The Reconciliation & The Life

We're going to look at chapter 5, verses 9 through 11. So I would just invite you to open up your Bibles there if you don't already have them open. And as we get going this morning, I just wanted to take a look at some initial observations as we look at this section of scripture here. So let's read through it. Verses 9, 10, and 11 of chapter 5.

Much more then, having now been justified by his blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. And not only this, but we also exalt in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation." So if we look at this this verse here in verse 9 it starts out with the much more then and so we see that repeated in verse 10 it says much more having been reconciled and then when we go down to verse 15 it says much more did the grace of God and the gift by his grace of the one man Jesus Christ bound to many and then if we were to look down in verse 17 For if the transgression of the one, death reigned through the one, much more, there's the idea there of this much more, those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the one Christ Jesus.

So this idea here of much more than is repeated four different times in just this one chapter. And then in verse 11, it doesn't use the same wordage of much more than, but we see that it says not only this, but also. Kind of the same idea there. This has happened, but not only has this happened, but also this has happened. Kind of the much more than idea, but phrased a little differently.

Reconciled is used It seems to be a crescendo here of all that God has done and is continuing to do in light of what was presented in verses 1 through 8. Many, many, many, many things that God has done for the believer and is continuing to do for the believer. Then we get to 11, 9, 10, 11, and on in the chapter, much more than, much more than, much more than. It seems to be a crescendo of what we're building to a point here, what God has done.

Reconciled is used for the first time in the book of Romans in verse 10. While we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his son. Much more having been reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. And in the end of verse 11, through whom we have received the reconciliation. So we've seen the word justification used quite a bit in Romans thus far, but we have our first introduction to the idea of reconciliation in Romans here.

So as we look at these verses and we compare them to previous verses, there's a lot of similarities that come out between verses 1 through 8, and then now verses 9, 10, and 11. Verse 9 we're going to look at this morning tells us that having now been justified. Well, verse 1 stated that we have been justified.

Very similar idea there being communicated. Verse 10 we'll look at while we were enemies. Verse 6 talked about while we were still helpless. And verse 8 talked about while we were yet sinners. Again, there's a lot of similarities between these verses.

It's going to talk about that we will exalt, we exalt in God. And verse 3 talked about we exalt in our tribulations. And it says because this happens and this happens and this happens. But the idea there of exalting is carried over from verse 3 down to verse 11. Also, in verse 11, we see the idea there of these things are through our Lord Jesus Christ. And then in verse 1, we saw there that the justification we have, have been justified, and therefore bringing peace with God, and it's through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Just some initial observations. Do you need some notes, Kate? Have you got notes? That's okay. Any thoughts? As we look at this passage, kind of get going? Any more observations kind of jump out at you, off the page? Okay, not only is there a lot of similarities between verses 1 through 8, and then verses 9 through 11, but verse 9 and then verse 10, they are also very similar in what they have to say. In verse 9 we see much more than, and also in verse 10 we see much more.

And then verse 9, having now been justified. And then verse 10, we were reconciled, and it brings out having been reconciled. There again the changes of the word shift to the idea of reconciliation from justification. And verse 9 says that we shall be saved, as does verse 10, we shall be saved. And verse 9 says through him. And verse 10 is by his life. A lot of similarities when we take an initial look. at these verses here. Okay, so let's look at it, take it phrase by phrase, word by word, through these verses. The idea here of verse 9, much more than, is also repeated in verse 10. So, much more than, much more than what? What is he talking about? Much more than, you have to ask the question, much more than what?

Well, we saw in verses 1 through 8, that having been justified by faith, having peace with God, having obtained our introduction into grace, Exalting in hope of the glory of God. So, much more than these things. Much more than having been justified by faith. Much more than having peace with God. Much more than exalting in hope of the glory of God. Much more than exalting in tribulation. Much more than having God's love poured out to us. And much more than having Christ die for us.

I think that's where he's coming at. Much more than what has already been previously stated. in verses 1-8. And when we look at this, I think it's an argument from the greater to the lesser. God, in a sense, has already done the more difficult part. He's dying for the helpless and the ungodly. He's dying for us while we were yet sinners. So, He's already done the more difficult part. So, in a sense, So now what is left for God, in a sense, is to do the easier part. is that easier part.

It's to save us from the wrath that is to come in the future day. He's done the harder part in that he's saved us through salvation, giving us his life, dying for us when we were sinners, dying for us when we were ungodly. So now, the easier part is to save us from the wrath of God and he saves us through Christ. That's the means of saving us. Now that all the believers are declared righteous, we shall be saved from the coming wrath.

And this is the result of having been justified by His blood. The means of our justification is through the blood of Christ. Having now been justified, so we looked at the much more than, now let's look at specifically having now been justified by his blood.

It's in an Aorist passive participle, and the Aorist is pointing to a completed action. It's an action that happened in the past, and it's a completed, a fully completed action, and the passive voice is pointing out that God is the one who is doing the justifying.

We didn't justify ourselves. We didn't do anything to add to our justification. God is the one who justified us based on our faith. We believed. That was our part. That was our responsibility. We believed in what it is that God had done for us and therefore God did the complete act, completed action of justifying us. And again, this has been looked at thoroughly earlier on in Chapter 5 and also earlier on in Chapter 4 and a little bit in Chapter 3 as well. And that's a pretty incredible thought. You think about having been justified.

What it is that God did for us by declaring us righteous. By bringing us into a right relationship with God. It's easy for us, I think, to get kind of caught up in these kind of these theological terms, you know, justification, and these kinds of terms, and you lose sight of how personal it is, and the fact of what it is that God has done. You know, we were enemies, we're going to look at it in more detail, but He's brought us into this right relationship with Him, not because we did anything to deserve it, or we did anything to earn it. But just in His love and His grace and His mercy, He did that. We believe in what He did and He brought us into that relationship. I always like to just remind us that it's extremely personal and it's extremely intimate in a sense in our relationship with the Lord. Not just get caught up on these theological terms that we can lose sight of what it really means.

Okay, so the means of our justification is that it was by or it was through, we have this preposition here, by or through or in his blood. Christ's blood is the means of justification because When Christ died, he satisfied the requirements of God. Christ demanded, or God demanded, that blood be shed. And Christ's blood was shed on our behalf. Therefore, it satisfied the righteousness of God. And that's the means by which we can be justified for those that aren't already. And it's the means by which we have already been justified. Any thoughts? Okay.

So, having now been justified by His blood, or through His blood, or in His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him. So the idea here of to save is one of deliver, And what it's referring to here is just what it says, to be rescued or delivered or saved from the wrath of God. So you have to ask, what is the wrath of God? And I think it's referring to the wrath of God that's going to be released at the end times, at the last day.

Now we looked at detail, if you remember, chapter 2, verses 1 through 5. And so the idea here And chapter 5 is that we're going to be saved, or delivered, or rescued from the wrath of God. And that is in direct contrast to the people that are described in chapter 2 who are rejecting the truth of God and unrighteousness, or they are, let's look back at that chapter 2, they are thinking that they are going to be better off then some people, because they are judging others for their wrongdoings, they think that because of that, they're going to escape the wrath of God. Well, it says in chapter 2, we looked at it in detail, 1-5, let's read through it.

Therefore you are without excuse every man of you who passes judgment. For in that you judge another, you condemn yourself. For you who judge practice the same things. And we know that the judgment of God rightly falls upon those who practice such things.

And do you suppose this, O man, when you pass judgment upon those who practice such things, and do the same yourselves, that you will escape the judgment of God? Or do you think lightly of the riches of His kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance? But because of your stubbornness and unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath for yourselves in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God. So those people think that they're going to escape it, but what he's pointing out is that you are not going to escape it. If you stay the course of what you're in right now, you are going to experience the righteous judgment of God. You're going to experience the wrath of God if you don't trust in the Lord by faith as your Savior.

But what we see here in verse 9 is that because we've been justified, God is going to save us, deliver or rescue us from the day of wrath, the last day. It's in the future, shall be saved, we shall be saved, it's in the future, indicative and passive, so it's something that's going to happen.

In the future it hasn't. This idea here of being safe hasn't happened yet. Salvation has a past tense and a present tense and a future tense. This usage of the word here is talking about in the future tense. It's something that hasn't happened yet, but it will definitely happen and it's passive. God is going to be the one who will save us. There's not something yet in the future that we need to do to save ourselves or to make sure that we're going to be saved in the future. It's already a done deal. It's a completed done deal that's going to happen yet in the future.

Okay, and then the prepositional phrase here, through Him. So, we shall be saved. from the wrath of God through Him. Again, it's not through ourselves that we're going to be saved, but it's through the shed blood of Christ and what it is that He's done on our behalf that this future salvation from the wrath of God, this is how it's going to come about, this is why it's going to come about, this is the means for it. Nobody's going to say one word this morning, all morning? Okay. Okay, so, verse 10.

For if, while we were enemies, we were reconciled. So let's take a look at this idea here of while we were enemies, a combination of the participle showing the action and the noun there being of the enemies. Let's see, so while we were, this is a present active participle in the present tense, is meaning that the action is occurring at that specific time and it is a continuous action and even though we were still enemies at that time.

So what I think that's shown is that Christ died for us while we were actively, at that moment, continually involved in sin. Once we started to change our mind and to begin to get ourselves out of this sinful condition, Christ died for us. But it is while we were entrenched in our sin and it is while we were completely involved in it, in this continuous action, that is the state in which we were in when Christ died for us. I think we take that so much for granted. But if we can let that sink in a little bit and say, wow, what a work it is that God did for us when we were in that state. He didn't ask us to get ourselves 25% out of this sinful mess and then I'm going to do the rest. But it was while we were 100% entrenched in this mess. of sin, separated and alienated from God, Christ died for us.

So, again, to think about those things and contemplate what it is that the Lord's done for us through these terms and through the scriptures of what He's done for us is incredible to think about. I have sometimes a hard time thinking of myself as ever being an intimate God because I was saved when I was 12 and I was this little girl who always tried to make everybody happy so I tried real hard not to get in trouble. As I've grown, especially in the latter years, and learning about the old man and recognizing the old man in myself whenever my human nature tries to be in control and tries to express itself and want something real bad. And then I began to see the arrogance and the actual attitude of being the enemy of God.

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, thanks. The flesh, as it said, raises its ugly head. Boy, we get a good picture of that state of being an enemy and a wrath with God before we were saved. Good. Any other thoughts? It's humbling, isn't it? I think when you think about that. It's humbling for us. Yeah, the arrogance. God does away with our self-righteous arrogance. Boy, what a... kind of put us in our right spot, I think. I think sometimes about how I really needed the Lord a whole lot more than I thought I did. Yeah, that's right. Yeah.

You know, Henry just turned three, and we pray that he would get saved at an early age, and that his life would honor and glorify God as he grows up. And I really mean that, that he will get saved at an early age. At the same time, I want him to understand that he, truly what it is that God has done for him, therefore to believe it and be saved. But how much of his sinfulness and of his true need for the Lord is he going to understand, say, if he got saved when he's six? I don't know. But he'll grow in his understanding of that as he grows up.

But that's important for us to understand, how helpless. And these verses pointed out, verse six, he's driving this theme home here. For a while we were still helpless. At the right time, Christ died for the ungodly. So there he uses the term helpless. Verse 8, God demonstrates his own love towards us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. So there he uses the word, the idea there of yet sinners. And here in 10, we're seeing while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God. So we've got those three things still helpless. Verse 8, yet sinners. And verse 10, while we were enemies.

I think he's driving home that point. We'll hopefully see that. What it is. The state of which we were in that he pulled us out of. The idea here of enemies. For while we were enemies. The idea here is that of being hostile. Of hating. or opposing another. A real strong term here that is being used.

This is describing our relationship to God. We were hostile towards God or we were hating one that was in a state of hating God or one that was opposing God. That's our use of man at enmity with God and it was because of the sin of which we were born into. Hopefully that paints a picture of while we were deeply involved, continuously hostile, hating, and opposing God, we were reconciled. Let's look at this idea here of we were reconciled to God.

We've mentioned this earlier in our lesson, verse 10 uses the word reconcile and verse 9 uses the word justified. Now when we look at the difference of these terms, justified is a legal term, referred to it earlier, where one is in a sense declared righteous by a judge. It's kind of got a legal idea there to it when declared righteous before God. We've talked about it a lot previously because it's come up a lot in Romans already.

Let's talk about the idea of reconciled more here because it's the first time that it's come up. Idea here reconciled, instead of being a legal term, it's more of a relational term, where peace is made between two estranged parties. So idea here is peace is made between God and man. where there was this, we were enemies, there was this hostility, there was this hating of it, there was this opposition between God and man, and now they're brought into this peace made between God and man. So, simpler definitions of it is to exchange enmity for friendship, to be brought from the place of an enemy, to the place of a friend.

That's probably the one that I like the best and has kind of stuck with me the most through the years. That I was at a place of being an enemy with God, but because of God, what it is that He's done for me, I've been reconciled to Him. I've been brought from the place of an enemy to the place of a friend.

What an incredible thought. I mean, think about our relationship with people. When we have a estranged relationship with somebody, whether it's at work, whether it's a family member, whether it's a neighbor, and somehow that relationship is reconciled and we're brought from the place of an enemy to a friend of that person. Isn't that a pretty incredible thing, when that happens? Wow, my relationship has been helped, it's been saved. Now I can enjoy fellowship with that person.

Now let's think about that same idea in the concept of God. It's easy for us to get our arms around a relationship with a person, co-worker, family member, neighbor, but let's take that concept and apply it to our relationship with God. Wow, that's what has happened between God and us. And again, just to kind of let that sink in, that we've been brought to a place of friendship with God because of His being reconciled to Him.

Any thoughts? Ideas there? Okay. We were reconciled. It's an indicative, airs passive, and again a passive meaning that the subject received the action of the verb. Therefore, God did the work, reconciling us to himself. And it's a reality. This isn't something that, well, it might happen, it might not happen, I'm not sure if we've been reconciled or not. If we maintain this and do this, then we're going to be reconciled. Some people believe that. Some people think, therefore, your reconciliation is based on works. But that's not the case. That's not what the scriptures are teaching. That's not the way that God's gone about doing it.

God is the one who did the complete work. pressure off of us, we believe in what it is that it's done for us, therefore we can rest in this reconciliation. A lot of our relationships in the world are based on performance. That's just the culture and the society that our world functions in. But that's not the way that our relationship with the Lord works. Certainly fellowship can be broken. That's not what we're talking about here. We're talking about a relationship where we've been brought to a place of affront from the place of an enemy.

Okay, let's continue on. So we were reconciled to God. through the death of His Son. So by the death of His Son, it's possible, and it has happened for those who have trusted the Lord as our Savior, it's possible for mankind to have a relationship change with God because of Christ's work on the cross. Because He satisfied God, and therefore now we can be brought into a place of friendship with God.

2 Corinthians talks about this. Let's look over at this. We talked about this a while back when we were going through the 2 Corinthians class. I don't have that right though. Yeah, it is. 2 Corinthians 5, 19 and 20. Let's look at starting from verse 18. Let's go back to 17. Therefore, if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things have passed away, behold, new things have come.

Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ, and gave us the ministry of reconciliation. Namely, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them. And He has committed unto us the ministry of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were entreating through us, we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God." So we see there in 17, it describes what's happened with justification and reconciliation. If any man is in Christ, and that's us, we've trusted the Lord as our Savior, therefore we are in Christ, He's a new creature.

The old things have passed away, new things have come. We've been before God. God has declared us righteous. The old things have passed away. relationship of being an enemy, of being hostile, of being against God, that has passed away. Now we have this new relationship.

Much more is entailed there of that old things passed away regarding the sin nature, now we've received the new nature. We'll get into that more deeply as we get into Romans chapter 6. I think we can also see here the idea of justification and reconciliation. The same idea here in verse 18. All these things are from God. We didn't do it ourselves. We didn't even contribute anything to it. All these things are from God.

Who reconciled us to Himself through Christ? We didn't reconcile ourselves. It was absolutely impossible for us to reconcile ourselves to God. He did the work there for us. God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against him, and he's given to us, committed to us, the word of reconciliation. At the end of verse 20, we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. So, in a sense here, we can see that reconciliation has two aspects. Reconciliation accomplished through Christ on the cross. In Christ, God was reconciling the world to himself. And then mankind, by faith, receiving the reconciliation that Christ has accomplished, we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to the world. In a sense there, we show God's part, and then we show man's part. And man's part is always and only faith. That's it. requires a man to believe. That's a man's responsibility is to believe. It's not a work. It's not something that we are rewarded for, but it is something that God desires and requires of us to do.

It's by faith we enter into the justification. It's by faith we enter into this reconciliation. So, boom, God's reconciling the world to himself. He's begging us to believe and therefore be reconciled unto God. Does that make sense? Thoughts or questions? Back to Romans. We were reconciled to God through the death of His Son. Much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. So, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.

The idea here of much more, same thing that we saw in verse 9. It's the same idea here. And saved is the same thing that we saw in verse 9. Again, saved here is in the future tense here, so it's saving that is going to happen in the future. It's not talking about necessarily a present saving. Again, the past, present, future, the idea of saving. So the future, I think, helps us to see that clearly.

Having been reconciled. Again, this is incredible. I kind of keep coming back to it, but this is pretty phenomenal stuff. He reconciled us, and therefore, having been reconciled, we're going to be saved by God. It's kind of this more upon more upon more upon more, this crescendo of all that it is that God has done for us. Having been reconciled, it's in the air's passive participle, it's a completed action done to us by God. How many times have we seen that in the past 40 minutes? completed action done to us by God. It's mind-boggling. So we've been taken from being an enemy of God to being a child of God. Let's look over at Romans 8 to help us maybe get an idea of this relationship change. 8 and look at verse 14 and we'll read down through verse 17.

For all who are being led by the Spirit of God These are sons of God. For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, Abba Father. The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God, and if children heirs, Also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with him, in order that we may also be glorified with him. Go back to 14 there. For all who are being led by the Spirit, these are sons of God.

So they're showing that relationship change. We've come from the place of an enemy to being the actual sons of God, to being the children of God. Not, we haven't received the spirit of slavery or bondage. I think other versions use the word bondage there. But we have been adopted into the family of God, therefore we can cry out, Abba Father or Daddy. I mean, what a relationship change. The Spirit Himself bears witness that we are the children of God. Again, driving home the same point there. Heirs, heirs of God, fellow heirs with Christ. back to chapter 5. Any thoughts?

Okay, so, we shall be saved in or by His life. We have this prepositional phrase here, by life, and it's His life, in or by which we shall be saved." So, because Christ gave up his life for us, in the shedding of his blood, without the shedding of blood, there's no remission. And Hebrews talks about the life is in the blood. He shed his blood for us. Therefore, it's satisfying God so that we can have a relationship with him.

I think that we obviously are going to get into this further as we get into The identification comes up more in chapter 5 of the first Adam, the second Adam, the one man, the second man is going to come up in chapter 5 and then on to identification in chapter 6. So, as believers we are in Christ, therefore we are saved in His life from the wrath to come. saved by His life or saved in His life, that carries a lot with it. We're going to get into that in much detail about how we've been baptized by the Holy Spirit into His life and therefore it's possible for us to be free from the power of sin in our lives on a daily basis. That's what we're going to get into in detail in Chapter 6.

So maybe Paul is beginning to refer to that idea here of being saved in him, or being saved by him, or being saved through him. But I think for this particular reference, because saved is in a future tense, I think it's talking about saved from the future wrath of God. He could have written it a different way if he was talking about saved from the present power of sin in our lives.

So to kind of make that clear. Any thoughts? I used to think that this saved by His life, their saved, was talking about daily delivered from sin's dominion. And I think the Amplified Bible actually says that. It kind of brings it out, the idea of their saved in verse 10, of being daily delivered from sin's dominion by His life.

Is that true? Are we daily delivered from sin's dominion by His life? Absolutely. But is that being taught through verse 10? No, not yet. We're going to come to it in the latter part of 5 and then on into 6 where we are daily delivered from sin's dominion through our identification with Christ. Does that make sense?

And not only this, in verse 11, and not only this, but we also exalt in God through our Lord Jesus Christ. So, the idea here of exalting, when we look at exalt, we exalt, look at where the exaltation comes from. We have all these little prepositional phrases that are in this verse. We exalt is the verb there, we're exalting in God, we're exalting through our Lord Jesus Christ, we're exalting through whom we have now received the reconciliation.

It's all outside of ourselves that is bringing the exalting. Incredible. So for us to look inward and to try to find something within ourselves to foster up exaltation, we're looking in the wrong spot, wrong focus, wrong place. We might be able to crank up some exaltation because of an inward look for a little while, but eventually, whatever I find in myself to bring forth exaltation is going to fade. die, it's going to be a mistake.

So, we see that very clearly here. It's in God, it's through our Lord Jesus Christ, it's through whom we have received the reconciliation. That's where we need to be looking when we want something to exalt about, or to glory about, as we see here. Present Middle Participle. So, the idea is right now, we are involved in the exalting. This is one of the first times this morning we've seen the middle voice, which means that we are involved. So we're involved in this exalting.

God wants us to be exalting in Him. God wants us to be boasting in Him. God wants us to be glorifying in Him. What's the catch there? In Him. Through God. The focus is on Him. So, this exalting or this boasting or this glorifying is in God because of all that God has done for us and specifically in this context here, the idea of reconciliation. And this is all through the Lord Jesus Christ, not through anything that we've done, contributed or have to contribute. We look back through these verses, let's look at one.

Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Because of that, because of God, we also have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we exult in hope of the glory of God. Verse 6, while we were enemies, while we were still helpless, at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly. Verse 8, God demonstrated His own love towards us, and while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. We've looked at 9 and we've looked at 10 already in specific detail. So, as we look at all the things that are through Christ, in light of this, one cannot but help, exalt in God.

If we look at those things. I mean, one can. One cannot help but, sure, I can walk out of this church this morning and not be exalted in God. I can be swamped over by my circumstances and mad at my family if I drive back to Highlands Ranch. Yeah, I can do that.

But as we're walking by faith, as we're dependent upon the Lord and what it is that He has done for us and He's shown us to be true, we see it in verses 1-8 and verses 9-10. As we're walking by faith and trusting the Lord that our occupation is going to be on Him and what it is that He's done for us, we can't help but exalt in Him. That's an experiential thing that we're wanting, that we're desiring, that we will be not controlled by our circumstances, but we'll be exalting in God, not snowed under by what's going on in our lives. So as we're looking to Him and what He's done for us, we can't help but be exalting in the Lord.

So, through whom we have now received the reconciliation. Have now received, heirs, active, indicative, again, just repeating this, it's coming out over and over again, a completed action of receiving. What is it that we've received? We've received the reconciliation. There, simply, it's a noun form of the verb reconcile. So, we have received it. So, it closes it out with one little last reminder. You have received this reconciliation. I think that's it.

Any thoughts? You guys find that encouraging at all? You're getting ready to go into your summer school classes. I hope you're not trying to find a way through your exaltation through your summer school classes. It's got to be in the Lord, what it is that we're going through. Okay, let's pray.

Lord, thank you for this morning and all that it is that you are just doing in our lives. We know that you have put a lot of difficult circumstances and situations and trials that we have to walk through. on a daily basis. And Lord, we're trusting in you. We want to trust you. We want to walk by faith and allow you to live your life in and through us. Therefore, our thoughts will be on you and of things above, not on things of the earth.

And therefore, your Holy Spirit will be reminding us of your truths, bringing things to our remembrance, such as we've looked at this morning. The end result is that we'll be giving glory to You, that we'll be boasting in You, that we will be exalting in You despite our circumstances that might be going on around us. So Lord, thanks for positioning us in You and identifying us with You so that we can trust in You and see this as a reality in our lives. We pray for Vern and the rest of this morning in the service as he continues in Isaiah. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.