We're gonna spend just a little bit of time in chapter nine, and then we're gonna get into 10, but we've kind of paired the two of them together. Did anybody not get a lesson that is in need of one tonight? Did everybody get a copy of tonight's lesson? As you're turning there, I'm going to do something just a little bit different. We're going to read a lengthy portion of Scripture, and we're going to read it at the offset, and then we'll actually get into the lesson. So I'm going to ask if Brother Charles will come, and he's going to read, and then he's going to lead us in prayer, and then we'll get into the lesson tonight. Romans chapter 9, verse 27. Isaiah is also Christ concerning Israel. though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, a remnant, shall we say, where he will finish the work and cut it short in righteousness? Because a short work will the Lord make on the earth. And as Isaiah said before, except the Lord of Sabaoth hath left us a sea, we have been as Saddam and been made like unto Gomorrah. What shall we say, then, that the Gentiles, which follow not after righteousness, have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness which is of But Israel, which followed after the law of righteousness, hath not attained the law of righteousness. Wherefore, because they sought it not by faith, but as it were by the works of the law. For they stumbled at that stumbling stone. As it is written, behold, I lay inside a stumbling stone and a rock of offense. And whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed. Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they might be saved. For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. For they, being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law, for righteousness to every one that believeth. For Moses described the righteousness which is of the law, that the man which doeth these things shall live by them. But the righteousness which is of faith speaketh on this wise, Say not in thy heart, who shall ascend into heaven? That is, to bring Christ down from above. Or, who shall descend into the deep? That is, to bring up Christ again from the dead. But what sayeth it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth and in thy heart. That is, in the word of faith, which we preach. That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the Scriptures say, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed. For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him. For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach except they be sent? As it is written, how beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace and bring glad tidings of good things. But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah said, Lord, who hath believed our report? So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. But I say, have they not heard? Yes, verily their sound went into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the world. Father, we thank you so much. Once again, God, not to be repetitious, but just to thank you for the opportunity, Lord, the privilege that we have to be in your house tonight, Lord, to read the holy writ of God. And Lord, the word that has stood the test of time throughout the generations and still stands and settled in heaven. It will never fade away. It'll never pass away. Lord, as we watch things maybe grow darker around us, the light of Christ can shine brighter if we'll allow it to shine in us. And I pray that would be our heart's desire. Lord, would you now open the lips of the preacher, the teacher, Father, and use Ryan tonight, Father, to open and to expound upon your word. And Lord, open up our hearts to receive it. God, as your word says, not to be hearers only, but that we might be doers of the word and the will of God. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen. Thank you, Ben Charles. And we're gonna begin tonight looking at the latter part of chapter nine, which goes into in terms of the same theme with chapter 10. And you'll notice that he stopped reading at verse 18 of chapter 10, and that's what we're gonna go down through tonight. And then we're gonna look at the rest of chapter 10 when we get into chapter 11 next week, because they're very closely tied together. And so a couple of things that I wanna say about up there in the review. We've spent several weeks now in Romans chapter 9 talking about the election of the gospel, and that is your first blank up there under the review section is the word election. We saw that referenced in chapters 8 and chapter 9, and I hope that we have together looked at the proper interpretation of that word and what does it actually mean scripturally. We know that election refers not to the picking and the choosing that God does of certain individuals to be saved and not to be saved, but election refers to the manner, that's your second blank, the manner in which salvation occurs. And I've listed that for you, the act of believing by faith in the finished work and person of Jesus Christ. So just to repeat very quickly, God does not elect you to be saved or me to be lost. God elects faith as the means whereby all who are saved are saved. And he has elected, as I referenced this morning, unbelief to be the thing that will condemn those who refuse to believe. There is a natural course of faith and there is a natural course of unbelief. Faith begins you on a journey that will deposit you in the courts and in the presence of God. Unbelief takes you on a journey that will deposit you in eternal destruction. And those two things God has elected to be what they are. That is what election, scripturally speaking, is. Everyone who is truly saved, that's your next blank, and remains saved, has exercised faith in Christ. And on the consequent side of that, everyone who is lost, that's your next blank, and remains lost, remains so due to their rejection and their unbelief in, or their refusal to believe in Christ. Now as with everything else that contains some degree of power and is capable of causation, The gospel, now I worded this kind of odd, the gospel has caused, it causes, and it will cause certain effects to be seen. So your next blank is the word effects, and the word effect is the title of tonight's lesson, the effect of the gospel. So we've been looking at the election of the gospel, now we're gonna turn our attention to the effect of the gospel. Remember, everybody knows that we naturally, there's a natural progression God built into the universe of cause and effect. If A occurs, B is likely to follow. If I walk up to the edge of a cliff and I look over it and I step off, that's the cause. The natural effect is gravity and I'm gonna plummet until I hit something that's gonna keep me from moving any further. That is the natural effect. There's cause and effect built into everything. you must have a cause in order to produce an effect. And so tonight we're going to look at, we're going to begin to look at five principal effects of the gospel. Now we're only going to get to three of them tonight, and then the other two we'll look at next week when we begin chapter 11. But throughout the duration of chapter 10, Paul is going to show us five different effects, and these effects are caused in four primary ways. So the last cause actually produces two different effects, but I wanted to wait and say that because there's a lot inside of that last one. Now a lot of this tonight is fairly straightforward. Chapter 10 is a fairly I don't want to use the word simple. It's a fairly straightforward passage of Scripture. We're all very familiar with chapter 10. Chapter 10 is quoted quite often, especially verses 8, 9, 10, and 13. How often have you heard people say, for whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved? That is a tenet of our doctrine and one that we're all very, very familiar with. And so Paul is almost very simplistic in chapter 10, coming out of the deep and the heavy theology of chapters 8 and 9. But there's a couple of things that I want to show you tonight. Then these are the causes, and then we will look at the effects that these causes have produced. So number one, I want you to see the ignorance of Israel. That's the cause. Number one, the ignorance of Israel. And we'll see that beginning in verse 27 of chapter 9. Now God had promised Abraham that his descendants would be numbered as the sand of the sea. And we talked about this a little bit last week. As the sand of the seashore in multitude. And we referenced it Wednesday night in our lesson as well. Now that particular promise of God to Abraham in Genesis chapter 12, chapter 15, and chapter 17 were all literally fulfilled in the time of Solomon. That's your next blank. In the time of Solomon's reign. And a reference you can write down is 1 Kings chapter 4. And verse 20, listen to what it says, And so what that promise refers to is not that there was literally going to be however many grains of sand are on the seashore that many Israelites. It just means there's an uncountable number. They were spread abroad. They were multiplied. God had blessed them. They were fruitful. They had multiplied and filled the land and this came to pass under Solomon's reign. The most prosperous king the world has ever seen. They reached the epitome of their heights of peace under Solomon and they were able to accomplish this. Eating, drinking, being merry. In other words, they enjoyed a time of leisure when they were as the sand by the seashore in multitude. But after the kingdom was divided under Solomon's son Rehoboam, the number of true believing, that's your next blank, believing Israelites began to dwindle. And that number continued to dwindle until the time of the prophet Isaiah, who Paul quotes here in verses 27, 28, and 29. Isaiah prophesied in the latter end of Judah's history under Jotham, Ahaz, Hezekiah, and Manasseh. His prophecy or his tenure as a preacher lasted for some 50 some odd years. He was a very long-running preacher and it is commonly believed that Isaiah was put to death at the hands of the wicked king Manasseh sometime during his reign. But it was during the reign of these kings that Isaiah gives the prophecy that Paul quotes from in verses 27 through 29. Now I want you to specifically look at 29. And Isaiah said before, except the Lord of Sabaoth, that's the Lord of hosts, had left us a seed, We had been as Sodom and we had been as Gomorrah. Now the word seed there means remnant. There was a remnant that kept them from being like Sodom and like Gomorrah. These prophecies illustrate the faithfulness of God to preserve a remnant through His sanctifying power. Now while the majority of Israel went their own way and they did their own thing and they despised God, much as Esau did when we looked at him a few weeks ago, God continued to perform His sanctifying and His conforming work in the lives of the remnant who chose and who did believe in God and in His work. This preserved a remnant so that according to what we read in verse 29, Israel was not utterly destroyed as was Sodom and as was Gomorrah. If there had been no remnant, if there had been no belief, if there had been no faith whatsoever in Israel, then the entire nation of Israel would have been wiped out of existence. But God preserved a remnant, and he preserved it through those who continued to believe in him. And we'll read this particular verse in chapter 11 next week, but in chapter 11, there's a reference to the prophet Elijah, who pleaded with God against the nation of Israel. Remember when he said, Lord, I'm the only one. I'm the only one here who believes. And what was God's message to him? Elijah, I've left 7,000 men in the nation of Israel who have not bowed the knee to Baal. That's the remnant. That's the believing remnant. And please take heart. God will always have a believing remnant. There will always be a church. There will always be people of faith. God will never leave himself while the natural world goes without a witness upon the earth through faith. So then Paul asks a question in verse 30 that sums up this idea of election, and that's your next blank. What shall we say then? So in other words, what are we gonna say about everything that we have talked about thus far in chapter nine, this whole concept of God's election? What are we gonna say to it? And his answer involves two pieces. The first one is the faith of the Gentiles. Your next blank there is the word faith. And the righteousness that was permitted to the Gentiles based on that faith. According to verse 30, he asks the question, what shall we say then? And here's the answer he begins to get. That the Gentiles, which followed not after righteousness, have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness which is of faith." That's the first thing he's saying, of which every single one of us in here ought to be eternally and immeasurably thankful and grateful that he allowed such a thing. Could you say amen? And so that's the reason why we're all saved tonight according to verse 30. But then number two, the unbelief of Israel. And this unbelief, according to verse 32, was due to an ignorance of the purpose of the law of God. Verse 31 says, but Israel, which followed after the law of righteousness, didn't attain to it. And he says, he asks why in verse 32, because they sought it not by what? Faith. but they sought it by works instead. So instead of seeing, your next blank, the righteousness of God in the law, according to verse 31, they saw instead the law as an opportunity to make their own selves righteous according to their works. And that's your next blank, the word righteousness and the word works. And I've said this before and I'll reference it again, working, the desire, the drive to work for your own salvation is as old as time itself. It is as old as time itself. Because we would rather half kill ourselves working instead of just surrendering, which is what salvation truly is. And so when Christ, who is identified here in verse 32 as a stumbling stone, that's your next blank. He is called a stumbling stone in verse 32. When Christ arrives to fulfill the law, then those Israelites who professed righteousness based on their works, were offended. And I give you some references there that you can go and read on your own time. Remember how often the Pharisees were offended at what Jesus did, or offended at what Jesus had said. They stumbled at what their ignorant blindness would not let them or allow them to comprehend. Now look back at verse 32. It says, Why? Why did they stumble? Because they sought it not by faith, but as it were by the works of the law. For they stumbled at that stumbling stone. What Israel, what the Jews could not wrap their mind around is that one came who was going to fulfill the law. And when he fulfilled the law, look down at verse 4, he became the end of the law. Put yourself, try to put yourself in Israel's shoes. They had had this law for nearly 2,000 years. Okay, 2,000 years, would you agree with me, is a long time. It's a long time to become entrenched in a way of life. That is a long time to do the same things over and over and over and over again. And all of a sudden, you have a man saying that I am come to fulfill the law. And what that means is not only did he come to fulfill it, he came to put an end to it. Now, if someone showed up tomorrow on the news, on the national news, and said, I've come to put an end to the United States of America, what would your reaction be? What would your natural inclination to that be? Would you reject it? Would you be prone to reject that? Yes. So do you see, and that's exactly what was going on here when Christ came, when he showed up claiming that he was going to fulfill and put an end to the law. The Jews balked at that. And they said, no one's putting an end to this thing that we've been doing for 2,000 years. And this guy thinks that he's going to fulfill it and end it. And so that's why he's called a stumbling stone. And at that declaration, they stumbled spiritually over him and they fell, as we'll look at in chapter 11, and they've yet to recover from that fall. And so the great error of their ignorance led to the first effect that we're looking at tonight of the gospel. So the cause is the ignorance of Israel. The second, or the effect of that cause, your next blank, is the stumbling of Israel according to verse 32. The stumbling of Israel. Now, this stumbling was used and ordained by God to be the basis or the foundation by which the gospel would go out into all of the Gentile world, according to verse 30. And the Gentile world would, in much larger numbers than Israel ever had, believe in this gospel. And you can write this reference down. Romans 11, 11 talks about this. Paul says, I say then, have they, speaking of Israel, stumbled that they should fall? God forbid. But rather through their fall, salvation is come unto the Gentiles again, which we should be immeasurably glad and thankful for. Now Israel's ignorance was not due, according to chapter 10 in verse 2, to a lack of motivation. You have to hand something to the Jews. They were incredibly zealous for the works of the law. They were incredibly zealous to get in there and do what they thought was necessary. Sometimes the modern church can't even get themselves to church. It's hard just to get to church sometimes. And sometimes we think by getting to church, it's like we've done God some kind of favor because we've drug ourselves up and got ourselves ready and made it to the house of God. They were way more zealous about the works of the law than a lot of Christians are about just getting to the house of God. But it was not due to a lack of motivation. Paul said in verse 2, I bear them record and this is truthful, he says. They have a zeal of God. They are zealous for God. But their zeal was not according to knowledge. And so their ignorance was not due to their lack of motivation, but to a lack of the knowledge of the character, that's your next blank, the character of God. Would you agree with me tonight? It is important to know God. It is important to know who God is, because without the knowledge of God, without an understanding of God, we cannot appreciate God. And if we don't have the correct biblical understanding of the nature of God, then we are in great danger, as we've looked at in our series on Sunday mornings, of bringing Him down to our level and making Him like a slightly better version of us. which is blasphemy of the highest order, and it's idolatry as well. And so having an understanding of the character of God is incredibly important in our lives. Now there are two things that Paul reveals to us that they were ignorant of relating to the character of God. The first one is God's righteousness. Your next blank is the word righteousness there on number one. He says this in verse 3, for they being ignorant of God's righteousness and going about to establish their own righteousness. They were ignorant that God's righteousness was not revealed in extemporaneous or outside works, but it was revealed simply by faith. Your reference you can write down is Romans 1.17 which says, For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith. For as it is written, the just shall live by faith. Now let me clarify something. This does not mean that the Jews didn't have any idea that God was righteous. That's not what Paul is saying here. It's not like that they had no concept of righteousness and they didn't have any concept of the righteousness of God. What he means here when he says that they're ignorant of God's righteousness is that they're ignorant of the way in which God chose to give His righteousness to men. That's what they're ignorant of. They thought it was going to come through them fulfilling, them working according to their own power and strength, the deeds of the law. but the law was given so that they may see the righteous character of God, not so that they could attain to the righteous character of God, because no man can do that. But they knew God was righteous. It would be hard to have a Sinai experience the way this entire nation did and not know something of the righteousness of God. But they messed up by thinking that they themselves of their own strength could get to the righteousness of God. So they were ignorant of how it comes about in their own lives. Which leads to number two. Not only were they ignorant of God's righteousness, they were ignorant of their need of submission to this righteousness. The word submission. They never realized that the law was not given to them for them to save themselves. They could not save themselves, but instead the law was given to show them that they were completely dependent upon God. but instead they perceived that the law and the works therein were actual or was the actual process of salvation itself. And they were so zealous in this that we know from the Gospels that they had added multitudes upon multitudes of extra burdens and extra commandments beside the ones God had given them in the law because they were that They were that concerned with being righteous according to their own works. They perceived the works and the duties of the law as salvation itself. Here's a reference you can write down, Luke chapter 5 verses 31 and 32. Jesus answering said unto them, They that are whole need not a physician, but they that are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. Now what he means by that is that he didn't come to call those who believed that they had earned their salvation through their own merit, which is exactly what the Jews thought that they had done. The more I follow the law, the more I keep the tenets of the law, the more I do this, the more I do that, The more saved I am, and how did I get there? I got myself there. Jesus said, I didn't come to call those people to repentance. I came to call the ones who knew their great need of Christ, who knew they were sinners. He illustrated this in the parable of the Pharisee and the Publican, who both went down to the temple to pray. And the Pharisee, remember, he lifted his eyes to heaven and he said, Oh God, I thank you that I'm not like this man over here. I'm not like this Publican is. I give tithes of everything I possess. Do you see the self-righteousness in the attitude of the Pharisee? And the sad thing is, is that he genuinely believed he was righteous. But you have the publican who the Bible says would not even lift his eyes up to heaven, but smote himself on his breast and he said, God be merciful to me, a what? Sinner. Salvation begins with the realization of our need of Christ because of what we are by nature. We are all sinners. And so the ignorance of Israel led to the first effect of the gospel, they're stumbling. Number two, I want you to see the implementation of faith. I-M-P-L-E-M-E-N-T-A-T-I-O-N. The implementation of faith. The implementation of faith. Now in these next verses, Paul shows a contrast between the righteousness that is gained by the law, which is works-based, because the law does give a righteousness, and the righteousness that the law gives is based on works. So we have the righteousness of the law, which is works-based, and we have the righteousness of faith. Now righteousness gained by works, if you could gain righteousness by works, it would be empty of faith. That's your next blank, the word faith. Galatians chapter 3 and verse 12 plainly tells us the law is not of faith. Paul says that in the book of Galatians, the law is not of faith. and righteousness that is gained by faith is empty of works. Now that does not mean that the righteousness which is of faith does not have works associated with it because we all know that the book of James teaches us that true saving faith naturally produces works. That is what it is and that's why when you read In the epistle of James chapter 2 when he talks about, do you have faith? I'll show you my faith by my works, he says. It's impossible for me to show you that I have true saving faith if you can't see my works. It's impossible for you to show me you have real saving faith if I can't see your works because anybody will tell you they have faith. But whether that faith is grounded and genuine and actually anchored in Jesus Christ can only be seen by us through the works and the duties and the deeds that we perform. And so James is not teaching salvation by works, he's teaching salvation by a faith that works. It is a real faith. And so righteousness gained by works is empty of faith because you don't need faith if you've got works. And righteousness gained by faith is not dependent upon works. Works doesn't need faith and faith does not require works. And let me make a distinction here. Faith is not a work. Faith is not a work. Belief is not a work. It is a gift of God. Ephesians chapter two and verse eight, for by grace are you saved through what? Faith, and that, that faith is not of yourselves, it is a what? Gift of God. It is not of works, lest any man should boast. Faith is a gift. Works are things produced because of the presence of genuine faith in our lives that has changed us. So faith is not a work. Now in these next verses, Paul describes these two types of righteousnesses. Number one, the righteousness of the law, and then number two, the righteousness of faith. So let's look at these. The righteousness of the law is the righteousness that is attainable through works. And I know that sounds kind of odd for a moment, but just follow along with me. Let's look at the purpose of the law. Now according to Galatians chapter 3, your next blank there is the word purpose. According to Galatians chapter 3 verses 24 and 25, Paul calls the law or tells us that the law is a schoolmaster. It is a teacher. And its purpose is to bring us to Christ. Its purpose is to show us our sin. Its purpose is to reveal to us that we are sinners so that we may come to the only one who can do anything about our sin problem, and that's the Lord Jesus. And the purpose of the law shows that no man can keep or fulfill it. And so it finds its natural end, according to Romans chapter 10 and verse 4, in the person of Christ who did come and fulfill it. Now I want you to notice something about verse four. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that, what? Believe it. That means that if you are not in Christ by faith, the law is still very much in effect for you. Because it is only ended for those who are in Jesus Christ by faith. You see, you will have people tell you that we're no longer under the law. We're not under the old covenant anymore. Christ came and fulfilled that law. That is true. But it's only fulfilled for you if you were in Jesus Christ by faith. If you're not in Christ, that law still condemns you. That law still holds you accountable to God for your sin. And if you die outside of faith in Jesus Christ, that law is what judges you and eternally destroys you forever. Because that law is the righteous character of God. It is the holy nature of God. And it reveals God's perfection and it reveals God's righteousness when looked at us. Now, if I'm in Jesus Christ and I am truly saved and I'm truly regenerate in Him, then the law has been fulfilled on my behalf, and the righteousness that is of the law, that Christ attained for me, is now mine by imputation, according to the plan of God. But if I am outside of faith, and I have no faith, or my faith is not saving faith, then the law, I'm still very much under its condemnation, and I'm still very much under its penalty. Now the righteousness of the law, you have two blanks here. The righteousness of the law is absolute, that's your first word, absolute moral perfection. Absolute moral perfection. And complete conformity, your next word is complete, complete conformity to its demands and its standards. Look with me at verse five. Moses, Paul said, describes the righteousness which is of the law. And look what he says, that the man which doeth those things shall live by them. Now, what is Moses telling us in this particular quotation? You can get to heaven on your own. Did that get your attention? You can get to heaven on your own. You can get the righteousness which is of the law by your works, but you gotta follow two conditions. You have to be absolutely morally perfect from the time you were conceived in the womb without the slightest deviation in your moral fortitude whatsoever. Now, does anybody in here meet that criteria? Second criteria is you must be in complete conformity to the holy nature of God. So not only do you have to be absolutely morally perfect, but you also have to be in absolute complete conformity to the will and the nature of God. Now, does anybody meet that criteria? If you meet one but not the other, you're still doomed. If you can't do either one of them, you're most certainly doomed. That is one of the things that I want you to understand about the perfection of Jesus Christ. And as I mentioned this morning, there's a reason He was both God and man. He was man so that by His living as a man, He could be a merciful and a faithful high priest and that any temptation that Satan brought against him, as we read in Matthew chapter 4 and in Luke chapter 3, I believe it is, none of that impacted him because he was also God. And by being God, he was what we call impeccable. He had an impeccable nature, meaning that sin could not affect him. He did not achieve righteousness by fulfilling the law for us because Satan tempted him and he had to turn around and run away because he just so badly wanted the things that Satan offered him and it was everything within his power just not to give in and do it. No, he didn't give in and do it because he was and is God. He was always God. He never ceased being God and God cannot sin. But because He was perfectly man and perfectly God at the same time, that obedience to the law of righteousness in everything that Jesus Christ did, is now perfectly imputed onto our account by faith. You remember, and I can't remember where Paul quotes it out, I want to say it's in one of the Thessalonian writings, but you remember when he says that in everything you do, do it heartily as unto the Lord and not unto men? And even if you're eating or you're drinking, do all for the glory of God. Now how many of us, by show of hands, have ever, every meal we have ever eaten, every snack we've ever put in our mouth, every drink of anything we've ever taken in our life, we did it for the glory of God? Raise your hand. I dare say that probably all of us in this room, myself included, wouldn't even know how to do that. We wouldn't even know how to start to do that. But Jesus did it. When he was here, he did it. As a man and as God, he perfectly was conformed to the nature of God. And so all of the times that we eat and we drink and all of the times we get up in the morning and go to work and all the times we come to the house of God and we're full of grumblings and we're full of complaining because we're tired or we're hurting or we don't feel good and we don't like our job and we don't want to go here and we don't want to do this and this isn't what I like to eat. I would rather this not have vegetables in it, Brianna, and I would rather this not be like this and not be like this. Whenever we're in the middle of all of those things, and we're not being very glorious to God? The fact that Christ was, in every single thing He did, in every step that He ever took, every place He went, perfectly conforming to the will of God, means that when God looks at us, what He sees is that perfect obedience of His Son, not our really bad, imperfect obedience to His standard and His character. That ought to make you say, praise the Lord, right there. So absolute moral perfection, which only Christ had. Complete conformity, which only Christ did. Christ achieved it because He is the God who gave the law. Now the law provides no relief. Your next blank is the word relief. It provides no relief from the burden of itself upon an individual and that is the entire story of Israel from Sinai all the way to the present day. The law has never offered them one ounce of comfort and one ounce of relief as much as they have tried to follow it for thousands of years. The tragedy of mankind is that all of us, not just Israel, we are naturally convinced that works, that's your next blank, must somehow be involved. And if work was involved, Paul gives us a demonstration here in verses six and seven of just what we would have to do. in order to be saved by our own account. Look what he says in verse 6. Say not in thine heart who shall ascend into heaven, that is to bring Christ down from above, verse 7, or who shall descend into the deep, that is to bring up Christ again from the dead. This is a quotation from Deuteronomy chapter 30. And in Deuteronomy chapter 30, Moses is exhorting the people of Israel before they cross into Canaan and they go to possess their inheritance. He's saying that all of the blessings of God are not something that, as he quotes it, far off across the sea, where you got to get in a boat and you got to sail to the other side of the sea, wherever that actually is, and go find the blessing of God and then bring it back to where you are, just so you can have it. You don't have to do that. He said the word, the blessing is nigh, it's near you, it's right here. You don't have to go here and do something to get it or go there and do something to get it. And look at the ridiculousness of you trying to do it on your own. How many of us can go into heaven and command that Christ come down and die for our sin? If you could, you might could save yourself by your own works. How many of us can go to the graveyard and command somebody to rise from the dead? If we could, we might could save ourselves by our own works. That's what Paul's saying here in using those quotations from Moses in verses six and verse seven. But your next blank, Christ, attained this righteousness on our behalf, because everything He did, He fulfilled it, He kept it. And if we are in Him by faith, then we are free of the law. It doesn't mean that we can go commit adultery. It doesn't mean we can have other gods before Him, and no one in here believes that. That's nonsense. But it means that those commandments which once condemned us are now the light by which we see and learn of God's holy nature. So that's the righteousness of the law. Secondly, the righteousness of faith. This is the righteousness that is attainable through belief in what Christ has done. Now, this is important. Faith does not begin of itself. Faith is born, it is produced, it is created out of the preached Word of God. It is created out of the preached Word of God. We see that in verse 8. Now look very carefully at what verse 8 says. But what saith it? The word it there is the righteousness of faith. He's described what the righteousness of the law says, now he's saying what the righteousness of faith says. The word is nigh thee. Doesn't say faith is nigh thee, it says the word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth and in thy heart. That is the word of faith which we preach. Again, he's not saying faith is near you, faith is in your mouth, faith is in your heart. He said it's the word that is in your mind, your mouth, and your heart. So faith does not begin of itself. It's born out of the Word of God that's preached. Another reference you can write down is 1 Corinthians 1, verse 21. It's a familiar scripture, for it pleased God by the foolishness of what? Preaching to save those who would believe. So faith is going to be birthed out of the preaching of the Word of God according to verse 8. Now according to verse 9, We see that confession and submission to the Lordship of Christ, that's your next blank, the word Lordship of Christ, is a natural result of faith that is born out of the Word of God. That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. Now let me draw a distinction here very quickly. This does not mean that you as a lost person can say Jesus is Lord and you're saved like that. That's not what it means. It's not what it means. You remember in Matthew chapter 7, when Jesus told the multitude there at the Sermon of the Mount, there would be many that say unto me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? Have we not done this? Have we not cast out devils? Have we not done many wonderful works? And he will declare unto you, depart from me, I never knew you. It's not about calling him Lord. It's about surrendering to Him as Lord, and they are two vastly different things. Now this does not say, and I don't say it here in the notes I gave you, and the text does not support it. This does not say that you make Jesus Christ the Lord of your life. You've heard me rail against that, and I'm gonna rail against it again. You and I do not have the authority to make Christ Lord. He is Lord. He's always been Lord. He's Lord right now, and forever and ever and ever, He will always be the Lord of glory. You will never make Him Lord. In salvation, you are surrendering to His Lordship that He has possessed from forever and will possess forever. He's already the Lord of your life. According to Deuteronomy chapter 28, and I believe it's verse 58, He is already the Lord of your life, and He is the Lord of my life. But salvation requires a submission to His Lordship and His rule as Christ. And this submission is born out of the Word of God. And according to verse 10, for with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. Believing unto the attainment of righteousness is more than you just having a knowledge of God or a knowledge of Christ. It's not just mental ascent. Though knowledge of the Scriptures is important, as we will see in a little while. But true faith is expressed in real salvation. That's your next blank. True faith is expressed in real salvation. Now you can see this very easily in Romans chapter four and verses 18 through 22. So after you write down the word salvation, flip backwards with me for just a moment to Romans chapter four and look at verse 18. This is the faith that we must have in order to be saved. If you don't have this type of faith, you are not saved and you have not been saved. This is speaking of Abraham. Verse 18 says, who against hope. That means he could not do anything of himself. He was a hundred years old. He was not having a son. Sarah was completely barren. She'd been barren for 90 years. She wasn't having one either. They had no natural hope. But instead, he believed in hope that he might become the father of many nations. According to that which was spoken, the promise of God, so shall thy seed be. and being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead, when he was about 100 years old, neither the deadness of Sarah's womb, and he staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strong in faith, giving glory to God, and here's the faith I want you to see, and being fully persuaded that what God had promised God was able also to perform. And therefore, it was imputed to him for righteousness. Now what does that passage tell us about what real saving faith looks like? It's not just mental ascent to get you to a peak of, well, oh yeah, God, he's all powerful, he can do all things, he can give me a baby. That's mental assent. That's you having the understanding that yes, God can do whatever He wants to do because He's God. That's mental assent. Real saving faith is the simplicity of you and I saying, I can't do anything. God must do it all. And that's why salvation is difficult for a lot of people. Because salvation requires you and I to get rid of everything we think it ought to be, how we think it ought to be done, every single part of what we might do to gain it. and to surrender completely and fully to God. You said it. You're the only one who can do it. I cannot. And then He saves you. In other words, and this is, I believe, the attitude that we probably ought to have when we approach unto Him. I'm a sinner. I deserve nothing but hell. If you throw me into hell, you are completely justified and I have gotten every single thing that I deserve. I cannot save myself. I can't do one thing to help myself. God, you're either going to have to help me and save me, but you're just either way. He will save you. I promise on the authority of the Word of God. But that is the simplicity of saving faith. You can't have it when you're still trying to do something to get it. You can't have it when you're still trying to get it by works. So the implementation of faith leads to the second effect of the gospel, which is salvation. The word salvation again, that is the second effect. The first effect was Israel stumbled. The second effect is salvation. And then number three, which is the last one we're going to look at this evening, The third cause is the instruction of the Word. The instruction of the Word. And we're going to see this in verses 14 through 17. Now in these particular verses we are going to begin to see the importance of true fidelity to the real and true and revealed Word of God. Why is it so important that the preacher in the pulpit just preaches the Bible and not all of the extra nonsense that goes on in a lot of churches today. Why is it so important just to stick with the Word of God? Because of your next blank. Faith is dependent upon the Word. Faith is utterly dependent. Whether you have faith or I have faith is completely dependent upon whether the Word of God is preached or it is not preached according to what we looked at in verse 8. Now the world, the church world, is absolutely full of absolute, utter foolishness and stupidity today. And there's an account that I follow that is dedicated strictly to highlighting a lot of the lunacy that goes on in churches. And occasionally I'll come across a video and I'll send it to Charles because it does make you laugh because it's so preposterous you can't not laugh at it. but it's also sad at the same time. And I saw one the other day, and this is funny, but it is sad at the same time. This man, this preacher, he's exhorting his congregation and he tells them, he says, now, he said, I hope that you don't let the year pass you by without having a divine visitation. First of all, that's not in the Bible. But he said, I hope that you don't let the year pass you by without having a divine visitation. He said, the other night, the chariot of God came and picked me up in the spirit. He said, and we flew over the six main states of New England. And he said, and as we flew, and we hit a little bit of New York too, he said, and as we flew over these areas, he said, the prophet that was driving the chariot, he said, and if I named him, you'd know who he was. He said he was pointing out to me all of the different areas in these six states where the revival of God was about to fall. He said, and after we had visited all six states, he said, we came back to my house and we hovered above over my house and we watched the sun rise together in the spirit. Now, Does that have any bearing on the Word of God? Is that in the Word of God? And you can hear in the background the deceived mass of people sitting under that man going, Amen! Amen! Amen! Yeah! Woo! Go on! Because in their mind, they think that if they don't have something like what he was just describing, they're not actually saved, or they're not doing something they ought to be doing. And that's just one example of an innumerable number of examples of nonsensical things that goes on in the house of God. But it is a perfect example of why this right here is no longer sufficient for most churches. This is not sufficient for most churches. And I'll tell you why it's not sufficient for most churches is because most churches are full of carnal people who were lost and unsaved. And the word of God is not a sufficient enough diet for lost and unregenerate people. But if you're truly born again by faith that comes from the word of God, this right here is all you will ever need, and it is all you will ever want. And the truth that is revealed out of these pages. And so it is vastly important that we preach the word of God because saving faith is dependent upon that word. Now we're gonna see that. Starting in verses 14 and 15, there are four questions that Paul asks. And these questions are designed to enforce the purpose of the Word of God and its power to create saving faith. Look at number one found in verse 14. And how shall they call upon him in whom they have not believed? Now what does this question show us about believing or show us about faith? We see your next blank, believing precedes calling upon the Lord. It precedes, it comes before. You can't call on Christ if you don't believe in Christ. I can't call on Christ to save me if I don't believe in Him. I don't call on Him and say, Lord, please give me faith. whereby I might call on you to save me. That's not the way it works. And that's not the way the scripture lays it out in this text. It's not the way it's laid out anywhere in the Word of God. So believing has to proceed, it has to come first before calling on the name of the Lord. Now that is very important for something we're going to look at in a little while. Second question, how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? So what does this question mean? There must be an object of one's faith. Faith is not some mystical force that's just floating around in the ether somewhere that takes up residence in your heart and you just throw it here and you just throw it there. You have to have something to anchor your faith. And the anchor of our faith is the Lord Jesus Christ. You have to have something that faith latches onto and holds. That's why the writer, I believe, in the book of Hebrews says, this hope we have as an anchor of the soul. And he's speaking of our faith. There's got to be an object. Remember Hebrews chapter 11 and verse 1 says, Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. You can't see Christ. You've never seen Christ. I've never seen Christ, but he is the object of my faith and he is the object of yours. Question number three, how shall they hear without a preacher? Someone must preach the gospel. Someone must preach or someone must proclaim the gospel. And then number four, how shall they preach except they be sent? This question means that God must call one to do the work. So believing precedes calling upon the Lord. There must be an object your faith is placed in. Someone's got to preach to you the gospel and God must call the one who preaches to do that particular work. Now using these questions, if we work backwards, we can see or we can begin to see the creation of faith. A person sent, that's your first blank, a person sent of God preaches the gospel of Christ, or proclaims the gospel of Christ. And this can be in a church setting, it can be in a one-on-one conversation setting, it can be like a missionary setting, or anything like that. It can be done in a song, as long as the song is biblically and doctrinally sound. But a person sent of God, next blank, preaches the gospel of Christ, which is heard of many The next blank is the word heard. And belief, that's your next blank, the word belief, enables them to call upon the name of the Lord in salvation. So sent, preaches, heard, belief, and call. And that order is the reverse order of the way Paul asks the questions. But we begin with the preaching of the Word of God and we backtrack to the faith that is created by preaching from or of the Word of God. Now in verses 16 and 17, we can see how this process is further explained. Now look at verse 16. but they have not all obeyed the gospel. Now, if just me preaching or anybody preaching the gospel creates faith, then shouldn't everybody be saved who's heard someone preach the gospel? Wouldn't that be the natural way that we would look at it? If preaching the word of God allows saving faith to be created, then shouldn't everybody who's heard the word of God preached be saved. Kind of like if it's completely dark in this room and nobody is in light and can see, if I flip the light switch on, as long as you're not blind, everybody in this room can suddenly see. Shouldn't that be the way it works if the preaching of the Word of God creates this saving faith? But nobody, none of us in this room would say that Isaiah was not a true preacher of righteousness, would we? None of us would say that Isaiah did not preach to the nation of Israel the truth, and yet Isaiah is the very one that is saying here, Lord, who hath believed our report? And he's quoting from Isaiah chapter 53 and verse 1. Now in Isaiah's day, the message he preached on the glories of Christ received very little acceptance. In Jeremiah's day it received no acceptance. Why did it receive no acceptance? Because the people he preached it to found it ridiculous and they didn't like what he said. Now go with me just very quickly to Isaiah chapter 53 and let me show you some of the things that he preached that they did not like. Isaiah 53 and one, which is where this is pulled from, who hath believed I report, to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed. Now he's begun, he's gonna be, and I'm only gonna read just down through verse three. And these are the things that the people didn't like. He shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of dry ground. He hath no form nor comeliness, and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him. He's despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. and we hid, as it were, our faces from Him. He was despised and we esteemed Him not." They didn't like that because that was not their version of the Messiah. Because that version of the Messiah to them sounded ludicrous. We don't want somebody coming in who's weak and beggarly looking and somebody we can look to and somebody we can be inspired by. We want a king. We want someone riding in and conquering Rome. Or in Isaiah's time, Babylon. We want somebody riding in and being at the head of it all. I don't like what you're saying to me. And so, by and large, the nation of Israel rejected his preaching of the very Messiah that was coming, not to save them on the outside, but to save them eternally on the inside. So they rejected his message. And he complains about this in chapter 53 and verse 1, and Paul quotes him here in chapter 16. Now if you'll look at verse 17, then we see, So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. And we see that faith is created by the preaching of the explicit gospel of Jesus Christ, and by holding true to the truth of the word of God. That's what verse 17 is telling us. But verse 17, you also have to read it very carefully to actually get what verse 17 is saying. Remember, not everybody believed when Isaiah preached the truth. When Isaiah preached the Word of God, very few people believed. Nobody believed when Jeremiah did it. And if you go back and you categorically look at all of the prophets, very few of the nation of Israel ever believed the prophets. But if saving faith is created by preaching, then why doesn't everyone believe? Now notice, I'm going to read verse 17 again very carefully. Actually, let's go back to 16. but they have not all obeyed the gospel. That's the message that was preached. For Isaiah saith, Lord, who hath believed our report? The word report means the preaching, what he actually preached, who believed the message. So then faith, that's real saving faith, cometh by what? Hearing. and hearing by the word of God. So what we see in verse 17 that Paul is trying to tell us, using Isaiah as an example, is this. Your next blank. It is not faith in what is heard that makes the difference. But it is faith that is produced by what is heard that makes all the difference in the world. And there is a very subtle but a very important distinction in what I just said or in what this text says. It is not faith in the gospel of Christ that saves you. It is faith that is produced by the gospel of Christ that saves you. So in other words, it is the gospel of Christ itself that creates, that's your next blank, creates faith. The Bible tells us that all men have not faith. So where does faith come from then? Faith, as I said, it is a gift. It is given to us of God through the preaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ. This is why in Romans chapter 1 in verse 16 he said, speaking of the gospel, the gospel is the power of God unto salvation. The Gospel itself, the Word of God is power. It is life, it is spirit, it is quick, it is sharper than any two-wedged sword, and it pierces into our souls and into our spirits, and it is that preached Word that can create saving faith. This is why the church world is full today of people who think they're saved and aren't, because they have faith in the gospel. They will, and they mean it, they believe every word that this book says is true. They believe there was a Christ, there is a Christ. They believe he humbled himself. They believe that he came and died for their sins. They believe there are sinners. They believe that there will be a final judgment. They believe that there is a heaven. They believe that there is a hell. They believe every prophecy that God said in here is rightly true. They believe in the creation. They believe in everything from Genesis to Revelation and they're lost because they believe in something, but they've never had saving faith created in them by the Word of God. And that's a dangerous place to be in. It's a dangerous place to be in. Now why is this all important? Because this shows us, and I'm gonna teach you a new word here, Your next blank, this makes the entirety of the work of salvation monergistic. Okay, I'll spell it for you, M-O-N-E-R, G-I-S-T-I-C, monergistic. And I did not make that up, that is an actual word. Now, the word monergistic comes from two Greek words. The first is mono, which means one. The second one is urge, which means work. So it literally means one work. And what the monergistic view of salvation is that this passage is teaching us is that salvation is a work of God alone. It is a work of God only. It is not your work and it is not my work. lest any of us should boast that we somehow saved ourselves or somehow contributed to our salvation. Salvation is monergistic. It is God's doing alone. We do not exercise faith in Christ because we've produced faith in Christ. We can't exercise faith in Christ until the gospel of Jesus Christ creates faith within us. If the gospel of Christ did not create faith, we cannot believe. Now, I'm gonna, your next, the next little phrase there, you've got three, three words, and I'm gonna try to explain this simply. And we fall into this, and I do it all the time, we fall into this trap, and we use terminology that probably shouldn't be associated, and shouldn't be used with certain words, but that we're so used to hearing it. We know what we're talking about, but we also kind of don't know what we're talking about at the same time, if that makes any sense. Now, we do believe that we have to make a choice in salvation, do we not? God didn't program us as robots. He gave every one of us a free will. There is a response on our part to salvation, would you agree? We can either accept it or we can reject it, because we believe that that is explicitly what the scriptures teach us. However, let's get the terms correct. We do not choose, the word choose, we do not choose to believe in the gospel by faith. We do not choose to believe in the gospel by faith because God graciously creates and then he gifts us faith. My faith didn't come from me, your faith did not come from you. So choosing faith. So then if we don't choose to believe by faith in the gospel, then what is the response that we are accountable for when God gives us that faith? Our choice is whether or not after we have received faith, whether we will call upon the name of the Lord. That's our part. We must call upon the name of the Lord. And that is in the text. Go back with me and look in verse 13. For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. And then immediately he begins that list of questions. How then shall they call on him in whom they have not, what? There's the faith. You have to already have faith to call on the name of the Lord. Our part is not faith. Our part is calling on Christ after the gospel has created faith within us. After the gospel has created faith within us. And then in verse 18, it is made clear that even today, just as in Isaiah's today, even today in the day of the gospel, the same sense of unbelief still permeates the vast amount or majority of humanity. Though the gospel is reached to the farthest corners of the known world, yet there is still so little belief in its message by and large. This is the answer to why just me preaching or anybody preaching the gospel doesn't just save everybody who hears it. And I was gonna go to these places, but for sake of time, I'll give you the references and you can write them down and you can go and read them. John chapter three, verses 18 through 21, which we quoted a little bit of that this morning. Men loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. Now, let me say something in case there's any confusion about us not, we don't choose to believe, we have to choose to call. When the Holy Spirit convicts you of sin, which is His work in the life of an individual who is not saved, when He convicts you of sin and God graciously draws you towards the person of Christ, you are not going to try to come to Christ unless you believe that Christ can do something to help you. Now you may not understand who Christ is, you may not understand all the in and outs of it, but you're coming to Him because He has promised to help you. Correct? That's belief. That is faith. That's what faith is. You can't come to Him until that is first in your spirit. It doesn't even make sense to even try. Why would you even try to come to Christ for help if you didn't even believe in Christ? Now the problem lies is that when the Holy Spirit does His convicting work in you, and you know you need to go to Christ, that's faith. That's the saving faith that is present, that the Gospel has created in you. You know He's the answer to your problem. You know He's the answer for your sin. and your troubles, but you just will not call upon Him. There's your distinction. You have the faith. God has given you the faith. But the response is, will I exercise it by casting it upon that anchor and throwing myself upon Him in submission? Will I submit to Him for who He is? If I will, that saving faith will change my life. If I will not, then that saving faith gets dimmer and dimmer and dimmer and dimmer. Like a small plant you've planted in the ground and it budded, but before it could produce any fruit, you just left it alone. You never watered it. What's gonna happen to the plant? It'll die. That's the distinction between believing and calling upon the name of the Lord. No one's ever been saved who did not call upon the name of the Lord in some way. Your second reference is Matthew chapter 13, verses 18 through 23, and that is where Jesus is explaining the parable of the sower and the seed. And the sower and the seed is an excellent illustration for why some people believe and some people do not. Why some people go all the way and call upon the name of the Lord and are saved, and some hear the word and you can see in that parable where that faith is created, But then everything else in life just robs it of all the fruit that it would ever bear and there is no fruit possessed. And in all of those instances, except for the last one, the seed is destroyed. The word is of none effect. The fruit, whatever plant may have been there, especially in terms of the thorns and the stony ground is just choked out and it dies. So why do not all men then believe when they hear the gospel preached? Because Jesus answered this in the first reference I gave you, John chapter 3, they love their sin. That's why the vast majority of the world will not get saved. They love their sin. They love their sin, and you cannot get saved loving your sin. You have to hate your sin, and you have to want to be rid of it. God has to bring you to a place where you are ready to forsake that sin and turn your eyes, as we sung earlier tonight, upon Jesus. And outside of that, You cannot be saved loving your sin. It's impossible to do. And so the effect of the instruction of the word is saving faith. It's not just faith, because there's a lot of people who believe, but it's saving faith. And therein we see the distinction between the two. Let me repeat it again, it is not faith in what is heard. If it was faith in what is heard, that means you create faith in yourself because of what you hear. But if it is faith that is produced by what is heard, that means that that faith must be generated by an outside source and that source is the Holy Spirit of God through the Word of God. stand with us tonight. I would encourage you to go and read those references and apply them to these particular things that we're talking about. I hope that they'll allow them to make a little bit more sense. But thank you so much for your kind attention. Father, we come to you in the name of Jesus tonight, and I hope and I pray that what I said was clear, not because it was me who said it, but I truly do believe that it's what the Word of God teaches. Father, we do have a part. We do have a response. There is a response that must be rendered in salvation. That response is not the creation of our own faith or our choosing to believe whether or not the gospel is true, because that's what conviction does in us. And we know somewhere deep down when you are dealing with us, we know that it's real. our response is we have to call upon the name of the Lord. So often we're like the Pharisee and we brag about all the good we think we've done to try to alleviate the response we know we need to give instead of just humbly falling before you and calling upon your name because you promised whoever called on your name would be saved. And I hope and I pray, Father, that the word has illuminated your people's hearts tonight as it's done mine. If I have said anything at all, Father, that was wrong or amiss, please show me, Lord, that I may try to correct it and make it right. It was not the intent. Lord, I pray that you will bless your people, Father. I pray that you will give them strength in the week ahead. Lord, help them in their jobs. I know several of them have to go back to school. Father, I pray for safety upon them. I pray you'll give them grace and glory. I pray that they'll be good witnesses of Christ in their classes. Lord, I pray that you will please just work in this church. Father, grow us closer together. Thank you for these faithful people who are here, Father, all the time. I pray your rich blessing upon their lives and those who could not be here today because they're out of town. Father, I pray your blessing of safety be upon them. Let them get the rest, Father, that they need. Lord, I know there are some sick. Christiana's sick tonight. She's had fever. I pray that you'll touch her body and strengthen her and Courtney and Connor and Cade. I pray for Brother Bill and Miss Sharon who were not able to be here today. I pray your blessing upon them. Brother Daryl and Miss Orpha, continue to strengthen them. Lord, I pray for Miss Ellen. Father, that you'll comfort her. Lord, touch her mind, Lord, and give her peace inside of her soul as she thinks and meditates upon you. Father, be with all those, Lord, who are sick and afflicted that I've missed. Father, please give them the grace that you know that they need. Bring us back, Father, with hunger, Lord, in our hearts on Wednesday night to hear and to study the Word of God together. It's so important in this day that we live in that we study the Word because it is the Word that gives faith. And there may yet be someone among us, Father, who believes in everything that we've said, but that faith has never been produced within them by the Holy Spirit. Lord, and I pray that you would do your glorious and marvelous work in their lives. And I pray that, Father, those in this sanctuary tonight are watching who know they have been born again by the Spirit of God. Lord, they can look back in their life and they can see the moment, Father, that faith became real. And they called out upon the name of the Lord. Whether, Father, that call and that cry was deep inside of their spirit, or whether they were on their knees before an altar, or wherever it may have been, calling verbally out unto you, they called unto the name of the Lord, and you were gracious to your word, you were gracious to save them, and we bless your name for that tonight. Help us to grow more in love with you every single day that we are privileged to live. Help us to live, Father, in accordance with your word, as much as your grace would give us. and help us, Father, to just fall more and more in love with Jesus Christ every day. And in His precious name, we ask all of these things tonight, and everybody said, amen. Thank you for.