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Today, we're talking about the people of the way who repented and partnered with Christ.

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By my holy name will humble themselves and see my face.

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We're looking to the prophet Isaiah chapter one

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and verse 18. Come now and let us reason together, saith the Lord. Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. Though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.

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Yeah. This is a prophetic, word from Isaiah. The chapter one begins with describing the vision of Isaiah. Isaiah had a vision of the people of God in the future who were perhaps laden with sins, and he represented them as scarlet, as as red. But they were transformed from the scarlet to whiteness, white as snow.

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That means that through repentance, the people of God were transformed. They were purified by the spirit of God and the word of God. We're turning now to Mark chapter two. We're gonna read verses eight through 11.

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And immediately, when Jesus perceived in his spirit that they so reasoned within themselves, he said unto them, why reason ye these things in your hearts whether is it easier to say to the sick of the palsy, thy sins be forgiven thee or to say, arise and take up thy bed and walk. But that you may know that the son of man has power on earth to forgive sins, he say it to the sick of the palsy. I say unto thee, arise and take up thy bed and go thy way into thine house.

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Okay. This is a a strange question that, Jesus proposes here. He says, what is easier for him to heal somebody or for him to forgive that person? I used to read this scripture and say, man, it it's the same thing. It takes the power of God to forgive somebody, and it takes the power of God to heal somebody.

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But later, as I got deeper into the word and understood the question and its roots, I understood that Jesus has the power to do both. In fact, he can heal us without our our knowledge. In John chapter five, there's a man that was healed. And at first, he didn't even know who healed him or how he got healed. He was not aware.

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But with the forgiveness of sins, it takes a cooperation of the person that has the sins. They have to come in repentance to Christ to receive the forgiveness of sins. He cannot forgive you of your sins if you don't ask him, if you don't come to him in contrition and a sincere desire to overcome those sins. It's really harder. It's a harder thing for him to forgive sins.

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In fact, we're gonna see in the next scripture how he did many miracles, but nobody repented. We're gonna turn now to Matthew, chapter 11. Read verses twenty and twenty one.

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Then began he to upgrade the cities wherein most of his mighty works were done because they repented not. Woe unto thee, Carise. Woe unto thee, Bethesda. For if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes.

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This is an is an amazing thing to wrap our heads around this. But in that area, they call it the scholars call it the evangelical triangle of these three cities that are up on top of the Sea Of Galilee. And and that's where he did most of his mighty works were done there. And yet, they repented not. Nobody repented, which tells us that we can experience a lot of things in life.

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We can experience miracles and people in the church experience oftentimes through prayer and seeking God. They receive a healing. The most important thing is the repentance because that is the function that cleanses us from sin, the remission of sins. He healed the blind and healed the deaf and cleansed the lepers, even raised people from the dead and did all those mighty miracles there. These people were not prompted to go into repentance.

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Yes. God is is a lover. He he wants to bless people. We've seen many miracles in our life, and I've even seen people that have received miracles that never have fully repented. So if we wanna spend eternity with Christ, we are going to have to repent.

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Now let's turn to verses 28 through 30. This is the the end of this particular chapter. He's culminating a formula for his people.

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Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden.

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If you're laboring and you're heavy laden, he says, you need to come on to him.

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And I will give you rest.

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And he will give us rest. He is our shalom. Now, the people in the Old Testament were given the Sabbath and that was a wonderful thing. They call the Sabbath the queen. God is the king.

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And Christ, he is our Sabbath. He is our rest. And we can turn to him no matter what day it is. No matter where we are, we have to learn to return to Christ continually. And and it has to become intuitive that we can do it without really putting a lot of thought behind it.

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It just becomes natural for us. Take my yoke upon you. Take his yoke. I would teach people about how we learn to walk the path of teshuvah is we take Jesus' yoke. Now in the ancient times, the most powerful animal was the ox, and they would train a young oxen by yoking them with the old ones.

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And the old ones would help them to walk the path and to to walk the narrow path and up through the mountains or wherever they had to haul things. That old ox was steady there teaching the young one, and and this is what Christ is talking about. He wants us to yoke with him, be linked with him on our journey. Sometimes we're in perilous times. We're we're high up in the mountain and we could fall off and be destroyed.

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But if we're linked with him, we have the protective cover and we have his guidance as we yoke with him. And learn of me for I am meek and lowly in heart. So as we yoke with him, we become more personalized with him. He becomes our friend. He said, my sheep hear my voice.

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They know my voice and they follow me. So as we're yoked with him, as we return to him intuitively, The word of God begins to work at us and and intuitively we know what to do. Sometimes the best thing for us is just to keep our mouth shut in situations or give a kind word. The bible says a soft word dispelleth much wrath. The the tongue is the most difficult thing to control.

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This is why Peter in chapter two first Peter chapter two, he talks about laying aside all guile and all evil speaking. Gotta lay that stuff aside. If we're gonna yoke with Christ, he's gonna be with us. He doesn't wanna hear us gossiping or bad wrapping some other person. We need to lift them up.

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Have compassion for those that are lost and are contending with themselves.

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And ye shall find rest unto your souls.

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Okay. When we're doing all this, we can find rest no matter where we're at. We can be in the middle of the fire. I'm talking about spiritual fire.

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For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.

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For his yoke is easy. Now those of us that have come out of worldly situations where we've had an addiction, I had the addiction of alcohol. And I could tell you that's a heavy yoke. And there's millions and millions of people, I don't care how highly educated they are, doctors, lawyers, judges, people in the government, and people in high positions that are dependent on alcohol to get peace in life. I'm telling you, you can get peace and joy through Christ.

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Return to Christ. And he will give you peace. He will give you joy. All of the things that you need are available in him. God bless you.