Lesson 10b
Romans 3:22-23 · Courtney Hemenway · Jun 3, 2018
Romans (2018-21), No. 20
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4926191026195

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

We are in lesson 10 of the Romans class. Last week we got through at least question 5, although I was buzzed out at the end as we got into question 6. Does a believer need a personal standing before God in order to be righteous? And what was the answer to that? No. No. And what is our personal, what is our standing before God? In Christ. In Christ.

Alright, but somehow, and I was trying to list through it a little bit last night, we got at the end and I don't know how we deviated, but about how the Lord, He's the sovereign God, but He allows, we're not robots, we're not, you know, He snaps His fingers and we all march in the same way. We have a will, we can make choices. And I think, for some reason we got into the last question, with JD, and I don't know how we got there, but it was like, does God allow you to sin? I think so. Crickets? Yeah, definitely. We have a definite, well there's a maybe to a definite. Does he allow you to sin? Yes. You know.

Yeah, I mean, you know, and why does he do that? What do you make him sound like? You're going to sin tomorrow and God doesn't know about it and you're going to do something that's new that he may not have taken care of at the cross. Not that way at all. But he allows you to do it.

Why does he allow you to do it? I mean, because he knows. I guess that's what I'm getting at. Because why does he allow you to do that? Oh, he uses it for our betterment. He uses it. Our growth. Our growth. And that's a really hard concept sometimes to understand that. Is that why did he allow me to do that? Well, what is the consequence of that?

You realize lost fellowship. You realize all these things. And that leads us to the first John 1, 9 where you confess that I'm not acting as who I am in Christ. And it brings you back to dependency or it exposes your thoughts of self-righteousness or self-reliance, all those things about self, I think, are exposed in sinning. And when you do that, it exposes that.

Well, and then I think, too, the Lord says anything that's not of faith is sin. Exactly. So, you know, we think of sin as bad. Bad. So it's, you know, as long as we have our old nature in us, And that's a great one, too. Anything that is not of faith.

What does that mean about faith? What does that say about that? What does that mean? Anything about faith? Yeah, it's a reliance and dependence on the Lord and Him being your life. See, I think, and this is from our faith class, I think it's those things where there are so many truths that are in Scripture, but we don't believe it. We don't believe it. And I think that's where that's going is that we don't believe what's true about us. And we deny it or we go off. And that's where he says your life is in Christ. All these truths and yet we deny it.

And that's the sin. Or you're influenced by the world. Right. Something comes in and you, yeah. So scripture is telling us this, but we look over here and do this. And that's where I think that verse is saying, whatever is not of faith is sin. You're not believing what God told you about. And when you sin, you are not acting as who you are in Christ. And that's where the sin is. You're not believing all the things he told you about in scripture.

And I think that's a real important factor. I think that's where we really go off the mark. Bad things are bad things. But I think the real tougher parts are the things when we just deny what he tells us is true about us and we go, nah, I don't think so.

Also in line with that is why do we have a will? We either believe what God tells us, or we believe something else, therefore we sin. Hence, that's why I think that verse, whatever is not of faith is sin. That's why that's such a key verse. I think it's really, our will is to decide what we're going to believe. And if we don't believe what's true, it's sin. So I think that's why that's such a key verse.

And there's so many things in scripture that talk about who we are in Christ and what that means. But we just don't believe it. Like I said, I got this whole thing after our faith class about all these truths about us and why don't we believe it? That's the insane part is why don't we believe all these things?

But God knows that. And that's why I get into why he loves us to sin in some things is because it exposes those things we don't believe. That's true about us. And he allows this because, why am I doing this? Why am I doing that? Well, this is what's true about you. Believe it. So, anyway, it's a hard concept sometimes for people to believe that God allows you to sin.

What about also, you know, I hear this in camp too. A lot of people, oh, pray that the devil won't attack the camp or do something. Number one, is the devil omnipresent? No. So, if he's attacking a camp, that's a special day for you. That's a special day. Because there's only one place, one time, that he could do it. He's not omnipresent. He's not omnipotent, all-powerful.

So if you really have that day, that's a bad day. But they've got to allow it, number one, yes. So I hear a lot of things about attacking and doing, you know. What does God use, or does he use Satan? He does. Sure does. And for Christian, that's a hard thing to understand sometimes. Like I said, I hear this at camp, when I'm at camp, he's using it.

When you defeat somebody in war, when you defeat somebody, what do you do? Just let them go off willy-nilly? What do you do? Put them to work. Put them to work. That's what you do. You conquer and you use them. Is Satan a conquered foe? Absolutely. So, we see this in Job too. In Job, this is probably the biggest demonstration of that.

Did God just say, you know, I'm going to turn my back, do whatever you want. What did he say? God set that deal up. He said to Satan, hey, you see my boy Job? He's pretty cool, isn't he? Right? Yeah. Satan got hooked right away. Oh yeah. Go ahead and sift him.

And did Job do everything right? No. But what was the end result? He demonstrated that he trusted God. And those are my favorite things in Job, the speeches from God to Job. I love those. You think you're something special? I always had just those ones where, well, so you think you know a better plan. Where were you when I created this? Where were you when I set the stars? Where were you when I kind of, you know, that lowering of how great you are? So anyway, the point is that yes, we're allowed to sin. He uses Satan for his purposes. He doesn't allow him to go any farther than what he needs him to do to make you grow.

Couple that with what I always, the Lord's really imparted in my heart is God is sovereign, so he's in control. But the corollary to that is that he has an eternal love for us. Romans 8 where we cannot be separated from his love. I just think coupling those two things together gets you through anything. Because if you know he's in control, whatever he allows, he allows. But he loves you.

So it's not, and as I expressed I think at the end of the class last time, for a while there I think God just was waiting to beat the tar out of me. Everything's going well, but when I sin, he's just going to wallop me. He's waiting for a big stick just to, if I get out of line, I'm going to get pounded. Is that the way God works? No. I was way off base. God loves me with an eternal love and whatever he allows in my life is to draw me to himself, not to punish me.

You know, the chastening of a child. Well, you don't do it because you're angry. Hopefully. Although there are some times. I do sin, I think I crossed that line, but it's to bring the child back into a loving relationship. That's what you do, the chasing or whatever, and that's what God speaks of. It's to bring you back, to bring you into that fellowship. So, I think understanding that he's sovereignly in control and he has eternal love for you, when you go through a trial, that's how you can consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance and all those things. James 1. So, anyway, that was the end of the class last week. So, let's move on. Question 6 of Lesson 10.

What is the righteousness of God? We see that in our verses. Actually, I should go back up. The verses we're going through on lesson 10. are three verses Romans 3 21 through 23 but now apart from the law the righteousness of God has been manifested being witnessed by the law and the prophets even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe for there is no distinction for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God so question six talks about the righteousness What is the righteousness of God? That's in verse 21, but now apart from the law, the righteousness of God has been manifested. So, what does righteousness mean?

Absolute holiness. Absolute holiness. Right standing. Right standing. It just means right. God is absolutely right in everything He is and does. You know, you violated my one premise. Don't use this word in the definition. Righteous and right. Why not left? Right and righteous. You have to use other words in the definition. What is justice? Being just. What does that mean? Come on. I think for us it's Christ's righteousness imputed to us. So, His righteousness is a definition of righteousness? See, I'm a tough guy. I'm a tough guy. I mean, it's real good. To me, I have none. It's His impunity. But what is righteousness? What is that? What is that? What is righteousness? Right?

Other than being right. And you use a right standing, which... Holy? Holy means to be set apart, so they're not exactly the same thing. Exactly. See, it's hard when we really have to think of another word for what righteousness means. So, I went to Zodiaty's, and actually, and so I... not to violate my own principle, I said correct standing, not right standing. You can get around this very easily if you really try hard. So, correct standing.

So, as Odiades, he goes, Righteous, Justice, Righteousness. It is the essence of this word, dichaion, which is just, or dichaos, of him who is just or righteous. And so it goes on to a bunch of different things. The spoken of the righteousness which has regard to God and the divine law. So in actually this verse it says, Christ is presented as a source or author of righteousness, which He's using the same word in all this. But it's basically a just, a combination of just, which is the one word dicaeon, and the soon ending, which righteousness fulfills the claim of the first word, which, in the case of the believer, are God's claims.

In the case of the non-believer, the claims of a higher authority, which a person adopts as his own standard. is thus conformity to the claims of a higher authority and stands in opposition to lawlessness." So it's kind of the opposite or the antithesis of it is lawlessness. So that's the opposite of righteousness.

So the righteousness of God spoken of objectively means the righteousness which God approves or requires or bestows. So that in this verse means the righteousness which God approves, requires, or bestows. And then that comes from Romans 1, 17, 3, 21, 22, 25, and 26. So does this mean we are righteous before God? In Christ. OK. So are we righteous before God? Yes. This is why I made that. In Christ? Okay. Any others?

I think right here a discussion about whether righteousness is imputed or not is a good discussion. Because imputed means that it left Him and became part of me. And that's not what it is. I don't think imputedness fits you. Because I think what God has done, He's put me in the one who is righteous. And Christ's standing is now my standing. Do you see that difference? Yeah, I mean imputed is like stamped on or whatever. We have actually been placed into Christ.

And our righteousness is basically God looking at Christ. That's right. And that's really what we see as a righteousness. And are we righteous before God? The answer, it's a trick question really, is no we're not. We're righteous in Christ, which is what Mike was saying, but it's not like a stamp on it or we're polished up, we had a really nice shower and everything is righteous and we're really good people now. We've been placed into Christ and when God sees us, he sees Christ and his righteousness.

Can I just confirm, when you say we, are you only talking about believers? Believers, yes, yes. I just wanted to clarify. No, that's absolutely, yes, that's a good clarification. I speak when most of us are in the room. But that's true, because it is, you know, just think about what I mean saying, you know, we as believers are not righteous before. Right.

What is not a believer? Not even the same zip code. You can't even make that association. However, Christ did pay the penalty for their sin too. Absolutely. For the whole world. I know it's off topic. Why do you keep talking about the Ferrari? So it's like you get a Ferrari in the garage. It's yours. But if you never get the keys and drive it, what use is it to you?

We have paid, God has paid through Christ's eye on the cross for every single human being, forever. It's the appropriation of that through Christ, through what we'll get in Romans 6, our co-crucifixion and identification with him. Newell makes a good point here that he says that our righteousness begins at the resurrection, not the cross. Because the cross pays for the sin issue. of Christ as he was raised from the dead because he had fulfilled this part of the transaction as a man was righteous because of what he did. The human being begins at the resurrection, and we're placed into Christ at that point, which means that we share in his righteousness. That's so good. Right, and that's kind of an interesting thing. It goes to your point that on the cross, that's where everything was paid for. So everybody could benefit from that.

And that's where he fulfilled, and the approval I always do this to, which is he didn't have to, but he did. Think about this, why did he open up the tomb? He didn't have to do that. These are the ones I always say, he didn't have to but he did. He opened up the tomb so we could see that it was paid for, that God accepted it. That's the thing, because it could be that, you know... Well, we would never believe it. We would always question it. But it was not only for us to see, but it was also to see the acceptance of God accepting the payment that He raised, that it was fulfilled and He accepted it. Then we get into the second part, which is the Ephesians, saved by grace through faith. Salvation is by grace. He didn't have to do that, but he did. That's the second corollary. Instead of opening up, he didn't have to open up, but he did. The second is, he could have said, okay, you paid for it, now all you people see ya.

Right. But he allows us to come to salvation through Christ, through grace, through faith. When I was thinking, the original, the offense was against God. Yeah. You know, so the, for Christ going to the cross, that was the primary function, if you could say it that way, right, was to satisfy God about the sin. Right. But then again, like I said, then the next part is, he didn't have to, but by grace he allowed us to come into a life in Christ. Of the resurrection. Yeah.

After the resurrection, which approved it, which then allows us to have that same life. And we'll get into Romans 6 where the co-crucifixion, you know, God saw us on the cross. Right. and death, burial, and resurrection. So that same process that we go through. But I like that distinction between the two. The cross and the resurrection. Right. Very different. And again, payment for sin versus life. And that's it. They're totally two different things.

So, getting back, does this mean we're righteous before God? No, we are not in ourselves or anything. If that was true, what would that mean? Self-righteous. Self. There's something that we did that made us righteous or acceptable. And that's impossible. Christ would have died in vain. In vain. All the scriptures that said that, exactly.

So, the interesting part is, if you look at 2 Corinthians 5.21, He made him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that, so that, why he did that? So that we might become the righteousness of God in him. So again, what we talked about is there's nothing about ourself. We have become the righteousness of God because of that last little phrase, in him.

Nothing of what we've done. We've been placed in, again, imparting it. It's not like we put on a new cloak and we look better. We have been placed into Christ, as we'll see in Romans 6. And now by doing that, we have the righteousness of God. Do you grab a hold of what that means? That's pretty just mind-blowing. So, anyway, so what do these verses state?

We are righteous before God or we are righteous in Him? Right. So the distinction is, we're before Him righteous is saying, okay, we're stamped on, we got this, but no, we are righteous in Him. And that's another distinction being before Him is righteous or in Him we're righteous. So again, the distinction being brought out here.

The expression God's righteousness then signifies God himself acting in righteousness, and that thus Christ, now raised and glorified, is himself the righteousness of believers. And then the last, does Christians find themselves spoken of as righteousness of God in Christ, not as righteous before God? For that would be to think of a personal standing given to us on account of Christ's death, rather than a federal standing as in Him, united to Him, which we are. John Wesley said a wise thing indeed, never think of yourself apart from Christ. I think that's a good distinction. So, do you see the difference between righteousness before God and being righteous in God? They're two different things. Make sure you understand that.

So, is that how you think of yourself? or identified with Christ. You think you see that identification with Christ being placed into him, our death, burial, resurrection being placed into him. So that's where this becomes important. And again, remember Romans is the foundational book of all of our Christian life, identifying who we are in Christ. This is the basic how we get into Christ, how we're placed into Christ, and what that means. Then as we go into the epistles of Paul, we get further revelation of what that means. So this is the basic of it.

We have the very righteousness of God. When you're on the highway doing 75 miles an hour, do you think you're the righteousness of God? You have, in Christ, and verse 521, so that we might become the righteousness of God. You know, these are those things, whatever a faith is, or not a faith is sin, do we believe that? Yeah, those are those things that, you know, these compilations of things that God tells us, but do we believe it? And that's what our spiritual growth is, that imparting of all this knowledge and believing it.

You know? the righteousness of God. I know what I am inside, in my old man, you know, but God sees me in Christ and sees His righteousness. That's mind-boggling. Okay, how is God's righteousness shown? Question 7. Christ living in and through us. Others? What's the other word you use? Correctness? Correct.

How did God show his correctness? In other words, he's unchangeable. He's got an attitude about sin. His correctness or righteousness doesn't allow sin to be in his very presence. He is correcting that he is holy, so he is doing what he does being holy. Because of who he is. Because of who he is, he is holy. So he acts correctly because of who he is. So he is righteous because he acts as who he is. I think that is why Christ has to die. There's no other way. You know, that's kind of the amazing part, too. I go back to this, you know, what God is, is love. You know, we say God is love.

It has to be, because how do you create this human race, knowing that you're going to sin from day one? I mean, not day one, but first human out of the gate is going to sin. and a whole race is going to be there and then even before you created the first human being you knew you were going to send your son to die for us.

What kind of plan is that? It's a plan. I think it's a plan that fits God's righteousness. He knew that was going to happen. It wasn't, well let's think about how this is going to go. Once he knew the sin was going to happen Remedy for it was instant. God is going to have to satisfy himself because of the insult of sin against his holiness. He's going to have to do it.

And it wasn't, well, whoever wants to do it, raise your hand. No, this was before any human was created. This was already done. That's where the God is love. That's where, I mean, his character is love. He's going, why did he create us? What was the ultimate purpose? Fellowship and to glorify him. But he knew in creating that, he was creating this human race. to glorify himself, to have fellowship with us.

But as part of that plan was, I'm going to give you free will to choose. And the first thing I gave, we chose wrong. And he knew that. This is all known. And then he goes, OK, I'll send my son. But he always knew. He always knew. Of course we can't use the word time. There is no time. But I mean, the thought is that he knew it before he created us. So he went ahead with it.

Because he knew it. And that's why I say God is love. The definition of love is demonstrated by Christ on the cross. That was the ultimate demonstration of love. Even when he knew, before he created us, he was going to have to go to the cross. He loved us so much. So when you're feeling kind of pity-party, you know, that God doesn't love me, you know, before the foundation of anybody, He loved you enough to send His Son.

This was, I wanted to give a clarifying point so I can understand, is that I know the instant we believe, the Holy Spirit places us into Christ and seals us there forever. And because we are the righteousness of God in Christ. Like, if we assume the cabinet that we are in Christ, which we are, positionally, I mean, we were placed there, so aren't we really right, the righteousness of God, literally, because we are in Christ? Yeah, that's who we, it says that we are. So that we may become the righteousness of God. So, the only part of my point is Like we were saying, we have the righteous of our son, if we stand. Yeah, but we literally are the righteous of God in Christ.

He sees us in Christ. And this is the thing that I always look at with sin and all those different things. When God sees you, does He see your sin now? No. He sees Christ. And that's the hard thing for us, and that's why the only loss to us is fellowship. We're the ones who turn our back and run away and lose the fellowship. He's always after us, 124-7, after us for this relationship. When we sin, we turn our back and say, we don't believe who I am in Christ, I'm going to go off left field. But He is always pursuing us in love. And the sin question is done.

And it's not by the first John 1.9 that we suddenly are paying for or coming to God saying, you missed this one, you need to add this to the heap of sin on me that I've already done. It's already paid for.

He only sees us in Christ. The only way I can try and do this, and I've used this example before, is when we were married, the minute we're married, she can only see me as a husband. It's the only way she can see me. Even if we divorce or whatever, I'm the ex-husband, but I'm always referred to or looked at as a husband. That's the only way, and it's a very weak thing, but God only sees us in Christ.

That's the only way he can see us now, no matter what we do. If we sin, we're still in Christ, and that's what He sees. We're just turning our back on Him. But He still sees us only in Christ. That's only how He can see us. Doesn't that give you peace, rest, and comfort no matter what happens? He still sees you only in Christ. You're the one who sins and walks away, doesn't believe what's true, and walks away. God only sees you in Christ.

And listening to Russ talk, we have our natural mind thinks dualistically. In other words, there's Christ and there's me. And Christ, I have my righteousness in Christ, but I got it. When you look at John 17, the Lord Jesus said to the father, look father, I desire that they be made one with us.

I don't think we can think like that. What does it mean to be one in Christ? What it doesn't mean is that he's over there and I'm here. It doesn't mean that. It means there's a union there, that what's ever true of him is also true of me, not separately, but only in union with him. So I can't ever say, well, I've got Christ's righteousness, I'm out of here. I never leave the position of oneness with Him. Because without Him, I don't have anything.

See, and I think that's what spiritual growth is, is to get to the understanding of those very truths. Because that's so hard to understand, you know, that we have union with the God who created all this, the Colossians. He created from the micro to the macro. That's the one we have very, a union with right now. Do you understand the one who holds all the stars, holds my atoms together, we have union with?

One just as with Christ? So, righteousness. Question 7. How is God's righteousness shown? Verse 21. But now, apart from the law of righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the law of the prophets, even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe, for there is no distinction. So, how is God's righteousness shown? It was given in that answer, in that verse. even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe, for there is no distinction. How is it shown?

Well, I was thinking, it never really said anything about being shown, but we know that Galatians 2.20 It's a fruit of Christ coming within us that shows, once we really believe, there's fruit of His fruit. You say that isn't shown. But now, apart from the law of righteousness of God, has been manifested, so it's been shown, being witnessed by the law of the prophets, even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ, for all those who believe, there is no distinction.

It's in Christ. It's in Christ is how he shows God's righteousness, it's through Christ. And that's what we were just talking about, the righteousness of God is Christ and we're in that, so it's shown through Christ. Mill puts it this way, the words have been manifested, verse 21, And this guy, Kanye Bear, lucidly paraphrases, not by law, but by another way. God's righteousness is brought to light.

God had always dealt righteously, although his way was not as yet plain. He pardoned many, and he did not seem holy to judge sin, even in the unsaved world. But at the cross, he spared not his own son. Here was revealed, indeed, righteousness to the uttermost, at the cross. So, again, the righteousness of God is shown in Christ.

So, quickly, if we can get up through these. Question 8. What does one have to be to be declared righteous? In Christ. You believe in Jesus. So in verse 21, even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ, for all those who believe, there is no distinction.

So from question five, does our self-righteousness get us anywhere with being declared righteous? No. Okay, so we eliminate that part, so nothing in us. So, faith in Jesus Christ that places us into Christ through our co-crucifixion with Christ on the cross, death, burial, and resurrection, or separation, or death and burial, which is separation, and then resurrection. So, is there any effort of our own, or anything else, that would allow us to be declared righteous before God?

No. Nothing. Question 9. What does faith in Jesus Christ mean? Can't get away with this stuff. But now, apart from the law and righteousness of God has been manifest, being witnessed by the law and the prophets, even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ, for all those who believe, for there is no distinction.

So, let's go back. From our faith class, what aspect of faith is this referring to? Personal faith. Okay. We have essence, the faith, personal faith, and principle of faith. Which one is this? We have personal faith. Any other takers? Essence? The faith? Principle of faith?

It's personal faith. Yeah, this is personal. I'm talking about personal faith. So, personal faith in Christ. So, it's not a global thing, it's not a nationwide, it's Israel, it's not this, it's personal faith in Christ. There's a lot in here. I've got so much, two minutes to go. So, faith in the gospel, the expression of faith concerning Jesus Christ, literally, faith of Jesus Christ must be regarded either as faith in the gospel of God concerning Jesus Christ as set forth at the beginning of the epistle involving, of course, appropriation of Christ with all other benefits for oneself, or trust in Christ, or The rendering received by many today in certain circles would make the faith of Jesus Christ mean Christ's own believing on our behalf.

Is that what it means? Christ's believing on our behalf. Since he believed, we get the benefit of that. Is that correct? No. No. Finally, some have thought to render the faith of Jesus Christ as his faithfulness to us. So is that talking about his faithfulness to us? No, it's our faith in Him.

This comes down to the one choice we have is to believe or not believe. In saving faith then, you do not trust God to do something for you. You do not look to Christ to do something to save you. You simply receive God's testimony as true. Simple faith. Let's see if we can get this last one here real quick.

What is the standard for sinners to reach in order to be righteous before God? So, what is the standard? If you look at the last verse, 23, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. So, if we've all fallen short, what is the standard for sinners to reach the righteousness before God? Does verse 23 allow any exclusions? I always love these verses. For all. You burgeoning lawyers out there? Where's the loophole in that one? For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

Remember this goes from Romans 1.18 through 3.20. It kind of goes through everybody. There's no exclusions. So, there's no exclusions. So what is the standard for sinners to reach in order to be righteous before God? Faith in Christ. Faith in Christ. Who is the standard?

So, it's pretty easy. And remember, this is all building up to, I think, in Romans 6, how we get this righteousness, our co-crucifixion, our separation from the old man, positionally, and being placed into Christ. And then, just what we were talking about, we're placed into Christ, so we're in Him. So, the righteousness we have is because we're in Christ, His righteousness.

As a natural consequence, all races are falling short of His glory. The falling short may mean to fail to earn God's holy appropriation, which is compared to John 12, 43, or to come short because of the loss of all spiritual strength through sin, Romans 5, 6. Of that stake God prescribed for and must demand of a man. guilty, inability to stand before him in his glorious holy presence, probably all of these are more and more are included in the thought. We know that those now justified by faith in Christ rejoice in the hope of the glory of God, meaning that the state of being glorified together with Christ, which is the high heavenly hope of the Christian, It is in and through Christ alone that sinners, ruined in Adam and daily falling short of the glory of God, find redemption from sin's guilt and deliverance from its power, the glory of God."

So again, what is the standard? It's Christ. And how do we get there? We're going to see in Romans 6. co-crucifixion placed into Christ, our very life. Plus other 220, 2nd Revenge 517, all those that really show us that we have been placed into Christ. That's where our standard is. Let's close.

We thank you for each and every day you give to us. We realize again that every heartbeat, every breath is from you and again that you are working our lives 24-7. You are in control of all things and you have an eternal love for us that gives us that peace and rest. And again, the strength that we have is knowing those facts that you are in control of all things and you have that love. You are a loving God demonstrated by the plan of salvation before even any one of us was created.

You had the plan where you would give up your son to take all the sins for all time, put it on him and be judged for all of our sin. taken upon it, and you accepted that. We know that because you raised up your son. And we thank you for that. In the risen son, we have life.

And we just thank you again for all these facts that you present in your word. Thank you, Evan, you left us alone. You left us with your word and the Holy Spirit. And we just pray for a burn in the next meeting. Again, just bring the word accurately to us and just prepare our hearts to receive it. We thank you for all these things in Jesus' name. Amen.