"As Easy As...?": "First Thing First..."

Dean Elliott teaches from Romans 3 and Psalm 51. Today, we will cover the second of three areas of repentance: the provisions of the

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:01

This morning we will look at the third installment in this series. And we will spend most of our time in Romans chapter 3. I'd invite you to turn there in your Bibles or direct, appoint your devices to that. But first we will plant our flag where? Well, in Psalm 51, we'll continue to use it as a template, and today we want to begin looking at the second of three areas that David, in his masterpiece, Contemplation on Repentance in Psalm 51, we will look at the second of three areas that are important to repentance. The first one was, hopefully you will remember this, confession. And But before we get there, I want to talk a little bit about the relevance, the relevance of this message. If you could throw, Jeff, that slide up there, the first one. Anybody recognize what that probably is? That dates from the early 30s. That is the construction of the Golden Gate Bridge. Construction began, I believe, on January the 5th, 1933. It was one of the most unbelievably expensive projects that had ever been taken on in the world. And what is interesting to me is that it was the first project where they put a safety net underneath the bridge. You can kind of see it there. What happened was when they started out, they had some people fall, and when you're falling from that distance, even if you hit water, it's terminal. It's like hitting concrete. In any event, they put a safety net in it. And here's a couple of the results. First of all, it was expensive. This was before the days of OSHA. They didn't have to do it. They did it because there was almost a mutiny among some of the workers, especially after a couple fell to their death. And so they put the nets in. It was very, very, very expensive. It added quite a bit of expense to the project. It was 10 feet on either side, designed to catch anyone who fell from the bridge. And here's what the results were. Not only did it save 19 confirmed falls that would have resulted in death, there were 19 people whose lives were saved. Interestingly enough, the 19 members dubbed themselves club members of the Halfway to Hell Club. Interesting and kind of ironically relevant to what we're talking about today. Here's a couple things that they discovered. Number one, workers exceeded their expectation of what they would accomplish once the net was in place. They worked faster, they worked better, they were able to focus on what it was that they were supposed to do without worrying whether or not their next mistake could send them to their death. In the three pieces that we've looked at or that we will look at it from Psalm, we looked at the confession first and today we will begin to look at the provisions that have to be revisited every time someone fails. Whenever you're repenting, you have to confess, not because God needs to hear you tell him what you did. He knows what you did, right? But he asked for the confession, and confession is an important part of the rehearsal process in one's contemplative attempt to kind of grasp the gravity of what they've done or what the problem is. And we've learned from the previous two messages that it always needs to include more than just the behavior. It includes the source of the behavior, the iniquity, as David describes it, as well as the rebellion in the heart of a man or a woman, a person who fails behaviorally. There's always a source to it in the heart, and David confesses those things. You throw that next verse up there, Jeff, we'll take a look very quickly at a verse that is an important transition. Psalm 51 verse 6, the confession has been before that, but verse 6 he comes down and this should, if you were here last week, you should find this familiar. I said, behold, David knew what God wanted. He said, behold, you desire what? Truth in the inward parts. That's why I want you to confess. I need you to understand what you've done. And if you're willing to be honest on the inside of yourself, If you're willing to be honest and straightforward about what is happening and what happened. In exchange for that, David articulates a promise when he says in the hidden place, that place inside of a person that actually meets with God, God will meet with him there. And in exchange for truth, God says, I'll give you wisdom. I'll show you how to find life. even though you deserve death. Are you following me on that? Confession is before. The second part has to do with the provision that David will rehearse in his heart. It's the way that God, it's the beginning. The title of this sermon is First Things First. When it comes to repentance, when it comes to getting right with God, There's something that has to be true and it has to be taken care of first. It can't be second. As a matter of fact, anything that follows or would normally follow or that would be the end in the progress of repentance would be irrelevant if this is not true. Throw that next verse up. We'll take a look at one verse. A lot of meat on the bone. I tend to get into detail, so this is hard for me. There is a whole lot of meat on the bone, left on the bone. But I want to look at the very next verse. Notice what he says. He says, Purge me with hyssop. And what does he say? I shall be clean. Wash me and I shall be whiter than snow. David contemplatively and poetically uses two rites or rituals that took place in the Old Testament. And even though he didn't act these out, he uses them metaphorically to describe what is going to have to happen. What is the provision of God? Now, what's interesting is, is when he says purge me, he's actually saying remove the guilt or remove the death expectation of my sin. Take it away from me with hyssop. Now, there's only one place that I know of where the rite of hyssop or hyssop is used. You know what it is. There's a whole lot going on here, but basically it is during the Passover. And David writes this before the captivity period when a lot of the Passover took place in the temple area. Before that, Passover was the... right that took place in the home. And it was officiated by daddy. And before they went to the temple to do this and get their lamb slain, dad would take a lamb that had been set aside and he would kill that lamb. Dad would do this. He would slice its neck and as it bled to death, it would give its blood. The blood would be collected in a basin and then the blood, what? Hyssop, looks kind of like a stalk that we used to find around tanks, water ponds. It was kind of a bulbous thing that would soak up. Take that, put it in the blood and then he would do what? He would pat the door, lentils side and posts and top, and it would be a reminder of what? And then dad would go in and explain that although we deserve death, God, because of the blood of the what? Lamb will pass over us. What's interesting about this is he uses it and talks about it as if, God, you are my daddy, my father. Would you take the blood that has already been shed? It's totally mysterious at this point. In the book, in Psalm 51, it assumes that the shedding of the blood has already taken place. And David is asking, reminding himself that God, his father, must what? Perform this rite, so to speak, in his heart. Take blood. And this time it's not lentils. Notice what it said. It said, purge who? Me with hyssop. And so he does that. And if that's not clear enough, there's a couple of things. Number one, this is probably the most common understanding that would have been available to the people of Israel. It was in David's time. It was the most intimate family type thing. The father officiated. And here in this instance, we see that the blood has already been provided somehow. Later on, later on, David will say that because of what you do in purging me with hyssop, I will be able to participate again in the commemorative stuff that takes place at the tabernacle and temple in other words he's saying i will be able to worship publicly if metaphorically i can understand that you father have healed me or forgiven me or cleansed me from my sin And it's not clear he uses another event when he says, wash me and I'll be whiter than snow. The washing in the Old Testament was mostly involved with someone who had been healed of an issue, particularly when he says whiter than snow. What is he talking about? It's very relevant to repentance. Leprosy was considered an outward, physical, fleshy manifestation of a problem that on the inside. To heal the leprosy on the outside was to give visible evidence that healing had been, what, taking place probably all the way to the inside. And then afterwards, in order to be restored to the fellowship of the community, he would, what, wash himself. And so both of these events, clearly, clearly, couple things, very important. Whenever a person fails or falls off their bike, so to speak, spiritually and they sin first thing that they have to do is they have to confess this is what I did that confession is not for God do you hear me God knows that confession is for you to rehearse carefully what happened this is what happened God I rebelled against you. Sin, it's abundant in my life, but particularly it is there when I rebel and do what I know is wrong. And this flows out of me because I was born in iniquity. There's something wrong with me. That confession takes place. But then, and this has happened with my best of friends, when I have failed and I share my confession with other people, they will immediately do what? You gotta get back together. into the understanding that God is your father, that you belong to him, and that his forgiveness of your sin is what? It's unconditioned. It's conditioned only on the blood that is provided by the sacrificial lamb. That was an understanding even in the Old Testament. That theology of atonement. is made available to all of us in the new covenant. And so we wanna invite you, if you're not already there, to turn over to Romans and we'll pick up there. In the book of Romans, we've already seen some of Paul's confession. We don't know the details. We know the gory details of David. Paul spares us the gory details of his own covetousness. But one of the things that happens is that in most of the book, in the front part of the book, there is not a confession, but there's a confrontation of do you really understand what sin is all about? He goes through, there's a lot of meat on the bone between chapters 1 and chapters 3. There is the understanding of someone who should know that they're a sinner because they have the law. There is a whole section there that's absolutely fascinating about pagans who should know that they're sinners because of their conscience. There are a group of people who are giving themselves over to sin, and God's allowing it, and they don't want anybody to judge them, and they won't judge anybody in exchange and then there's other people that we're told about who are so busy judging other people that they ignore their own problem we come down to the section in chapter 3 and I want to start there with some conclusions not a confession but a confrontation of sin it becomes a conclusion it's a hard guys it is a hard period conclusion Romans 3.23, for all, what? All. Are there any exceptions? There's not one. Paul will even admit that among men, among us, just among us, some of us might be able to boast over others. According to the rules of men, some of us may have done better and have something to boast about. But never before God because before God all, everyone falls short of his glory. And that glory and that falling of glory doesn't just includes deeds that are obvious but those that are hidden and they go all the way into the heart of a person who is born with a little bit of a fist in the air. I'm gonna do what I wanna do, I'm gonna find life. There's a little bit of that going on here. Look with me, chapter 3. We will start with verse 10, just very quickly. Paul comes to these conclusions as it is written, there are, there is none righteous. No, not one. There is none who really understands. I'm up against it this morning. We're all up against it. Do you realize that there is fog when it comes to this stuff? And some of it is deliberate on our part. Some of it is because we're sinners and sin has that effect. It makes things foggy. But in any event, there's no one who quite understands what is talking about unless God reveals it to them. There is none who seeks after God. God had to take me and bring me kicking and screaming. into his presence he had to hurt me enough on the outside that I wanted a solution look at verse 12 they have all turned aside they have together become unprofitable there is none who does good no not one challenge I've seen some people do some good things in my opinion I've done some good things what is Paul saying Okay, you may have something to boast about among your friends. Your city may throw a banquet and give you a plaque. When I was in high school, four years of high school, I got a G award every year. G stands for Grand Saline High School. It also stands for good, okay? Did it mean anything? Or is Paul lying or is he just using hyperbole to make his point? No, nobody does anything good. Their throat is an open tomb. What that means is they're constantly speaking things that are lies, that are defensive. Listen to people's mouth long enough and they will reveal themselves to be what they are. Their throat is an open tomb, and with their tongues they have practiced deceit. The poison of asps is under their lips, whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed bloodshed. And you're thinking, I've never wanted, I've never tried to kill anybody. Jesus said, well, did you ever want to? Did you ever hate somebody's guts so much that you didn't even want to run into them or ever talk to them again? That if you saw them coming, you would make sure that you found a way to avoid them. Their feet are swift to shed blood. Destruction and misery are in their ways. They suffer for all of this, but they can't quite put it together. The way of peace they have not known. There's no fear of God before their eyes. The whole world stands guilty before a holy God. God himself has to provide the blood. God himself... has to apply the blood to the lentils of our heart, so to speak, to bless us, to forgive us. God has to heal the manifestation of our sin by what? Working from the inside out to cleanse us. What we see then is this conclusion. Summary is in verses 19 and 20. They are important verses for those of you who have any teeny tiny little bit of legalism inside of you. The law is a good thing. It'll tell you what's wrong with you. It will not fix it. It will show you where you're broken. It won't fix you. And if you try to keep the law to fix yourself, it will only get worse. It's not that you don't need fixing. It's just that your ability to keep rules is anything but helpful, it's destructive. Verse 19 says, now we know that whatever the law says, and let's bring the Gentiles into it, okay? Ready to put your Gentile on and march into the front and center? Law was given to who? Jewish people. We know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are what? Under the law, the Jews. that every mouth may be stopped. Here's what you're supposed to do when you read the Old Testament. You read the Old Testament and you say, well, I would have never done that. Boy, I just don't know why anybody would see a woman on the rooftop, take her, maybe rape her, then kill her husband and then kill a whole platoon of troops around it. I would never do that. Maybe you wouldn't do that deed. But if you look through the Old Testament, the Old Testament consistently, for those who read it rightly, will show that the failure that they experienced is yours. Look what he says. This is incredible. He says that every mouth may be stopped and all the world may become what? Guilty.

UNKNOWN: 21:24

Guilty.

SPEAKER_00: 21:27

Therefore, verse 20, and he'll say this several times, by the deeds of the law, no flesh shall be justified. Justified is a word declared righteous, righteous, judged righteous, righteous. Nobody's going to be righteous by keeping a law or a set of rules. No one will be justified in his sight. I think it's interesting, throws the phrase in, it might be somebody else's sight that you will achieve justice. some kind of righteousness, but not before God. For by the law is what? All it can do is give you knowledge of sin. And we'll look at the first thing. Now, studying scripture, when you pick up a thread of scripture, it's very much like getting on a roller coaster. You need to ride the ride to the end because it's dangerous if you try to get on or off anywhere in between. Amen? Now, what we're about to talk about is where we get on the roller coaster of God's will and his love and his provision for having life. And it may sound a little, well... Cheesy, some people have called it, I just don't believe that, and that's the problem. God has to give an unconditional forgiveness to the sinner who trusts in Jesus Christ, and that's where you start. What this means, and we will get to some of those consequences later, Whatever you may develop in your life from this point on, whatever victories you may have in Jesus, whatever sins you may avoid, whatever good decisions you may make, if they're made by the power of the Spirit, good for you. But they will never be enough, never be enough to replace God the Father taking the blood of Jesus with the hyssop and purging you. and washing you you can't be cleansed any other way notice what he says now the righteousness of god apart from the law is revealed he will say earlier on in 117 we're not going to go back jeff i skipped those but earlier on he said one of the things about the gospel is it's good news for you right Oh, man, it's great news for me. Do you realize it's good news for God? Because in the gospel, God is able to answer the two big apologetic questions that everybody wonders about God. Is God just and does he love people? Which is it? Is it one or the other? I don't see how he can do both. In the gospel, there is a declaration of the righteousness of God. He is just. Sin will be dealt with as sin and paid for as sin. Furthermore, it will be love. It will be handed to you who trust in Christ so that he can love you even though you stink of sin. How does he do that? Verse 21. Now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed. Being witnessed by the law and prophets. Very interesting statement. And he'll make it very clear that no one has ever been saved or forgiven because they cleaned themselves up. Even in the Old Testament, before Christ died on the cross, men would humble themselves, women would humble themselves, and they would trust, even as David in Psalm 51, they would trust, even if they couldn't say what it was, that there would be a provision made that God would use to what? Justify them and make them righteous, and they trusted in that. In any event, he says, being witnessed by the law and prophets, and we would include something like Psalm 51. In verse 22, he says, even the righteousness of God, and then this gets very specific. You know, sometimes we feel comfortable when we run into somebody and they believe in God, don't you? Sometimes we feel comfortable and more of a kindred spirit to somebody who is able to talk in a positive way about God or morality or the law or maybe for you it's politics. Maybe that's where you establish a common ground with somebody. You feel better about them. This is very specific. And he says what this cleansing that we need that God provides only takes place, only takes place. We're the exclusivists. That's why people don't like us. I'm not asking people to clean their lives up. I'm asking them to put their complete confidence in the person of Jesus Christ. It's not enough to believe in God. It's a good start, but it's not enough. Notice what he says in verse 22. Notice this. To all and on all who believe. In other words, I want you to see this. It is whose righteousness? It's God's. And if you believe in Jesus, he's willing to place it on you. It will never be yours. It will only be God's given to you because he looks at your faith and says, okay, you can have it. In other places, he calls it eternal life, the gift of eternal life. Even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ To all and on all who believe. In other words, I don't see any distinction. It's everybody who can believe. It's not easy believism. There's a lot of people we're looking at and go, nah, too easy. It's too bad. It's the only way. For there is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory. By the way, if you read this rollercoaster ride of an argument, it starts here. You get on the rollercoaster ride by accepting your sinfulness and the only solution in Jesus Christ by believing in him. But you get in it, and Paul is constantly reminding them it has to be this way. It has to be this way. It has to be this way. Why? Look in your heart and be honest with what's there. and you will see over and over again all the evidence you need that Jesus had to do this for you for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God being justified this word is to be declared righteous independently of what the evidence of behavior might be it's to be called righteous it's to be he will later use the word impute it's to be assigned a righteousness that is not readily seen in you it's not yours but it's to be assigned to righteous declared righteous it's legal legal adoption being notice what he says for all of sin being justified and then we see three characteristics of it first of all it's free amen but it's not inexpensive It's free to you, and he will do it freely to anyone who believes in Jesus. He says freely, being justified freely by his great, look, this word, his grace, his unmerited favor, through what? Redemption that is in Jesus Christ. Now, this redemption, just a big word, you know, that you hear theologically. I hope people explain it or understand it. What it means is Jesus paid the price. The contemplation of Jesus on the cross and reading through the Gospels and what he suffered sometimes feels anemic. He just died. He suffered one bad afternoon. They whooped him. But the hell that he experienced was far deeper because he bore the sin of the world in that death. He experienced separation from God. He experienced, in a sense, hell alone. So that we wouldn't have to, so that he could become the safety net and catch everybody who was, what, halfway on their way to hell. It's what Jesus did. Expensive to him, free to us. Verse 25. The other thing is, is it goes to the holy of holies. It goes to the secret place inside of all of us. that we can go to. He says, whom God set forth as a propitiation. Another one of those big words, I'm sorry. But I'm gonna tell you what it means. In Greek, it's the word hilasterion. And it actually is the translation of the word mercy seat. Now, those of you who are Old Testament scholars know that the secret place that David referred to in his Psalm, that God would meet him there, refers to this holy place where God would meet with people so to speak, and it was a mercy seat. It's where God met with men. And what had to happen there? Blood had to be there. Sin had to be atoned for. It was where God met and gave peace to people who didn't deserve it. Now, if you're one of those people who feel like you deserve peace from God without blood, without mercy, in the hidden part of your heart before the throne of God. Everything else in the New Testament fits a description of Jesus, the slain lamb of God, standing before the throne of God as a never-ending reminder of his ability to satisfy God's anger for sin. If you don't need that, then you can turn your ears off. But if you're like me and everybody else that Paul is talking to, if they hear in his voice and in his words, a condemnation of my heart, then you're gonna want it. You're gonna want the free gift of eternal life. You're gonna want to be able to come yourself in prayer before the mercy seat and have Jesus intercede and says, this one can come. This one is one of ours. The father will listen, not because they're good, but because they are forgiven. That'll be important in a little bit, but we see that it's free, it's expensive, it's in the inward part, whom God set forth as a propitiation by his blood through faith. And then we see that God does get something out of it. I like to think that God so loved the world that he gave his son. Whosoever should believe in him should not perish but have eternal life. Well, there's another side to it. Aside from his love for humanity, his commitment to humanity was so great that Jesus would become what? Now, that's commitment, that he would become flesh and dwell among us and become human himself. And doing that, as weird as that is, there is this dilemma that arises in the heavens. And the voices of God's enemies and the doubters and naysayers of this world will say, okay, God is not just if he does not what? Judge sin a certain way. God is not loving if he brings judgment the way he should. Which is it, one or the other? Look at verse 23. Verse 25, whom God set forth as a propitiation by his blood through faith to demonstrate what? To demonstrate his answer to those questions. Do I love people? Does God love people? He loves them so much he would pay his ultimate price of his son. Will he judge sin? He hates sin so much. that he demands that his son pay for it. That's his answer to the critics. He goes on, he says, to demonstrate his righteousness because in the forbearance of God, God had passed over sins that were previously committed. In other words, before Jesus died on the cross, God was still looking forward to the day when Jesus would actually pay for them and he would grant what? Kind of a temporary forgiveness or kind of a, what would be the word? He would basically say, I'll give you a pass now based on your trusting me for what Jesus is going to do. Notice what he goes on. He develops this. To demonstrate at the present time his righteousness that he might be what? That he might be just and the justifier of the one who what? Believes in Jesus. That's why the gospel has to be free. That's why the gospel has to be faith by faith. Wow, I'm all sweaty. This is where you get in on. This is where you get on board with Jesus. You can't go on later to a problem. The problem that you might have in life or in your family or in your marriage or in your job may drive you back into this situation. But a relationship with God does not begin any other place unless God looks at you and sees your faith in Jesus and what? Declares you righteous. We will later see. Turn over. Next week we will look at this more closely. I don't want you to think that I'm not interested in what happens in your life yesterday or tomorrow or around you. I'm interested. Most of us are more concerned about how things are going in the family. Most of us are more concerned about our day-to-day life until we get sick or somebody dies, and then we turn our attention to this passage. Look at chapter 5, verse 1. This is what Paul will say, therefore having what? Having been justified by faith. In other words, he's talking to people who are believers. If you've believed in Jesus, then you've been declared righteous. Nobody may be able to tell from your behavior. They may mistake you for the pagan. Sorry, couldn't help but throw that in. You could respond by, well, it doesn't really matter what you think. And on one level, you'd be right. But what he says is, therefore, having been justified. It's past perfect tense. Don't like to get into tense. But past perfect tense means this is something that has already happened in your life. It's done. Having, therefore, been justified by faith, what do you have? What do you have? You have peace with God. Let me explain to you, this is not the inward, oh man, I feel better. It may include that, but it will probably be the inward I feel better because God is no longer at war with you. He set up a place in the battlefield between him and sin and he set up a place and he said, all who come here and trust my son, what? I won't be at war with them. They get to escape my hostility, my wrath. which is what this book is about. Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Look at the next verse. Through whom also. Now you can go to the mercy seat and you can talk to God personally about the problems of life. It's not that God doesn't hear everything. that everybody prays. It's not that he doesn't respond graciously sometimes, but you have a special audience because you've trusted Christ and the blood of Christ has prepared a mercy seat for you to go and find audience with God. The key to the spiritual life is using that audience. A couple of applications and then we'll move into the rest of our service. We'll have an opportunity to celebrate the Lord's table, perhaps with a new understanding of what that cup represents and what that cracker represents. All real worship of God and amazement with his grace and appreciation of his grace is going to be found in putting yourself in this place and rehearsing and remembering how awesome God's grace is no matter. Here's one application. No matter how well you're doing, it's never going to be good enough. Furthermore, the shame game is a terrible way to live the spiritual life. Oh, I'm ashamed. I'm afraid I'm going to be seen. I'm afraid I'm going to be found out. I'm afraid something's going to happen. Terrible way to try to conduct your life and shape yourself up and meet other people's standards. You know, it matters. It matters. It matters in our community that we not offend one another, that we get along. It matters about our reputation to the wider community of what kind of people we are in Christ. It matters. But it doesn't matter. It doesn't. matter it may matter because the wages of sin is still what death might not want to die the way i often think about it is is that when god justifies you for believing in his son he pays the fine the tickets paid for okay not going to go to jail not going to suffer the consequences of that but if you were jaywalking in the middle of the interstate just because you're fine for jaywalking is paid for, doesn't get you off the highway and doesn't get you or keep you from being splattered all over the pavement. Believers in Jesus Christ splatter all over the pavement just like non-believers, as we will see, when they deal with the consequences of their sin. But it really helps when you're out in the middle of the freeway and you want to get off and not get splattered that you have somebody there to call out to. Amen? Biggest application is this. If you don't trust Christ, you have no safety net. It's not just that we will notice your failures and go, oh. It's that your failures can be a free fall plummet where? To hell.

UNKNOWN: 41:16

To hell.

SPEAKER_00: 41:17

I mean, you're supposed to get that. I grew up with hellfire and brimstone preaching and I learned to fear it and I trusted Christ to get away from it. And so I'm not trying to stir it up, but I gotta tell you something. If you have not trusted Christ and him alone, there is no safety net. Your failures are complete and total and they condemn you. The only one escape, it's through the blood and the body of Christ. who took your sins upon him and then shed his blood so that you could be declared righteous. His price freely to us. We celebrate with communion. If you haven't done that today, I very rarely give an altar call. I'm not going to give one now. But if you have never trusted Christ or if you have any doubts, I'm not questioning your works. I'm not trying to figure out whether you're the real deal or not by your works. I'm just asking you, do you believe in Jesus? And you're trusting him. And when you get to heaven, you're not going to pull out your resume and say, well, you know, I did this. I went to Cleveland Bible Church. I worked in some of the most difficult ministries that they have there. You know, I put up with a lot of stuff from people. Well, you just look at what I put up with. That will be set aside and it might be worth something at the judgment seat of Christ. But whether or not you get to go to heaven or not, it will be totally irrelevant. It will only be whether your name is written in the Lamb's Book of Life, whether or not you trusted Jesus and him alone. Amen? Stand with me. After I'm done praying, I'm going to invite you to exit from your row on the left. Come down and take these elements. Return to your seats on the right, and we will take them together in celebration. If you're not ready, don't worry. What we think doesn't matter. you can walk right by. Take these elements in worship of faith in Jesus Christ. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for the gospel and for your grace. We thank you that because of the truth of the gospel, your righteousness is magnified. You are just and hate sin and will deal with sin. You are also holy and loving and you love people enough to offer them Forgiveness because of the great expense that your son paid. I pray, Father, for those, all of us, that we would worship you through that. But I would also pray, Father, for anyone who wonders whether or not they've trusted in your son. We pray for this time of celebration in Christ's name. Amen.