Weeping Over the City: Luke 19:28-48

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The event about which we just read took place on this day, some 1975 years ago give or take. This is the day of the entry of Jesus into Jerusalem in fulfillment of the prophecy in Zechariah 9:9 – “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout in triumph, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; He is just and endowed with salvation, Humble, and mounted on a donkey, Even on a colt, the foal of a donkey.” We call this day Palm Sunday, for the Gospel writers say that as He entered the city, multitudes were waving palm branches and shouting, “Hosanna!,” a Hebrew expression that means “Save us now!”, and singing “Blessed is the King who comes in the Name of the Lord!” But as the multitudes rejoiced, Jesus wept. He wept, Luke tells us, over the city, saying, “If you had known in this day, even you, the things which make for peace! But now they have been hidden from your eyes.” Jesus saw the city and He wept. It is that point that I want to expound on today.

Cities are the heart of the world. Like a beating heart sends blood through the rest of the body, so thousands of arteries flow in and out of the world’s great cities sending out people, activity, news and influence into the rest of the world for good and for evil. Urban centers influence the economy, politics, and social movements. What goes on in the city affects the world.

In 1900, only eight percent of the world’s population lived in urban centers. Today, it is estimated that over 50% do. Before the end of the 21^st Century, it is estimated that 80% of the world’s population will live in cities. The unreached peoples of the world are rapidly becoming, not those who live on the other sides of oceans, jungles and deserts, but the multicultural multitude that are living side-by-side in the world’s major urban centers. Every major city is a microcosm of the whole world, with people of different classes and cultures living in close proximity.

Major cities are places of great need: poverty, greed, homelessness, crime, corruption, addiction, violence, and alienation. Certainly Greensboro is no exception. As soon as these doors open at the conclusion of the service, you can see all of the above. Where do these problems come from? Do they come from the city itself? No, these problems flow forth from the hearts of depraved humanity. In other words, they are the very kinds of problems that Jesus Christ came into the world to solve by bringing salvation. D. L. Moody once said, “Waters run downhill, and the highest hills in America are the great cities. If we can stir them we shall stir the whole country.” If we can bring salvation into the city, we can bring it to the whole world.

Jesus came into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. And as He approached the city, we are told that He did two things. He saw it and He wept.

I. Consider What He Saw.

Jesus saw everything there was to see as he crossed the brow of the Mount of Olives. He saw the beauty and the ugliness, the glory and the shame, the joy and the sorrow, the wealth and the poverty, the righteousness and the sinfulness. He saw the beautiful place of worship, and the monuments to vice. He saw the piety of true worshippers, and the perversion of those who sought to profit off of them. These contrasts are present in every city, including our own, as a writer of a bygone century has put it, “heaped and huddled together, with nothing but a little carpentry and masonry between them.”

Jesus saw these contrasts, and He saw the heartbreaking conditions of fallen humanity. He saw those whose lips might be used to sing the praises of God if their mouths weren’t full of cursing. He saw those whose energies might be used for ministry if they weren’t exhausted by addiction, perversion, and wasteful existence. He saw prisoners bound for hell who might otherwise be pilgrims journeying to heaven. We must see these these things as well, and see them for what they are: symptoms of a spiritual disease for which the gospel of Christ is the only cure.

Society all around us sees the symptoms themselves, and spends millions of dollars trying to remedy the symptoms without giving a passing thought to the disease. It builds prisons, shelters, centers, and cemeteries. And it sees no lasting change. And there will be no lasting change until those with the cure for the disease look at the city and see it as Jesus did on that Palm Sunday so long ago. We must see our city through His eyes, in all of its contrasts and conditions, and go out to distribute the cure for the disease of the soul that affects so many. Only the Church of Jesus Christ can do that. But first we must see it for what it is through His eyes.

II. Consider What He Did.

Seeing all that the city displayed, Jesus wept. He did not weep as a politician might who longed for the votes of those in the city. He did not weep as a merchant might who desires the income that those would-be consumers have to offer. He did not weep as a patriot might who longs to see beautification and security return to a once glorious place. He wept as a Savior who could save those people from their sins if only they would turn to Him. He wept not only for what that day held, but for a future day when they would face judgment because they Had not received Him. As He wept He said, “If you had known in this day … the things which make for peace! But now they have been hidden from your eyes.”

When you look at the city around you, do you weep? Do you weep as Jesus wept? Do you weep at the fact that the streets are filled with people who live most of their lives in utter forgetfulness of God and His grace? Do you weep at people who are hustling and hurrying through life only to find hell awaiting at its end? Do you weep at the number who drive and walk by the open doors of the church en route to psychics, cults, and other systems of false hope? Do you weep that they line up to receive from us money, food, and any other thing we might give them out of the kindness of our hearts, but who are not interested in receiving from us the cure for their disease in the gospel of Jesus Christ? Jesus wept as He saw these things, but He was not content to merely weep in despair. His tears drove Him to action.

He went first to the sanctuary and drove out those who had made it into a den of thieves in effort to restore it unto a house of prayer for all nations. Where would He go first in our city? I believe He would go first to the churches and begin a massive overhaul. Lutheran Pastor Herman Prange who served a church in inner city Minneapolis in the early 20^th Century put it this way: “If Jesus were here with his whip of scourging … He would drive out all those who teach the commandments of men in place of the oracles of God; who have forsaken the fountain of living water, and who direct men to the broken cisterns which hold no water; who feed their flock with the store of human opinion and wisdom, instead of the Bread of Life, Christ crucified, the power of God unto salvation. He would cast out men who are saints on Sunday and devils during the week. He would drive out the man who teaches in the Sunday School and swears at his clerks in his office. He would drive out the man who praises God with a loud voice as he sings from his well-bound book during divine service, and who during the week grinds the face of the poor. He would drive out the woman who comes to church to show her finery and spends the week debauching the young by setting an example of vanity. In a word – He would drive out all men and women who are simply whitewashed, without being washed clean.”

Prange is referring there to those who are like the Pharisees whom Jesus chastised, saying, “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which on the outside appear beautiful, but inside they are full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness. So you, too, outwardly appear righteous to men, but inwardly you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.” (Matt 23:27-28). They had never been cleansed of their own sins and clothed in the righteousness of Jesus Christ by faith.

Jesus wept and His tears drove Him to action, purifying the faith and practice of the religious community in the city of Jerusalem. So must we also. We must get serious about the testimony we present to our city through our words and through our deeds. When this city looks upon the church as representatives of God’s people, my hope is that they do not weep in despair over our contrasts and conditions, but rather see that we are a house of prayer for all nation, where they might find the soul-saving remedy for their sinful condition.

And then Jesus continued on teaching daily in the city. This is what the city needs. It needs the presence of Christ and His word directing them to salvation. Our city needs to see His presence through us as we present a consistent witness to those within our sphere of influence on a daily basis. There are seven days in the week, and the city is bustling with activity, some good but much evil every day. We cannot undo that with one hour on Sunday. We must labor in this place daily for Christ as witnesses to His life-changing power.

But Jesus did not stop there. At the end of that week, He laid down His life for the souls of that city and died for their sins on the cross. And the message of the cross is the only hope for first century Jerusalem and 21^st Century Greensboro. We must proclaim that message, and we must live that message, at willing to endure whatever personal sacrifice in necessary for the salvation of the city’s multitudes. Then we will see lives changed. And as lives are changed this city will be changed. And as this city and others like it are changed, the world will be changed by the power of God and for the glory of God.

Tenth Presbyterian Church, Philadelphia

Several years ago (2000), my good friend Tom Hayes, a gifted evangelist from Saluda, NC, and I visited Tenth Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia, PA one weekday afternoon. Our purpose for going was our mutual admiration of the late Dr. James Montgomery Boice. He had died a few months prior to our visit there. We entered the church and asked if we might look around and take some pictures, which they allowed us to do. A very kind lady offered to show us to the sanctuary. As we began to talk about our esteem for Dr. Boice, this lady's eyes began to well up with tears. She said, "In case you are wondering why I am getting so emotional, my name is Linda Boice, Jim's wife." We shared a few moments of brief fellowship together with her, and she escorted us to Dr. Boice's office, which was still as he had left it. His personal assistant allowed us to peruse his books, and showed us inside of his desk the handwritten sermon outline of Dr. Boice's ordination charge, preached by Carl F. H. Henry. Tom and I left rejoicing at the tremendous blessing God had given us in that brief visit.

I was glad to know a few years later (2004) that the church's 175 year history had been published by Presbyterian and Reformed. I purchased two copies of the book and sent one of them to Tom as a remembrance of our visit to the church. Then I did what I do with most books I buy: I put it on the shelf and said, "I'll get around to that one day."

Next month, Bill Whitcomb and I will be travelling to Tenth for the Philadelphia Conference on Reformed Theology. What better opportunity do I need to read the book? So, over a week or so, I have devoured the thing cover to cover. It was an absolute joy to read.

Why I loved this book:
1) I love guys who labor long in one place. Tenth Presbyterian has had a string of long term pastors (they are the norm rather than the exception) over their 175 year history, beginning with Dr. H. A. Boardman, and extending to notable pulpiteers Donald Grey Barnhouse and James Montgomery Boice.
2) All of Tenth's pastors have been gifted expository preachers. The church has developed such an appetite for biblical exposition that they EXPECT it of their pastor.
3) Tenth is an urban church which has refused to retreat to the relative security of the suburbs.
4) Tenth is continually developing new ministries to reach the multi-ethnic and variegatedly diverse community of Center City Philly.
5) Tenth is committed to excellence in worship, fueled by traditional God-exalting hymns rich in doctrine and great in heritage.
6) Tenth thrives today without buying into the lie that relevance is the most important thing a church can pursue. Their faithfulness to the gospel, to rich doctrine, to authentic worship, and to life-changing ministry is as relevant as it gets.

For all these reasons and more, I would recommend to you Tenth Presbyterian Church of Philadelphia: 175 Years of Thinking and Acting Biblically, edited by Philip Graham Ryken.

Why Did Jesus Choose Judas? Mark 3:19

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You may recall that about a year ago, the media was buzzing with the publication in English of “The Gospel of Judas.” Claiming to be a recent discovery, the document was actually discovered in 1970 near the banks of the Nile River. The craze stirred by The DaVinci Code and other books like it made the The Gospel of Judas an instant hit. This writing claims to contain records of secret conversations between Jesus and Judas Iscariot. According to the document, Jesus was asking Judas to do Him a favor by betraying Him to those who would crucify Him, thus liberating Jesus from the confines of His physical body and freeing His spirit. This is the sort of dualism that is found in nearly all Gnostic writings. By dualism, we mean that mindset that views the physical as “bad” and the spiritual as “good.” This is not the Biblical worldview, for when God created this physical world, He declared it to be “very good.” Bart Ehrman of the UNC Religion Department writes in the forward to the Gospel of Judas: "This gospel was about the relationship between Jesus and Judas, and indicated that Judas didn't actually betray Jesus, but did what Jesus wanted him to do, because Judas was the one who really knew the truth, as Jesus wanted it communicated."

Well, that is a much different understanding than the New Testament accounts. While many claim that the Gnostic writings give us a glimpse of early Christianity, the fact is they give us a window into some of the earliest deviations from orthodox Christianity -- namely the Gnostic movement which has its roots in early departures from "the faith once delivered" combatted by the Apostle Paul in Colossians and John in most of his writings in the New Testament. "Full-blown" Gnosticism does not take shape until the middle of the Second Century, nearly 100 years after the writings of the eyewitnesses that we now have in the New Testament. The Gospel of Judas had surfaced in the time of Irenaeus, and he dismissed it immediately as heresy. This is significant because Irenaeus was a disciple of Polycarp, who was a personal acquaintance of the Apostle John, the last surviving apostle.

The Gospel of Judas was written at least 150 years after the alleged author died. This is typical of gnostic writings. They seek credibility by claiming authorship of those whose names are well known in the universally accepted canon of the New Testament. However, their origins are all much later than the deaths of those who are attributed authorship of the documents.

The Gnostic writings emphasize the attainment of esoteric, spiritual knowledge as the means of salvation. They differ from the New Testament teaching of salvation through the substitutionary atonement of Jesus Christ on the cross of Calvary. Atonement and redemption from sin are nowhere mentioned in the Gospel of Judas, marking it as significantly divergent from the writings of the New Testament. Because of blatantly spurious authorship and deviant theology, the gnostic writings were rejected as they surfaced by the church at large. Contrary to the claims of The Da Vinci Code and other popular works which challenge Christian orthodoxy, there was no vote at the Council of Nicea to determine the Canon of the New Testament. The New Testament was "ratified" as the church received and recognized authentic writings of eyewitnesses of the life, death, and resurrection of Christ.

It is believed that the Gospel of Judas has its roots in a branch of Gnosticism called the Cainites. They bear the name of Cain because of their practice of taking the characters of the Bible who are presented in a negative light, and attempting to redeem their reputations by painting them in heroic fashion. This is what they attempted to do with Judas, but it is easy to see that the picture they paint of Judas is greatly distorted from the accounts of the eyewitnesses found in the biblical Gospels. The leader of the Coptic Orthodox Church has published the following comment on the media frenzy surrounding the Gospel of Judas, characterizing it as "non-Christian babbling resulting from a group of people trying to create a false ‘amalgam’ between the Greek mythology and Far East religions with Christianity. They were written by a group of people who were aliens to the main Christian stream of the early Christianity. These texts are neither reliable nor accurate Christian texts, as they are historically and logically alien to the main Christian thinking and philosophy of the early and present Christians."

So if we want to know about Judas Iscariot, it seems we are much better off turning to the eyewitness historical documents of the New Testament rather than fantastical writings of subsequent generations. As we view the New Testament lists of the twelve whom Jesus chose, we find that Judas Iscariot is always named last, and always identified as the one who would betray Jesus.

It was no hasty decision on the part of Jesus when He selected these twelve. Luke 6:12-13 tells us that he prayed all night long about this matter. This is much different than the way most churches select those who will serve in various ministries. Often times, a person with a clipboard walks around looking for whoever is willing to take on the job. But Jesus spent a whole night in prayer before hand-picking twelve from a multitude of followers who would become His apostles. And yet, one of the twelve would turn out to be a bad egg. Did He not see it coming? Did He not pray enough? Did He make a bad choice? Why did He choose Judas?

We might be tempted to see the betrayal of Jesus as something unexpected – a turn of events that caught Jesus by surprise. Did Jesus know that Judas would betray Him? What does the Bible say? In John 6:64, Jesus said, “But there are some of you who do not believe." For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were who did not believe, and who it was that would betray Him.” Again, in the same chapter, verses 70-71, “Jesus answered them, ‘Did I Myself not choose you, the twelve, and yet one of you is a devil?’ Now He meant Judas the son of Simon Iscariot, for he, one of the twelve, was going to betray Him.” Later in John’s Gospel, Chapter 13, verses 10 and 11, Jesus said to Peter, “ … ‘You are clean, but not all of you.’ For He knew the one who was betraying Him; for this reason He said, ‘Not all of you are clean.’” So three times, John tells us He knew, He knew, He knew. He knew that Judas was going to betray Him, so the question arises: “Why did Jesus choose Judas?”

I. Jesus Chose Judas to Fulfill Scripture.

In the High Priestly Prayer of John 17, Jesus said, “I guarded them and not one of them perished but the son of perdition, so that the Scripture would be fulfilled.” Peter said the same thing in Acts 1:16, saying, “Brethren, the Scripture had to be fulfilled, which the Holy Spirit foretold by the mouth of David concerning Judas, who became a guide to those who arrested Jesus.” This Scripture to which both Jesus and Peter refer is Psalm 41:9. There, we read these words: “Even my close friend in whom I trusted, who ate my bread, has lifted up his heel against me.” Judas was close to Jesus. He spent every moment of every day with Him for three years. Judas was entrusted with responsibility—he was the treasurer of the apostles. At the last supper, they shared bread together, and then Judas lifted up his heel against Jesus—a heel, I remind you, that Jesus had just washed. In John 13:18, Jesus warned His disciples what was getting ready to happen, referring to Psalm 41:9 and saying, “He who eats my bread has lifted up his heel against me.”

Lest we be tempted to say that God made Judas betray Jesus, we must understand that God’s foreknowledge of a thing does not rule out human responsibility. Judas had a choice – he did not have to betray Jesus. But he chose to do so, and God knew He would from the beginning. Your decisions never surprise God. He is all-knowing. Nonetheless, our bad decisions disappoint God because He does not want to see us throw our lives away in sin. He wants us to live for His glory, and when we fail to do that, even though He knows we will, it grieves the Father’s heart. We sin because we choose our own way over God’s way. Judas made a choice. But God knew that he would, foretold it in Scripture, and it was fulfilled.

II. Jesus chose Judas to prove the deity of Christ.

Did Abraham Lincoln know that John Wilkes Booth would assassinate him at Ford’s Theater? Did John Kennedy know that he would be shot driving through downtown Dallas? Did Martin Luther King, Jr. know that James Earl Ray would kill him? The obvious answer to all these questions is NO. Now, did Jesus Christ know that Judas Iscariot would betray Him over to death? Yes He did. Turn over to John 13:19. Here you will read Jesus saying, “From now on I am telling you before it comes to pass, so that when it does occur, you may believe that I am He.”

If you are looking at an English translation of the Bible you will notice something different about the word He. What is it? It is in italics. Whenever our English Bibles have something in italics, it means that the word does not occur in the Greek manuscripts, but has been supplied by the translators to smooth out the reading of the text. So, what do you have left when you take the italicized He away? “You may believe that I am.” This Greek construction, ego eimi, is spoken by Jesus 25 times in the Gospel of John. Each time it is a declaration of His divine nature. You recall in Exodus 3 that when Moses said to God, “Whom shall I say sent me?”, God said, “I am who I am. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: I AM has sent me to you.”

Jesus Christ’s foreknowledge of what Judas was going to do, and His pronouncement of it in advance boldly declares to us that He is God. He is the all-knowing one who knows the end from the beginning. In Isaiah 46:9-10, God says, “I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like me, Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure.” This all-knowing God became flesh in the person of Jesus Christ, and chose Judas Iscariot to prove Himself to the world.

III. Jesus chose Judas to encourage future generations of Christians.

Jesus Christ knew when He chose Judas that Judas was going to betray Him. And certainly He knew that in future generations there would those who were involved in church, even leaders in the church, who would fall away. Often when that happens, Christians become discouraged, fall out of fellowship with the church, and even lose total interest in the Christian faith. But what happened to the other eleven disciples when Judas fell away? They remained faithful. Early in the book of Acts we read that they were together in one accord. One bad apple does not have to spoil the whole bunch. People will disappoint you, even people you look up to in the church. Some are genuinely saved and fail the Lord terribly; others are not saved, but have only pretended to be. But you have known some undoubtedly who for one reason or the other have drifted away from faithfully walking with Christ. But Jesus never said for us to follow each other; He said, “Follow Me.”

We cannot let the failure of others lead us away from following Jesus. Paul told Timothy in 2 Timothy 4:3-5, “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths. But you, be sober in all things, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.” This is a wise admonition, and one we can learn from the example of Judas Iscariot. In spite of his miserable failure, others remained faithful. In spite of what you see others doing, you can stay faithful to Christ also.

IV. Jesus chose Judas to provide us with a warning.

We discussed this last Sunday, but it bears repeating. Judas was involved in the service of the Lord. He held a position of responsibility among the apostles, but he was not saved. This is a warning to us that church membership, church attendance, and church involvement will not save us. The only way to be saved is through faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. You know what Ephesians 2:8-9 says: “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.” We will not impress God with how much we can do for Him unless first we have allowed Him to do something for us – namely, save us from our sins.

Paul says in 2 Corinthians 13:5, “Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves! Or do you not recognize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you—unless indeed you fail the test?” It is not my desire to stir up doubt in the heart of any born-again Christian. However, there are worse things than doubt. False assurance is infinitely worse than doubting your salvation. So do not be afraid to do a spiritual inventory of your life and ask yourselves some hard questions. Has there come a point in your life when you have turned from sin and called upon Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior? If not, then on what basis do you claim to have eternal life? Peter said in Acts 4:12 that salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved. Jesus Christ alone is our only hope for being made right with God.

If you examine yourself and say, “I remember praying a prayer of commitment to Christ at some point,” then perhaps another question is in order: Has your life changed since that time? Has God given you a desire to obey Him and a sincere love for other Christians? First John says that these two things are the marks of a genuine Christian. And if they are not present in your life, you have to wonder if your commitment to Christ was sincere.

What if you examine yourself and find that you are not saved? Then you thank God that He allowed you to see that before it was too late, and you turn from sin and self to Jesus Christ by faith and repentance, calling upon Him as Savior, and surrendering to Him as Lord, and commit to live for Him the rest of your days. Judas Iscariot never did that. He perished because He had never truly given Himself to Jesus. He stands as a warning to all of us.

V. Jesus chose Judas in order that we might have Judas’s testimony.

Anyone can say kind words and speak of the greatness of their dearest friends. But the testimony of an enemy carries a unique kind of credibility. After betraying the Lord and handing Him over to death, Judas ran to the high priests, threw their money back at their feet and said, “I have sinned by betraying innocent blood.” (Matthew 27:4). Judas had been with Jesus every waking moment for three years. If Jesus had sinned, Judas would have known about it. If He deserved to endure the punishment and death of the cross, Judas could have been proud to have handed Him over. But his testimony reveals that he had not acted justly. He betrayed innocent blood.

The Bible says that the wages of sin is death. The Bible also says that Jesus Christ never committed any sin. In John 8:46, Jesus called out to His opposers, “Which one of you convicts me of sin?” Judas called Him innocent. Pilate said, “I find no fault in Him.” Hebrews 4:15 says He was tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin. First John 3:5 says that in Him there is no Sin. So if the wages of sin is death, then why did Jesus die? He died for sin, but not for His own. By virtue of His sinless life, He was able to lay His life down for ours, taking upon Himself the punishment that our sins deserve. 2 Corinthians 5:21 says, “He [God] made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.” The testimony of Judas Iscariot proclaims this truth, as he says within the shadow of the cross, “I have betrayed innocent blood.”

In John 15:16, Jesus said to the twelve, “You did not choose Me, but I chose you.” So why did He choose Judas? We have seen a fivefold answer to this question found in the Scriptures. But now there a more difficult question to ask. As you contemplate God’s purpose for choosing Judas, ask this question: “Why did Jesus choose me?” Surely He does not need another betrayer. He chose you to know Him intimately, to serve Him faithfully, and to proclaim Him boldly. “You did not choose Me,” He said, “but I chose you, and appointed you, that you should go and bear fruit.” Are you bearing fruit for Him through your faith and your life for Christ?

Ecclesiastes 12:11-12

"The words of the wise are like goads, their collected sayings like firmly embedded nails—given by one Shepherd. Be warned, my son, of anything in addition to them. Of making many books there is no end, and much study wearies the body."

This week, I have been unpacking some books that I had stored away since May of 2003. My shelves in my study were already full, so I had to build a contraption to store them all. I call it a "contraption" because to call it a shelf is to sell it short. It is five sheets of 4' x 8' MDF stacked with cinderblocks. Books will line the outside of each board, and be stacked up in the center part of the boards. Meanwhile, it is utter chaos in my study. Below is a picture of the madness as I sort through, shelve, and reshelve nearly 6,000 volumes. Maddenning as it is, it is wonderful to have them out of storage and available for use again. I will try to post a "finished" version of the picture when I get done. It could be a while.

New Audio Downloads Available

We are in what you might call "beta" trials of posting MP3 files of each Sunday morning message here at Immanuel. The first one is available for download at http://www.ibcgso.org/MP3s/Mk%203.16.19c.mp3

We hope to tweak out the sound quality issues and make the process user friendly and even looking into podcasting. These developments will take place over the next few months, but in the meantime, available messages can be found at http://www.ibcgso.org/linksndownloads.htm

My thanks to Ron Chandler, Dan Vaughan, and Leilani Roughton for their help in providing this feature.