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🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 Good morning everyone! Welcome to Verde Baptist Church Manila Let's take our sits and start our first service and get our hymns and turn to hymn number 35 hymn number 35 let's sing a song When I See My Savior 🎵Music🎵 everybody on the first 🎵When I See My Savior🎵 🎵Hanging on Calvary🎵 Fearing there for sinners, Bitterous agony. Gratitude o'erwhelms me, Makes my eyes grow dim. All my ransomed being, Captive is to him. On a second, I can see the blood drops, Written in his thorny crown. From the cruel near woods, Now they are falling down. Lord, when I would wander, From thy love away, Let me see those blood drops, Shed for me that day. Why, as thou forsaken, Pleased to that sad, sad morn. Oh, his heart was broken, Suffering there alone. Broken dead that mortals, Here we die in vain, For God's love and comfort, In the hour of pain. And I pray, Lord, that you would just bless our first service, Lord, And that you would bless each and every part of our service, From the growing conventional singing, reading of our word, And almost especially the preaching of the sermon. I pray that you would help our pastor and tailor him with your Holy Spirit, Lord, as he preaches to us. And I pray that you would also cleanse our heart and our mind, And deliver us, Lord, from anything that would cause us to not be attentive, Lord. I pray that you would just bless our soul-willing, disciplined Lord, And bless this church, Lord. We're asking all these things. We love you. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. All right. Good morning, everybody. Welcome to Verity Baptist Church. And take out your bulletin. We'll go through some announcements real quickly. And our verse of the week is Romans 2, verse 22. The Bible reads, Thou that sayest to man should not commit adultery, Dost thou commit adultery? Thou that abhorrest idols, dost thou commit sacrilege? That's a great verse there. We are a family-integrated church, meaning children and infants are welcome during the services. We do have a mother-baby room back there for your convenience. And the men's restroom, the ladies' restroom. The basic rules on the mother-baby room are down there below. On the next page, we have our service times listed. First service is at 10 a.m. Second service at 11.15. Wednesday evening Bible study at 7 p.m. Soul-willing times on Wednesday's meeting here at the church building at 4 p.m. This Wednesday, we actually do have a soul-willing marathon, though. It is Chinese New Year. And so that kind of changed the schedule a little bit. But we do have a soul-willing marathon this Wednesday. Saturday soul-willing is scheduled to be announced on a weekly basis. And, of course, we do have soul-willing this afternoon, starting around 1.45. The soul-willing anthem and tip will be at 1.30. Our salvation and baptisms are listed there for the year for all of our churches and monthly church services. On the next page, our Bible memorization challenge. And so our book of the year is the book of Ecclesiastes. And so the book of Ecclesiastes, it's 12 chapters. So you can think one chapter per month you've got to get down. And, you know, there's a lot of verses, but it's less than a verse a day. So if you stay consistent, it is something that you can achieve here in 2025. And down below, our New Testament Bible reading challenge. So this week will be the last week of the challenge. And so to win the prize, you need to read the entire New Testament in this month, in the month of January. Upcoming activities. Today, we do have our monthly prayer meeting. We took a few months off from that due to the holidays and anniversaries. We do have that here today after soul-winning. And then after the monthly prayer meeting, I will have the Bekul missions trip. And so a while ago, we had a sign-up sheet. And that was just really to try to figure out just a general overview who might be coming. And a lot of people are like, India Kosher, maybe, you know, not yes or no. Now, obviously, we're like a month away. So it's kind of more finalized. So we have a new sign-up sheet over there. And the main purpose of this is really so that the people that are going to the missions trip, they can talk to the other people that are going to figure out where are you staying and try to get kind of organized into groups. There are, you know, a lot of parks in Bekul. But there's not like a Luneta Park or Kaysom Memorial Circle where you can have like 40 soul winners at one time. And so there are several parks that are within kind of distance. And so kind of organizing into groups rather than having all the soul winners in one spot is a smart strategy. So we do have the sign-up sheet that is over there. It looks just like this. And you can just put your name. And so, example, if you're the husband of the family, put how many adults in your group are going. And then adults being 13 or older, at least for the purposes of this. And then how many children, 12 and under. And if you're still not sure, that's okay. I mean, you can just decide last second or just Filipino time halfway through the trip, hey, I decided to come or whatever. It's up to you. But if you're able to, it's going to be helpful just so everyone kind of has an idea who's coming. So it's going to be a short meeting. We'll just kind of give you a bit of a handout and go over some things. It's going to be exciting. And let's see. As I said, we have a soul winning marathon this Wednesday. And we'll mention in the group chat the exact time and location for that. The Cavite monthly church service is coming up I guess next Sunday, the first Sunday of the month. And then the Manila missions trip is February 17th through the 23rd. So that is coming up here very shortly. Time flies by. And of course we have the Biko missions trip right afterwards. Current and upcoming series we are in the book of Matthew. And then we have birthdays and anniversaries listed down there below. On the back we have the basic rules of conduct for our church. And you should have an insert to just for taking notes for the sermons here today. Now I did want to mention one thing quickly about the school preaching we did on Friday. And I want to thank everyone who volunteered and participated. I know obviously a lot of people could not. You know, you're working and everything. But a lot of people volunteered a lot of time. A lot of effort was put in. I especially want to give a special thank you to Brother Mark. Because Brother Mark is really the one who kind of set things up. And it was very smooth. I would say of the school preaching I've been to, this was like the most organized where the teachers just take you to the room. So the school did a good job. But also Brother Mark worked really hard to get things set up. But thank you to everyone who volunteered for that. And we had big numbers. The end results were about 4,000 people heard the gospel. We counted 470 salvations, I believe it was. Which is one out of every eight and a half or nine people. So if you talk to 4,000 people, eventually it adds up. Right? And so salvations were about four and a half per classroom. We preached to over a hundred classrooms. Right? And if you count up the amount of time that soul winners actually spent there, it was over 150 hours. So it's not like, you know, you just a couple hours. I mean, it's like over 150 hours for everyone that was involved. And so a lot of people put in all day, took time off work. So great job by everybody. It's amazing, you know, what our church is able to accomplish now and the zeal everyone has. And I did want to just go through this one form that I got from one of the early classrooms I talked to. I mean, because we're doing a great work here and we're getting a lot of people saved. And this is like the perfect questionnaire. But it's also kind of sad because, you know, these questions are kind of designed to figure out if somebody saved. And question number three is, have you changed your mind today about what a person has to do to go to heaven? This person said no, which would indicate they were already saved at the beginning. Because obviously some people we talk to are saved. And they answered everything 100 percent correctly. And they said they haven't changed their mind, which is what I would say. You know, if I heard somebody give the gospel, it's like, yes, by faith alone. But I haven't changed my mind because I already believe that. But the sad thing is there is only one out of 75 people that answered everything correctly that did not change their mind. There are people that did change their mind. They got saved during the presentation. But one out of 75 based on that was saved when we started. And it's like that's a pretty small number of people that are saved. And we get a lot of people saved. But it's like one out of 75 people that we talked to based on this. And I know this is a small sample size. But I guarantee if you looked over your questionnaires, it's not like people are answering everything correctly and they already believe this before we talk to them. It's like, no, if they answered everything correctly, almost every single time it's because they changed their mind after we gave them the presentation. So we're doing a great work, but we still need to be zealous for soul winning. We need to add more laborers to the field. We need to get more churches started and just keep doing the work. Because the vast majority of people are unsaved here in the Philippines and all over the world. And that is always going to be the case, no matter how much great work we do. But great job, everybody. It's just great. I'm very thankful and feel blessed to be a part of this church and be able to lead this church. But just all the zeal that everybody has. But anyways, we'll have Brother Marlon lead us in another song. For our next song, let's turn our hymn to hymn number 20. Christ our Redeemer died on the cross. Christ our Redeemer died on the cross. Die for the cedar, bid all his do. Oh, receive him, he never knew. Yes, he will pass, will pass over you. When I see the blood, when I see the blood, when I see the blood, I will pass, I will pass over you. Defest of sinners, Jesus can save. As he has promised, so will he do. Oh, see near him, just in his word, over you. When I see the blood, when I see the blood, when I see the blood, I will pass, I will pass over you. Judgement is coming, all will be there, who have rejected, who have refused. Oh, see near me, send that Jesus in, over you. When I see the blood, when I see the blood, when I see the blood, I will pass, I will pass over you. On the last, oh what compassion, oh by this love, Jesus can help, he can help. All who believe are saved from the storm, he will give a pass, will pass over you. When I see the blood, when I see the blood, when I see the blood, I will pass, I will pass over you. It's time to take our tights in offering. For our script reading, please open your Bible to Matthew chapter number 12. Matthew chapter number 12, we will read beginning from verse number 38 to verse number 45. Matthew chapter 12, beginning from verse number 38, the Bible reads, Then certain of the scribes and of the Pharisees answered, saying, Master, we will see a sign from thee. But I answered and said unto them, An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign, and there shall no sign be given to it but a sign of the prophet Jonas. For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the well's belly, so shall the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the hearts of the earth. The men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it, because they repented at the pretty of Jonas, and behold, a greater than Jonas is here. The queen of the south shall rise up in the judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it, for she came from the uttermost parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and behold, a greater than Solomon is here. When the teen spirit is scanned out of a man, he walketh through dry places, taking rest, and findeth none. Then he saith, I will return into my house from whence I came out, and when he is come, he findeth it empty, sweep and garnish. Then goeth he, and takeeth with himself, saving other spirits more wicked than himself. And they enter in and dwell there, and the last state of that man is worse than the first. It been so started to be also unto this wicked generation. Just pray. All right, we're here in Matthew chapter 12, and this is a small section we have here in Matthew 12, but there is a lot of good information here, and the name of the sermon is signs, and point number one is just simply signs, and notice what it says here in verse 38. Then certain of the scribes and of the Pharisees answered, saying, Master, we would see a sign from thee. Now, when they're saying, Master, we would see a sign from thee, these people do not have good intentions. They do not have a good heart. It's basically like, we want you to prove that you're the real deal, and what they're hoping is that he will not be able to do it, and he's going to look foolish. And this is kind of like if an atheist were to come to us and say, well, prove that God is real. Right? It's like, it doesn't matter what sort of proof I give you, you're not going to believe it. Right? And so the scribes and the Pharisees, they were looking for a Messiah. They were looking for a Christ, but they did not believe that Jesus was the Messiah. They did not believe that Jesus was the Christ, and it really didn't matter what evidence he was going to provide. They just were not going to believe that. Now, go to 1 Corinthians chapter 1. 1 Corinthians 1. Now, one thing that's interesting is, in the Bible, every once in a while, you'll see saved people that are asking for a sign. And yet, sometimes, you know what you see? That God actually gives signs to save people. You think of God speaking to Moses out of a burning, fiery bush. I mean, that's a pretty magnificent sign that they're actually seeing. Right? Or, for example, you know, Gideon's a great example where Gideon's like, you know, hey, just, you know, prove to me. Give me a sign. And then God proves it, and he's like, okay, just, can you do it another time? Right? And, you know, in a different way. And it's kind of like he wants to have that proof, and God actually gives him proof. But you don't really see the same thing with the unsaved people. And look, I'm not saying that if you, after the service, say, God, I want a sign. You know? Just, I'm not saying that's going to happen, but I'm just saying, as a matter of fact, in the Bible, you actually do see that God would show that his prophets throughout history, he would actually give them signs showing that he was the real deal, and this was for real. They weren't just imagining something. But with unsaved people, you don't really see that. You say, well, why is that? Well, notice what it says in 1 Corinthians 1, verse 18. For their preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness, but unto us which are saved, it is the power of God. You know, the Bible says in this verse that between the unsaved and the saved, that when you hear the message of Jesus Christ in the preaching of the cross, to us that are saved, we're like, amen. That makes perfect sense. It's the power of God. Of course, it's the work of God that does salvation. It's not my lifestyle that gets me saved. It's the fact that he lived a perfect life. That makes sense. But to the unsaved people, a lot of unsaved people would just mock at what we're saying. It's like you think that all you have to do to go to heaven is believe, right? Or it's like, you know, I've heard this before. I mean, you believe that Jesus Christ lived a perfect life and was crucified and died for all your sins and all of these things, and then you can just get off by believing alone and get to heaven. And it's like that's exactly why. It's by faith alone because it was paid in full. He did all the work. There's nothing left for me to do. Right? But unsaved people, they don't get it. But oftentimes they would mock us and say, well, that's just too easy. I mean, it's got to be harder than that. I mean, there's hundreds of commandments. You're saying you don't have to follow any of them and you can go to heaven. It's like, exactly, because it's by faith alone. But to us, it's the power of God. I mean, if somebody gets up here, whether me or somebody else, and preaches on salvation, or let's say, for example, later today, you know, you're walking or eating somewhere and you hear somebody giving the gospel to someone and they're preaching the truth, and you're thinking, amen, it's the power of God. Right? But to other people, they would look at that and say it's foolish. Now, that's what it says in verse 19. For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this world? Have not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For after that, in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God. It pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. Now, when the Bible says the foolishness of preaching, it's not saying that preaching is foolish. What it's saying is, to the eyes of the unsaved person, they consider it foolish. And God says, well, you know what? That's the method that I've given. People preach the gospel and that's how people get saved. Because a lot of unsaved people would say, well, why doesn't God come down from heaven and prove to me he's real? Why don't I see some sort of vision? Why don't I be like Constantine and see this giant cross in the sky? Right? And whether that happened or not, you know, whatever. Who knows? But here's the thing about this. It's like that is not God's method. God's method is the foolishness of preaching. We preach the gospel and people either believe it or they reject it. Right? And you have to understand that God has given to us the ministry of reconciliation. It is our job. This is God's method that he chose. And nobody is getting saved unless somebody gives them the gospel. I mean, look, somebody could be the smartest person in the world and be so educated and so wise, but they will never come to salvation on their own. Somebody must give them the gospel for them to get saved. And they must be willing to humble themselves and admit they need a savior and believe on Jesus Christ with their whole hearts. And look, if you remember back to when you got saved, it was probably a pretty humbling experience, especially if you got saved at an older age. Because I remember when I heard the gospel, it's like I was thinking about it in my head and, you know, I made the decision. You know what? I believe this. It makes perfect sense. But it's a very humbling thing to go from thinking you're good enough to go to heaven to being like, I don't deserve to go to heaven at all. It's a hard thing to do, right? But that is the method. We give the gospel and then people can believe it or reject it. And notice what it says in verse 22, for the Jews require a sign. The Jews are requiring a sign. I mean, obviously, you look at modern day Judaism, it's a bit different. But the Jews back then, they were looking for a Messiah. They were looking for a Christ. Jews today, they don't really believe in a miraculous Christ or Messiah like they did back then. Nowadays, they look for a Messiah that basically makes them prominent and have a lot of money and power, but they do not believe really in the miracles that you see of the Bible or that the Messiah himself would be miraculous and divine and all of those things. But back then, the Jews did believe that. And they were looking for a sign, show me you're the Messiah, show me you're the Christ, because they believed in a Messiah, but they did not believe that Jesus was the one. And I would say he was born in Bethlehem. He performed all these miracles. I mean, what kind of sign do you want? What kind of sign could he have possible? I mean, he rose from the dead. There's a lot of witnesses, even unsaved people reported this. What kind of sign do you want? And here's the thing. You have to understand people that are searching for a sign, you could probably give them the greatest sign in the world, and they're just going to make an excuse and not believe it. And it says, and the Greeks seek after wisdom, right? The ancient wisdom of Plato and Socrates and Aristotle and all these people from the past. And the Greeks were just kind of the intellectuals. You know, atheism is kind of linked to it. It's very similar to Hinduism, which, believe it or not, Hinduism is all about searching for this divine wisdom that's out there. And just like Hinduism, Greek beliefs, Hellenism was stupid. It was foolish. It wasn't intelligent or wise at all. But the Jews want a sign to believe Jesus is the Messiah, and the Greeks are saying, prove to me in an evolution lecture or in a lecture that, you know, the big bang theory is false. That's the kind of people they were, kind of like the atheists. They wanted this sort of wisdom, this proof. But notice what it says in verse 23, but we preach Christ crucified. I mean, the Jews want a sign, and what do we preach? We preach Christ crucified. The Greeks want wisdom. What do we give them? We give them the gospel of Jesus Christ. That is what we give them. And it says, but we preach Christ crucified unto the Jews the stumbling block and unto the Greeks foolishness, but unto them which are called both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. And what the Bible is saying is, hey, you know what? Some Jews and Greeks, they hear the message, and they believe it, and they realize this is the power of God. And yet, a lot of Jews and Greeks, they hear it, and they're like, that's foolishness. Doesn't make any sense. I've heard a Baptist go to this section before and then say, well, this is why we need these creation and evolution seminars because the Greeks are searching after wisdom. And I'm just like, but it says we preach Christ crucified. Yes, they're searching after wisdom, but that is not what we give them. Now, in our own mindset, it seems logical to say, well, wait a minute. If their stumbling block is they think the earth is old, I've got to prove the earth is young. But the reality is the Bible says focus on the gospel. And I remember when I first got saved, and I started to become kind of zealous, and really the two groups of people I really studied and learned a lot about were the Mormons and the evolutionists. So I would watch a lot of things on creation. I memorized a lot of facts. On Mormonism, I read all of these books on how to convert Mormons. I knew all the years all these things took place. I knew it a lot better than I do now because I've kind of forgotten a lot of that knowledge. And I thought this is going to help me get evolutionists and Mormons saved. You know what I found? Doesn't help. I'm not saying the information's bad, but I'm just saying if that's how you're given the gospel, it doesn't work. And I'm not the only one that's tried methods like those. I'm sure people in this room have tried, and it seemed to make sense by your own wisdom. Let me learn this info, and I can get these atheists saved, and then you try to do it. They don't get saved that way. And I remember I was given the gospel a long time ago, and this was kind of like a big wake-up call to me to help me understand this, where there's this kid who was a teenager, and I stopped and talked to him, and he was really into evolution. And I talked to him for about an hour, and I gave him every fact about creation under the sun. And at the end of the conversation, he's like, you know, it's interesting. You know, I have a lot to think about. A year later, I ran into the same guy, and instead of giving him a lot of information about science and creation and all those things, I just gave him the gospel. And if there was a question about science, I would be like, well, Genesis 1, 1, in the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth. I was like, you don't know how the earth was created. You're not sure, and yet the Bible says God created it. Then I went back to the gospel. And so you know what took place? It was a long conversation, 40 minutes, but he believed on Jesus Christ. You say, why? Because the power of God is in God's words and the gospel of Jesus Christ. And there are some atheists, some agnostics that hear the message of the gospel and get saved. Is it the minority? Yes, it is, but some do get saved. But let me explain to you how they don't get saved by a three-hour debate between a creationist and an evolutionist. They just don't. You say, well, you know, how am I going to reach the Mormons? Well, I've tried the method of memorizing all these facts about every year and every location things took place. But you know what I've also seen actually work is just give the gospel to Mormons. And it's not just the Jews and the Greeks. It's true with the Hindus. It's true with the Buddhists. It's true with Jehovah's Witnesses. You name the religion, if you want to get them saved, focus on the gospel of Jesus Christ. You say, but they're searching after wisdom, and yet you preach Christ crucified. They want a sign, and yet you preach Christ crucified. That is what has the power. And I know in our earthly wisdom it seems like, man, pastor, I would love to get a Buddhist saved one day, but, man, I need to start watching all this stuff and learn all this information about Buddhism and all of these facts. No, you need the gospel of Jesus Christ. Now, obviously, if you talk to a Hindu, there's specific things that they're hung up on that others are not. Like, for example, when I've given the gospel to Hindus, they understand eternal security like this because they do not have a preconceived idea against it. What they do not understand like this is the nature of God and that when we say Jesus is God, He's not 300 million and one. He's the only, right? That one God that eternally exists in three persons, it's like that He is the Son of God. He's always existed. It's the nature of God and who God is that they struggle with, but in terms of understanding what salvation is, they understand what you're saying. They just don't necessarily believe it immediately. Now, of course, if you were to talk to someone that's a Catholic or, you know, a Catholic, they're generally going to believe in the Trinity, and oftentimes the gospel makes sense to them. They get saved pretty easy. People that are born again are generally a little bit harder to get saved, right? But there's specific things you focus on depending on who you talk to. If you give the gospel to a Jehovah's Witness, you better mention that Jesus is God, right? Because they don't believe that. They don't believe in the bodily resurrection of Jesus. You better make sure that you take them to 1 Corinthians 15 or some other spot that mentions the bodily resurrection of Jesus because they must believe in the death, burial, and bodily resurrection of Jesus to be saved. But it is the gospel of Jesus Christ that has the power, right? I mean, Jehovah's Witnesses have falsely predicted the end of the world like a dozen times or something like that, and I used to have it memorized. It's like 1914, 1915, 1917, 1921, and you give them that information. You can even show them a picture on the phone, and guess what? They don't get saved that way. It's the gospel of Jesus Christ that has the power. And the scribes and Pharisees that are coming to Jesus with this question, I believe these people are already hardened. They're not going to believe. You know, there's other scribes and Pharisees that might have had that thought if we just see a sign we would believe, but they're actually open-minded. But it's not a sign that would get them saved. It's the gospel of Jesus Christ. Turn back in your Bible to Matthew 12. The Bible says, For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. Most people in this room, the majority of your relatives are Catholic. And I'm sure many people in this room, maybe most, have tried, maybe all of you, have tried to get your Catholic relatives saved. And I would say this, that naturally in our flesh, before maybe we learn how to go soul winning, the method we try to convert Catholics is to try to show them, look, transubstantiation doesn't make any sense, right? The Feast of the Black Nazarene doesn't make any sense. And you've given them arguments and argued and debated them, but you might not have tried just simply giving them the gospel, right? And I know that's true for many people in this room. Many of you have tried all of these techniques to convert them. It's like, hey, the Black Nazarene doesn't make sense, and here's why. And I'm not saying that's necessarily a bad thing, but did you stop to try to give them the gospel? Because what has the power to actually get them saved is the gospel of Jesus Christ, right? Point number one, we see signs, and then the Bible specifically is going to mention certain signs here in Matthew 12. It says in verse 39, But he answered and said unto them, An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign, and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas. Jonas is a New Testament spelling for the name Jonah, right? Think of Jonah and the whale, the famous story in the Bible. And the Bible says that there's the sign of the prophet Jonas. And it's going to mention specifically what it's saying in verse 40, but really the life of Jonah had a lot of pictures of salvation in Jesus Christ. One of the examples is Jonah said, You've got to throw me overboard, and the men rode hard to bring it to land. It's like rolling your way to heaven, right? Doing your best to bring it to land, and they can't do it, right? There's many pictures of salvation in that story. I mean, obviously, Jonah did wrong to get in the situation, but he still pictures Jesus Christ in many ways. And then the sign of the prophet Jonas, the next verse, For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly, so shall the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. Now, the heart of the earth is not six feet under the ground. The heart of the earth is saying the center of the earth, the core of the earth. It's not saying that, hey, you know what? Jesus Christ is going to be buried. That's not what it's saying. When it's saying three days and three nights in the heart of the earth, it's referring to the fact that the soul of Jesus Christ, after he died, went to the heart of the earth. Now, you say, well, you know, why would Jesus... And let me say this. Obviously, Catholicism is a false religion, but Catholics are not wrong on everything. And just because a religion is false does not mean that... You know, it's like, well, you know, Baptists are right about everything. They are not always right about everything. And this is a prime example here because the Bible's very clear that when Jesus died, the sign of the prophet Jonas, the Son of Man is going to be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. And, yes, the body of Jesus Christ, he died, and the soul, where did it go? It did not go to heaven for those three days and three nights. It went to the heart of the earth. Now, if you're in a whale's belly, that's pretty much the center of a whale, I would say, right? And I would imagine in a whale's belly, it's probably dark, right? The Bible speaks about the darkness of hell. Right? The Bible speaks about the darkness of hell. I'd imagine it's pretty painful, just like hell would be pretty painful. I would imagine that if you're inside of a whale's belly, you probably don't get a good night of sleep. I doubt there's any pillows that are inside of a whale's belly. And the Bible says in hell it's no rest day nor night. Right? I mean, I'm just saying, I don't know if this to be the case. I'm just saying the way I imagine it, Jonah gets spit up on the land and he takes a 20-minute nap. I haven't slept in days, right? I mean, being in a whale's belly is going to be torturous, and obviously it's not as bad as hell, but it is a picture of the fact that Jesus Christ, when he died, his soul went to hell for three days and three nights. Now, go to Acts 2, and let me show you some more verses on this. Acts 2. Acts 2. Now, what's interesting about this is that if somebody is not really familiar with the Bible this much, and if you explain to them that when Jesus Christ died, his soul went to hell, and they said, well, that's the punishment, and since he took your place, he went to hell for you, you know what? It always makes sense like this with people. It's like, well, yeah, I mean, where do you deserve to go to pay for your sins? I deserve to go to hell. So where did Jesus Christ go for you? Oh. Okay, so he went to hell. It's like, yes. The Bible says that he went to hell. Right? For three days and three nights. Well, let's just look at more Bible. I mean, we have the verse in Matthew 12, which I think is pretty clear, but notice what it says in Acts 2, verse 29. Men and brethren, let me freely speak unto you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his sepulcher is with us unto this day. Therefore, being a prophet, and knowing that God hath sworn with an oath to him, that of the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh, he would raise up Christ to sit on his throne. He seeing this before, spake of the resurrection of Christ. So we're talking about the resurrection of Jesus. That his soul was not left in hell, neither his flesh did seek corruption. Now, let me say this before I go on. When it comes to getting saved, we do have to believe in the resurrection of Jesus, but we do not have to believe that his soul went to hell. The context of the gospel is the death, burial, and resurrection. You don't bury a soul. You bury a body. And so you must believe the bodily resurrection of Jesus, which Jehovah's Witnesses, as I said, they do not believe that. Okay? But here's the thing. There are Baptists that are saved that do not believe the soul of Jesus went to hell. That does not mean they're not saved, because you don't have to believe that his soul went to hell to be saved. When I got saved, I wouldn't have even known if you asked me. I'd be like, I don't know anything about the Bible. But what I did believe was the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ. Okay? But here when it speaks about the resurrection, there's kind of two parts to that, because there's the bodily resurrection, which is what's required for salvation, to believe that, and also the spiritual resurrection. And I want you to notice here what it says in verse 31, that his soul was not left in hell. Right? He, seeing this spake before of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was not left in hell. David prophesied and was speaking about Jesus Christ, and he says his soul was not left in hell. You know what? That implies to me that before Jesus rose again, where was his soul? Hell. Now, what you often hear Baptists say is, well, he was in the good part of hell. The good part of hell, and I don't have time to go into great detail about this. I would just say this. When I was unsaved, if you had told me about the good part of hell, I'd be like, I don't know the Bible that much, but I don't think you know what you're talking about. The good part of hell, right? But what they'll say is that Abraham's bosom or paradise was in the center of the earth, and when Jesus Christ went to heaven, he freed the spirits that were in prison. Let me help you out. When it talks about the spirits in prison, it's referring to just unsaved people. If you cross-reference in the book of Isaiah and other spots, spirits in prison, they're basically in prison. They cannot get out because somebody's got to let them out by giving them the gospel. It's not referring to people chained up in the center of the earth. It's referring to people who have no hope of getting out of jail, symbolically speaking, unless we help them out. But the Bible says his soul was not left in hell, and here's what I'll say. You can look at some Tagalog Bibles and what they do when they translate Abraham's bosom. Somehow they translate it oftentimes as paraiso. It's like, well, wait a minute. If you really believe the King James is perfect, which you claimed, why are you translating bosom as paraiso? You don't have to be an expert in Tagalog to realize that dibdib or another word would be a little bit better than paraiso. Because I remember I first read the Tagalog Bible not really knowing much. I was like, that sounds like paradise. And my wife's like, yes, that's what the word is. And it's like, well, why don't you just translate it if it's correct? Why do you have to clarify it? Because if you were to translate it as dibdib, it's like people would be confused. Because what is it referring to? Well, Abraham's actually in that story. So what's the bosom of Abraham? He was leaning upon Abraham, just like the disciple Jesus loved was leaning upon the breast of Jesus. That's what it's referring to. It's like, you know, you hug someone. It's like, you know, he's against his chest, you know, on his shoulder or whatever. That's what it's actually referring to because Abraham's in that story. No, paradise was not named Abraham's bosom. What kind of a weird name is Abraham's bosom? I mean, that would be a very strange name for a place, right? It's like, hey, you know what? It's like, we're opening up a resort. You know, we bought a land. We're going to call it Abraham's bosom. It's like, no one's going to come. You're going to be like, what is that, right? And so the Bible shows us very clearly that when people died in the Old Testament, they went to heaven. And paradise is used interchangeably with heaven in the Bible. You say, well, wait a minute. But paradise is mentioned in the Garden of Eden. Actually, the first reference is in Luke 23. But paradise is used interchangeably. I would agree it is a paradise. It's not the word that's used back then. And what you're seeing is that paradise and heaven are interchangeably. Today shalt thou be with me in paradise. What is Jesus saying? He's not saying, hey, you're coming to the good part of hell. He's saying you're going to be with me in heaven. You say, well, how do you know that? Because when Elijah died, he went up to heaven. He didn't die. He went up to heaven. He wasn't just hanging out in the air for a thousand years, just kind of sitting there. It's like you're going out for a morning walk. It's like there's Elijah up in his chariot just waiting until he can go to heaven because he's got to wait for Jesus to come and die and pay for the sins of the world. He went up because he went up to heaven. That's what the Bible teaches. But let me just prove to you that hell is not a good place. And that should be obvious to you. Is hell a good place or a bad place? Let me just prove it to you here in Acts 2 31. It says, he seeing this before spake of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was not left in hell, neither his flesh did seek corruption. Let me ask you a question. Is your flesh seeing corruption, is that a good thing or a bad thing? It's a bad thing. You say, what does it mean by his flesh seeing corruption? Remember when Lazarus was dead for four days and Jesus specifically waited to make sure everybody knew he was dead? And after four days, behold, he stinketh because his body is decaying. It's decomposing. And I understand depending on where you die, your body is going to decay faster. I get that. But Jesus Christ, when his flesh did not see corruption, what that means is he was resurrected before his body started to stink and decay like Lazarus, where you'd have the vultures and the animals and all of those things. And so that's what the Bible teaches about his flesh. And here's the thing. His flesh did not see corruption because he was bodily resurrected, right? His flesh seeing corruption would be a bad thing. So here's the thing. Grammatically looking at this, your soul being in hell, would that be a good thing or a bad thing? It would be a bad thing. And so his flesh did not see corruption. Why? Because he was risen again. And his soul was not left in hell, which is a bad thing. Why? Because he was risen again. And so hell, according to Acts 2 31, it's a bad place. And it's always been a bad place. And no, there was not a good compartment to hell thousands of years ago. Hell has always been a bad place. And people in the Old Testament, you say, but the sins of the world were not paid for. The Bible says Jesus was slain from the foundation of the world. It's not like all of a sudden 2,000 years ago, God said, you know what? I've changed my mind. I'm going to send a savior. And now they're going to get saved by grace through faith. No, I mean, no one found grace in the eyes of the Lord, the Bible says. It mentions Abraham, David, you name the character. They were saved by grace through faith in the Old Testament. They look forward to the coming Messiah or the coming Christ. We look back on Jesus Christ because Jesus was the Christ, okay? Go to Jonah 2, Jonah 2, Jonah chapter 2. Now, if you were not really in churches before this church or not familiar with church that much and doctrines until you came to this church, that might seem very obvious to you. But let me just help you out with something that or give you clarification that I used to think that Jesus Christ did not go. I used to think he went to the good part of hell. I used to believe that. And I'll tell you why I believe that. Because I was a new believer and I started reading my Bible. And all of a sudden I saw that Jesus went to hell and I was like, whoa, I didn't know that. And so then I asked my pastor and he's like, no, no, no, no, no. And I figured, you know, at that time I had more trust in my pastor than I had in the Holy Spirit inside of me to teach me and guide me. And even though I saw this right in front of my face, I thought I must be wrong because my pastors read the Bible a lot more than me. And, you know, I just figured that he must be right and I was wrong. I figured maybe I'm just not understanding. I need to learn more about the Bible. And in reality, it's like, no, the Holy Spirit was correct when it showed me that, hey, very clearly his soul did actually go to hell. And so I want you to realize that even if you're a new believer in this room, if you have the Holy Spirit of God inside of you, which you do, even if you're just a brand new believer, you're indwelt with the Holy Ghost, it is the perfect teacher. And I'm telling you, even if you're new at the Bible, obviously the more you read the Bible, the more you understand the big picture and can understand things better. But even as a new believer, you can read the Bible and learn for yourself. Obviously it's good to come to church and hear the word of God and you can kind of jump start the learning process. But if you are reading the Bible for the first time this month as you're going through our New Testament Bible Reading Challenge, I promise you, you are learning a lot right now. I promise you these stories, you're like, wow, I never thought I would have this sort of knowledge. When I first got saved, I thought, man, I'm never going to know much about the Bible like all these other people that I hear because I didn't know anything. And you just learn unti, unti, and over time, it just adds up, right? Jonah 2, verse one. Then Jonah prayed unto the Lord his God out of the fish's belly. Go to Jonah 2. Well, let's look back at the story he's talking about. Jonah 2, verse one. Then Jonah prayed unto the Lord his God out of the fish's belly and said, I cried, meaning he cried out, he yelled, by reason of mine affliction unto the Lord, and he heard me. So Jonah is in the belly of hell. Symbolically speaking, it's going to say here he's in the whale's belly and he's screaming out. It's like, help, I'm in pain. He's crying out because obviously being inside of a whale's belly is something we can't even really comprehend, right? And it says out of the belly of hell cried I, and thou heardest my voice. Now, inside of the whale's belly, what does it say that he's in the belly of hell? Now, I've heard some people teach that Jonah was literally in hell, and I would say, no, he was not literally in hell, okay? Neither was anybody else that wrote this book, 30 Minutes in Hell or whatever. You know, 23 Minutes in Hell, let me tell you about my journey or whatever the books are that they write to make money, okay? But it is a good picture of hell because he's in the center of the whale, it's miserable, he's in a lot of pain, you know, all of those things. It is a good picture of what hell is like. Verse 3, for thou hadst cast me into the deep in the midst of the seas, and the floods compassed me about, all thy billows and thy waves passed over me. Then I said, I am cast out of thy sight, yet I will look again toward thy holy temple. The waters compassed me about even to the soul, the depth closed me round about, the weeds were wrapped about my head. I went down to the bottoms of the mountains, and notice this, the earth with her bars was about me forever. Yet hast thou broadened my life from corruption, O Lord my God? Often we read about these prophets, and it's kind of confusing because are they speaking about themselves or of some other man, or is it dual where they're speaking both? And here in Jonah 2, it's also a bit confusing that he kind of goes back and forth. I mean, obviously Jonah was not literally having the earth with her bars about him forever, but what I believe that's referring to is the fact that Jesus Christ suffered an eternity of hell for us in three days and three nights, because the punishment for our sins is to spend how long in hell? Forever. And he didn't just die for my sins forever. He died for everybody's sins forever. And obviously God is outside of time. I don't think we can really comprehend how this is possible, but in those three days and three nights, I believe he suffered an eternity of hell. The earth with her bars was about him forever, and yet after three days, he rose again. Right? Go in your Bible to Matthew 12. Matthew chapter 12. And for the sake of time, we're going to go back to Matthew 12, and we'll go back here, and I'll just kind of make reference. I was going to turn to Jonah 3, but Matthew 12, verse 41. So the Bible just clearly teaches that Jesus Christ, you know, he died, he was buried, and in those days, his soul was actually in hell. That's why in the Old Testament, you have all the burnt offerings. It's like, what's the purpose of that? It's giving you a picture about Jesus Christ. Matthew 12, verse 41. The men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this generation and shall condemn it, because they repented at the preaching of Jonas, and behold, a greater than Jonas is here. Now, let me say this, that this can be a bit confusing, and I'm skipping Jonah 3 for sake of time, which adds a lot of clarification. I recommend you read Jonah 3 if you're not familiar with that. But when you look at the group of people that he preached to, where it's like Nineveh's going to be destroyed in just a short time, he preaches, and the king of Nineveh hears the message, and he causes it to be proclaimed everywhere. Now, what Jonah literally said is, get rid of your sins, or God's going to destroy the nation. And obviously, if a nation has a lot of sin, if they want to be spared judgment, then they've got to get rid of that sin and wickedness, right? At the same time, with the men of Nineveh rising in judgment with this generation, I also think a lot of people got saved, and what I would say is that Jonah probably took the time to give the gospel as well, but since the king's having this proclaimed everywhere, everyone who's saved is also taking that message and giving the gospel as well, and I think a lot of people also got saved. But it mentions here, they repented at the preaching of Jonas, and let me just say this, because this is a bit confusing on this story. The word repent can be used in a variety of different ways. The word repent literally means to change or to turn, but the word repent does not mean to turn from your sins. Sometimes the word repent is used in the context of sin, and sometimes it's not. Now, for a person to get saved, they do not have to quit drinking. They do not have to change their lifestyle. You say, well, people have to give their life to God to be saved. I thought God gave his life for me to be saved. I don't have to give God my life. I don't have to give him my filthy rags, as the Bible says, to be saved. What I have to do is just believe on Jesus Christ. So what kind of repents do you have to do to be saved? You've got to repent of your trusting in yourself or trusting in baptism or trusting in whatever, and put your faith on Jesus Christ. Change your mind about what you believe to be saved. This is why, when we give the gospel to people, they're like, well, I believe this my whole life. It's like everybody believed whatever they did their whole life until they got saved. Right? Unless you're a young kid that grows up in a church like ours, or another Baptist church preaching the right message. I mean, I was 18 years old. I believed something very different before I got saved. Everybody. Because some people say, well, but I mean, if you grow up in a Muslim country, you have no hope. I mean, you grow up in a Christian. But it's like, well, my church taught work salvation, too. Right? I also had to change my mind about what I believed. And so to be saved, you change your mind about what you believe. Now, here's the thing. After you get saved, there is no guarantee that you're going to start doing what God says. But the message of God after you're saved is repent of your sins. Get rid of your sins. Start doing what God says. Quit drinking. Quit smoking. Start reading the Bible. But you don't have to do that in order to receive salvation. And there's no guarantee it happens after salvation. But if you are really thankful, then you're going to strive to do that after you're saved. Now, a lot of people are not that thankful for their salvation. They're saved, and they just don't really care. But God's message to us is to get right. And that's why when we go soul winning, we preach about salvation being by faith alone. And sometimes people wonder, don't you ever preach against sin? It's like, check out our church one time. And then tell me that I don't preach about sin. Because I don't preach about salvation that much at church. You say, why is that? Because people are saved at our church. You understand salvation. We go out to get people saved, but inside the congregation, I am not preaching to unsaved people right now. If unsaved people come, praise God. They're welcome to come. We're happy to have them. But I wrote this sermon anticipating saved people are going to hear it. Not unsaved people. Right? So we see the story of Nineveh, and let's just quickly go through this. Let's look at the story of the queen of Sheba. Matthew 12, verse 42. The queen of the south shall rise up in the judgment with this generation and shall condemn it. For she came from the uttermost parts of the earth, the air, the wisdom of Solomon. And behold, a greater than Solomon is here. And in that story, the queen of Sheba is a little bit myabang. It would appear like from that story. And she basically comes to test Solomon. Let me give him some hard questions and see if he knows. And then Solomon has all the answers. He doesn't hold back anything. And she walks away, and she's not just impressed with Solomon. She was also impressed with who? The people. It's like the half was not told me, and she talked about, Happy are thy men that stand continually before thee and that hear thy wisdom. It's like, look at the works you're doing. Look at everything you're accomplishing. Anyway, obviously, this is not the exact same thing. But I think in a similar way, when people show up, maybe they listen to the sermons online at our church, and they're like, I like the preaching. But you know what? It's different when you actually come. Because there's a lot more than just preaching at a church. It's like, man, people at our church are filled full of wisdom. They love the Bible. They love the preaching of God's word. They love going soul winning. I mean, it's not just me. It's a team effort. There's no way on Friday what would have happened could have been accomplished by me. It was an army of people doing a lot of work that got a lot of people saved. And the Queen of Sheba highlighted the acts or the works of Solomon in 1 Kings 10. It was not just simply one man doing that, though. It was a team effort. But the Queen of Sheba, she's a bit arrogant when she shows up, and then when she hears the wisdom of Solomon, she's just like, you know what? I was wrong. I mean, everything they said was true. Everything that was said about him was correct. And the truth is, sometimes people that are just kind of full of themselves end up getting saved when they realize it just makes perfect sense. And honestly, all of us struggle with pride, and I'm sure probably most if not all of us had a bit of pride before we were saved just thinking, I'm good enough. I haven't done what other people have done. And you hear the message of salvation, and it's like, whoa, right? And we see signs. We see the men of Nineveh. We see the Queen of Sheba. If you want more clarification, you go to 1 Kings 10. I'm not going to go there for sake of time. But then let's talk about the long-term cure for spirituality. It says here in verse 43, and this is kind of a unique story because it almost seems like it's just kind of randomly put here, but Jesus says, When the unclean spirit has gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest, and fineth none. Then he saith, I will return into my house from whence I came out, and when he was come, he fineth it empty, swept, and garnished. Then goeth he, and taketh with himself seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter in and dwell there, and the last state of that man is worse than the first, even so shall it be also out of this wicked generation. Now, when you first read that, it's kind of like, What? It's like, what exactly is being talked about here? And what he's kind of giving reference to is a long-term cure for spirituality because here's the thing. When a person gets saved, they are saved for how long? Forever. They are involved with the Holy Ghost for how long? Forever. Can a saved person get possessed by a devil? No. And what he's kind of giving reference to is that the world has a lot of techniques to cure various things. You know, the problem with the world's techniques is they usually only give a short-term cure for the problems. Right? And, you know, on the way up here, I was actually looking at my phone, and I was reading about exorcists, and they made a movie, you know, a few years ago. The guy from Gladiator, Russell Crowe, I guess, was the exorcist. He was like a famous Catholic exorcist and lived a long time ago. And, you know, an exorcist, it's like when, what the idea behind it is someone's possessed by a devil, and these people will perform an exorcism and get the devil out of that person. And, you know, the Catholic Church, as people that do this around the world, I didn't realize this, but apparently the born-again denomination, they have a lot of people that do these sorts of things now and everything. But apparently this guy's like the most famous exorcist who ever lived. He died like five or six years ago. And here's what it says from Wikipedia, okay? It says, according to Amurth, this is the guy that performed over 100,000 exorcisms in his life, supposedly. You do like, you know, a dozen a day or something. According to Amurth, each exorcism does not represent a victim of possession, but rather each exorcism is counted as a prayer or ritual alone. Some possessed victims required hundreds of exorcisms. So it's like every month I came to get the devil taken out of me again. Is that a long-term cure? Because I don't have to get saved every month. I don't have to get saved every week. I don't have to get saved every time after I commit a sin. I got saved eternally when I got saved. And what Jesus is saying is, hey, when someone has the gospel and they get saved, the cure is forever. And even outside of salvation, in your life, those that are already saved, if you want to develop a long-term cure for the problems in your life, it is a spiritual cure. You need to see what the Bible says and do what the Bible says. Because all throughout life, everyone, whether they're saved or unsaved, we're trying to make changes and you're trying to figure out how to do something, and sometimes you do something and it lasts for a couple of weeks and then you mess up again. You say, what's the answer? The long-term cure is a spiritual cure, not a physical cure. The message of salvation for eternal life, that's the long-term cure where you know what? They're saved. It's forever. It's done. They never have to worry about it. I remember a long time ago, maybe 15 years, I was giving the gospel to a Jehovah's Witness at the door and I was doing the speaking. I had a silent partner and he had his son with him. And it was this teenager and it's this guy who I think he said he was 15 or 16 years old. And when he said he was a Jehovah's Witness, he was a Jehovah's Witness. He was kind of debating me and arguing with me. And I said a couple of times during the conversation, I was like, well, I said, you can listen to what I have to say or not. If you don't want to listen, that's fine because other people will. But I said, I don't want to waste my time. And I did that a couple of times. I was a bit sharp with him because he's trying to argue and I did not want to waste my time if he didn't want to listen. And it was a long conversation and eventually I went through everything and I remember asking him because he's getting it and I said, well, you said before the conversation Jesus was not God. Have you changed your mind? He's like, yeah, I was wrong. And he said, yeah, you know, I was wrong. You're right. Everything you said, it's a gift. It's eternal life. He's like, you're right. Right at that time, because I'm doing the wrap up questions, all of a sudden we see like the vehicle of the parents coming back. And all of a sudden it's like, you know, my soul winning partner used some wisdom because what do you do as a silent partner in situations like that? Go distract the family, right? So all of a sudden he went over there and he's like, let me just try to give him an extra minute. And he's trying to distract and everything. And then I'm asking the questions. I want to make sure that he gets it. I pray with him. And then right when we lift up our eyes, all of a sudden his dad is like yelling at me. He's like, never come back to this house. I'm thinking, no problem. You say, why? Because he got the long term cure and nothing could change it. He's like, he's not a Jehovah's Witness anymore. I mean, he saved and nothing could change that. And, you know, to get people saved. I mean, that is a long term cure for the problems people have. But even in our lives, if you want to make changes in your life, don't go to Google and ask for techniques. How can I get better at this? Ask yourself, what does the Bible say? The Bible is going to have the answers. And if you want to have a long term cure for the things you struggle with, you need to look at the Bible and get the spiritual answer for your problems. I'm not saying everything that the world says is wrong or they never have good information. I mean, in America, the big organization to get over drinking alcohol is AA, Alcoholics Anonymous. And, you know, I don't exactly know everything they do, but they might have some good ideas and techniques. But really, what's going to take place in general with people is they get over that vice and what ends up happening, it gets worse a few years later. They get rid of it and it comes back worse than ever before. With that exorcist that I read from, he would cast out a devil and then all of a sudden the next time that he performs an exorcism on this guy a month later, there's seven devils inside. A few months later, the guy who's possessed walks in, it's like, we are a legion. Then he's got like a thousand devils to cast out. You say, why? Because that's not a long term cure. I mean, yeah, does an Albulario cast out a devil from someone? Yeah, maybe temporarily or whatever. And guess what? It's going to come back even worse a couple weeks later. That's what the Bible is stating here. And if you want a long term cure, it is a spiritual cure. I mean, you think of Nineveh, they got right with God as a nation, but here's the problem, they didn't stay right. And then two books later, only one book in between, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, the book of Nahum. Nahum is a book completely about the destruction of Nineveh. You say, why? Because of the fact they got right, but they didn't stay right. And if you want a long term cure for your problems, get right with God and stay right with God. It is a spiritual cure that is necessary. Let's close in word of prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for allowing us to be here today and ask you to help us to apply this sermon to our lives, God, help us to understand the doctrines that are being taught here, but help us also to apply the word of God to our lives and be a doer of the word, God, and help us develop long term cures for the things that we struggle with. We pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen. Alright, for our last song, let's turn our hymns to hymn number 27. Hymn number 27, let's sing the song, The Old Rugged Cross. Everybody on the first. On a hill far away stood an old rugged cross The abling of suffering and shame And I love that old cross where the dearest and best For a world of lost sinners was slain So I'll cherish the old rugged cross Till my trophies at last sigh lay down I will cling to the old rugged cross And exchange it someday for a crown Oh, that old rugged cross saw this spot Spied the world and the wonders attraction for me For the dear love of God left His glory above To wear it to dark of a ring So I'll cherish the old rugged cross Till my trophies at last sigh lay down I will cling to the old rugged cross And exchange it someday for a crown Mother in the old rugged cross Stained with blood so divine A wondrous beauty I see For it's a song that old God's need has suffered and died To pardon and sanctify me So I'll cherish the old rugged cross Till my trophies at last sigh lay down I will cling to the old rugged cross And exchange it someday for a crown Unless we're gonna sing it a cappella So I want everybody to lift up their voices as we sing the last verse Everybody sing To the old rugged cross I will ever be true It's shame and reproach that he bears Then he'll call me someday with my hope far away Where his glory forever I'll share along with instruments So I'll cherish the old rugged cross Till my trophies at last sigh lay down I will cling to the old rugged cross And exchange it someday for a crown Amen. Let's have a short break.