Sunday, October 23, 2022 AM

Let's go to the Lord together in prayer. Father again, we thank you for gathering us together.

What a joy it is to be with my brothers and sisters in Christ, to rejoice together in your truth, to sing your praises, to hear your word read, to pray together, to read the word together, to hear this word from your word, a word about the word,

Christ, in whom is all of our hope. I ask, Father, today that you would encourage us, that you would guide us, that you would answer our prayers here today as we seek wisdom, as we seek hope, as we seek assurance.

Lord, please grant all of our needs according to the abundance of your grace and mercy seen in Jesus Christ.

And we pray these things in his name. Amen. I invite you to open your

Bibles and turn with me to Acts chapter 3. Acts 3, we'll be reading verses 17 through 26.

It always surprises me that in a book like Acts, where we have something akin to the historical narrative we find in the

Gospels, this event following that event, and so on, that we come across passages such as these that are so rich and important for our faith in Christ, and how we read the

Bible, how we put our hope in Jesus, and the conclusions that we have concerning the truth of God's Word.

We have been seeing gospel preaching as not only on the day of Pentecost, Peter preaching the hope of Jesus Christ as Savior, proving his person and work from the old prophet

Joel, and from the Psalms of David. But even here on this day in the temple where Peter and John, by the power of Christ, in the name of Christ, bring healing to a man born lame, and now with all of the excitement that this has generated in the temple, as everyone looks to this amazing event, once again,

Peter begins preaching and clarifying the meaning of what just happened. By pointing to the reality of Christ, the truth of Christ, as expressed throughout all of the

Scriptures, throughout all of the Old Testament, he begins to instruct. He begins to educate these

Jews on the Scriptures that they had grown up with, these Scriptures that they had memorized, these

Scriptures that they had heard read to them week after week after week, and for the very first time, by God's grace, they are being delivered out of their ignorance.

We see Peter preaching a very similar message to that on the day of Pentecost, essentially laying before the people their endangered position before God.

They stand responsible before him. They stand condemned before him.

They are in need of a mediator. They are in need of a high priest.

They are in need of a substitute sacrifice. They are in need of a place where they may come and be in right fellowship with God, and Peter preaches all of this need to them in the temple, which does not suffice, near the sacrifices, which do not save, in the hearing of the priests who cannot mediate, and he preaches the greater glory of Jesus Christ.

You'll stand with me. I'm going to read beginning in verse 17, Acts chapter 3.

This is the word of the Lord. Yet now brethren, I know that you did it in ignorance, as did also your rulers, but those things which

God foretold by the mouth of all his prophets, that the Christ would suffer, he has thus fulfilled.

Repent, therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the

Lord, and that he may send Jesus Christ, who was preached to you before, whom heaven must receive until the times of restoration of all things, which

God has spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets, since the world began. For Moses truly said to the fathers, the

Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brethren. Him you shall hear in all things, whatever he says to you.

And it shall be that every soul who will not hear that prophet shall be utterly destroyed from among the people.

Yes, and all the prophets from Samuel and those who follow, as many as have spoken, have also foretold these days.

You are sons of the prophets, and of the covenant which God made with our fathers, saying to Abraham, And in your seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed.

To you first, God having raised up his servant Jesus, sent him to bless you in turning away every one of you from your iniquities.

This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. You may be seated. In 2

Kings chapter 22, early in the reign of good

King Josiah, as he struggled to put together a righteous administration in the shadow of all of the disaster that had befallen

Israel during the evil 52 year reign of Manasseh.

As he works towards righteousness in the kingdom, he recognizes that the temple is a disaster area.

It has not been maintained. It is run down. Whole parts of it must be rebuilt.

And indeed the condition of the temple exemplified very much the condition of the spiritual life of Israel.

They were in grave disrepair. Some money had been set aside for the repair of the temple.

Josiah says, it's high time we use that. We need to fix the temple. I don't know much, but I know that.

Let's get the house of the Lord in working order. So they begin to labor in the temple.

And they come across a forgotten artifact in the temple.

Hilkiah, the one in charge of the remodeling project, the rebuilding project, the priest, finds an artifact.

It's a scroll. There's all sorts of information in there.

It's a book. He gives it to Shaphan, who takes it to the king and begins to read the law of God.

He begins to read Holy Scripture to the king. They had forgotten where they put it.

It had gotten lost. They didn't have the word of God. It was laying amongst the rubble of the temple.

Then they find it and they bring it before the king. And Shaphan begins to read it to the king, and the king's heart is broken.

Moved by what he hears. And he begins to obey

God with a zeal that even surpassed that of his ancestor David to put things right in his kingdom according to the word of God.

There was a great shake -up in the kingdom. Lots of things changed, even overnight.

And things began to turn around in a big way. This was the king who reigned during the youth of one prophet by the name of Jeremiah.

What goes on here in Acts chapter 3? What goes on here in the wake of the ascension of Jesus Christ to the right hand of God, whose zeal for holiness far surpasses that of his ancestor

David? Good King Jesus is on the throne, and he has sent his servants to the temple where they begin to expound upon the word of God, the holy scriptures, to those who have been living in utter ignorance of it all their lives.

In their case, they actually had many copies of God's holy word. And in their case, they were very privileged to hear it read to them on a regular basis.

It was a highly prized thing to be a scribe, one who copied God's holy word ever so carefully, from one copy to the next.

It was highly valued to memorize God's word, to hide

God's word in your heart, and even to dress yourself in God's word, as the

Pharisees would bind phylacteries to their head and to their hands, containing tiny scripts of scripture inside them.

You could buy similar things from Mardel if you like. But it was highly prized, the word of God, and yet it was so surprising that in Christ's interaction with the

Jews, with the people of the word, how often he would have to say things like, have you never read?

And even here, Peter addresses the men of Israel, and he says, you opposed the

Messiah, you opposed the son of David, you opposed the prince of life, you opposed the one who came in fulfillment of all these prophecies of the

Old Testament, and you did it in ignorance. Not just you, but your leaders did it in ignorance.

You know your leaders, the ones who have all those fancy credentials, who are the experts in God's law, experts in God's scripture, they too were ignorant.

Now how could it be that you could have the word of God so abundantly, to even memorize it, and to hear it read to you week after week after week, and yet be in ignorance when it comes to the truth of God's word.

How is that possible? How is that possible? It is indeed possible, as we have many examples even on our own day, of whole movements, who hold up the word of God, hold up the

Bible, and say, this we believe, and totally reject

Christ as fully God and fully man. Reject Christ as the only way of salvation.

Reject the doctrine of the Trinity. Reject the meaning of salvation.

How many cults are there, that hold up God's word and say, we have the word of God, we base everything we do and believe upon the

God's word. We read it every week. Our leader knows more Bible than all of you combined.

And yet, they're in utter ignorance. How is that possible? The metaphor

God has chosen to explain this is the metaphor of light and dark. Light and darkness.

Sight and blindness. Jesus noted that His hearers needed ears to hear and eyes to see.

Unless God gave it, they wouldn't hear and they wouldn't see. Also, He says that those who were living in Jerusalem and beneficiaries of the word of God lived in darkness and they could not see.

But who is the light? Jesus Christ is the light of the world. He is the light of the world and He is the light of the word.

And so when He spoke to those who had the word of God and yet were in complete ignorance of it, He told them, you search the scriptures because in them you think you can find eternal life, but it is these that testify of me.

Unless we read the scriptures in the light of Christ, we too will remain utterly ignorant.

And this is, I hope, what you see in this. The significance of what goes on here in the preaching in the temple.

As Peter speaks to the most devout, the most credentialed, the most educated of all the Jews and tells them that they're ignorant because they do not have the light of Christ.

This needs to sink in in our lives and how we read the word and apply it. The Christ who is declared in scripture is our

Savior and we are to hope in Him. If we're not reading the word of God in the light of Him, then we are doomed, we are hopeless.

We see that sinners are confronted in verse 17 and now the scripture is confirmed.

The scripture is confirmed in verse 18. Peter wants these fellow

Jews, having seen the healing of this lame man, having declared to them the reality of this miracle is based upon the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, who is the

Messiah, whom God raised from the dead, who is now ascended to the right hand. You must believe in Him.

In other words, you must repent. You must turn away from self and sin and all of your excuses and by faith trust in Jesus Christ as your mediator.

Jesus Christ as your sacrifice. And you see that this man has been healed. If you want to be saved, the answer is not in this temple.

The answer is in Christ. This is a big task, a big call for these

Jews raised in this way, raised in these traditions, to simply repent and turn to Jesus of Nazareth as the

Messiah. It's a big ask. But Peter does not base this deed of repentance, this call to repentance, on the experience of the healed man, but he preaches to them the authority of God's word as the basis for which they should repent.

Notice in verse 17, ignorance. Yet now, brethren, I know that you did it in ignorance, as did your rulers.

Here's the problem. You're ignorant, which leads to sin. What's the solution? Verse 18.

But those things which God foretold by the mouth of all His prophets, that the

Christ would suffer, He is thus fulfilled. The problem is ignorance. The solution is God's revelation of His Son in the

Scriptures. Unto salvation. So repent. That's what verse 19 says.

Repent, therefore, on the basis of God's word, on the reality of the fact that you're sinning in ignorance, and you need the revelation of God's word all about His Son.

Therefore, repent. You see what He wants them to do? Turn away from your ignorance.

Turn away from your darkness. Turn away from your traditions that have left you in darkness and in ignorance, and turn to what

God has said of His Son and His word. He's been saying it all along. Turn away from ignorance to God's revelation of His Son in the

Scriptures. And He points very carefully to the suffering of Christ that was foretold and was fulfilled.

This is what He wants them to pay attention to. That the Christ must suffer. Now, as He's preaching to these men on the porch of Solomon, amongst the many columns of the porch of Solomon, as His voice is echoing off of the stones there, over here in the courtyard, a lamb just had its throat slit, and its blood is pouring out everywhere.

Because Peter and John have come at the time of the evening sacrifice. The hour of prayer was the time of the evening sacrifice.

And so as this is happening over here, Peter has said, no, no, don't look over there. Consider what the

Scriptures said about the suffering of the Messiah. Not the suffering of the lamb over there, because even this is going to be pointing to the suffering of Messiah.

He puts in front of them the only atonement that can save. The suffering of Christ.

Now, men are ignorant, but God is omniscient. And He knows all things.

And He foretold how it was going to happen in the prophets. Men's ignorance is being contrasted with God's perfect knowledge.

And Peter says, look at the Scripture, consider the prophets. Consider the trustworthiness of God's Word, how everything

He says comes true. Despite men's ignorance, despite men's denials, despite men's twisting of the

Word of God, the Holy Bible has a 100 % winning record. And skeptics who think they're awfully clever, who can try to find some problem, some apparent problem in God's Word, and stake their entire eternity of hellfire and damnation on the fact that they think they found something wrong with God's Word, and tell everybody else about that, in their lifetime, live their entire life feeling vindicated that nobody could answer their objection to God's Word.

But 20 years after they die, the answer comes. It turns out there was no contradiction after all.

And God's Word is true. Now, that's the history of critical readings of the

Bible. That's the history of skepticism against the Scriptures. Someone may come up with a 150 -year question, but it's going to get answered.

And everybody who thinks that they should doubt God's Word because some fool said there is no God, tragically embraced judgment.

Peter is saying, consider the authority, consider the perfection, consider the goodness of God's Holy Word.

Consider how God has foretold through the prophets the fact that Christ had to suffer.

Now, you, as the men of Israel, you are responsible for the fact that you turned over the

Christ to Pilate and had Him killed by the Romans. You rejected Him, and He suffered, and He died upon the cross, and you did it in ignorance.

But God had foreordained this. God had arranged for this.

And not only that, He told us what was going to happen in the prophets.

We sneak ahead into the latter part of this temple showdown in Acts 4.

How did the early church understand what happened at the crucifixion of Jesus, and the resurrection of Jesus, and the ascension of Jesus?

How did they understand what happened? They understood that God did exactly as He said He would according to the prophets, according to the

Scriptures. In Acts 4, Acts 4, verse 24,

So when they heard that, they raised their voice to God with one accord and said, Lord, You are God, who made heaven and earth and the sea and all that is in them, who by the mouth of Your servant

David have said, Why did the nations rage, and the people plot vain things?

The kings of the earth took their stand, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord and against His Christ. For truly against Your holy servant

Jesus, whom You anointed both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, were gathered together to do whatever

Your hand and Your purpose determined before to be done. They did it in ignorance, but it was all according to what

God had foretold, and indeed determined to bring to pass.

What a wonderful gift we have in God's Word! Time and again,

God foretells and foreordains what shall come to pass, and it does, and every time we see the brilliance of God's knowledge, how perfectly wise and understanding

He is in all things, and not only does that expose our ignorance, it begins to cure it, and brings us into the understanding that is so desirable, the knowledge which is so desirable, the wisdom that is so desirable in our lives.

Consider what a standard God's Word is for a moment like this, to call the

Jews away from their generations of traditions, even from their traditional reading of the

Scriptures that left them in ignorance. What could possibly compel them to turn their attention away from this massive, several acre temple covered over in the finest stones and the finest gold?

What could possibly ever divert their attention from the glory and the grandeur of the

Old Covenant? Only the One who was greater. Only the

One who was greater, who was testified of throughout the Scriptures. 1 Peter chapter 1, verses 10 -12, in referencing the promised

Savior and the salvation that God brought about for the person and work of Jesus Christ, in 1

Peter chapter 1, verses 10 -12. And again, this is the same Peter who's preaching on Pentecost, and preaching in the temple and saying, this is the way that God orchestrated it all.

1 Peter chapter 1, verses 10 -12. Of this salvation the prophets have inquired and searched carefully who prophesied of the grace that would come to you.

Searching what, or what manner of time, the Spirit of Christ who was in them was indicating when he testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow.

To them it was revealed that not to themselves, but to us they were ministering the things which now have been reported to you through those who have preached the gospel to you by the

Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things which angels desire to look into. In other words, when the prophets by the inspiration of God, by the

Spirit of God Himself, as they wrote down these God -breathed scriptures, the

Holy Spirit is indeed the Spirit of Christ Himself in this unity of the

Trinity. So that Christ by the Spirit, in the lives of the prophets, compelled them to prophesy of Himself, of Christ who would come and suffer and die and save.

Here we see the unity of scripture, the authority of scripture, and the blessing of scripture that God would work in this way.

Additionally, 2 Peter chapter 1, verses 19 -21. And so we have the prophetic word confirmed which you would do well to heed as a light which shines in a dark place.

The prophetic word is a light that shines in a dark place. We're in darkness, we're in ignorance, we need the light.

Whose light? We need the light of Christ expressed by His Spirit in the word as His prophets spoke of Him throughout the scriptures.

A light that shines in a dark place until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.

This imperishable seed of the word of God sown in the hearts until finally the veil is lifted and the light of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ shines in us.

Knowing this first, verse 20, that no prophecy of scripture is of any private interpretation.

Next time somebody says to you, well, you can interpret the Bible in a myriad of ways.

You just tell them, no, we are to interpret the

Bible in the way that Christ does. Right?

It was His Spirit in the prophets writing it down. They didn't fully comprehend it.

The angels were all scratching their head. And if the prophets of old and the angels on high don't have the perfect way of understanding how all scripture fits together, what makes you think that you or I do?

It is Christ who is the word of God who interprets the scripture of God and gives us that meaning.

So no prophecy of scripture is of any private interpretation for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the

Holy Spirit. And the Father speaks of His Son through the Spirit throughout the word. Well, what a superior standard for men.

How superior are the words of God than the words of man? What a standard we have been given to understand our world, who we are, who

God is, what it all means. And so Peter says, you must repent. You must turn your backs on the shadows and the types and the patterns and the questions of the old covenant.

And you must turn to the mediator of a better covenant, Jesus of Nazareth, God's chosen servant, who fulfills all those

Old Testament prophecies. And by what authority should you repent and turn away from the old to the new?

According to the word of God, the authority. After all, God foretold of the suffering of the

Christ. We have various passages in the Old Testament, such as Psalm 22 and Isaiah 53 and even

Genesis 3 .15 itself, in which specific prophecies are given about how the

Christ would suffer. And they all came true. From the bruised heels, to the piercing of the side, to the casting of lots for the clothing, to being crucified between criminals.

All of it came true. All those specific prophecies were fulfilled in amazing accuracy.

But, you know, a word from Moses and a word from David and a word from Isaiah hardly constitutes all prophets.

When we read in verse 18 of Acts 3, those things which God foretold by the mouth of all his prophets that the

Christ would suffer, he is thus fulfilled. All the prophets spoke of this.

Not just one or two. It's not that the Old Testament has a handful of really nifty prophecies that come true in Jesus.

But that all the prophets, as they wrote by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, declared indeed even the suffering of Jesus Christ, the suffering of the

Messiah, the reality of the good news yet to come. All the prophets.

I consulted a variety of commentators on this verse and several of them were very peeved with Peter. A little concerned about the way that Peter overstates the case.

This is obviously an exaggeration. Poor Peter just got a little caught up in the moment.

Things were exciting. No, it's all the prophets.

You know how Peter knew it was all the prophets? Because Jesus told him it was. Jesus told him it was in Luke 24.

The Road to Emmaus, Luke 24, verses 25 to 27. Then he said to them, O foolish ones and slow of heart to believe in all the things that the prophets have spoken, ought not the

Christ to have suffered these things and enter into his glory? Wasn't that the whole point, the whole pattern laid down?

And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded to them in all the scriptures the thing concerning himself, as only he could.

As only he could. And then he said to them in verse 44 of Luke 24,

These are the words which I spoke to you while I was still with you. I've been preaching this message the whole time

I've been with you. That all things must be fulfilled which were written in the law of Moses and the prophets and the

Psalms concerning me. Now here's the light. Here's where they'll go from darkness to light right here.

Verse 45, and he opened their understanding that they may comprehend the scriptures.

That's how you go from darkness to light. That's how you go from blindness to sight. When Jesus flips that switch.

His own disciples were confused and befuddled so many of the times. But when he opened up their understanding of the scriptures, then they went forward preaching at Pentecost and in the temple and throughout

Jerusalem and Samaria and Judea and the uttermost parts of the earth, preaching the light of Christ in all the scriptures.

Verse 46, then he said to them, Thus it is written and thus it was necessary for the

Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day. And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name to all nations beginning at Jerusalem.

So throughout all of the prophets, throughout all of the prophets, whether it was the shadows or the types or the questions or the very specific details that were given,

Christ comes and he is the substance and he is the anti -type and he is the answer and he is the fulfillment of those prophecies.

He full fills it. Meaning that whatever pattern and empty shape was made in the

Old Testament, Christ filled that out to its fullest dimensions. Whatever open question was asked in the

Old Covenant about how does this actually work with the holy God and sinful man, Christ answered that question exhaustively so that there's no more wondering about it.

Whatever picture was given in the Old Covenant about the one to come,

Jesus came and was the absolute epitome of that picture.

He was the reality of whatever portrait it was. And as Paul puts it, this in the

Old Covenant was shadow. But you know, when you see a shadow and if you follow it long enough, no matter how strange it looks, you finally come to the feet of the one to whom the shadow belongs.

And as the light of God's revelation is cast upon Christ, Paul says he's the substance,

Greek word soma meaning the body, that casts the shadow. So open your

Bibles to the Old Testament, to the Old Covenant, see the shadows, how strange they lie upon the landscape of redemptive history.

And yet, when you trace those shadows all the way, you come to the feet of the substance, the true body who is

Christ, upon whom the light of God's glory shines. He fulfills it.

2 Corinthians chapter 1 verses 19 to 22, Paul says, For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by us, by me,

Silvanus, and Timothy, was not yes and no. Meaning, this is not a partial fulfillment kind of situation.

But in him was just yes. Yes. For all the promises of God in him are yes.

All the promises of God in Christ are yes. And in him, amen to the glory of God through us.

Now he who establishes us with you in Christ and has anointed us is God, who has also sealed us and given us the spirit in our hearts as a guarantee.

What a joyous thing to live in the New Covenant, born again by the Holy Spirit, indwelt by him, to be brought into fellowship with God the

Father, by God the Son, and see how all of God's promises in him are yes. That bolsters our hope.

It directs our attention, helps us read the word of God in light rather than in darkness.

All the prophets said that Christ would suffer. All the prophets said that God's chosen servant would suffer.

All the prophets said there needed to be a mediator who suffered in our place and for our sake, so that we may be brought to God.

All the prophets declared this. There was

Adam, who was put down and wounded, so from his side a bride could be created.

There was the promise of the seed of the woman who would crush the head of the serpent at the cost of his own heel being crushed.

There was the blood of Abel, who speaks of greater things to come.

Abel the second, the younger, whose sacrificial mediation before the face of God was far superior than that of the elder who in jealousy slew him.

There was the hope of Lamech, who, reflecting upon the promise of the seed, desired that his son would bring rest to their weary lives.

And Noah, in obedience, built the ark. There was the son of promise, the miraculous son, who was laid upon the altar to be sacrificed before God.

Isaac. There was the righteous son of the right hand, who was betrayed by his own brethren for pieces of silver, and was cast down only to be raised up to save and to bring blessing to all the families of the earth.

Joseph. And then there were the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, who were brought up out of Egypt, redeemed by miraculous, powerful works of God, so that out of Egypt God called his son, even

Jesus of Nazareth, who having been pursued and persecuted by Herod, who, like Pharaoh, wanted to kill the male children of Israel, and yet he was brought up out of Egypt.

There was the stump of Jesse. Behold the tree, the royal tree,

God promised to David, his lineage, that would reign in Jerusalem, and yet, how tragically, the royal tree is cut down, and there's nothing but a stump left, but out of the stump of Jesse, a shoot emerges, who is indeed the king, the branch, our righteousness, cut down, and yet lives.

There is David, who comes after the jealous soul, the failing soul, the failing first.

Here comes the second, who is a man after God's own heart, who is pursued and persecuted, and yet ultimately enthroned in victory.

Jesus is our greater David. Every single lamb that was slain, and the blood poured out before God, and consumed upon the altar before the holiness of God, spoke of the suffering lamb of God, who would come and take away the sins of the world.

Even the temple that was destroyed in the judgment of God, and then was rebuilt, speaks of the one who said, destroy this temple, and in three days,

I will raise it up again. And ultimately, as we think about Adam and Eve, exiled from the garden,

Noah and his family cut off from the earth, as we consider Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob's descendants, cut off from the land, left in Egypt for a long time, and then later on, in the judgment of God, as people being cast out of their land and exiled to Babylon.

Who is it who was cut off for us? Who bears our curse and bears our exile?

Who was it who said, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Who suffered outside the camp to bear what we deserve?

You see, all the prophets spoke, all the prophets spoke of the suffering of the Christ. It was always that way.

It was set up that way from the beginning. Everything was heading that way, and until Christ shone the light of his glory upon the lives of those who read those scriptures, they had no idea.

They were in ignorance outside the grace of God. We must receive the scriptures as they were intended.

Jesus Christ is the one who gave the scriptures by the

Holy Spirit. The Word of God, by the Spirit of God, gives us the

Holy Scriptures. He authors it. Not only does he author it, he fulfills it, and he interprets it.

So we have to turn our attention to the way that Christ sees the scriptures and understands the

Word of God, if we are to rejoice in his light. We are not to embrace ignorance through strange doctrines.

We hear that word a lot in the New Testament, about strange doctrines.

You've heard that. What makes these doctrines strange? What makes them strange is that when they show up and say,

Hey Jesus, he says, I don't know who you are. You're a stranger to me.

All manner of people will take up the Word of God, and they will grab hold of a scripture or two, and begin to declare doctrines or teachings or ideas that are complete strangers to the

Word of God, seen in the light of Christ. This is easy to do, and it is hard to undo.

And yet, we are told time and again, that God's Word is not some sort of impossible, esoteric riddle, but that God has given us his

Son, Jesus Christ. And with him will he not freely give us all things, including the wisdom of understanding the text and the light of Christ?

The scripture does not contradict, because it's all about Christ.

The scripture is not confusing, because it rather reveals the wisdom of Jesus.

The scripture is not complicating, making things too difficult to ever understand anything.

No, the scriptures show to us the simple clarity of Jesus Christ.

The scripture is not to be taken up as a curse. Isn't it so terrible that God didn't give us a more clear word?

We're just left forever in a fog, because the Bible has so many meanings. That's a lie from the pits of hell.

Scriptures are not for private conclusions, where I can find a verse or two to validate myself in my bitterness, and in my adultery, or in my pride.

Scriptures are about Christ, and bringing us into submission to him. Our only hope is

Jesus. Our only hope is Jesus Christ. For every aspect of our salvation, we have to turn to him and follow him.

People use that expression all the time. You know, I'm a follower of Jesus. That's good. Just how do you do that?

Just how does that actually work? In 2 Corinthians 3, in 2

Corinthians 3, verses 15 through 18, we read of those who were in ignorance and in darkness.

Even to this day, when Moses is read, a veil lies on their heart. Nevertheless, when one turns to the

Lord, the veil is taken away. No more blindness, no more darkness. We can see there's light.

Verse 17, Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. A liberty, not that serving in bondage with yokes too heavy to bear.

That was being pushed by the stewards of the Old Covenant. Wrongly, rather than looking to their fulfillment in Jesus.

But here's what we need to think about as our last thought today. Verse 18,

But we all, no matter if we're Jew or Gentile, we all, having been brought to Christ, we all with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the

Lord. What's the mirror? The Scriptures. These people, when

Moses is read, they can't see anything. But when we read it with unveiled face, what are we looking at? We're looking at a mirror, and we're seeing as in a mirror the glory of the

Lord. And what happens when we behold the glory of the Lord in this wonderful mirror of the

Scriptures? Reflecting the light of Jesus Christ. What happens? Beholding as in a mirror the glory of the

Lord, our being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the

Spirit of the Lord. So that as we read the Scriptures, as we see

Christ in this Word, by His grace we begin to look like Christ in this world.

That's His plan for us. That's why I desire for us to open up the Word of God, to look for Christ.

To understand the glories of Christ from the Scriptures, because this is God's happy plan for us to be transformed into the likeness of our

Savior Jesus Christ. We must look for Him in the Word if we're going to look like Him in this world.

Let's close in prayer. Father, I thank you for the time that you've given us, and we thank you that the way in which you lead us into holiness is not arbitrary burdens and weights, but Jesus says for us to come unto

Him, all who are weary and heavy laden, to be in the same yoke as Him, to walk with Him.

We will find that His yoke is easy and His burden is light, as you unfailingly complete the work that you began in us.

Help us to rejoice in your truth this day. We pray these things in Christ's name. Amen.