyone, to everyone without limitation, without exception.

You call everyone to come to you, those who are weary and heavy laden, those who feel the weight of sin to come to you because you want to forgive. You want to give rest. You want to give eternal life. Lord, we pray. We pray, God, that today you'll bring some to salvation.

Today, you will change some hearts. Today, you'll convict people of their sins. They know that there is a savior. His name is Jesus. They will understand and recognize that they cannot save themselves.

No work, no deed, nothing can be done only if they trust in you. Lord, pray that today will be a day of salvation to many. Lord, we praise you and we worship you. In your name, we pray. Amen.