Jude vs 20-21 Contend By Keeping Yourself In Gods Love

All right, everyone. I'm going to say read verses 17 through the end of the book, which is verse 25. And who's teaching next week, Roger? Actually, Andrew has the next, last two. Andrew's up for the last two and we'll be in Snowmass next weekend for a meeting that's annual, didn't take place last year, but we'll be going up. And that's kind of a historically work-related meeting.

And then the following Sunday, we hope to be in Antarctica. So we'll see if that ultimately takes place. But right now, the trip is still on. You can't believe all the steps we have to take to get to Chile to begin with and then to get down to Punto Arenas and get on the boat to go to Antarctica. But nevertheless, this is a trip we planned for three years and it's been canceled twice. So we'll see whether it happens this year.

All right, verse 17, but beloved, remember ye the words which were spoken before the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ. How that they told you there should be mockers in the last time who should walk after their own ungodly lust. Gee, are we seeing this today? These be they who separate themselves, sensual, having not the spirit. Notice the importance of that, we'll come back to that today.

Verse 20, but ye beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost or Holy Spirit. Keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. And if some have compassion, making a difference, and others saved with fear, pulling them out of the fire, hating even the garment spotted by the flesh. Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy, to the only wise God, our savior, be glorious and majesty, dominion and power, both now and forever. Amen.

So Andrew, you got a great closing here. Period exclamation point multiplied times five. Okay, good. All right, let's see where we're at here today. So the first two, actually I combined these because there's a comma and I think it makes sense to really combine them.

So, but you beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. Here, Jude is contrasting believers or the beloved from all the false teachers we've been writing about the entire epistle. So here's the contrast. This is to us and beloved, remember it's not his beloved, it's the love of God. It's a broad application to all those that God has brought to salvation.

So in contrast to the teaching of the false teachers, build yourselves up. of your most holy faith. Do we build our, I have you, yourselves, because that's what the text says, but ourselves as we think of the application, are we building ourselves up? Well, how are you doing building yourself up? Everybody, is that working out for you? Well, Bob, there seems like there's a kind of corollary verse, you know, a growing grace. So, I mean, it's not exactly the same words, but it seems like it's the same kind of concept.

I think in the sense that we ingest God's word and we come to know our Savior better through the word, we are. But I don't think that Jude is attempting to confuse us here. No, I hope not. Ultimately, this is a present active participle. So that means it's now, we're active, we're involved here in this. This is our responsibility to build ourselves up. And this is the opposite of separating yourselves. And that's why I said we turn back to Jude 19. These are sensual persons. These are the false teachers who cause divisions, not having the spirit. So we're kind of in building ourselves up, we're to kind of partition ourself or get sanctified or separated from this type of individual or many individuals, I think, who, in fact, or carrying out inadequate and false teaching among us.

I'm gonna ask the question, isn't this securing and enlarging upon the foundation, by the way, structural, this is a structural term. If you look at the Greek term, building up yourselves, it's really a structural term on which we've been established.

Isn't that what it is? And by what are we established or by whom? It's the Lord Jesus Christ. And let's look a little bit of parallel scriptures here. First Peter 3, 5, you also as living stones are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood to offer up spiritual and sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. Isn't that something being built up Here, same Greek term as we're considering here, being built up as a spiritual house. So that's the building up process. Yes, it's the Lord who builds us up through the power of the Spirit, but we have a responsibility, and our responsibility as believers is living by faith. And living by faith here means we need to have a responsibility of actively being involved and being built up in our faith.

And then a second verse, which is very appropriate in Jude, Jude 3, beloved, while I was very diligent to write to you concerning our common salvation, I found it necessary to write to you, exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith, which was once for all delivered to the saints. I mean, what's Jude asking here? He wants us to get involved in making sure that God's word is accurately going out.

And what's the verb term here, Roger? Well, the last part is it was delivered once for all. OK, but before that, what's our responsibility? I mean, it's an exhortation, isn't it? We're really called to this responsibility. Be diligent. Right, so remember, we have, you know, it's the spirit who leads us in all truth. But nevertheless, our responsibility is to live by faith. And that faith is rightly dividing the word of truth.

So that's our responsibility. So let's go on here. I don't know, Bill, Wayne, go ahead, make a comment. But I don't have my right screen showing this apparently. I have to turn here. So maybe after your question, you can go find Bill and see if you can get this work. Go ahead.

I was just thinking of how many times Paul has said, set your mind on things above. That's all part of that, isn't it? Where we live our life. really. Well, doesn't that transcend the kind of what we quote Miles is saying all the time, keep looking down? Yeah. I mean, I think it's all founded on our positional truth. Is it not? I mean, that's realizing we're heavenly people, not Earth. No, that's a really great reminder we all need to have. Yes, right.

Go ahead, please. Just a thought here. If you could back your screen up to the verse, maybe The overview verse there, it says praying in the Holy Spirit is sort of a summation at the end there. I know you're going to go there. But the bottom line is that that is the activity of our faith. And it's middle, which means that not only are we doing it, but He is doing it. He is the one that we're benefiting from. The benefit is ours, the work is his. Right, we are going there. Roy, thank you. Yes, no question about the importance of the process by which we go about separating ourselves and exhorting us by the word of God.

What does our most holy faith mean? And by the way, most holy is Haggios, which is a term that represents most holy. Do we think of our faith as a gradation? I have a little bit of faith, but then I have a whole lot of faith. I mean, and by the way, just FYI, Hagios means religious awe or reverence. It's used 229 times in the New Testament. I'm going to challenge this class. This faith comes to us from God and reveals God to us. All right, so this is the most holy faith, one word, but used 229 times in scripture. I got a question for the class. This is a multiple choice question, and there's one correct answer. Don't look at your handout, please. Which book in the New Testament uses this term the most?

Is it Acts? Is it Romans? Is it Ephesians? Or is it Revelation? The most holy faith, the highest reverence, Awe, reverential awe, if you would. Well, we always say Ephesians is a heavenly book. I don't know. I'll go with Ephesians. All right. How many people... I'm going with Revelation. Revelation. Do I hear... I'm going with Revelation. Okay. We have two Revelations, one Ephesians. We have a lot of... I go with Romans. Romans, Romans. Anyone else? Would anyone like to choose Acts? Well, you should have actually. I really think it's X. So actually, everybody was wrong, but Roy, after the fact, but I'm sorry, Roy, the test had already been passed and graded.

Okay, so I just want to point out that term is, you know, used generally in Scripture, and 229 times is a lot of, you know, reference to that term, so it has some meaning here. You know, Wiest looks at this in terms of faith and says, it does not refer to faith as exercised by us or the saint. for it is a described as the most holy faith. So in effect, we says, this is Christian faith or Christianity. Yeah, Roger, go ahead. Actually, I had a note that has a definite article, it's the faith. So that kind of path. the weast head. So that's good. So we hit the nail on the head. Okay.

You know, it's funny, if you turn to the inner letter Greek, my experience is often when people say it's preceded by the I don't find that in the inner linear Greek, but maybe I have a wrong reference to that through the blue letter Bible. I don't know. Sometimes it will be there, but they will not provide they will not find the English there, you'll just have the Greek word. But I think Weiss helped clarify it for me.

You know, this is Christian faith. It's Christian faith is an entity. And our faith relates to that, but ultimately it has a different interpretation. Darby says, the faith is, to the believer, a most holy faith. He loves it because it is so. It puts him into a relationship and communion with God himself. In a sense, that's shared by all Christians, is it not? Now, I think the ability to recognize that relationship may vary substantially from person to person, right?

But here we're talking about Christianity standing, you know, as a firm foundation of who we all are and what we represent. Okay, I thought we prayed, by the way, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. So what's the role of the Holy or Haggios Spirit? By the way, this Haggios term is used for the Holy Spirit, too. Of course, we know that spirit can be interpreted as kind of the spirit of the atmosphere, the spirit of the human spirit, it can be the Holy Spirit, it can relate to all kinds of spirit. And how do we know?

So I thought we prayed in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. And you know, there's so many prayers I hear by our brothers and sisters in the Lord where the name of the Lord Jesus Christ is never mentioned. You know, they just throw out some prayer. And what Macaulay said about this, it's so what? But in a sense, we are called to pray in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and we're led by the Spirit.

I'm going to conclude here, and this is what I'm opining, but I think it's true. Yes, our prayer is directed to the Father. in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and the Son, and in the power of the Spirit. How's that for the Trinity uniquely joined and justified here? Other thoughts about this? Well, actually the word you have the praying in, and that's by means of, so that's where you get the power. So you were praying by means of the Holy Spirit. So that connects the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Any other wisdom to be shared here? I think Roger hit it there, that if you take the in, the preposition in, by means of, or instrumentality of the Holy Spirit, makes it pretty clear.

Now, I think he'll have a comment. I think it was Patty Patty. Go ahead. I was just saying it brings to mind the passage in Romans 8 about the. the spirit interceding for us. I don't know. We're going to get there. Yeah, thank you. We've got such a smart class here. Good work, Betty.

Now, just a couple of days ago, the None But the Hungry Heart had a lot to say about prayer. And I'm going to share a little bit what it says. This is entitled The All-Prevailing Cross, Prevading Cross, I'm sorry, 114, which if you read None But the Hungry Heart, it's kind of calendar-based. I mean, there are some months we have only 30 days and there's a 31 that Miles has put in there. But let me share some things here and see how we take these in.

So the first thing I'm lifting there is prayer is the outflow of the new life. As one grows, as the cross frees the new from the old, there is the growth of effective prayer. I'm going to wait to comment on this after I read all of these various phrases or sentences.

Without the cross, prayer becomes a mere religious formality. Without prayer, the cross is arrested in its purpose. Prayer is the spring of power in conflict, and conflict gives the proof of the value and the need of prayer. Cannot be too frequently emphasized that for the believer, the ground or basis of prayer is the death of the Lord Jesus Christ, the victory won by the Son of God on Calvary, just as the ground.

Away from the cross, prayer becomes nothing more than an ecclesiastical ordinance or religious exercise expressed in devotional phrases. And I beg of you, when you read a book on prayer, to find out the place in it, which the author gives to the cross, and you'll be able to estimate its value. Now, before I go on, I have another couple of comments about prayer, which I'll share in a moment, but two things.

One, how often have we been exposed to kind of this congregational prayer where everybody's reading out of some book? And, you know, it's, you know, if you were collective garbage is almost what it is, because you're just reading something out of a book. There's no personalization of it at all. that doesn't mean it can't be meaningful to some people. I'm not saying that, but I mean, if you think of kind of mainline churches where you do this time and time again, it just is so, I think, distasteful.

Secondly, I mean, we pray to, you know, thinking about praying at the meal, I mean, I'm not judging anybody else's prayer, but sometimes it's just ritualistic, isn't it? I mean, is that really Holy Spirit led or is in fact, and one final thing, Roger, before you go ahead, When I first came to understand that there's more to me pleasing God as being a new Christian, I turned to Miles and said, Miles, can you tell me what prayer is? You know what his answer was? That's a good question. That's a very good question, Bob. That was his answer to me. That's all he told me. It's a very good question. So Roger, you're going to make a comment.

Well, I just want to say, you can take, we try to do it at home, take the opportunity at a meal to pray for the needs of our family and extended family. becomes more than just thanking the Lord for the food. You expand it to what your needs are at that time. So it can be a meaningful time, but it also can be just a ritual too. So it's wise to treat it, if you have the opportunity, use the opportunity. That's my thought. No, and sometimes when I pray at dinner, we do that. But sometimes, I mean, the point is, I'm just suggesting that at times it becomes very ritualistic.

Other thoughts here? Just a thought here that we are eternally united to Christ, and so our thinking, you know, we set our mind on things above, but the personal subjective interaction of ourselves with God is not an object over there. He's in us. And so when we think of that particular aspect, that I can think prayer constantly.

Right now, I'm asking the Lord to be able to say these words clearly as I even say them. Well, I think that's correct, and I think that's why Myles in this January 14th section of Not But the Hungry Hearts indicated the cross is everything. And that's why we pray in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, because that's the basis by which we turn to the Lord, is it not? If the cross isn't central, we pray in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, because that gives us the avenue to reach the Heavenly Father.

But it's also personal. Oh, sure. And so, you know, that phrase about calling the Father Daddy, boy, that's pretty... Yeah. A couple of other comments on this section. Hebert says, and I think I got that out of Constable, the development of spiritual maturity is vitally related to the practice of prayer at all times and in all places. Okay, so Wayne, you have a comment?

Well, I was just thinking how many times we hear from the news media or any of them when there's a tragedy, you know, it's our thoughts and prayers go out to the families. And these people have no clue who they're praying to or what, you know, it's just used, it's just thrown out. It clearly is, to a large extent, inappropriate phraseology, is it not? by our thoughts and prayers. Well, I mean, I think as believers, we can sincerely say this. Yeah, we understand.

But others, you know, of course, people, when they die, are always in a better place, right? Everybody's always in a better place. And it's hard to say it's you don't want to speak evil of the dead. And typically funerals, no matter where they are, the person was always and he's always in a better place.

It's sad that there's not a realization of of where they really might be. That's a pretty sad situation. Well, you know, I've heard someone say that to have died without salvation is to be in a better place than be facing God's judgment. But in a sense, God's judgment is the eternal damnation, is it not?

I really like what Ironside said. See what you think about this. And, you know, Ironside is a guy that you really have to reduce down. But I pulled this one out of there. And he's really a very impressive, you know, biblical scholar. But all that aside, I'm going to summarize it by one thing he said. Praying in the Holy Spirit can only result from a walk in the Spirit. Isn't that tremendously reductionist, but true? Right. When we walk in the Spirit, we pray in the Spirit. And that's something we don't work at.

We're gonna come back to that as we close in today's lesson. So I'm not sure if it was Caroline or it was Kathy, I think it was Caroline. So Romans 8, 20, maybe it was Patty, I think who shared this. Romans 8, 26 and 27. Likewise, the spirit also helps us in our weaknesses.

For we do not know, what we should pray for as we ought but the spirit himself makes intercession with groanings which cannot be uttered now he who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the spirit is because he makes intercession for the saints according to the will of god i mean in a sense It's hard to define that clearly, but I mean, the spirit, the relationship, when we walk in the spirit, sometimes that relationship can't be measured in earthly terms. It's kind of the impact of the day-to-day life that allows this to occur in only the way God has planned, right? How many people can share these utterances of the Spirit in terms of defining what they're all about? But we all know we turn to the Lord sometimes at just odd. We don't know exactly, but the communication's there. We sense the presence. And that's what I think Romans is talking about here.

Ephesians 6.18 reminds us, as Paul does frequently, we pray always with all prayer and supplication to the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints. I mean, this is something we're called to, that's in Thessalonians and it's in other epistles. How are we doing at that? Well, I think what this does, it relates to what Ironside says.

As we ultimately look back at that again, Ironside says that praying in the Holy Spirit can only result from the walk of the Spirit. And when we're walking in the Spirit, I think what Ephesians says here becomes, there's no burden. When we walk in the Spirit, this is constant communication with the Lord.

Roger, go ahead. Let's go back to what Roy was sharing earlier, that the admonition to pray without ceasing, that only can happen for a person that's walking in the spirit. He prays as he conducts his life. I mean, it doesn't necessarily have a formal prayer. It's just sensing the Lord's presence and beseeching him for whatever it might be, every moment of the day. And that's what Roy was sharing.

I agree. It's- You know, think about why we have Sunday sort of lift one another up, isn't it? I mean, that's what we're here all about. And what's the application for our lives? I think it's just accepting that it's all been taken care of. And Wayne mentioned that we start with our position and then by time and prayer and patience, ultimately that condition that we walk in becomes transformed.

All right, good. Wow, another question for the class. How do we keep ourselves in the love of God? Well, I don't see. Andrew, go ahead. Can you hear me? Yes. Yeah. I would say that we, we don't keep ourselves in the love of God, but God keeps us in his love. You know what I mean? Well, we can't get out of it. Well, you'd look at the thing, nevermind.

First of all, keep is air's active imperative. So how do you interpret that, Andrew? This is imperative. That means in order to do it, to attend too carefully is kind of a, literal translation, imperative, we're told to keep ourselves in the love of God.

I think again, that goes to set your mind on things above because we're we're in is it's only us. Our thinking maybe is outside of the love of God, but okay, we aren't. Well, Alford had an interesting thought here. Within that region of peculiar love where with God regards all who are built up in the faith and sustained by prayer. Okay. So he's interpreting this as it's the love where in God regards all who are built up by faith and sustained by prayer. That's his comment on this.

Don't you think that's also part of our reckoning, who we are? Who we are in Christ. And as Wayne said, if we're in Christ because that's who we are and we recognize that's who we are, then it's not difficult to keep ourselves in the love of God because that's where our focus is.

But Roger, you know, ultimately his love never fails, right? In a sense, that's really what this is all about. So keeping ourselves in the love of God, I think it's positioning God where he really is. His love for us never fails. And remember, Marilyn, remember Wayne, Bonnie, there's no condemnation to us who are in Christ Jesus. Positional truth, right? So, let's look at a little scripture. John 15, 9, as the Father loved me, I also loved you. Abide in my love. That's to the church or to his, you know, disciples at that time, but it had broad application to us today. Romans 5, 5. Now, hope does not disappoint.

Because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, who has been given unto us. So again, here's the role of the Holy Spirit, who constantly reminds us of the love of God. In Romans 8, 39, we read often when we celebrate the life of a believer who's with the Lord, that there's no height nor depth, nor any other created thing that shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus, our Lord. And so this, you know, ultimately, keeping ourselves in the love of God is to recognize by the power of the Spirit, who God is, and all that he's accomplished for us.

Other thoughts, comments? If we're not taught identification, or we don't understand that, that becomes almost law there. that we have to work to keep ourselves in that love. Well, Wayne, the other thing is we tend to focus on ourselves too much, right? And keeping ourselves in the love of God is really keeping ourselves positionally of who we are in Him, not our own experience. All right. Why do we need to keep looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life? I thought we already had this. Why do we have to keep looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ? Well, looking for is a present mental participle.

I hate to be overly, you know, grammatically based, but it means we participated this and it's to receive to oneself to admit or to give access to oneself. It implies hope. Yeah. It implies hope, which by the way, hope is not doubtful, it's future. And remember the hope we have relates to what?

Basically as believers. Eternal life. Well, the eternal life we have now, but ultimately the next phase of eternal life, which is what? Rapture time, or ultimately, you know, just, you know, before rapture when we all lose our earthly bodies and our spirits go to be with the Lord, right? So that's, I think, kind of what we're looking for.

The mercy of our Lord doesn't mean we have more sins to be forgiven. It doesn't mean that the flesh needs to be re-crucified. It means looking for the mercy that ultimately, after we're gone, we're with the Lord. We says there is no hint here that God will stop loving them, but they, by sin in their lives, would make it impossible for God to give them blessings in the fullest sense. The meaning of this word seems to point to that part of eternal life, which will be given the saint at the rapture, namely the glorification of his physical body.

I'm asking your class, do we agree with the way Weiss has interpreted this? Andrew, what are your thoughts? Oh yeah, I would agree. Definitely. So we don't need to beg for the mercy of the Lord, right? And I'm gonna try to exemplify that scripturally. 1 John 3, 2, beloved, now we are the children of God and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when he is revealed, we shall be like him for we all see him as he is.

Titus 2.13, looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and savior, Jesus Christ. But don't we already have a full dose of his mercy? What are your thoughts? And so what about our responsibility through the Holy Spirit to be in the word for understand his mercy? And again, back to scripture.

Ephesians 2.4, but God who is rich in mercy because of his great love with which he loved us, and we know Ephesians goes on and on without periods, but anyway, that points to this.

Titus 3.5, not by works of righteousness, which we have done, but according to his mercy, he saved us through the working of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit. And again, back to the Holy Spirit.

And a third text, 1 Peter 1.3, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his abundant mercy, has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. So, have we had a full dose of his mercy? Well, I was just thinking that it might be connected to understanding as we do here at Holly Hills that the three aspects of salvation, And the remaining aspect that hasn't been completed is our being like him. That's the remaining aspect.

And this is saying, and my version has waiting anxiously for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to eternal life. It makes me think that it's looking forward to when we'll be with him. So it's the completion of the salvation program that's in view here. That's one thought. Back to the hope and to the ultimate glorification of the believer. So we're looking at his mercy extends to the whole salvation process from beginning to end.

It's with us now, and it will be with us when we are made like him. So if you will, to paraphrase, it's not another dose of his mercy. It's just the continued application of the positional truth that we're currently in. We're not with him, you know, personally, but we're with him positionally. And ultimately, by the leading of the Holy Spirit, that becomes more our walk in the spirit, right? It's a final fulfillment of that mercy. Right. Yes.

And it has the idea of waiting, it says, or hoping or waiting anxiously. So we, and we are waiting anxiously. Bonnie was sharing, she says, Roger, I'm not sure this is, might be the last Christmas we'll have on earth. That's pretty cool. I'm looking forward to that. I kind of wonder that each and every morning I wake up.

We're looking at our Christmas tree which is still up and we haven't taken it down yet. Your Christmas tree is still up? Yeah, it's still up. Let's see if we can find a chapter and verse on that one. Just keep it up till next year. Yeah, right. There you go. Why not? Get a head start next year.

What we're looking at here in Jude is the fact that these verses could be looked at from someone who's not adequately positionally placed as more to be accomplished, right? And I think the thing that we're begging for, praying for his mercy upon us means that, oh my goodness, my sin is still there. I fall short of God's glory. I need his mercy. I need it constantly. Well, in a sense we do, but it's already been given. There's no condemnation now to those who are in Christ Jesus.

Boy, that's a verse that, isn't that really a soft pillow for a tired head? I was just thinking, Bob, these two verses are just jam-packed with, I said to myself when I first came in this morning, I said, I only gave Bob two verses, but the more I look at them, it's just so jam-packed with vital information that we need to know and count upon. It's amazing. Well, I think a lot of the interpretation does relate to good positional truth. Absolutely.

I mean, I think if you're not understanding that the sin nature has also been crucified, we're seen entirely. Remember, he hath made him who knew no sin to be made sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. If we don't understand that, this can often be misinterpreted and think we've got a lot of work to do. Right. And by the way, we do have work to do by living by faith and everything is revealed.

Wayne, go ahead. I'm just wondering if in the places it's positioned in the scripture, based on what you should have known all the way through, you ought to be able to understand that. Well, that's profound, and I think it's so true. And when we talk about the epistles of John to follow in this class, you've got to be well-founded in Paul to take on the epistles of John and rightly interpret them.

You just have to be, and if you're not, by the way, I'll just throw something out in preparation. If I have sinned, I have no relationship to God. Basically, I'm paraphrasing, but basically if I'm sinning, I'm not saved. I mean, so how would you understand that unless you understood positional truth? So anyway, I'm just jumping ahead. So let's finish up here today, but don't ignore, I'm challenging each one of us, don't ignore the privilege we as believers have that there's more to come.

And again, it makes me think of just one verse that stands out, Hebrews 4.16, let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. So in a sense, we've already been given the mercy, but we got to be at the throne, right? I mean, in other words, we just can't wish for mercy. We got to be rightly dividing the word of truth and approaching the Lord by the name, in the name of the Lord Jesus through the power of the spirit. So this is a great capacity we have as believers. And coming boldly is not sheepishly. It's coming not cockily, but confidently that God knows us in terms of our position eternally with him.

Roy, please, yeah, go ahead. Yeah, I think your explanation there really amplifies the first part of the verse. Because the focus is no longer on you, But on the work of God in us, it's His mercy that is the focus here. And that's where our focus should be on that. Good. So it's time to conclude. Any final comments or thoughts here today? What powerful scripture, huh? It really is.

I always like it when Roger assigns just two verses, because it makes you think that, well, this should be more succinct and to the point. Well, we've... Well, Bob, just wait until you get to 1 John. I know. We've got a lot of two-verse lessons. That's good, because I think the Epistle of John does need a lot of concentration on two verses, because often you can be misled.

But remember, Hal preached on Galatians 2.20 for two years here, I think, wasn't it? All right, good.

So, Wayne, could you close us in prayer, please? Father, thank you for this word this morning and for the truth that you have put in the scriptures for us. And so, Father, we just give you the praise and honor and just be with us this next session and that we would learn more from your word. Pray this in Jesus. Amen. Amen.