Alright brethren, let's take
our Bibles and turn to Exodus chapter 4. Exodus chapter 4. Alright, Exodus chapter 4. Now
to show Moses how the children of Israel would hearken to the
word he preached. In order to show Moses how that
the children of Israel would hearken to the word he preached,
God gave him two signs. He gave him the rod of God and
he gave him the leprous hand that he cleansed. Now today we
are going to come to the last sign the water turned to blood. Now look at Exodus 4 and verse
9. It shall come to pass, God said,
if they will not believe also these two signs, neither hearken
unto thy voice, that thou shalt take of the water of the river,
talking about the Nile River in Egypt, take of the water of
the river, and pour it upon the dry land. And the water which
thou takest out of the river shall become blood upon the dry
land." Now notice after the first sign, after he gave that first
sign of the rod, God declared that through that sign, that
the children of Israel would believe that Moses truly was
sent of God. They would believe that God had
truly appeared to Moses and sent Him to preach the Word to them. Back up in verse 5, He said He
gave that rod that they may believe that the Lord God of their fathers,
the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob, hath
appeared unto thee. How are you going to know if
a man is sent by Christ to preach the Gospel? All he will preach
is Christ. All he will preach is the name
of the Lord. That's who Moses was sent to
preach and that's all he preached, the name of the Lord. And then
likewise, after the second sign, he said this sign is to make
them believe. Look here, he said verse 8, And
it shall come to pass, if they will not believe Thee, neither
hearken to the voice of the first sign, that they will believe
the voice of the latter sign. Through the preaching of Christ
crucified, those who are Christ's true people, those that He came
to save, they are going to believe on Christ. They shall believe
on Christ. You know those people always,
how do I know I'm the elect of God? I'm looking for some kind
of indication to know if I'm the elect of God. How do I know
if Christ died for me? Ain't but one way. Believe on
Him. That's how you know. Believe
on Him. And also, all Christ's people will receive the minister
that Christ has sent because they have spiritual discernment
to know that He's preaching the Word of God. He said there, they're
going to believe on Me and they're going to hearken to your voice.
They're going to receive you. And so they'll hearken and they'll
obey. But now look, both those signs were given to make them
believe. But this last sign was not. It
wasn't for those to make those believe. It was for those who
will not believe. Now look here, verse 9. And it
shall come to pass, if they will not believe, You see that? No word about believing here.
If they will not believe, also these two signs, neither hearken
to thy voice, that thou shalt take of the water of the river,
pour it upon the dry land, and the water which thou takest out
of the river shall become blood upon the dry land. Now what does
that mean, pouring this water out of the Nile on the dry land?
That water was their life. That water was how the That whole
delta was watered and fertilized and how they grew crops. So for
that water to be turned to blood meant death. That's what it meant.
So this, the water turned into blood is a picture of the judgment
of God poured out upon all who will not believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ. The water turned to blood is
a picture of the judgment of God poured out on all who will
not believe on Christ. Now this is serious, so I want
you to pay close attention to this. This is the most serious
thing you'll hear. I don't like to preach on God's
judgment, but it's true. I rejoice that God's just. I
rejoice that He does this in judgment because God's just.
Now look, the first cause for this judgment is because they
would not believe on Christ. That's the first cause. He said
in verse 9, it shall come to pass if they will not believe
also these two signs. Now, let's review a little bit.
The rod of God, that was the first sign, typified Christ and
Him crucified whom we preach. It typified Christ and Him crucified
whom we preach. Christ is the power of God. That rod symbolizes power. Christ
is the power of God. Christ is the righteousness of
God. He is revealed by God to His
people, to the believer through the gospel, through the preaching
of the gospel. What does it mean when it says
Christ is the power and the wisdom of God? In 1 Corinthians 1 it
says Christ is the power and the wisdom of God. What does
that mean? Well, Christ is the power and He is the wisdom whereby
God could He could justify the guilty. Now hear what I said. He could justify the guilty while
upholding His justice. Christ has the power and wisdom
of God to justify the guilty while upholding His justice. He is able to slay everybody
He saves and save them. How can that be? Slay them and
save them. He can give them the wages of sin, which is death,
and at the same time give them the gift of eternal life through
Jesus Christ. How can He do that? How can He
slay and save both? Only in Christ, who is the power
and wisdom of God. Christ partook of flesh and blood. You want to know what the word
partake means? He partook of flesh and blood
because His brethren, those He came to save, were partakers
of flesh and blood. Now how are you a partaker of
flesh and blood? That's what I am. When He says
you're made a partaker of the divine nature, that's what you
are. When He says you're a partaker of flesh and blood, that's what
you are. And that Christ came and partook of flesh and blood.
And when He did that, He did it because He came to take our
sins upon Himself. He came to be made sin for His
people. And so when He was made sin for His people, now God is
looking at nobody but Him because He's the head representing all
His family. And so God poured out judgment. He poured out justice on Christ
because Christ was guilty because He made Him sin for us. That
was the reason He came. God doesn't do anything unjustly.
He poured out justice on Him because He made Him guilty. And when He poured out justice
on Him, He slew Christ. He slew Him in justice. He slew
Him in justice so that His justice is satisfied. So that now justice
is satisfied for everybody Christ represented. For everybody Christ
shall call that justice has been satisfied for them. They are
justified by what He did. And at the same time God upheld
His justice. He honored His law so that God
is just. And so Christ is the righteousness
of God. He is the righteousness of Everyone
who calls on Him and truly believes on Him, He is our righteousness.
What does that mean? It means we are not trying to
look for righteousness anywhere else. It means now that we are
just before the all-knowing, all-seeing judgment seat of God. His people are just with no sin,
past, present or future. That's the good news. And God
did it honoring His justice. He hasn't let His law slip at
all in any way. So God says if they don't believe
the first sign, in other words, if they do not believe on Christ,
then judgment will be poured out. You see, if you're not in
Christ, you don't have anybody to bear your judgment for you.
All who are in Christ, that judgment was borne back there at Calvary.
If you're not in Christ, resting in Christ, cast all your care
on Christ, you're going to have to bear that yourself. You're
going to have to bear that yourself. And it won't be for just a little
while like Christ did on the cross because He's eternal. He
satisfied judgment on the cross. It will be forever because you
and I don't have the ability to ever satisfy justice. It's
going to be poured out always. And then the second sign was
the leprous hand cleanse. the leprous hand clean. Moses
was told to take his hand which was clean, put it in his coat
of his jacket and it was made leprous and he took it out and
God said, put it back in, he put it back in and it was made
clean again. And this is a picture showing how the blood of Christ
is applied to us through the washing of regeneration, renewing
of the Holy Spirit by which the blood is applied and makes us
clean within. It makes us clean from our sin
within. Leprosy is a picture of sin. All through Scripture,
leprosy is that picture of sin. Now here is the question Job
asked. Who can bring a clean thing out
of an unclean thing? The answer is not one. Religion? And churches everywhere are telling
you the way you can be sanctified, the way you can be purified,
the way you can be cleansed is by doing so many good works and
keeping the law and this and that. You want me to tell you
what that's like telling you to do? That's like telling somebody
that you can take an oily rag and clean that oily rag using
nothing but that oily rag. Who can bring a clean thing out
of an unclean? Not one. Not one. Christ is the fountain opened
for sin and for uncleanness. We sing, there is a fountain
filled with blood drawn from Emmanuel's veins and sinners
plunged beneath that flood lose all their guilty stains. John
said if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have
fellowship one with another and the blood of Jesus Christ His
Son cleanseth us from all sin. We don't do it. Christ does it. Christ does it. The Spirit of
God does it. This is a work that has to be done in us from without
and brought to within us and created within us so that we'll
be first brought to even believe on Christ and trust Him for this
cleansing. He has to be made our sanctification
and our sanctifier before we'll ever look to Him to do this rather
than trying to do it ourselves. John said, if we say we have
no sin, we deceive ourselves. And here's why we do it. The
truth is not in us. We're going to see here that
all this is vitally connected with the Word that's being preached.
If we say we haven't sinned, we're deceiving ourselves. The
truth is not in us. He says, if we confess our sins,
He's faithful and just to forgive us our sins, that's because He
justified us. That's our righteousness. And
He said, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. There is
Christ working within, being our sanctification. If we say
that we have not sinned, though, we make Him a liar. His Word
is not in us. Again, He said it, the truth
is not in us, the Word is not in us. This cleansing has something
to do with the Word, doesn't it? Has something to do with
the Word. Well, so these two signs, they typify Christ, the
righteousness, and the holiness of His people. The sanctifier,
the cleanser, the justifier of all who believe on Him. You know,
all who believe on Christ, this is what Scriptures say. The sweet
psalmist of Israel who is Christ. This is what he says to all who
believe on him. Blessed is he whose transgression
is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man to whom the
Lord will not impute iniquity. Why won't He do it? Because our
sins have been covered by the blood of Christ. Christ has justified
us and there is no sin to impute. because Christ justified us.
We are righteous in Christ. That's why. And then he says
this, And in whose spirit there is no guile. That means you've
been given a spirit so that now you're honest. You confess your
sin. Now you're honest, you confess,
Oh, Christ is the only one that can cleanse me. He's the only
one that can make me righteous. That's by this cleansing having
been done within by Christ. And that's a blessed man. In
their mouth was found no guile. Out of the mouth, where is that
coming from? Out of the heart. There was no guile in their mouth
because there was no guile in their heart. He gave them a new
heart. Christ did that to purify them. And they were without fault
before the throne of God. Christ justified them too. See,
that's a blessed thing to know You see, to be accepted of God,
you've got to be as perfectly holy as God and as perfectly
righteous as God. Now, but one who ever walked
this earth that that could be said about, and that's the God-man,
the Lord Jesus Christ. And everybody that He justified,
everybody that God put in Him and everybody in whom He dwells
are made righteous and holy by Him, by Him. Are there any of
His people here? Are there any vile, unclean,
unrighteous, hell-deserving sinners here who need Christ to be all
your righteousness and all your sanctification? Oh, taste and
see that the Lord is good. Blessed is the man that trusteth
in Him. Trust Him. Alright now, but God
says if they will not believe on Christ, if they will not believe,
then this judgment shall be poured out on them. Now, let's see the
second reason. That's the first cause, they
wouldn't believe on Christ. Now let's see the second cause
this judgment is poured out on them. Verse 9, He says there,
neither will they hearken unto thy voice. Neither will they
hearken unto thy voice. Now those who do not believe
on Christ will not believe the preaching of the gospel. Those
that do not believe on Christ will not believe a word I am
speaking. They will not. Moses was a sinner
just like me. He was a sinner just like I am.
There wasn't a good thing in Him by nature, just like me.
And He's described here not by name. He's described here only
as a voice. He said, neither will they hearken
unto thy voice. Remember John the Baptist? Before
Christ came, what did He do? He sent somebody to preach Him. He sent somebody to declare He's
coming. And that's what Christ is. Christ
is the King. You know, the King, before the
King came to town, what they would do is they would send a
crier. And He would go down the street and cry and say, the King's
coming, the King's coming. And everybody would come out
to the street and bow because the King's coming by. Well, before
Christ the King comes into His child, He's going to send a crier
crying out, the King's coming. And that's what the preaching
of the Gospel is, declaring the King's coming. And I pray He's
coming into your heart today. We're declaring the King's coming.
And they said to John the Baptist, are you the Christ? He said,
I'm not the Christ. What did he say he was? He said,
I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness. Make straight
the way of the Lord as was prophesied by Isaiah. That's all I am. I'm a voice. That's it. God's
servants are not to be worshipped, nor do they want to be worshipped.
But they are to be heard, and the word they preach is to be
hearkened unto. Moses was not Christ, but Moses
certainly was Christ's ambassador. And for that reason, he was to
be heard. And those that wouldn't hear
the gospel he preached was to be held accountable. Turn over to 1 Corinthians. I
want you to see this. That voice they refused to hearken
to when Moses went declaring the Word of the Lord was Christ's
Word. Because God's preachers just
preach Christ. That's it. And the one that they
rejected was the Word of Christ, because it was His Word. But
they wouldn't believe the preaching of the Gospel. They wouldn't
believe the preaching of the Gospel. Watch this, verse 18. For the preaching of the cross
Here, 1 Corinthians 1.18, the preaching of the cross is to
them that perish foolishness. What does that mean? It means
they're not going to come and hear it unless they just absolutely
have to. And then when they come and hear
it, they're going to try their best not to hear it because it
has no value to them. They think it's just utter foolishness
to hear it. But to us who are saved, it's
the power of God. It's the very way we hear and
continue hearing, by the power of God. Why is it though that
the preaching of the cross is foolishness to them who will
not believe? Why is the preaching of the cross foolishness to those
who will not believe? Because the one on the cross
whom we preach, they do not believe. That's why. Look. Look now at
verse 23. But we preach Christ crucified. Now we're not talking just about
the preaching. Now we're talking about the substance that we preach.
We preach Christ crucified. But unto the Jew, that man that's
trying to work for his righteousness and his holiness, Christ is a
stumbling block. He's going to get tripped up
if he's told he's got to drop his works. And that Greek who
is so worldly wise and thinks he's a grand philosopher, it's
foolishness to him. But unto them which are called,
both Jews and Greeks, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom
of God. You see that? So we believe Christ
to be the power of God and the wisdom of God, therefore we delight
to hear the gospel preached. Look over at Romans 1 with me.
Romans chapter 1. And he's called Jew. Paul hated
the Gospel. He was one of those Jews to whom
it was a stumbling block. He thought he was righteous and
holy by his own works. And so he did his best to snuff
out the Gospel. He didn't even want to preach.
He tried to kill all Christ's messengers because he didn't
believe Christ. He wasn't going to hear their message. But when
God saved him, now Christ is the power and wisdom of God to
him. Now he loves the Gospel. The preaching of the gospel.
Look here, Romans 1.16, I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. For it is the power of God unto
salvation to everyone that believeth. The gospel, the actual preaching
of the Word. We just saw the Lord said, if
you won't confess your sins, the reason is the Word is not
in you. The truth is not in you. You
see, you can't separate Christ the Word from the Word preached.
You can't separate Christ crucified from the preaching of the cross.
You can't separate them because God has united them together.
This is how He's going to say. And that preaching of the cross,
that preaching of Christ crucified is the power. That means it's
the dunamis. That means it's the dynamite
by which God's going to blow up that stony heart into His
people and give a heart of flesh. How does He do that? It's to
the Jew first and also to the Greek, verse 17, for therein
is the righteousness of God revealed. Who is that righteousness? Christ.
Revealed from the faith of Christ to those who have faith in Christ. We're going to see that in the
next hour. It comes to us from the faith
of Christ to those He's given faith to trust in Christ. See,
through this Gospel, through this Gospel, it's not a man that
the believer is hearing. You ever sit and heard the Gospel
preaching and you just lose sight of the man preaching? I've had
that happen. I couldn't tell you if he was
looking at his notes or not looking at his notes or looking at the
ceiling or standing on one foot. I don't know. I was listening
to Christ preach. That's what it is to the believer.
The voice is the voice of Christ. He says to us, now you're clean
through the Word which I have spoken unto you. That's what
you hear through the Gospel. That's the comfort. That's what
He said. Now go back with me to Exodus
chapter 4. I want to show you the difference
between those who hear the Gospel and those who don't hear it.
Look at Exodus 4 and verse 29. Moses and Aaron went and they
gathered together all the elders of the children of Israel. And
Aaron spake all the words which the Lord had spoken unto Moses,
and did the signs in the sight of the people. And the people
believed. And when they heard that the
Lord had visited the children of Israel, and that He had looked
upon their affliction, then they bowed their heads in worship. That's what we do, isn't it,
when we hear this Gospel preached. But now look and keep reading.
And afterward, Moses and Aaron went in and told Pharaoh, Thus
saith the Lord God of Israel. They went and preached God's
Word. Let my people go that they may hold a feast unto me in the
wilderness. And Pharaoh said, Who is the
Lord that I should obey His voice to let Israel go? I know not
the Lord, neither will I let Israel go. See the difference? See the difference? If a man
doesn't believe on Christ, he's going to consider the preaching
of the gospel to be unimportant and unnecessary. I used to try
to, you know, mistakenly, foolishly preach and, you know, urge you
to come and kind of try to guilt you into coming. I'm not going
to do that anymore. Those that God has made this
life unto, they're going to come. You don't have to beg a hungry
man to come to a table. He's coming. You don't have to
beg a thirsty man to take a drink of water. He's going to drink
it. I guarantee you that. And those God's made hungry and
thirsty. They'll be there. But the man that won't, he thinks
he's an exalted man. You ever notice that? How some
folks are just so concerned that they're going to exalt the man
by going and continually hearing him preach the gospel. I've heard
that. I've had that happen since I've
been here. But what he's really doing is proving he don't believe
Christ or else he'd submit to Christ's means of saving his
people. But those who believe on Christ consider the preaching
of the gospel the most important thing, the most necessary thing
there is of anything else in their life. We don't arrange
the preaching of the Gospel around whatever else it's worth doing
that we call our life. We arrange everything else around
the preaching of the Gospel. Because we got to have this.
Because this is the means by which God decided, He purposed
that He would save us from the beginning and continue to sustain
that faith to the end through the preaching of this Word. And
we know that and we got to have it. And so that's why Come. Now lastly, let's see here the
judgment of God. Now God said, if they will not
believe on Christ and they won't hearken to the voice of my minister,
then the just wage that they've earned for themselves must be
justly given to them in full. Now get what I just said. God
doesn't do anything except what's just. And so, And He gave to
Christ the just due of His people. And so justice to man, and He
gives Christ to us. And give us His righteousness
and His holiness and bring us into Him and save us through
faith in Him. But the man who won't believe
on Christ, who thinks he can stand alone outside of Christ
and doesn't need Christ, God is so just, He must give that
man the wages he's earned. And He will do that. And the
wages that man has earned is death. And God will give it to
him. Verse 9, He said, Thou shalt
take of the water of the river. This is the water of the Nile
River. It was life in Egypt. It made their ground fertile. It brought forth their crops
and all of that. So this is a picture of the Gospel
of Christ. You know, in Scripture, water
is often used to typify the Word of God, to represent the preaching
of the Gospel, the water of life. And so here the water of the
river pictures the gospel of Christ preached. It's poured
out. Right now it's being poured out
on everybody here. This water is flowing freely. He said, pour it upon the dry
land. That's what everybody is who He says, their dry land.
They're just dry land. All unbelievers come into this
world dry land, dead in their sin. And Christ pours out the
gospel on all dry sinners as He's preached. And to some, the
gospel is a savor of life unto life. To some, they find themselves
alive, they hear in it, and they find themselves alive and believe
in it. Believe in Christ. Trust in Christ. And through
faith, receive free justification from Christ. They receive Christ
their sanctification. He made sanctification unto them.
And you know what's happened? You know what the first miracle
was Christ performed? He turned the water into wine.
And that's what's happened. He's worked a miracle. He's turned
the water of the Word into wine. It's refreshing and sweet and
just cheers the heart to hear Christ pray. But to others the
same water is a savor of death and it's unto death. They refuse
to own that they're sinners. They refuse that salvation is
by free grace apart from their works. They refuse to believe
on Christ. They despise the preaching of
the gospel. And so that same word that's
made wine to some is made death to others. That's what the blood
represents. If you had a river and ponds
and everything full of blood, we wouldn't be drinking that
water. That represents death. And the water which thou takest
out of the river shall become blood upon the dry land. Remember
He said this because they wouldn't believe. Here the blood represents
death, the wages of sin. What's a wage? You earn it. You work for it. And at the end
of the day, if your employer is just, he gives it to you.
Well, God's just. And He gives the wage that men
have earned. If a man won't believe on Christ,
God hardens a man's heart in reprobation so that he cannot
hear and he cannot believe. And then when he meets God, he
comes into eternal condemnation. But get this now, God does it
for one reason only. God does it for one reason only,
because that man despised the preaching of the Gospel and would
not believe on Christ. It's the just wage that he earned. He earned it. Sinner, if you
believe on Christ and rejoice in the preaching of this Gospel,
it's only going to be by the grace of God so that God gets
all the glory. But just as true, If God hardens
your heart, it's going to be because you first hardened your
own heart. Guaranteed. God does nothing
but what is just. He doesn't punish people unjustly,
just randomly. He does it because they earned
it. Every sinner who meets God in Christ will do so because
God put them in Christ and revealed Christ unto them. That's why. But every sinner that meets God
outside of Christ shall have divine judgment poured out on
them because they earned it by their willful rejection of Christ.
You see, here's the point. God is not stopping anybody from
believing on Christ. He's not stopping anybody from
believing on Christ. Why then don't men believe on
Him? It shows us how we need Him to do something for us. And
it's through that message that He does something for us. But
the man who sits there and won't believe on Him, God's not done
anything to make him not believe. Whose fault is it that he won't
believe? It's his own fault. Sin's deceived him. He won't
believe. And a man will say, well, that's not fair. Why does
God fight a fight with me? Who are you to reply against
God? See, that's the problem. Turn to 2 Thessalonians 2. Let
me read this and we'll close. 2 Thessalonians 2. I don't want to see you perish.
And the Lord says, He had no pleasure in the death of the
wicked. He says, Repent, turn ye. Why will you die? We need Him to bless that Word
to make us do so. Look here, 2 Thessalonians 2.10. 2 Thessalonians 2.10. Let's begin reading after the
semicolon. He says, Because they receive not the love of the truth
that they might be saved. Now look at verse 11. And for
this cause, for this cause, God shall send them strong delusion
that they should believe a lie. You hear it every day. Tell somebody
the gospel. Well, here's what I believe.
I believe that, you know, God loves everybody and wants to
save everybody and He's trying His best if we'll just let Him.
God sent them strong delusion that they should believe a lie.
because we wouldn't bow to the fact that salvation is by God,
by His grace, and He gets all the glory. If you do anything
to save yourself, you're going to boast about it, and God ain't
going to have that. So He's going to save us by His
grace. But because they wouldn't receive it for this cause, God
has sent them strong delusion that they should believe a lie
that they all might be damned who believe not the truth but
have pleasure in unrighteousness. That's God sending them. God
says, here's my Son. Here's my Son. I sent Him. He died for my people. He laid
down His life. I've exalted Him. He's the only
way to come into my presence. By His works alone. God says,
believe on Him. Trust Him. And you'll be saved. But God says, if you won't, if
you will not seek Him, if you will not cast your care on Him,
there's nobody to blame but yourself. If you call on Him, I guarantee
you He'll have mercy on you. I know that because this sinner
called on Him and found mercy. And I guarantee you when you
call on Him, it'll be because He brought you to call on Him.
And you'll give Him all the glory for doing it. Because you'll
see that if He wouldn't have done it, you never would have called
on Him. And just as true, those that don't call on Him have nobody
but to blame but themselves. If we're saved, we've got nobody
to glory in but God. And if we're damned, we've got
nobody to blame but ourselves. That's true. Why? Because God
said the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal
life through Jesus Christ our Lord. You see, damnation is a
wage earned. Salvation is a gift given and
it's in Christ. I pray He make you hear that,
make you believe on it. This is serious business. I mean,
you are hearing the true God preached here and you don't come
under the sound of the Gospel and leave in a neutral state.
You come under it either brought to bow and worship Him or you
leave out now having heard it and now having rejected the true
and living God. That will come back to you again. You will hear
these words again if you don't believe on them in the Day of
Judgment. God will say, I sent my word
to you, you wouldn't believe on me. That's serious, isn't it? That
ought to make us take everything He's given us, every advantage
He's given us. He's given us the gospel, He's
given us the scriptures, He's given us parents and sisters
and brothers that believe and can help teach you. He's given
you a pastor that tries every week to preach the truth to you.
You've got sermons online, you've got sermon notes online, you've
got articles online, you've got bulletins online. I mean, you've
got anything you want at your disposal if you want to seek
God. I take advantage of it. That's
what the Scriptures call light. God said, walk in the light I've
given you. I'll give you some more light. I pray He'll make
you do that. Amen. Let's stand together. Father, we thank You for the
Word. We ask now that You would make it effectual and make us
really hear. Pour that water on us and turn
it into wine. Glorify Your name, glorify and
exalt Christ and make us bow and worship You and rejoice,
Lord, that You haven't left anything in our hand. We pray for these
ones who are lost and don't know You. Lord, it might be somebody
that thinks they know you. It might be me. Lord, if it is,
make us know you. Make us know you for the first
time. Cause us to bow and worship you. And Lord, do it. Do it. Do it speedily. I'm afraid we're
going to lose them. We know you won't lose them.
Lord, make them hear. Make them rejoice. Make them
praise Christ your Son. We ask it in his name. Amen.