Live with Lon - The Power of Fulfilled Prophecy

Hello everyone, this is Lon Solomon, and we are going to continue today with our Bible study entitled Live with Lon.

But before we dig in, if your week was at all like my week, we had some good things happen, and we had some not so nice things happen, and that's just the way life is. So I want us to take a moment and let's pray and get our hearts right before we go to the Word of God today. So I wonder if you'd bow your head with me. And I want us just to take a moment and take a deep breath and think about the things that happened this week that have hurt us, have frustrated us, have made us angry, have made us question God. And now I want us to take a moment and lay them down at the foot of the cross and yield them to the Lord Jesus and to his will and his plan for our life. Lord Jesus, as hard as it is to lay down things at the foot of the cross and yield them to you, especially things we don't like and things that we don't want to happen and things that hurt us and anger us and disappoint us. Lord Jesus, I pray that you would help us release them now to you, the all sovereign God, and let you be the one who takes care of them. Lord, I pray that you would lift them from our hearts and that you would replace them with the sweet peace of God that passes all understanding, Philippians chapter four, when we give things to you. So, Lord, make that trade for us in our hearts, our problems for the sweet peace of God and open our hearts now to hear and understand and be encouraged by your word. And we pray this with in Jesus name and everybody said, Amen. Okay, now we're ready. Well, I had a lot of people who got in touch with me last week and said, wow, we really enjoyed having you back live and you're going to continue to do this, right?

And I said, yes, I am. And so, but I have to ask you all a question and here's the question, you know, when you go to Starbucks, you get tall or grande or venti. And so I need to know what kind of Bible study we want this to be. Do we want it to be tall and we kind of just hit the main points and and apply to our lives? Do we want it to be grande of going a little bit deeper or do we want it to be venti where we really dig deep into the word of God and of course still have a so what?

Well, there's no way for me to take an actual vote. So I'm just going to say we're going to do venti. Is that all right? And I'm excited about it because sometimes when I was pastoring, I didn't have time to do venti with people because of everything else that was going on. So the sermons aren't going to be long, but we're going to we're going to seek to go deep and really dig out of the word of God.

Some of the richness that's there. So I hope that's OK with you. I've decided after much prayer that I want us to begin by studying the gospels. Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, you say, how long is this going to take a week, two weeks, a month, six months? I don't know. We're going to march through the four gospels and, you know, when we're done, we're done.

But what difference does it make? We're studying the eternal word of God every week. So praise the Lord. OK, so a little bit of introduction. You say, oh, I hate introductions are so boring. Well, then I'm going to be with me.

So let me tell you a little bit of introduction. The four gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John have been since the earliest days, the accepted gospels. Gospel means good news. The good news of Jesus Christ has been have been the accepted gospels.

The accepted compiled stories of the life of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, there are other gospels out there. The Gospel of Thomas, the Gospel of Mary, the Gospel of Judas and all of these others that we have found fragments of.

But the early church fathers rejected all of them as spurious, as not canonical, as not inspired by the Holy Spirit and meant to be in the Bible. And we have a list, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John from as early as around 100 to 125 A.D. in the Muratorian canon, which lists the earliest list we have of the books in the New Testament. And it lists the four gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.

This was finally canonized. All the bishops in the world agreed on it several centuries later. But we have the listing of the four from right around 100 A.D. And the question is, where did these four gospels come from? Well, even a casual reading of Matthew, Mark and Luke indicate that the three of them are related to one another.

They tell the same basic set of stories and they tell them for the most part in the same order. So one of three things happened with these gospels. Either one was dependent upon one, which was dependent upon one, or two were dependent on one, or all three were dependent on some original that we do not have today. Now, I'm of the opinion that it is the latter, that all three of them were dependent on a earlier copy of the gospel, that we don't have today, and we have evidence that there was such an earlier copy of the gospels, written by Matthew for Jewish people in Hebrew slash Aramaic. We have evidence of this from Papias from around 120 A.D. He was friends with John the apostle and others of the apostles, and he tells us in his writings that Matthew wrote an original copy of the gospels in Hebrew. Then also Irenaeus, the bishop of Gaul in 180 A.D. tells us the same thing.

The famous church historian Eusebius in the fourth century tells us the same thing. So I am of the mind that Matthew, Mark, and Luke in Greek, in the Greek New Testament, all go back to an original that we don't have that was written by Matthew in the Hebrew language. And then, of course, there's John's gospel, which is different in much of its content from the other three. And John, according to all sources, wrote this towards the end of his life, somewhere around the time of 80 to 90 A.D. Now, these four gospels are from the earliest time of the church, of church history, considered and recorded to be the four canonical gospels, the four gospels that were meant to be in the scripture. With the earliest list we have of the books of the New Testament is a work called a Muratorian Canon written around 120 A.D. In this canon, the four gospels are listed as Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Yes, there are other gospels that have been discovered, like the Gospel of Thomas and the Gospel of Mary and the Gospel of Judas. But the early church fathers rejected these as spurious, meaning they were not meant to be in the New Testament.

They were not inspired in that way. And so from the earliest times of church history, these are our four gospels. In fact, the earliest copy we have of any of the four gospels is the Ryland papyrus. It's a very small piece of papyrus upon which we have a little bit of the Gospel of John.

This is at the is in Manchester, U.K. right now in the library, the Rylands library there and dates to around 100 A.D. So these are our gospels and we are going to approach these gospels the way we should approach anything in the Bible, which is the Bible means what it says and it says what it means and we are going to interpret it accordingly. And that's how we're going to move through the passages in the four gospel accounts. You say, well, how long is this study going to take? A week, two weeks, a month, six months?

Well, I don't know. It'll take as long as it takes for us to cover the gospels. What difference does it make? We're studying the word of God each and every week. And this will be an exciting study. Now, today, we're going to look at the beginning of the Gospel of of Matthew. And I'm going to be using the New King James Bible translation. If you want to follow in that translation or in whatever translation you choose, it'll probably be very close. OK, Matthew, chapter one, not going to read every single verse.

I'm going to read the verses that are appropriate for what I want to point out to you today. OK, the angel appears to Joseph after it's discovered that Mary is pregnant. And the angel says to Joseph, because he was thinking about not marrying Mary. He says, no, he says, do not be afraid to take to you Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit.

All this was done. Matthew writes that it might be fulfilled, which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet saying, behold, Isaiah Chapter seven, a virgin will be with child and will bring forth a son and they will call his name Emmanuel, which is translated God with us. And so Joseph took Mary as his wife. Here we have a messianic prophecy from the Old Testament. Isaiah Chapter seven, written six hundred and fifty B.C. or thereabouts, maybe a little earlier, even seven hundred B.C.

and. The Lord Jesus's birth fulfills it now, let's skip on a little bit. The wise men come looking for Jesus and they go to King Herod and they are asking where the king of Judea is going to be born. And after they leave, Herod calls in the Jewish rabbis and says, where is the Messiah going to be born? And they said to him, Matthew Chapter two, verse five in Bethlehem of Judea, for thus as it is written by the prophet Micah, chapter five and you, Bethlehem in the land of Judah, you are not the least among the rulers of Judah, for out of you will come a ruler who will shepherd my people, Israel. And so this is messianic prophecy. Number two, Micah, chapter five, verse two, the Messiah will be born in Bethlehem.

Now, let's move on. As you know, Pilate sent the wise men to look for Jesus there and they did not come back to Pilate and report. And Pilate, as a result, wanted to hunt down and murder this child. And so the Bible goes on to say, when they the wise men had departed, Matthew Chapter two, verse 13, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, Arise, take the young child and his mother, flee to Egypt and stay there until I bring you word, for Herod will seek to destroy the young child. And so Joseph arose and took the child and his mother and departed to Egypt and was there until the death of Herod. Watch that it might be fulfilled, which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet. This is Hosea 11 one out of Egypt. I have called my son. This is the third messianic prophecy that Matthew records Jesus fulfilled.

On we go. Then Herod, when he saw that the wise man had not come back to him, had every child, every male in Bethlehem under the age of two killed. And Matthew says, then was fulfilled what was spoken by Jeremiah, the prophet. A voice was heard in Rama, lamentation, weeping and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children.

And she would not be comforted because they are no more. The reason Rachel is mentioned here, of course, the wife of Jacob, is because Rachel is buried in Bethlehem. And so this is a reference to her in Bethlehem re weeping for these children. That's messianic prophecy number four.

Now let's go on. After Herod dies, the angel reappears to Joseph and says, Herod is dead. You can come back to Israel now. And so the end of Matthew Chapter two tells us that Joseph and Mary returned with the Lord Jesus as a child and went and settled in Galilee, in the city of Nazareth. And listen, Chapter two, Matthew, verse twenty three. And he came and dwelt in the city of Nazareth that it might be fulfilled, which was spoken by the prophet Isaiah Chapter nine, verse one.

He will be called a Nazarene. This is our fifth fulfilled prophecy from the Old Testament. Finally, in those days, John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness, saying, repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. For this is he, John the Baptist, who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah, saying, the voice of one crying in the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.

So what do we have? We have six messianic prophecies. Count them one, two, three, four, five, six, all within Matthew Chapter one, two in the very beginning of tree Matthew's gospel. And these are among 30 to 32, depending upon how you categorize them. The 30 plus Old Testament prophecies of the Lord Jesus Christ that he fulfilled in his life.

Now, let's talk about this for a minute. Matthew's gospel, more than any other, makes a point of all the prophecies from the Old Testament that Jesus fulfilled. The reason for this is that Matthew's gospel was originally written for Jewish people. And the point Matthew wanted to emphasize again and again and again to these Jewish people is that Jesus fulfilled all the messianic prophecies of the Old Testament. So even when Matthew was translated into Greek, that emphasis continued in Matthew's gospel. This is why when Bob Eckhart, the man who led me to the Lord, gave me a Bible and said, just start reading it. And I started at the Gospel of Matthew.

This was perfect for me as a Jewish person, because I kept hearing that it might be fulfilled and it might be fulfilled and it might be fulfilled. All these prophecies. The question is, how did the writers of the gospel, how did they know that all of these prophecies were meant to point to the Lord Jesus Christ? Now you say, well, they sat down, they started to write, and the Holy Spirit guided them in some supernatural way, whispered in their ear. Who knows what happened when they wrote the Bible and inspiration was happening. But somehow, some way, the Holy Spirit showed them what these 30-some prophecies were. Is that possible? Absolutely.

But I think there's a much simpler explanation. Friends, if you remember, after the Lord Jesus was resurrected in Luke chapter 24, the Bible says that he met with the early apostles and he opened their mind to understand the scriptures that spoke of him. Putting that together with Luke, with Luke's authorship of Acts chapter one, when Luke says in Acts chapter one that the Lord Jesus spent 40 days between the resurrection and his ascension back into heaven, 40 days he spent meeting with the apostles in the early church. So for 40 days, putting these two passages together, Luke 24, Acts chapter one, comparing scripture to scripture, which is how we interpret the Bible correctly, what we see is that for 40 days, these apostles met with the Lord Jesus Christ and he taught them where he was, we taught them the messianic prophecies that were in the Old Testament. It's like they were going to resurrection theological seminary every single day for 40 days.

How about that? How'd you like to do that and sit at the feet of the Lord Jesus and let him teach you the Old Testament before he went back to heaven? And so I really believe the answer to how they knew all these were messianic prophecies is the Lord took the Bible and he said, hey, fellas, you see right here in Isaiah chapter nine about the Galilean and a light has shone upon the people in Galilee, this is talking about me.

You see here where it says out of Egypt, God has called his son. That's talking about me. You see here in Psalm 22, they pierced my hands and my feet. That's talking about me. They cast lots for my clothing.

That's talking about me. And so this is where they got their hermeneutic, where they knew which one of these verses in the Old Testament were messianic and speaking about the Lord. The Lord Jesus himself, excuse me, taught them what these verses were. Isn't that wonderful? Huh?

That's wonderful. But what's interesting to me is that some of these verses they could probably have figured out themselves. For example, Isaiah seven, a virgin shall conceive and have a child. And, you know, and the whole story of Mary, I think the apostles might have been able to figure that one out themselves. Even the Jewish rabbis could figure out Micah chapter five, verse two, that out of Bethlehem would come the Messiah. These were easy. Then there were some that were kind of in the middle, like they pierced my hands and my feet.

They cast a lot for my clothing. OK, maybe after the events of the cross, the apostles could have figured them out. And then there are some verses like Hosea 11 one out of Egypt.

I've called my son, which if you read it in context in Hosea 11, it appears to be talking about the exodus and God bringing the children of Israel out of Egypt. There seems to be no indication whatsoever that this goes and applies to the Messiah. So these more obscure verses where I don't think the apostles would ever have figured it out on their own. How did they know for certain these were talking about the Lord or Psalm 16? I will not allow my holy one to see corruption. How did they know that this was talking about the resurrection?

Because I don't think it's that clear at first reading the Lord Jesus Christ himself taught them. Hey, fellas, this is me. These are verses about me. That's wonderful. Now, I had a friend who knew a mathematician that worked at the Pentagon, and he asked this mathematician about the probability that all these 30 some verses could apply to the same person. And she told him that the probability of all these verses applying to the same person was one times 10 with a hundred zeros after it. I've still got the letter he wrote me.

My good friend Richard Park, who served at McLean Bible Church with me for over 30 years. My dear brother, I've still got the original letter he wrote me with telling me that one times 10 with a hundred zeros after it. Amazing. Friends, that is a such a massive probability that if indeed the Lord Jesus fulfilled all of those prophecies, like the Bible says, friends, one times 10 with a hundred zeros behind it can't possibly be wrong.

We can't possibly be misled when we're following a probability number like that. And, you know, this is how the apostle Paul in particular proved to Jewish people everywhere he went in the world that Jesus was the Messiah. You can read about it in the New Testament in Acts 13 and Acts 14.

I love it. The Bible says that Paul proved from the scriptures that Jesus was the Messiah. Now, how can you prove from the scriptures that Jesus was the Messiah?

There's only one way to make that to do that, and that is to take Jewish people back to the Old Testament, back to these messianic prophecies, back to the scripture, show them these prophecies, show them what happened in the life of Jesus and say, OK, fellas, let's compare. Here's what it says. Here's what he did. Here's what it says.

Here's what he did. 30 of them and say, who else could Jesus be but the Messiah? Do you understand? That's how Paul proved to Jewish people. That's how he that was his apologetic and how he tried to convince them that Jesus indeed was the Messiah, the power of fulfilled prophecy, the power of fulfilled prophecy.

It is the greatest proof we have that Jesus indeed is the Messiah, as he claimed. Now you say, wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute. Look, you're a smart guy, Lon.

Haven't you figured out what happened here? Look, Jesus was a smart guy, too. He looked back in the Bible. He looked at all the messianic prophecies in the Bible. And he saw that, you know, he was supposed to be crucified with his hands and his feet. He was supposed to ask for the Roman soldiers were supposed to cast lots for his clothing. And so he read about all of these things in the Old Testament. And then he orchestrated his life so that it fit with all these prophecies. But, Lon, don't you understand? It was it was fraudulent.

He only did it to make himself look like the Messiah. You say, don't you see what happened? Well, yeah, I understand that possibility, but it's not it's not possible. You say, wait a minute, that's not you said it's a possibility. It's not possible. Well, this is live. You get what you get.

No, it's not possible. You say, why not? Well, OK, so you really think think about this now. You really think Jesus, when he stood in front of Pilate, begged Pilate to crucify him because he knew the Messiah had to be crucified. You really think he said, Pilate, please, please, please.

I beg you, do me a big favor. Crucify me. I need to be crucified. I have to be crucified.

You really think that's what happened? Or how about when Jesus was hanging on the cross and he looked down and said to the Roman soldiers, hey, fellas, hey, fellas, would you do me a big favor? Would you cast lots for my robe? I really need somebody to cast lots for my robe.

Would you do that for me? I mean, come on. Are you kidding? You think these Roman soldiers are going to do this because Jesus asked them to? Or give him gall of vinegar to drink because that has to happen to fulfill a prophecy?

Come on. You say, well, could have happened. Could have offered him money to do that. OK, well, folks, if you really believe this is possible, then tell me, how did Jesus, while inside his mother's womb, convince Caesar Augustus to have a census that made everybody return to their hometown so that Mary, nine months pregnant, had to pick up and ride on a donkey with Joseph all the way from Nazareth to Bethlehem?

This is like a five day walk or so so that Jesus could actually be born in Bethlehem to fulfill Micah chapter five, verse two, and not in Nazareth where they happen to be living. How did he convince Caesar Augustus to do that while he was still in his mother's womb? Well, the interesting thing. Look, that's impossible.

You say, OK, OK, OK, OK. So but maybe it's the other way around. What do you mean? Well, maybe Jesus lived his life. OK. And then what happened is the apostles went back and changed the Old Testament to fit the life of Jesus. So when they saw that he was crucified on the cross, they changed Psalm 22 to they pierced his hands and his feet. When they saw that the soldiers cast lots for his clothing, they changed Psalm 22 to say they cast lots for my clothing. When they saw he was born in Bethlehem, they changed Micah chapter five, verse two, to say he'd be born in Bethlehem.

When they saw he was a descendant of David, they changed Second Samuel seven and on and on and on. You say, isn't that possible? They retrofitted the Old Testament to the life of Jesus.

Friends, that is not possible. You say, oh, yeah, well, how can you be so sure? The oldest copy we have of the Old Testament is the Aleppo Codex from nine hundred and seventy five A.D. How can you be so sure? Well, the oldest copy we have of the entire Old Testament, indeed, in Hebrew, is the Aleppo Codex. But we, with the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls, have found books of the Old Testament, every book but Esther. And I believe that will be found eventually because they're just starting to work through all the fragments for 50 years. Those fragments were held by six scholars who wouldn't share them with anybody until a class action lawsuit a few years ago forced them to make all these fragments. Ten thousand fragments available. We'll find Esther.

Don't worry. But in the meantime, we have a full scroll copy to in fact of Isaiah, a full copy of the song scroll. We have a full copy of Jeremiah's prophecy and all of these scrolls date to before Christ. The big Isaiah scroll about this big around dates to one hundred and fifty, give or take 20 years B.C. The Jeremiah scroll, one of them dates to two hundred and fifty B.C. The Psalms scroll, all these scrolls were written at or before the time of Christ. So, friends, when you go back to Isaiah Chapter nine about being in Galilee, it reads just like Isaiah nine, Isaiah seven about being born of a virgin, the cognitive Dead Sea Scroll copy written one hundred and fifty years before Jesus was born reads just like your English Bible. Psalm 22 reads just like your English Bible. They pierced my hands, my feet.

They cast lots for my clothes. Micah Chapter five reads the exact way yours does in Bethlehem. Second, all of this.

Second, Samuel seven. These copies that we have of the Old Testament from before the time Jesus was ever born read just the way your English Bible. Messianic prophecies read they were not retrofitted. They already read like this before Jesus was ever born or ever took one action.

So you say, Long, what's the point? Here's the point, friend. If Jesus wasn't able to do a retrofitting of his life to every one of the messianic prophecies, for example, make Caesar Augustus have a census while he's inside the womb. And if the apostles weren't able to go back and retrofit Jesus's life to the Old Testament by changing the Old Testament, if neither one of those things could have happened, then, friends, we're back to one times ten with a hundred zeros after it. This is how Paul proved Jesus was the Messiah. This is how we can still prove today that Jesus is the Messiah. My friends, with a probability number like this on our side, we cannot be wrong about who Jesus is.

I love what Peter said. He said, We have not followed cleverly devised fables. This thing, Christianity and our belief in Jesus is not a cleverly devised hoax. Now he went on to say we were eyewitnesses to his glory. Friends, you and I are not eyewitnesses to his glory. We've never seen the Lord himself on the earth, but we can see messianic prophecy, 30 some of them, and we can see how Jesus fulfilled them. And this is not a cleverly devised hoax.

It is the truth. Now, we'll continue on in the gospel story of the birth of Jesus next week. But this leads us to ask our most important question. And you know what our most important question is.

So are you ready now? Come on now. You need to we need to get into this. I want to hear you. I want to hear you. I want to hear you through the screen here.

Are you ready? Here we go. One, two, three. So what? How sweet it is. How sweet it is. OK. You say, yeah, Lon, so what? Well, friends, so what? So what?

My gosh. Everybody wants to know for sure how to go to heaven. Everybody wants to know which is the true way.

Everybody wants to know what's the correct path to follow to get eternal life and spend eternity in heaven. Folks, we can tell them with absolute utter confidence, 100 percent, 110 percent. That we have the true way because one times 10 with 100 zeros after it cannot be wrong.

We cannot be wrong. You know, a few years ago, you know, I take trips to Israel. In fact, praise the Lord.

The trip we're going to take this October 2020. Lord willing, if this will be my fifty six, five, six tour of the Holy Land. Hey, praise the Lord. Huh?

That's so wonderful. God's let me go that many time and take people. But anyway, back in the early 2000s, I'm talking 2001, 2002, 2003, when Yasser Arafat was still alive and he was stirring up trouble and getting people to, you know, go on buses and and, you know, set themselves off and all this kind of crazy stuff. Well, we went back in those years because my partner lives right in Jerusalem and we were convinced that we could take the tour and we could avoid trouble spots and still give people a great tour of the Holy Land, which is what happened.

But it was in those years and I'm not sure which of those two or three years it was. I think it was 2001 where we stopped in Rome on the way over because we were flying Al Natalia. But while we were in Rome, that one day the airport in Tel Aviv shut down with a labor strike.

The baggage handlers refused to work. And so the airport shut down for that. And so we couldn't go in that way. So we had to fly to Cairo and then bus across Sinai. And we came in through the southern border of the country where Eilat is, where Taba is in Egypt. So the group is in line there and we're getting ready to go through passport control and come in the country. But what they do, the Israelis, you know, have they have their own separate security procedure, not just TSA or the airline.

They you know, but they have their own that's run by their agents. So they always want to talk to the group leader. And so I came up and I said, hi, I'm the group leader. My name, you know, she looked at my passport and she said, well, your name is your name Solomon. And I said, that's right. And she said, well, that's a Jewish name. And I said, that's right. And she said, you're Jewish. And I said, yes, I am. I'm Jewish, but I believe in Jesus. And she looked at me. She's probably in her early 20s. And she says, you're you're Jewish and you're a priest.

And I thought that's not worth the trouble. So I said, yes, I said, yes, I'm Jewish and I'm a priest. Yeah. OK. And she said, what possible evidence could there be to support something like that? Oh, baby, that's the sixty four thousand dollar question. I said, you really want to know the answer that sit down for a second.

It's not like, you know, there was a huge line. So we sat down and I talked to her about messianic prophecy. And I told her about one times 10 with a hundred zeros after it. And she said, you're going to Jerusalem. And I said, yes, we are. And she said, you're not afraid. And I said, no, I'm not because I have eternal life. And I said, I know I'm going to heaven when I die. And so what difference does it make where I launch from?

If I launch to heaven from New York or a launch to heaven from Jerusalem, what difference does it make the launching pad? And she's looking at me like I've lost my cotton pick and mine. Anyway, I told her all about the hundred zeros and everything, using the exact same strategy as the apostle Paul, proving to her Jesus is the Messiah from the Old Testament. And finally, she said, OK, and she stamped my passport and I started walking away and she's called out to me and she said, Reverend Solomon. And I turned around.

I was maybe eight or 10 feet from her. She said, doesn't it ever occur to you that maybe just maybe you might be wrong? And I said, ma'am, when I have one times 10 with 100 zeros after it on my side, I can not be wrong. Praise the Lord. Can I get an amen?

Praise the Lord. I cannot be wrong. I can't be wrong. And I am not wrong. And if you believe in Jesus, you are not wrong. And so I gave her a Hebrew Bible and I and I told her earmarked where these prophecies were and I told her to read them for herself. Man, I don't know if she ever came to Christ, but friends, I hope she did. We can not be wrong.

We can't with one times 10 plus 100 zeros. So I want to show you today if your plan to go to heaven is that you are trusting Jesus and what he did for you on the cross, shedding his blood to pay for your sins in the sight of a holy God. Then you know what? You're going to heaven. And that is written in stone and will never change. As Yul Brynner said in the movie The Ten Commandments, so let it be written, so let it be done. And that's what God said when you came to Christ, that you have eternal life. So let it be written in the halls of heaven. So let it be done. Let me also say that if you're trusting anything else to get you into heaven, your good works, your religious activity, you're trying to be a nice person. You're trying to keep the Ten Commandments. I don't care what it is. Friends, it's not going to work because the Jesus of one times 10 with 100 zeros said, I am the way, the truth and the life.

No one. You hear that? No one, John 14 6, comes to the Father except through me, not through his good works, not through being a nice person, not through his religious activities, not by trying to keep Ten Commandments, through me and personal faith in me and what I did on the cross. Wow. Now, this is venti.

This is venti. This is going in there and digging it out. And this is what we're going to do again next week as we continue in our study of the Gospels. Friends, be confident in your faith. Be assured.

As Peter said, we have not followed cleverly devised fables. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. This is no hoax.

This is no gimmick. We have trusted Christ. Our sins are covered with the blood of Christ. And we're on our way to spend eternity with the living God.

Baby, you don't get no better than that. Let's pray. Dear Heavenly Father, thank you so much for writing these prophecies in the Old Testament so that we could compare the life of our Savior, the Lord Jesus, to them and be sure beyond the slightest doubt that he is who we claim to be and that our faith in him will do what he says it will do. It will cover our sins in the sight of a holy God so that we can enter and spend eternity in heaven. Lord Jesus, I thank you for fulfilled prophecy. And I pray that our faith as a result of talking about it today will be that much deeper, that much stronger, that much more secure, that much more stable and trustworthy in our minds and in our hearts. And we love you, Lord, for giving us this empirical way to indeed be sure that this is not a fable.

It is truth. Encourage our hearts today, Lord, with this great truth and help us remember no matter what goes wrong this week, if we're trusting Christ for our salvation, then something is right this week. And that is the Lord Jesus Christ has forgiven us and we are his. Help us rejoice in that. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. Hey, God bless you. Thanks for being a part of Live with Long and Lord willing, and the creek don't rise. We'll see you next week.