I always think we could be for quite a long time in the book of Romans. I've revised that. We could be for quite a long time in Romans 1. Amen. Because last week I was intending to go through verses 11 through 17, or 14 through 17, I'm sorry. And I just started into verse 17. And what happens is, verses 16 and 17 together, I find that these are the, we used to call them on bike chains, we called them the monkey link. Now there's a brand, I went to search for a monkey link. Now there's a brand, there's actually a copy written, registered trademark called monkey link that makes bike accessories. But that monkey link was the universal link that held the chain together. Romans 1, 16 and 17 are, In my estimation anyways, in my human perspective, is that monkey link of all of salvation. Of salvation for us. It's what holds us together. The faith that we have because of God given to us. So let's go there to Romans chapter number one. And just because we can, I had Romans 3 open because that's where I was last reading. Let's start in... Let's start in verse 14 and just read through verse... 18, then 19 starts with a because. 18 to the fourth is a reason for that, and because is there for the same reason that four is. So we're gonna stop at verse 18. Verse 14 through 18 says, I am debtor both to the Greeks and to the barbarians, both to the wise and the unwise. So as much as in me is, I am ready to preach the gospel to you that are at Rome also. For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith, as it is written, the just shall live by faith. For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who hold the truth in unrighteousness." And Lord, we just pray that You would add Your blessing to Your Word this morning. And we pray this in Jesus' name. You see the words for and because there. You have to think in legal terms. Paul is presenting a legal case, a binding case, and he's given reasons. It's because of this, which is because of this, for this, same thing, because of this. So he has this whole chain of things that are involved in this presentation of the truth. You know, like a good lawyer knows exactly what to say, when to present the evidence of what he has. So verse 17, if we look at that, we started into it last week. Let me find my notes, all 16 pages of them. where we were last week, we ended up talking about verse number 17. For therein is the righteousness of God revealed. All right, it was revealed where? From faith to faith, right? Verse 18 says, for the wrath of God is revealed. So there's two choices that we have in life. the righteousness of God or the wrath of God because of the unrighteousness of men. And I also had that listed as the righteousness of man as well. So either you trust in the Lord's righteousness or your own righteousness which is in effect unrighteousness because that leads to nowhere. You might feel like you're going someplace, but it leads to nowhere whatsoever. So the righteousness of or from God, that's the first part, revealed, verse 17, for therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith, ek, faith, ek pistios, revealed from God. That's where our faith originates. It's the faith of God or the faithfulness of God. It's of Jesus Christ or from Jesus Christ. You know, He was faithful. He was faithful and just to forgive us of our sin. So it went from faith to faith. That's that faith that is given to us. That's the ice. Pestios. In faith. We have that imputed faith or righteousness that is given to you because of Jesus Christ. Sadly, there is the righteousness of man. Think of that. Before Christ, what did you do? You either tried to please God through your own flesh, or you said, nah, I don't need God. Either way, you were enemies with God either way. You know, one of the things that sometimes alarms me, I shouldn't say sometimes alarms me, is this forced This forced uniformity that you find in religious circles that came out of a system that everybody had to have short hair, everybody had to have a shirt and tie, which are good things to do. I have a shirt and tie, but I'm not told there's a code of conduct that's there. How many of you, when you see two guys walking up the street, they both have a white shirt and a blue tie on, and they're holding a book. In the Bible, the Book of Mormon. You know exactly who they are. They're uniform. Because if they don't go dressed like that, they're out of line. It shows their righteousness in that way. If you've been to the Mennonites in Amish country, you could spot those people a mile away, can't you? You know, but they're following doctrines of men. You have in the most common religion in our part, all the clerics have the same black clothes and the same vestments, uniformity. They have to. I used to, I knew in getting, here's one of those rabbit trails I go off into. When Helen and I got married, we got married in the Catholic church. Her family was a good friend with the priest. And before church, if he had his collar off, he spoke as a man. But as soon as he buttoned up that collar, he was then ex cathedra. He's now Jesus Christ. That's actual doctrine. The representative of Christ, the anti-Christ, the representative in place of Christ. He was there to perform that sacrifice that would bring Christ, the real Christ, down from heaven to be sacrificed again. But there's no other sacrifice for sin. You know, he is the last, the one and only sacrifice that could take away our sins. The only thing whatsoever. So there's this uniformity in religion. Like I said, I don't know, they must mark you. I must be marked and avoided by the Jehovah's Witnesses. Why? Because I used to chase them around. Right, and they'd tell me, you got work to do. I said, I could spend all the time out here with you guys as you want. And I haven't seen them since. That's how to get rid of them. Don't just slam the door, just tell them, hey, let me, I got something to show you here. But the uniformity, you know them when they're coming. The ladies always have the same long dresses and always are carrying a handbag like this. Why are they always carrying the handbag like that? Because they have like 8,000 pounds of literature that they have to buy in order to give it out freely. If you don't buy the literature, that's one sign you're not saved. or not going to be saved, I should say. So this uniformity that we have, I don't know how I got on this rabbit trail anyways, but this uniformity of religion, of human righteousness, has kind of taken over for the last, oh, six or 7,000 years, but yet the righteousness that's of God is the righteousness that we look toward So the righteousness of man which biblically speaking is really unrighteousness because true righteousness can only come from God, period. The object of faith is not on the Lord, the object of faith is how well am I doing? That's the righteousness of man. Romans 6.23 says, for all have come short of the glory of God. The best a religious system can do is you can climb the ladder a little way, but you're never gonna meet the righteousness of God. You may feel good, then you get halfway up that ladder, fall. The object of faith is the Lord. He's our object, not ourselves, not our standing or our staying, it's our standing on the Lord. And it negates the imputed righteousness of God. Imputed means it was fully satisfied and reckoned to be given. So imputed in the Old Testament means several different things. To esteem, to imagine, to impute, invent, reckon, regard. These are all these things that imputation is in the Old Testament. In the New Testament, it's to reckon or reason to esteem all these things. So, imputation. We have the righteousness of God that's imputed to us by God. He's counted us, our sins, and He's taken those upon Himself and given to us. He's exchanged His righteousness for our unrighteousness. What a plan that was. Would you do that for somebody on earth? We'd say, listen, I'll take all your problems, all your sin, all your wickedness upon myself, and I'll give you my righteousness. That's not an even trade, humanly speaking, but with God, it's an even trade. Because even if you think you're Mr. Goody Two-Shoes, I almost started singing a song there, but even if you think you've done everything right and you've maintained, you still fall short of that glory of God. It's easy to fall into that trap of self-righteousness, isn't it? How easy can it be? Well, I'm not like them over there. Oh, I have all my I's dotted, I almost said I's crossed. My I's dotted and T's crossed. I'm super Christian. I'm not like them. Let's go to Luke chapter 18. I love this, the parable of the Pharisee and the publican. Luke chapter 18. Verse number nine, and he spoke, speaking King James English, and he spake. He spake this parable unto certain which trusted in themselves that they were righteous and despised others. He's addressing the Pharisees, of course, but anybody could fall into that same category no matter what and when. He says, two men went up into the temple to pray, the one a Pharisee and the other a publican. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican. Imagine that, having the audacity, being a fruit inspector, saying I'm not like him. A publican was known as a sinner, a tax collector, those people that were out to get selfish gain, but the Pharisees were too. They had the same power grab as the publican had, but in a religious sort of sense, in a righteous sort of sense. I fast twice in the week. Woo-hoo! Today, big deal. That'll get you nowhere with God. I fast twice in the week. I give tithes of all that I possess. Oh yeah, all, huh? I probably would have challenged it, all you possess, huh? Even the stuff that you extracted from others as you blame the publican to do? Does he work under the table and get benefits someplace else? And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. I love that. He knew his state of mind. He knew that he was a wretch. He knew that he was a sinner. Just be merciful to me, a sinner. And then verse 14, I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other, for everyone that exalteth himself shall be abased, and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted. So this is an incredible indictment upon the religious system of the time with the scribes and Pharisees. They were looking to their own righteousness rather than the righteousness of God. I think in Romans chapter nine deals with that as well, about the nation of Israel, you know, trusting in their righteousness rather than the righteousness of God as well. But let's move on, you know, back to chapter Romans one, Again, verse 17 says, for therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith, from God to the selves, exercised in the believer. It's from himself. He is the righteousness. I don't have it up, but I happen to look at I was reading, it might be in here, a Schofield Bible, I was looking at it, it says actually that righteousness is the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. In Romans chapter three, the righteousness of God is Jesus Himself. Think of that, we'll get to it when we get to Romans chapter three. But think that Christ Himself, He was the faithful one to come and do the work of the Father. And I don't know about if I got, I don't know if I got this far. He says this faith cannot be our own steadfastness. I mean, the faith that we have, it cannot be derived from what we do at all. You'll see so many things about how you need to be steadfast. And I would agree in principle. Steadfast in what? Steadfast and growing in the Lord, that would be the most important thing you can do. But not steadfast, always be looking back and seeing if you're measuring your salvation by what you do or by obeying the law or anything else. It has to be based on our identity in Christ Jesus. Think of that. I saw a comment regarding about being in Christ. Through trials and tribulations, guess where you still remain? In Christ. Amen. He won't let you go. He's bulletproof. Makes you bulletproof as well. Not saying we don't have circumstances, trials that would come in our life, but through those trials, God is not only with us, we are in God. in Jesus Christ. What a great way of deflecting anything else in the world. Amen. And that's what we need to realize, to reckon those things as so. It's His faith, right? Verse number 17 here again. Says, for therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith. It's revealed from heaven, from God himself to us. As it is written, the just shall live by faith. I think that's where we ended last week. We ended with Habakkuk chapter two. It says, just in review, it says the just shall live by his faith. What's the object of faith there? Is it Habakkuk or the nation of Israel or the people or is it God himself? I is presenting a legal case, I present it's God is the object of that faith, right? It's the faith or faithfulness of God that will keep you no matter what. Let's go, Let's go to Luke 22, Luke 22 for a second. I should have stayed in the loop before going back to Romans. Luke 22. Starting in verse number one through 71. No, we're gonna go down to verse 41. This is in the Garden of Gethsemane. Verse 41 says, And he was withdrawn from them about a stone's cast, and kneeled down and prayed, saying, Father, if Thou be willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but Thine be done. It was God's, it was Jesus Christ taking on the will of God. I always have this question, I haven't quite resolved it, but did Jesus have a choice in the matter? In the flesh, sure, he had a choice. But he didn't sin, so he was obedient to the Father. He was obedient to God the Father to do, to take that cup, that cup of being crucified for the sins of His people. "'Not My will, but Thine be done.' And there appeared an angel unto Him from heaven, strengthening Him. And being in agony, He prayed more earnestly, and a sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground." Jesus felt the pain, the agony, and we'll start at the wide world of sports, the agony of defeat, the agony of bearing upon himself the sins of every single person in the world. Think of that. Think of all the people that weren't even existence in the world when he died on the cross. I don't know what the population was, it's probably what some people want to get the population back down to like five billion or something in the entire, not five, 500 million in the entire world. Now how many do we have? Eight billion? Seems like the estimations go up every day. Eight billion people. Jesus Christ went, he was faithful to go to that cross to pay for the sins of all those people. Now, critics of that would say, well, God was a failure because whoever God elects, they'll believe. Well, he's elected all to be saved, but not all will be saved. They need to believe the gospel. That's the simplicity of it. You say, wait a minute, that's too simple. That's why people don't believe. They're used to human religion, human meology, that says you need to perform to a certain standard, so they can't believe. What's the hitch to it? There's no hitch. The faith of Jesus Christ and his righteousness is the most important thing that we could do or we could believe. Let's go now to Romans chapter three. That's what I like about the book of Romans, it's so intertwined together. So it's intertwined together, but it's ordered in a fashion that would stand up anywhere. Romans chapter three. We're just gonna look at a few verses here. Romans three, verse number. I was just gonna go to verse three. It says, for what if some did not believe, shall their unbelief make the faith of God without effect? Look at verse four. God forbid, let God be true. God is truth. Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. Amen? Let God be true. Right? God is just no matter what happens. God forbid, yea, let God be true, but every man a liar. Now let's break down the wording there, let every man a liar. There must be some kind of deeper meaning to that. Oh, I'll tell you the deep meaning. Let every man a liar. It's how we all go before a righteous God. Even in our righteousness that we have today, and there is sanctified lying, Rahab the harlot. She exercised wisdom in lying about hiding the spies. There's all that through that, that's in wisdom. But how many of us could say, well, I'm the everyman. I'm there. I think all of us could. Officer, I did stop for a full three seconds at that stop sign. Liar. I only counted 1,001, not 1,003. All these little things, but God is true. God will keep His own because of His faithfulness. The faithfulness of Jesus Christ. Let's go down while we're in Romans 3. Let's go down to verse number... Well, let's go to verse 21, because this is the verse I was thinking. It says, but now, when? But now, the righteousness of God, and that's where Schofield, I agreed with him, there, the righteousness of God here is the Lord Jesus Christ. You've got a Schofield Bible, right, Greg? I do. Is that what, that's, is that? It's on right here. Or am I imagining it, so? The righteousness of God is either an attribute of God or the changed character of the believer. and beheld every demand of the law, and who by the act of God called imputation made unto us righteousness. Amen. So the righteousness of God is the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the object of our faith today. After all, he's the one that did die, he was buried, and he rose again. He was faithful to go to that cross. and he is that righteousness of God. But now, the righteousness of God without the law is manifest, being witnessed by the law and the prophets. None other than that righteousness of God was witnessed, Jesus Christ was witnessed, attributed by, revealed in the law and the prophets. Verse 22, even the righteousness of God, which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe, for there is no difference. The faithfulness of Jesus Christ to all that believe. What do you believe? He is. He is that faithfulness of God. He is that righteousness of God. Then verse, I gotta finish this up here. Just verses 23, yeah, we'll finish through. How do you stop anywhere in this? And we'll get back to it when we get in Romans 3. For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God, being justified, it's an interesting word, freely by his grace. Nothing to buy, nothing to sell. You don't even have to buy your own literature to pass out. Freely, by His grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. I like that, redemption that is, not will be someday, but is in Christ Jesus. Whom God has set forth to be a propitiation, that's the full satisfaction of his wrath, which he would pour out on all that don't believe and upon this world. Whom God has set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood. Well, did God the Father bleed and die? No, God the Son did. He shed his blood on the cross of Calvary. to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are passed through the forbearance of God. Forbearance is patience on steroids. That's how I like to, forbearance is, if we were to take out this roof, this ceiling in here, Up above, you would see the rafters, or any house at all. They have the rafters, and those rafters are built so they can hold the weight of all the snow that's up on top of it. You know, when you have a collapsed roof, it's an engineering design or flaw, or it's just old. But God's forbearance, the forbearance of God is likened to that roof rafter. It's designed to bend a little bit, to move a bit, like a bridge. A bridge is a good example of forbearance. If you go over a suspension bridge, where the sections come together, they're designed to contract and expand. to bear up to the weight and the temperature changes that take place. So they're able to be flexible. That's what God's forbearance is. He tolerated sin for a time. He was patient in the sins of the world in the time past of his people, and it was an appointed time when he sent his son. Think of how long. how long God's patience is, and that forbearance. And he still will keep his promises to his chosen people as well. In spite of all the wrongs that have been done, his forbearance is at hand. In verse 26, To declare, I say at this time his righteousness, that he might be just and the justifier of him who is chosen before the foundation of the world. No, it's simpler than that. Him which believeth in Jesus. I'm listening to what's going on downstairs for a second. Jesus Christ is the only way of salvation. Wherefore is boasting then, how many people do you see, boast of their great philanthropy, their salvation they have, I always think of, was it Egg McMahon that used to have the Publisher's Clearinghouse? He'd always have a picture, and being a mailman, we'd always deliver those things, and I'd hand out the Publisher's Clearinghouse things. Somebody might have won an ashtray or a bookend or something like that, and people were like, I thought Ed McMahon was going to show up at the door with a giant check. Look what I did. I passed this out. This shows the boasting. But without boasting, where is boasting then? It is excluded. No Christian can ever say, well, I'm favored of God because I did this. Because I fast like that Pharisee twice a day. Because I tithe of everything of my own. There's no boasting in that. I remember way back when we had a former Catholic priest I had gotten to know for several years, and he would talk about Mother Teresa would boast on her good works. Meanwhile, her nuns were writhing around on broken glass to be punished for the sins of the world. What does the Bible say? Jesus did that. Jesus did a complete work of that. Where is boasting then? It is excluded by what law? Of works? Nay, but by the law of faith. Again, take into account that faith has an object. It's Jesus Christ. Just as sure as there's a law of gravity, there's a law of faith in Christ. Don't let the charismatics get that out, because they'll believe the law of faith is that you can create things out of thin air. You can do creative miracles and the like, but this is sure and steadfast, that when we trust the Lord Jesus Christ, everything will be fulfilled. Therefore, we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law. We'll get more to it in Romans 3 and 4, dealing with Abraham's righteousness and how that ties in with faith. Let's go to Galatians chapter two. Again, I hate skipping around in these different areas and just going to a couple verses, but Galatians chapter two, Verse number... let's see where we're going to go here. Let's go right to verse 16. It says, "...knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ." Well, some translations will say, faith in Jesus Christ. Well, how can we have faith in Jesus Christ, but by the faith of Jesus Christ? His work. on the cross. Even we have believed in Jesus Christ that we might be justified by the faith of Christ and not by the works of the law, for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified." I was going to go down to verse Verse 20, I'm gonna stick with the rest of this though, it's only a few verses. Verse 17, but if while we seek to be justified by Christ, we also are found sinners, is therefore Christ the minister of sin? God forbid. Remember, it's not your works that keep you and justify you, it's the faith of Christ. And by sinners, he's saying here, you still have your flesh, you still sin. Is there anybody here that hasn't sinned in the last couple days? I don't think so. That's where all men are liars comes in, right? Because we all do. It's our flesh, it's our nature. We naturally do the things that we're not supposed to do. Romans chapter 7, by the way, that's a good place to go, dealing with that. For if while we seek to be justified by Christ, we also are found sinners, is therefore Christ the minister of sin? God forbid! For if I build again the things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor. In other words, the things that were destroyed was his obedience to the law. If he tries to build people up in the law, he makes himself a sinner, transgressing against Christ. You know, as a Pharisee, he would have said, you need to follow the law. I think I've shared this one about Helen's grandmother before. Everybody would split time while she was near the end of her life, and she was over the house one time, and I had just gotten home from work. I was in the bedroom, you know, just taking my shoes off and getting changed up, and I heard them in a shouting match, and they were arguing about the sacraments. You need to keep the sacraments. So I went and opened up Ephesians 2.8. Says, if by grace are you saved, through faith and not of yourselves, it's a gift of God. And she blurted out to me, this is what the religious mindset will do. She blurted out to me, that's heresy. You need the sacraments. I said to her, Memme, Are you calling the Apostle Paul a heretic? He says, I don't care who wrote that, he's a heretic. Because it goes against her teaching, the teaching of the religion. It was sad. It's sad that we have the, I think the truth is of the gospel is so, it's so amazing, so simple. And people hold on to those old ideas without going through the test of Scripture and receiving those things. I love verse 19. For I through the law, as the purpose of the law will point out sin, am dead to the law. that I might live unto God." Remember, earlier he counted all things but loss for the excellency of Jesus Christ, or of Christ Jesus. In verse 20, I think we can finish it with a few more verses. Verse 20, a great positional verse. A great verse for identity of who you are in Christ. I am crucified with Christ. That's the old you is crucified. For I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I. How can that be so? I'll ask the little guy on my shoulder here that says to do something that's wrong. Yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. Christ live in me and we live in Christ. You don't need any antivirus protection for that if that's your computer. Secure. safe and secure from all alarms. And the life which I now live in the flesh, oh, sometimes I wish this flesh would go away so I could have a new body. The older we get, the more we realize, the more we realize the groaning that we have in creation It's the groaning bones. The cracking. The things that don't bend that used to bend. All those groaning for the adoption. Waiting for the redemption. The life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God. It's not your life to live. It's the faith of the Son of God. Being in Him. who loved Me and gave Himself for me. In verse 21, I do not frustrate or cast off the grace of God. For if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain. Why? If people could be obedient to the law or they could be self-righteous, why would Jesus have come to this world? I had an old pastor that used to say this, and it stuck with me. He says, if Jesus, if you could do anything else to be justified before God, God would have to apologize to his son. Say, son, I didn't need to send you, I'm sorry, but that was a plan before the foundation of the world. God's foreknowledge knew the fall was going to happen. God's foreknowledge, He knew that His people were going to reject Him. And He sent Jesus in due time when He knew the time was right. Amen? It's amazing what liberty and freedom that you have being in Christ and having Christ in you. That's so liberating. Sin, last night, being at 45th class reunion, you could see the effects of people, the effects of sin. You could tell people that have lived a harder life, right? Because they're trusting in themselves and trusting in other things. rather than in the grace of God. While we're in the book of Galatians, let's go over to chapter three. Look at verse 22. Oh, let's go to 21. Maybe 20? Let's go to 21. You've got to stop me before I go up to the beginning. Verse 21, is the law then against the promises of God? I like that. I like when Paul answers a question that he has the answer to. Like a good lawyer, he always asks questions that he knows the answer to. Right? Is the law then against the promises of God? God forbid. For if there had been a law given which could have given life, verily righteousness should have been by the law. Right, but the law shows death. It points out sin. But the scripture, verse 22, but the scripture hath concluded all under sin. How many under the sin? Under sin, all. that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe. Man, there's that righteousness of God which is Jesus Christ, the faith of God which is Jesus Christ, all that we have in possessions given to them that believe. What a great team to go to bat with. and we have the presence of God, the indwelling of the Spirit, and we're in Christ. Let's go over to, I could go further here, let's go to Ephesians chapter three. Ephesians chapter three. Let's go down to, let's just start in verse number 10 through 12. I just wanted to go to 12, actually, just to make this one point, but verse 10 says, to the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God, according to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord, in whom we have boldness and access with confidence by the faith of Him. So we have this eternal purpose in Christ. I like that. I shortened it. Epic. E-P-I-C. Eternal purpose in Christ that we have access to by the faith of Christ. It's amazing. And if we get time, I'll go through all of Ephesians 3, but we'll move it along from here. Philippians 1.27. A couple more and then we'll bring this verse to a close. All right. I think I didn't put down where I was gonna go to. Oh, okay, yep. Let's go to verse, let's just, verse 27. Only let your conversation be as it becometh the gospel of Christ. So the gospel of Christ, that whether I come and see you or else be absent, I may hear of your affairs, that ye stand fast in one spirit with mind, striving together for the faith of the gospel. What is the faith of the gospel? Jesus Christ. died, buried, risen, and rose again. So the faith of the gospel, that's the object. Jesus Christ, the gospel, is the object of faith. Let's go to chapter 3 while we're in Philippians. Paul's Paul's testimony of where he was before Christ. Verse 7 says, But what things were gained to me, those I count at loss for Christ. Yea, doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ. I like that, to win Christ. It's not like he's in a battle to win Christ. He's got victory in Christ. He's at the finish line. It's a great part about even Christianity. You start at the finish line. It's been done, been paid for. Verse number eight, or nine rather, and be found in him. He, in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith. I haven't looked at by here, but I'm wondering if that is ek or ais. I would say it would be ek. by Christ or by faith from God, the faith that is from God, that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings being made conformable unto his death. Two more places. Colossians chapter two. Colossians chapter two. So buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God who has raised him from the dead. So it's the faith of the operation of God, right? And spiritual, the spiritual circumcision, not made without hand, the baptism in here is the spirit baptism, the one baptism that spoke out of an Ephesians chapter four. It's made without hands, just like the circumcision. We had the circumcision of the heart, the circumcision made without hands. Under the law, circumcision was required. So these things were identified in Christ. You're risen with Him through the faith of the operation of God, which raised Him from the dead. I like that, the operation of God. Operation, the term is energized. It was God's work, God's effort to send his son, God's effort in salvation. And you being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses. Like that, we're forgiven all trespasses, past, present, and future have been paid for, blotting out the handwriting of ordinances. Well, what does your handwriting of ordinances look like? Ordinances are laws, rules, regulations that was against you. The law, the 616 laws of the Bible were against you. You rolling through that stop sign is against you. But God's blotted it all out of the way because he took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross. Amen. What a salvation we have in Jesus Christ. Did I say that was the last one or one more? Titus chapter one. Titus chapter number one. I think I've covered this with two different topics in the past. Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ according to the faith of God's elect. My position is that God's elect is Jesus Christ himself here. Election pertains to elect angels, the elect city, Jesus Christ, and it refers to Israel, Chosen refers to those who have already been saved and are called to service as well. But it's the faith of God's elect and the acknowledging of the truth, which is after godliness, in hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie. as that theme promised before the world began, but hath in due time manifested his word through preaching, which is committed unto me according to the commandment of God our Savior. So, a summary. I didn't put down anything to summarize that. The summary is the complete salvation we have in Jesus Christ. Jesus was faithful to do His Father's will and to suffer, bleed, and die on the cross of Calvary. And it's in Him we live. I like that in the book of Acts. It's in Him we live and move and have our being. Everything that we do is based because of being in Him, because of His faithfulness to come and die on that cross, fulfilling the will of the Father, amen? The simplicity of it all. is that we just believe, believe the gospel, the good news that Jesus Christ died, was buried, and rose again. Amen.