Well, you've got Galatians 2.16 up there on the wall. That's the end of the message. That's not the beginning. Let's see here. Did I set that? I don't know. We'll go over to Matthew Chapter 9. We're still talking about things that Jesus did mostly, not as much teaching in this, but there is some teaching. And I was struggling to get a title for this particular chapter, this lesson out of the midst of several chapters. And so, well, last week I said, this is what Jesus did. This week I call it, He Has Power and Authority. So at the end of chapter 8, we saw the people on the other side of the lake, the Sea of Galilee, after he had dealt with the demon-possessed, cast out the demons, the demons ran the swine, the pigs down into the lake and drowned them, those people didn't want him there. The people of the country of the Gergesenes, the city of Gadara, didn't want him, and so he left by boat to come back to his own city. Verse 1 says, he entered into a ship and passed over and came into his own city. Well, that's an interesting name for a city. Which is the city of Jesus? He was born in Bethlehem, down in Judah, but he was, after a brief sojourn in Egypt, of course, came back, and because the son of Herod was still in power, Joseph thought it best to take him up to Galilee and safer, and they grew up in Nazareth, which was a town of ill repute, really. But when Jesus began his ministry, of course, he went to the wedding in Cana, and he ministered there, but he came down and began to think of Capernaum, which is Peter's town on the northwest corner of the shore of the Sea of Galilee. Capernaum got to be called his own city. You can't prove it from right here, but that will just give you a hint. We're usually talking about Capernaum. He didn't own a house. You know, foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the son of man has not where to lay his head, he says. But to be called a member of a city and a city called his own, he had to live there for 12 months. So he may have spent a good deal of time in Capernaum before this event here, where he came back to his own city. And what did he do next? Verse 2, they brought him a man sick of the palsy, lying on a bed. And Jesus, seeing their faith, said unto the sick of the palsy, Son, be of good cheer. Thy sins be forgiven thee. Now, what kind of disease is palsy? I said in the notes maybe a paralysis or an epilepsy. He shakes, he's Parkinson's-like, or he has seizures or fits. And so something like that, there's a variety of causes that it might have been. And this is not the man that has faith. This is the people bringing the man to Jesus. They, an unnamed group, they brought him. Maybe they had to carry him because of his infirmity. They brought to him a man lying on a bed, and Jesus, seeing their faith, said to the sick of the palsy, Four guys carry a man, maybe? Jesus says to the one that's sick, thy sins be forgiven thee. Be of good cheer, which is nice. Thy sins be forgiven thee. Well, that's a bold thing to say. And the scribes, those fellows that could read and write and thought themselves better than others because they could read and write, read and write God's word, the law, certain of the scribes said within themselves, they were not mumbling together in a group, they're just inside thinking, blasphemy. This man blasphemeth. And Jesus, knowing what they'd mutter, no, it doesn't say what they'd mutter, knowing their thoughts, That would be a man that if you want to be around him, you better be careful what you're thinking. There's no hiding place from God. There's no secret from God. He said, wherefore think you evil in your hearts? Which is easier to say, thy sins be forgiven thee, or to say, arise and walk? Would you like to try either of those? No? Okay. That you may know. that the son of man has power on earth to forgive sins. Then saith he to the sick of the palsy, rise, take up thy bed, and go into thine house. There's some interesting points here. He saw their faith. He spoke to the afflicted man. The scribes thought inside that he spoke blatphemy. Jesus, knowing their thoughts, says, why are you surmising evil? Which is easier to say, thy sins be forgiven or arise and walk? But I want you to know that the Son of Man, that's me, has power on earth to forgive sins. I'll do both. Take up your bed and walk. And the man Didn't say a word, except, I don't know, he didn't say anything that's recorded. And he went into his house. He departed to his house. The multitude saw it. They marveled and glorified God who had given such power unto men. Don't you suppose the scribes got all happy also seeing this man was healed? No? Don't think so. There's a problem, we'll find again later, that it was the Sabbath when he did this, and they're not liking him doing stuff like that on the Sabbath day. Well, verse 9 goes to a different idea. He calls a disciple. Jesus passed forth from thence. He headed out of the city, saw a man named Matthew sitting at the receipt of custom. He's called Levi in some of the other Gospels. He's the one that wrote these words down. He's Matthew, the writer of the Gospel according to Matthew. But here he is sitting at the receipt of custom. What's he doing? He's a tax collector. He's a publican, not of good reputation because of his occupation. And he said, Jesus said to him, follow me. And he arose and followed him. In those days, they didn't have as many schools in a location where students came in to sit in classrooms with different teachers. Teachers would go and gather students to themselves, and Jesus was gathering disciples, as a rabbi would. And he called Matthew to be his disciple, to be his learner, by following him. He'd already had several other disciples joining him. John's Gospel records the first several. It came to pass, so we go on with Matthew now, Jesus sat at meat in the house. He's eating supper. Many publicans and sinners came and sat down with him and his disciples. What do you suppose? Matthew's house? Peter said, don't know, but Matthew's there, and Matthew invites the crowd of his associates, many publicans and sinners came and sat down with him and his disciples. Republicans were notorious wicked men because they collected more than they had to using the force of government and enriched themselves on the backs of common people. Not much different than Republicans or Democrats. That's just the same thing today in politics. By the way, our friend Burble Boudrum down there in Trinidad came and told us one day that the word politics comes from two Greek words, Polly means many, and a tick is a blood-sucking insect. And sinners, sinners is not, it's just the word for sinners, just exactly that. Sometimes you'll hear a preacher say, that means women of ill repute, or that means this, it just means sinners, and lots of them. Came and sat down with him and his disciples. The commentary that I read, one of the commentaries I read said when he sees the word sinners in the New Testament, he is confident that it's referring to people not of Israel, Gentiles, dirty Gentiles. And I think that's harder to fit in this context. Why would there be a crowd of Gentiles in Capernaum? But that's what he thought. We'll just leave that with you. You think about it yourself. When the Pharisees saw it, oh, that's not the scribes, that's the Pharisees, very righteous. They really were very righteous. You would like it if a Pharisee lived next door because everything would be done nicely by them, except for their critical attitude. When the Pharisees saw it, there's Jesus eating supper with them, and look at who else is, oh my. criticized for the company that came to him. Why eateth your master with publicans and sinners? And Jesus heard that, he said unto them, they that behold need not a physician, but they that are sick. Well, people don't need a doctor, right? How are you feeling? I'm feeling great. Well, don't you want to go to the doctor? No, I'm feeling great. Why would I want to? If it's not broken, don't fix it. But they that are sick need a physician. Physicians had a poor reputation in those unscientific days. Luke was a pretty good one, but many of them just took the money and didn't do any good. And then he goes on and says, but go ye, Pharisees, and learn what this meaneth. I will have mercy and not sacrifice. What's that? That is Hosea 6-6. The book of Hosea, page 924, if you like turning pages. O Judah, what shall I do unto thee? Your goodness is as the morning cloud, as the early dew goeth away. Judah, your very temporary goodness, therefore have I hewed them by the prophets. I have slain them by the words of my mouth, and thy judgments are as the light that goeth forth. I desired mercy and not sacrifice, and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings. Hosea 6, 6, Jesus goes back to it and says, what do you think of that? He said, I want you to know what this means. Go and learn what this means. I will have mercy and not sacrifice. And then he offers a sentence, if you will, an explanation. I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. The righteous would be the ones who think they're righteous, the self-righteous, don't you know, the Pharisees. Jesus said, eh, when you get ready to need me, I'll be here for you. But I'm not coming focusing on you. I'm coming to call sinners to repentance. And that would be all of us. That's what we all are. Think about the best person you know. Maybe it's your grandmother. your mother. That's a sinner. I'm a sinner. Dr. Cameron was such a happy man. I might have said this before, but he was such a happy man. He was a joy. Whenever you came into the room where he was, you got happy. Whenever he came into the room, everybody got happy. And two young students came to him one time and said, Dr. Sinner, you're so happy in the Lord. Before you got saved, you must have been a bad sinner. And he said, oh, I was an awful bad sinner. How bad a sinner were you, they said, because they wanted to hear a story. Oh, I was so bad. Tell us how bad you were. He says, I was about as deep in sin as you can get at eight years old. And they said, oh. Now, Jay, you were pretty deep in sin at eight years old, weren't you? You know what he, never mind. I'm not come to call the self-righteous, if you will, but sinners to repentance. On page 3 of my notes, it says, as we have said before, the word means a change of mind. In English today, if you look in the dictionary, the word repent or repentance, as a verb, it means turn from sin or be sorry for sin. As a noun, it means sorrow for sin. But it doesn't mean that in the Greek New Testament that this word is translated from. The word it's translated from means a change of mind, not sorrow for sin, not turning from sin, but especially a change of mind about one of these three things spelled out in the notes, and we'll go look at this. Some people needed to change their mind about who God is. When Paul spoke in Ephesus, he said, I taught you guys repentance. He says in verse 20, I kept back nothing that was profitable unto you, but have showed you and taught you publicly. And from house to house, he had a door-to-door ministry, didn't he? Testifying both to the Jews and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God. They needed to change their mind about what God was like, especially those dirty Gentiles who were worshiping sticks and stones and bones and sex and different things like too many of us do. They need to change their mind about that. They might need to change their mind about who Jesus in particular is. Jesus is God. But in Acts 2, in the first message after the Holy Spirit came to start the church, he's talking to a huge crowd along with the others in Jerusalem, 120 preachers and a crowd of a million people. And it says, when they heard this, what did they hear? They heard God has made that same Jesus whom you've crucified, both Lord and Christ. When they heard this, they were pricked in their heart. I think some of them believed right then, right there. And said to Peter and to the rest of the apostles, men and brethren, what shall we do? Now, Peter's got a problem because he's got people newly saved in front of him that want to know what they're supposed to do. And he's got the lost multitude in front of him still. And so he said unto them all, And the word repent here is plural. Repent, change ye your minds. Not just this little group, all of you, change your minds about who Jesus was. And then he said to the believers, be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ with regard to the remission of sins. You'll receive, you, again plural. By the way, the be baptized is singular as every one of you indicates there. Let every one of you be baptized that have believed. in the name of Jesus Christ, and it doesn't produce the remission of sins, it's just with regard to the remission of sins. That's why we do baptism, to show that he died for sins, he rose again, our sins are forgiven. And then he goes back to the plural, You all, change your mind. You all that go through, after you've believed your Baptist, you'll receive the gift of the Holy Ghost, because that was what was impressive about what was going on that day. He's preaching the message, but they had just received this gift of the Holy Spirit that was a new thing. He had been, as Jesus said, with them. Now he was in them. And Peter says, that promise isn't just for us, 120, that promise is for you and your children and to all that are far off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call. And then he's still talking to the big crowd with many other words he did testify and exhort, saying, save yourselves from this untoward generation, the mass of people. How many believed that day? 3,000. of it of a million or a million and a half. How many didn't believe? A lot. There's an untoward generation there, and so he's encouraging people, get this thing with your mind right. Change ye your minds. And the The third thing people need to change their mind about is how to be saved. Jesus just said it here in Matthew 9, 13, I am come to call sinners to repentance. Everybody that thought they could gain God's good favor by good works needs to change their mind about how to be saved. The scribes, needs forgiveness of sins instead of criticizing them for forgiving sins. The Pharisees need to get over their own righteousness and seek the righteousness of God. They need to change their minds about how to be right with God. Now, he told this to the Pharisees out loud at what setting? Where was he? What was he doing? Verse 10, they're eating dinner. They're having a meal together. There is a gang of people there, especially publicans and sinners. And Jesus says, I'm come to call sinners to repentance. Does anybody think, he said, I want all these happy feasting people who are here in my presence to be really sorry and turn from their sins? Does it make any sense that that could be the meaning of the word repentance here? It does not make any sense to me. This is a dinner party, a happy occasion where people who were rejected are being accepted. And he's not going to, oh good, you're here for dinner. Now get down and cry. Get humble and change, turn, no, it's not what he does. It's not what he does. Well, after dinner. Some of the people who were disciples of John the Baptist were in the vicinity. John the Baptist was also a rabbi that was teaching disciples, among other things. He'd been thrown in prison. And it came to him, the disciples of John, saying, why do we and the Pharisees fast often, but your disciples don't fast? You're having dinner parties when John is in prison. Well, Jesus said to them, folks, Can the children of the bride chamber mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them? When we got a wedding party going on, they're not gonna get all sad. The days will come when the bridegroom shall be taken from them and then shall they fast. In the notes, Jesus said, I'm here, it's a good day to be happy. The time is coming when I'll be taken from them in a forcible manner, even put to death. The bridegroom shall be taken from them. That's a strong word, taken. And it did come to pass that he was taken from them. And then they shall fast the way you do. You're doing it now because John's in prison and he's soon to die. Your bridegroom is gone, but I'm here and these folks that follow me are not gonna get unhappy now. And then he tells them a parable. In Luke's account of the same event, he calls these next two things parables, so I put it in there as parables. I changed the bookmark. Luke 5.36. Let me see. No, I didn't change the bookmark. Okay. Let me back up and just show you. Luke 5.36. Same event here, which is easier, say, your sins are forgiven or rise up and walk. Same event. And he called Levi, which is Matthew. And they have a big supper at Matthew's house, it says in Luke. Levi made a great feast in his own house. And they criticize him for eating and drinking with publicans and sinners. And he says, same thing, I'm not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance. And then the disciples of John come. And he says the same thing. And then it says in verse 36, he spake a parable unto them. Just wanted you to see that it does say that. So here we are, this is a parable. No man puts a piece of new cloth onto an old garment, for that which is put in to fill it up taketh away from the garment and the rent is made worse. I have a bad habit of wearing clothing long beyond its use date. And sometimes when it gets holy, I have holy garments, try to stick one of those iron-on patches on or something, and it'll just fray the thing right out. It won't work at all. I say, can you sew this? And she says, sew what? No, it would just fray out. You can't put a new piece on an old thing that's that far gone. And verse 17, neither do men put new wine into old bottles. I have to suggest that we read the word wineskins here. They didn't use as many glass bottles as they did. animal skins to hold the fruit of the vine, the grape juice, the wine. If you put new wine into old bottles, the bottles will break and the wine run out and the bottles perish. They put new wine into new bottles and then both are preserved. Loaded up old wineskins would just break and the wine and the wineskins would both be ruined and broken. New wine is put into new wineskins and I put what I think this means in the nose. He is new. He brings new truth. It will not go into the old, worn-out, self-righteous system of the Scribes and the Pharisees. What was wrong with their system? They didn't just go by God's law. They had added so much human tradition to the Word of God and treated their traditions with the same respect that was due only to the Word of God, and you're not going to be squeezed into their traditions. Well, we come on down to the next event in the narrative, and here it is a narrative, verse 18. While he spake these things unto them, behold, there came a certain ruler and worshipped him. That's really good. A ruler that worships him and says, my daughter is even now dead, but come and lay thy hand upon her and she shall live. Now, if you hear that, you might think, well, there's somebody that's dead, she's gonna have to be raised from the dead. So far, it's just her father that has said she's dead. Jesus got up and followed him and so did his disciples. And we're gonna skip down to the narrative here. When he came to the ruler's house and he saw minstrels and the people making a noise, what are these? Hired mourners. They hired people to come and lament when somebody was dying. to make sure everybody knew how important the dying person was. This is a ruler, so his daughter's important. And there's hired musicians and people making a noise of lament. And he said to them, give place, for the maid is not dead, but sleepeth. Now, here's the second opinion on whether she's dead or not. Her dad thought she was dead. Jesus said, she's not dead. What's your opinion? I think I'll go with Jesus. She's not dead. And these mourners, these people that were there to show their respects to the family, responded to his, she is not dead. They laughed him to scorn. Very disrespectful. It shows the insincerity of their mourning. They instantly derided and ridiculed Jesus. But they went out, as he told them to do, give place, they went out. He went in, took her by the hand, and she got up. The father was wrong. The mourners were wrong. But the fame here, I've went abroad into all that land. This was notorious. This was a big deal. She was really close to death. And she was up and about again. Now, the part we skipped over here, I skipped over it because it was an interruption. And it was an interruption for Jesus as well. On page five of the notes, it says, the woman with the issue of blood. The woman with the issue of blood. Behold, a woman which was diseased with an issue of blood twelve years. Not to be too gross, but that's a long time for that to be going on. Came behind him and touched the hem of his garment, for she said within himself, if I may but touch his garment, I shall be whole. Now this kind of a person, we look at Leviticus, if I can see this, yeah, Leviticus chapter 15, it's page 147. In the law, in God's word, if a woman have an issue of her blood many days out of the time of her separation, or if it run beyond the time of her separation, all the days of the issue of her uncleanness shall be as the days of her separation. She's unclean. This woman cannot participate in worship. This woman, if you touch her, you're unclean, ceremonially unclean. To touch or be touched by an unclean person made the person touched also unclean. But as I say in the notes, but not Jesus. He could not be made unclean until he went to the cross. She said, if I could just touch his garment, I'll be made whole. Now, we'll look at the passage in Hebrews for a second that talks about this. This is about who Jesus is. The high priest that we have, this man, Jesus, because he continueth ever, has an unchangeable priesthood in contrast to the priests of Levi and Aaron who died and had to be replaced. He doesn't die. He is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him, seeing He ever liveth to make intercession for them. Do you realize it's because Jesus lives forever? He doesn't just get back to life again, but He's living now, and that's what secures our salvation forever. When you mess up, He's already paid for the sin, and He's already there to say, Father, He's with me. Such an high priest became us. Who is, here's Jesus, holy, harmless, and look at that next word, undefiled. Undefiled. It was a Jewish tradition, a Jewish custom, that when a woman gave birth, she had to remain separate for a few days before, and then go and offer for her cleansing, as Mary did after Jesus was born. But you know, she didn't, in reality, need to do that, because when he touched her at his birth, she became clean. He was not a source of pollution. He was undefiled. And everybody else that touched him. If a leper came and touched you, you became unclean. But if Jesus touched a leper, they got clean. Jesus is undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens. Well, she touched the hem of his garment. She did. That's all she wanted to do. She touched the hem of his garment. Matthew says that. She said to herself, if I could just touch his garment, I'll be made whole. And Jesus turned about and saw her. Now, I want to read the same passage just for a minute in Mark's gospel. In Mark chapter 5, a certain woman, starting in verse 25, who had an issue of blood 12 years, suffered many things of many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was nothing bettered, but rather grew worse. a medical group you want to belong to, isn't it? When she had heard of Jesus, came in the press behind and touched his garment, for she said, if I may touch but his clothes, I shall be made whole. And straightway, she didn't even wait for Jesus to talk to her, straightway when she touched, the fountain of her blood was dried up and she felt in her body that she was healed of that plague. Jesus immediately, knowing in Himself that virtue had gone out of Him, turned Him about in the press and said, who touched my clothes? Now, when God asks a question, it's not because He doesn't know the answer. When Jesus asks this question, He's offering an opportunity for her to become responsible and identify herself to the rest of the world. His disciples said, that's a stupid question. His disciples didn't get that. His disciples said, you see, there's a multitude thronging thee, and thou sayest, who touched me? And he looked round about to see her that had done this thing. The woman, fearing and trembling, knowing what was done in her, came and fell down before him and told him all the truth. She did the right thing, better than Adam and Eve in the garden. She took responsibility and he said unto her, Daughter, thy faith hath made thee whole. Go in peace and be whole of thy plague. What kindness, what grace. That's an unclean woman just touched you. That's awful. No, it's wonderful. There's never a rebuke when needy people come to him. That's true today. We look at people and we shrink back from people that are not nice, let me just say it that way. We don't want to be involved, we don't want to touch them, but Jesus never, never rebuked somebody that came to Him, always received them, always loved them. Back in Matthew's gospel, eventually, Come on, click. I'm stuck. Can you stop doing that, please? Thank you. There. The woman, verse 22, was made whole from that hour, and that's the end in Matthew's account about that. We go on past the healing of the woman, the daughter that was thought to be dead. We get on to verse 27. Jesus departed thence. He headed on out. Two blind men followed him, crying and saying, Son of David, have mercy on us. What kind of a name is that? His father's name was Joseph. Now, son of David is referring to King David, of course. And son of David was the expected Messiah, the king. They give him the title of the promised one, son of David. Son of David. Oops. I thought I put this in here and I don't find it. Let's see. Maybe here. Nope. Okay, so I got the wrong reference here. Isaiah 35 verse 5 says this about the Messiah when He comes. In verse 4 it says, say to them that are of a fearful heart, be strong, fear not, behold, your God will come with vengeance. Even a God with recompense, he will come and save you. Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. Then shall the lame man leap as an heart and the tongue of the dumb sing. In the wilderness shall waters break out, and streams in the desert, and the parched ground shall become a pool, and the thirsty land springs of water. The Messiah's coming the second time is the more full fulfillment of this, but this is what Jesus referred to when the disciples of John the Baptist said, are you he that should come, or look we for another? He said, look what's happening, and you tell him just don't be offended in me. Just don't be offended in me. Get back where I was here. Oh, I'm in Mark, that's the mistake. Let's just go back to Matthew. When he was come to the house, I don't think he wanted to make a big show about healing blind men. Blind men are known to be blind men, and so they went into the house. The blind men came to him, and Jesus said, saith unto them, You believe that I am able to do this? They said, Yea, Lord. And he touched their eyes, saying, According to your faith, be it unto you. And their eyes were opened. And Jesus straightly charged them, saying, See that no man know it. But they, when they were departed, spread abroad his fame. in all that country. It was a serious command. He straightly charged them, see that no man know it. I saw a cute skit one time. It was as though it was a bus. There were a couple chairs in a row, and two guys boarded the bus and sat down next to each other, and they started talking with each other, and one of them said, you'll never believe what happened to me. I was blind, and Jesus came and touched my eyes, and now I can see. And the other guy said, I was blind, And Jesus came and he spit on the ground and made mud and then he put mud in my eyes and told me to go wash and then I could see. You did it wrong. And it went on a little longer than that, but that was the gist of it. I thought that was fun. All right. So they talked, which made it harder for him to move around. And then they went out. They brought him a dumb man possessed with the devil. And that's not a man that's mentally deficient. That's a man that can't speak. The devil was cast out, the dumb spake, and the multitude marveled, saying it was never so seen in Israel. All this that was predicted in Isaiah, Jesus is doing. But there's Pharisees there that said, He casts out devils through the prince of the devils, the prince of the demons. Devils as demons, of course. close up here with this. Jesus went about all the cities and villages teaching in their synagogues and preaching the gospel of the kingdom and healing every sickness and every disease among the people. When he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion on them because they fainted and were scattered abroad as sheep having no shepherd. Why was he compassionate? Because these sheep had no shepherd. And he said to the disciples, the harvest truly is plenteous, but the laborers are few. Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest that he will send forth laborers into his harvest. He taught in their synagogues. He preached the gospel of the kingdom. He healed every sickness and every disease. He was moved with compassion because they were, I'd just say, lost. They fainted, were scattered abroad, sheep having no shepherd. They were lost. Perhaps somebody listening today is still lost, doesn't know where they came from. They've heard the lie of evolution. Doesn't know where they are exactly. They think every man is on his own, and yay us, and I've got to make it on my own. And they don't know where they're going. So we open a conversation. Do you know when you die where you'll go? The Jewish people of Jesus' day were just as lost as the Gentiles of the world all around. And he said they don't know how to get to where they're going. And I want to skip to a verse in Galatians that Paul wrote to a Gentile audience, but he wrote it about a conversation he had with Peter. He said, we, Peter, we are Jews by nature. We're not old nasty sinners of the Gentiles. Peter, you know this, knowing that a man is not justified, declared righteous by God, by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ. Even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, not by the works of the law. For by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified. If you're still lost, not knowing where you're going when you die, you can't get right with God, you can't get to heaven. by anything you do. You can't be justified by the works of the law. By the works of the law shall no flesh be justified. But Paul said to Peter, you know we couldn't do it. These Gentiles can't do it. We have believed in Jesus Christ. And doing that, we're justified by the faith of Christ, not by the works of the law. When a person believes in Jesus, God has already placed their sins on Jesus, but He puts Jesus' own righteousness to the account of every believer the moment that they believe. It's written down on the checkbook of God in heaven, declared righteous by God. Even we have believed in Jesus Christ that we might be declared righteous by our faith in Christ. Isn't that good? Well, let's pray. Father in heaven, thank you for your Word. It is the answer. For those that are unloved, that Jesus loves them. To those who are lost, that He's the way by believing in Him, you can be justified. And all who believe are justified that believe in Jesus, not by the works of the law. Father, thank You for this lesson and this study. We pray for the pastor and the service to follow, and the musicians and others that will be helping us. Let everything be done to Your honor and glory, and send us out of here fired up to open our mouths and speak, as Paul said, boldly as we ought to speak. In Jesus' name, amen.