All right, we'll be in Mark chapter
10. Mark 10, verses 1 through 16. Now the Pharisees in our text,
they come and tempt Christ to speak against Moses and the law. But our wise Savior, knowing
what they're about, he answers them from the word of God, and
he shows us what a true and faithful pastor and husband. Since the
fall of man in the garden, man has continue to attempt to divorce
himself from God, his creator. In terms of reverencing God,
in terms of honoring him and obeying him in all things, man
seeks to throw off God, to divorce themselves from him and to imagine
and pretend that God does not exist. But Christ, as a faithful
husband who loves his betrothed bride, He wasn't moved, even
though we rebelled against him and we sinned in Adam, it didn't
move Christ to cast us off and to reject us and to throw us
away, but rather, he determined, he agreed to come and to fulfill
the righteous obligations of the covenant of grace, to put
away our sin and to make us a spotless bride, a perfect bride, without
wrinkle and without blemish, and to gather to himself that
beautiful bride whom he loves and gave his life for her. So our text today speaks of marriage
and divorce and children and through the Lord's instruction
what we have here is a better understanding of Christ's faithfulness
as a husband to us, to the church, his bride. And so our title is
Christ the faithful husband, and we're first going to look
at his faithfulness to wash us in the word, and then we'll look
at Christ, our faithful husband, and what he says about marriage,
because he is qualified to speak of these things like no other,
and then his faithfulness to receive his children. We'll close
with that. So let's begin this point, this
first point of his faithfulness to wash us in the word, looking
actually at Ephesians 5. And once you go to Ephesians
5, put a marker there because we're going to come back to Ephesians
5 in the second point. So Ephesians 5, verse 25 through
27. We'll read. Husbands, love your wives, even
as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it, that
he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water
by the word, that he might present it to himself a glorious church,
not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that it should
be holy and without blemish. This is exactly how our chapter
opens, is Christ preaching. He's teaching the word to the
people. And that's because his word goes
forth and he sends it out searching for his people. He's searching
for anyone whom the Spirit has opened their ear and made them
to hear what the Spirit says to the churches. So he sends
this word out. Let's look at it, Mark 10, 1.
And he arose from there, and cometh into the coasts of Judea
by the farther side of Jordan, and the people resort unto him
again, and as he was wont, as he tended to do, he taught them
again. So here we see Christ, the faithful,
the fervent preacher of the gospel. And he's continuing now. He's
been there among these people for years now. And he continues
patient. He continues faithful. and he
perseveres, continuing to teach and to preach the Word of God. And this is all because he's
seeking out his lost bride. He says in Luke 19.10, For the
Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost. He has a people whom he is seeking
out, and so he's faithful to continue to send that word out,
knowing that it's going to produce the fruit that God has intended
it to produce. It's going to reach the ears
of his people, and the Spirit is going to meet that word and
give them life and enabling them to hear it and to believe it,
to receive that word. And so Christ is ever faithful. He didn't give up. He didn't
cease to do his work. He was never idle. And in Isaiah
32, 20, especially This is good for this time of year, we that
are gardeners and sowers. He says, Blessed are ye that
sow beside all waters, that send forth thither the feet of the
ox and the ass. Those that will cast that gospel
seed out as far as they can send it, and cast it every and anywhere
that that word may go, because We don't know where the Lord's
going to produce fruit from. We don't know in which ear he's
going to receive that word and hear it and believe the truth.
Our faithful Lord said in John 9, verses 4 and 5, I must work
the works of him that sent me. While it is day, the night cometh
when no man can work. As long as I am in the world,
I am the light of the world. And so our Lord knew he was going
to the cross very soon. And he had a people, he had a
work to do, and he was speaking those things that had to be spoken,
that true doctrine. And many heard him, but few actually
understood him. Most did not understand because
they had no ear to hear what he was saying. And some understood
it, right? Some understood the word. They
had some learning in the word, but they didn't believe it, and
they despised him for speaking the truth of that word. And yet,
even in the midst of their stoned faces, their hatred of hearing
that, he remained faithful because that word wasn't for them. It
was for the benefit of his people. It was for the benefit of his
bride that she might hear the voice of her beloved Savior calling. So Christ, he was betrothed to
his bride from all eternity. This wasn't just a quick thing
that God whipped together to bring together some people for
a son, but instead he chose out a bride from all eternity for
his son, and Christ was not going to abandon her. We abandoned
him. We treated him wrongfully and
shamefully, and we tried to cast him off, but Christ loved his
bride and he remained faithful to her to come and do that work
of salvation for her. The church, she became spotted,
defiled, polluted in sin, doing that which is not lawful to do,
and that which is not righteous and holy. Yet Christ gave himself
for the church, that he might sanctify and cleanse it with
the washing of water by the word, that he might present it to himself
a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing,
but that it should be holy and without blemish. And so this
shows to us, reveals to us, Christ is. the faithful husband, he's
able to speak on marriage because he knows what it is to go in
the face of that rebellion, in the face of that enmity and hatred
and yet show love and mercy and tenderness and forgiveness to
his bride. He's seeking her out to bring
her to himself. So I understand that people in
the world won't hear what Christ is teaching them about marriage.
We know how the world thinks of marriage. I don't know if
I said it here before, but I remember I had a friend at work, this
young lady, and I found out she was getting married. And I was
kind of surprised that she was getting married because she didn't
seem like that type of a person. But I said, oh, you're getting
married. And I said, aren't you? I thought you weren't. Like really,
you didn't really believe in marriage or something like that.
She said, oh, it doesn't matter. If it doesn't work out, I'll
just divorce her. And that's how the world is. And I said,
that's horrible. You shouldn't do that. That's
not the way to go into a marriage. So the world won't hear it, but
those that reverence God, that honor him and obey him and love
him, They want to hear what the Lord says concerning marriage,
and they'll hear this word. So marriage is between a husband
and a wife, and what that pictures is a union, the union between
Christ and his bride. So let's look at our second point,
the faithful husband. So while Christ was preaching
to these people, he's telling them the word, the gospel word,
It says in verse 2, Mark 10, 2, And the Pharisees came to
him and asked him, Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife?
And they were tempting him. In Matthew he recorded it, they
said, Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife for every
cause? And so typical to the Pharisees, those that hated Christ,
they were insincere in their questioning. They already knew
in their minds, they had the answer already. They weren't
listening for instruction. They wanted to tempt him that
they might turn that word and use it against him later. They
were trying to entrap him in his words because they were trying
to get him to speak against Moses. and against the law, but our
Lord turned to the word of God in answering them. And so what
we find, though, is it's a blessing that they did that, that they
provoked him, because the Lord reveals to us, he gives us this
picture, this sweet picture of his love as a faithful husband
for his beloved bride. Mark 10, 3 through 9. We read,
And he answered and said unto them, What did Moses command
you? And they said, Moses suffered to write a bill of divorcement
and to put her away. And Jesus answered and said unto
them, For the hardness of your heart he wrote you this precept. And so just to say a word on
that, what Moses was doing, the reason why Moses did that is
because if he said, Only if your wife dies can you remarry. Well, in that day, There was
few that were going to complain if a man beat his wife to death
or put her to death that he might be able to marry another. So
to deliver the women from being mistreated and abused and murdered
by their wicked husbands, he suffered them to write a bill
of divorce that it might be done decently and at least in order
so that they didn't just mistreat the women in their day and that's
why Moses did it because man's heart is vile and wicked and
full of sin and darkness and he would do that very thing.
But here, now our Lord directs our thoughts to the type that
our God gave us when he created Adam and Eve. It's a picture
of Christ and Christ's love for his bride. He says in verse six,
but from the beginning of the creation, God made them male
and female. And for this cause shall a man
leave his father and mother and cleave to his wife. And they
twain, they too, shall be one flesh. So then they are no more
two, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined
together, let not man put asunder. All right, hold your place here
and let's go over to Galatians 2. Galatians 2.18. Because here
we see that from the beginning God made man, one man and one
woman, and they were a type of the son of God and his bride,
the church. Genesis 2.18. And the Lord God said, it is
not good that the man should be alone, and I will make him
and help me for him. Right? And then, you know, God,
it's in Genesis 2. And then God, he brought the
various beasts and the fowls of the air to Adam to see what
he would call them. And it says at the end of verse
20, but for Adam, there was not found in help meat for him. Verse
21, and the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam and he
slept. And he took one of his ribs and
closed up the flesh instead thereof. And the rib, which the Lord had
taken from man, made he a woman and brought her unto the man.
So what you have there is, one, you see one man and one woman
so that God determined from the very beginning that man is to
have one wife, not many wives, and he's to dwell with her. That's to be his wife. That's
the union that God created. But we also see in here that
picture of Christ dying for the sins of his people, shedding
his blood, that his wife, might come forth, that his bride might
be washed and cleansed in His blood and be brought to Him,
be given to Him, be presented to Him, a perfect, spotless bride
without blemish. And where it says that Adam was
put into a deep sleep there, we see Christ being laid in the
grave, that He died, that He perished, He was laid in a deep
sleep, that His wife, when He raised from His sleep, when He
was raised from the grave, his wife came forth. Because when
Adam awoke, his bride, he was brought to his bride. He saw
her that was created. And we were created in that work
that Christ did when And when his side was slid open and when
that blood gushed forth and his blood was spilled, it was to
cleanse us. It was to make payment for the
debt that we incurred because of our sinfulness, that wickedness
and that rebellion that we did against holy God. Christ paid
that price. He died in the place of his bride,
that she and him hen fulfilling all her righteousness. When he
rose, she rose. And so they're one, one flesh,
one body in the Lord. We're together, we're one. And
so our salvation, the salvation of God's people, it's according
to the sovereign electing choice of God, so that in eternity,
before Adam and Eve were ever created, before man did anything
good or bad, God chose a bride for his people. That's how they
were chosen, according to the good pleasure of God. As it says
in Ephesians 1-4, that it's according as he hath chosen us in him before
the foundation of the world that we should be holy and without
blame before him in love. It was all determined and done. And so our Lord, as a faithful
husband, he came and did that work for his bride. And so God made one man and one
woman, and that declares to us that marriage is for life. Marriage
is, when God created it, when he set that up, it's meant to
be for life. It's a union that's never to
be dissolved. And we know that marriage is
good. We see it even in society. in a man-made sense, in a natural
sense, it's good for marriage because it creates stability,
right? It's good for the kids. You know that they're committed,
they're sacrificing themselves, they're giving to this marriage
for the good of the wives and their children. These men aren't
just out there doing whatever they would be doing and it's
good for the man too, honestly, because it settles us and grounds
us because I don't know, we're not very bright in that area. It helps us a lot because it
brings that stability to us. There's just a lot of good in
that sense. What we see there is that it's
an unbreakable union, what the Lord has shown us, and it pictures
that unbreakable union of Christ to his bride. And we see that
in his willingness to come, even though we sinned and rebelled
against him, he yet came and received us. He worked that salvation
for us, and it's to give us comfort to see that, to know that even
though I'm a wicked, rebellious sinner, undeserving of mercy
and forgiveness, He has shown me mercy and forgiveness in putting
away my sins. So, turn over to Malachi 2. Malachi
2.14. Here the Lord is speaking to
Israel, and they're talking back, saying, wherefore, why is God
saying these things? And in Malachi 2.14, it says,
because the Lord hath been witness between thee and the wife of
thy youth, against whom thou hast dealt treacherously. Yet
is she thy companion, and the wife of thy covenant. And did
not he make one? Yet had he the residue of the
Spirit, and wherefore won, that he might seek a godly seed. Therefore take heed to your spirit,
and let none deal treacherously against the wife of his youth.
For the Lord, the God of Israel, saith that he hateth putting
away." So he's shown there that God hates divorce. He hates that
putting away, and we know that. That's why Christ continued.
He fulfilled that work. his work and so we're betrothed
to Christ in eternity and then of course we fell in Adam and
became gross with sin and polluted and defiled in our ways and we
dealt treacherously with Christ, our husband. We dealt treacherously
with him and we became, we died spiritually All we were is flesh,
and we know we became carnal-minded, and we know the carnal mind is enmity against
God. It's death. And so Christ's love
for his people, he didn't say, well forget you then and cast
us aside and go off and create another race, but instead his
love for us was evident in that he didn't destroy us in Adam.
He continued and bore along with us in our iniquity until Christ
should come and put away the sin of his people. He endured
all that. He put up with the accusations
of the evil one against us and telling God that he should destroy
us and have nothing to do. was long-suffering and patient
and forbearing until Christ should come and put away the sins of
his people. And so Christ has given us his
spirit so that by him now, we love him because he first loved
us. He's revealed that to us and made that known to us. And
in Ephesians 1.17 and 18 it says, Well, I'll word it a little bit,
but it says that we would have the spirit of wisdom and revelation
in the knowledge of him. Verse 18, the eyes of our understanding
being enlightened that we may know what is the hope of his
calling and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance
in the saints. So, from Adam and Eve, what we
see there is a type of Christ and his bride. What we learn
there is that marriage is a relationship that's more important than any
other relationship that we can have. On earth, it's the most
important relationship. It's more important than the
relationship that we have with our parents. And it's so that
even when a young couple is getting married and you begin to have
trouble, especially that first year, it's pretty intense. and
you're learning how to live with someone and you're learning.
It's different. If you offend your spouse, and
you will offend them, you will say and do stupid things, but
neither one of you should go to your parents and tell your
parents, can you believe they said this to me? Because what
happens is you go home, back to your home, and you and your
spouse work it out. You work it out and everything's
fine then, But the last thing your parents heard was this person. What a jerk he is. Can you believe
he said this to me and did that? And so that's still in their
mind that they don't know a week later when they see and they're
still thinking, oh, there's that jerk who said that thing to my daughter. So you don't say those things.
You don't want to tell them. And so it's a relationship that's
more important than any other relationship. It's more important
than your relationship with siblings. It's a more important relationship
than with your best friends. and it's a more important relationship
than you and your children. Because just like when you got
married and you joined yourself to your wife and you left your
parents behind in the dust, that's what your kids are going to do
too. You're always together with your spouse, so love them and
understand that's a relationship like like any other, and the
way that you think about your parents is the same way your
kids are going to think about you to a degree, more or less.
I understand there's closer relationships than others, but more or less,
it's still your relationship to your spouse is like no other.
You two are one flesh. It says in Ephesians 5.31, for
this cause shall a man leave his father and mother and shall
be joined unto his wife, and they too shall be one flesh. And it pictures that relationship
that we have with Christ. It's a type that nothing is to
come between us and Christ. We believe him and trust him
and no earthly relationship is to come between us and Christ
And so is marriage. You're not supposed to have relationships
that are coming between your relationship to your spouse.
It's that vital and important. The next thing we see is that
marriage involves commitment. That's devotion. And a man is
to be committed to his wife just as Christ is committed to his
wife. the Church. Ephesians 5.25, we
read, Husbands, love your wives even as Christ also loved the
Church and gave himself for it. And then the wife is to be committed
to her husband in the same way that the Church, we the Church,
the body of Christ, are committed to Christ our husband. We're committed, we're devoted
to him As we read in Ephesians 5, verses 22 through 24, wives,
submit yourselves unto your own husbands as unto the Lord. For
the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head
of the church, and he is the savior of the body. Therefore,
as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to
their own husbands in everything. And see, that's why it's so hard
for the world, because the world still teaches women, that they're
individuals, don't submit to him, don't do what he says, don't
obey him, and I understand it, but that's why there's such an
emphasis for men to love their wives, because we know, right,
at some point Some guy, especially in Christian households, some
guy stands up and says to his wife, well, you're going to submit
to me. You're going to do what I say. And that goes over like a ton
of lead bricks, right? It does not produce the fruit
that you thought it would produce. It actually will seal it pretty
much against you, like you're done for a while. And so we learn
that it's that through love and through tenderness and kindness
and speaking to your wife with love, not as someone less than
you, but as your love, your own body, your own flesh. And when
you show her love, she's going to show you love. And there's
going to be that sweetness there that each one striving and trying
to to do that which pleases their spouse. You see how tender Christ
is to us. There's nothing wrong. In fact,
that's what we are to be towards our wives, is tender and loving
and doing those kind things and being sweet on her to show her
that we really do love her and we hear what she says and we
take into account her feelings about things and what she says.
We're honest. in that we want to be honest.
It doesn't mean we're perfect in that, but we want to be honest. And that is going to produce
in her that willingness to love. And it creates that reciprocity,
right? Where you're each one striving
to do that which is pleasing to their spouse. And it makes
it so much easier for the other one to do that same thing for
their spouse rather than being hard and demanding. Because you
might get what you're demanding, but there ain't going to be any
love and sweetness in it, that's for sure. It's cold and distant
in that sense. Marriage involves sacrifice,
it's a self-denial, so that husbands are to sacrifice themselves for
their wives and their children and to do those things for them
just as Christ sacrificed himself for his bride and to do good
for her. It says in Ephesians 5.31, for
this cause shall a man leave his father and mother and shall
be joined unto his wife and they too shall be one flesh. This
is a great mystery that I speak concerning Christ. and the church. So that we see that when Christ
laid aside his glory, he is perfect in himself, he lays aside his
glory and joins himself to flesh to the likeness of sinful man
that he should come and fulfill all her obligations though he
himself did nothing wrong. He didn't sin against God, he
didn't do anything wrong or rebellious. And yet, He had the sins of His
people, He took them, laid upon Himself, and carried them up,
that shame up to the cross, and bore it before His Holy Father,
and took that wrath, and took that judgment upon Himself to
put away our sin, to put away our debt, and just That filth
that we did, He sacrificed Himself that we might have life with
Him and be righteous and found acceptable of God in the Son,
the Lord Jesus Christ. And so in that work, we're made
one with Him. And then wives, they're to sacrifice
themselves for their husbands as the church sacrifices herself
for Christ. And I was thinking of Romans
12, Romans 12, verses 1 and 2, where Paul says, I beseech you
therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God that ye present your bodies
a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable
service. and he draws that out of us,
he teaches us, he fills us up and gives us those graces and
those gifts and that desire to serve him in that way and brings
it forth and gives us that opportunity. He helps us and helps us to do
that. And be not conformed to this
world but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind that
ye may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will
of God. And so we see that even in that
growth, how the Lord works that growth in us, and you see it
even in your own marriages, right? Yeah, that first year, or maybe
even longer, was a tough Tough year, but you grew. You grew
together. You learned to love one another. You got to know one another and
have an understanding that, well, if I do this, I know what the
result's going to be, and if I do that, I know what the result's
going to be. You begin to work. It doesn't
mean that it's always smooth and that it's always kind words,
but but we want to love one another and be kind and patient and gentle
with one another and not the way that the world is, tends
to be. All right, back in our text,
Mark 10, 10. Mark 10, 10. 10-12. And in the house his disciples
asked him again of the same matter. And he saith unto them, Whosoever
shall put away his wife and marry another, committeth adultery
against her. And if a woman shall put away
her husband and be married to another, she committeth adultery. So as we saw, Christ is teaching
that marriage is a lifelong union. Now in Matthew, Mark didn't record
it, but Matthew records one exception for putting away. And the Lord
says it's for fornication. The word fornication is that
word that we get pornography from. And what it's saying there,
some would say it's only for adultery, but it's for all sexual
perversion. If one is sexually perverted,
Whether they're committing adultery or doing those things that are
just perverted, that is cause for putting away. It's not right. A person doesn't want to subject
themselves to that. And he says in Matthew 19, 9-10,
And I say unto you, whosoever shall put away his wife, except
it be for fornication, and shall marry another, committeth adultery.
And whoso marrieth her which is put away doth commit adultery. Now Christ doesn't say it should
be dissolved. He just says that it may be dissolved
in that case. If you can forgive them, if you
can move forward, do it. Be restored, be reconciled to
your spouse. But it doesn't mean that you
have to, but some people can forgive and move on and be restored
and reconciled to their husband. But if it can't be reconciled,
then you may for that reason. So there's three helpful instructions
in everything we just looked at. First of all, you that are
believers, only marry in the Lord. If you're not marrying
in the Lord, you are opening yourself up to trouble. You are
inviting trouble, because you don't know if they're going to
ever convert and be a believer. And so marry in the Lord. At
least, we don't know. Sometimes they prove to not be
a believer, even though they seem like one before. And as
you both grow up, some people don't believe. And some people
actually grow together and do believe, which is a great thing.
But don't go into it. as a believer, knowing that they're
not a believer. You're inviting a lot of trouble.
Because even your children are going to look at the one that
says, well, dad isn't going, why should I go? I don't want
to go. And it just creates that friction
and that sadness there. And then the next thing is, don't
expect too much. Don't expect too much. I know
that we hold, you feel the pain, right? When your spouse does
something against you, it hurts so much more because you have
a higher expectation of them. But remember that you're two
sinners getting married, not two angels getting married. You're
both sinners and so there's going to be tough times. And then always, always seek
one another's spiritual good. Pray for your spouse and love
them to Christ and be kind and do those things which are furthering
them and helping them in the gospel that are benefit to their
souls spiritually. Encourage them in the truth there. Let's look at our final point
here, faithful to receive his children. Because of the blessing
that we see in marriage, and we see how faithful Christ is
when he came and he laid down his life for his bride, there's
great comfort there. And now, in closing out this
text here, we're given a picture of children where we see Christ
receiving the children. He receives them, and that's
a picture of how Christ receives us, right? As we saw a couple
weeks ago, that we're to receive one another as children, that
in that same way that we're forgiving and very gracious to children,
right? We accept, we put up with children, like when they say
or do things, we're very, very merciful to them, very gracious
to them, and that's how we're to receive our brethren. the
same way that we're very merciful and gracious to children. We
receive them that way. Well, that's how Christ receives
us. He's very patient, very tender
and humble toward us. And it says there in verses 13
through 16, and they brought young children to him that he
should touch them and his disciples rebuked those that brought them.
They're basically coming there the same way that people brought
their sick and diseased, that Christ should touch them. That's
how they're coming with their children, that Christ should
touch them, that he should lay his hands upon them. And when
Christ saw it, he was much displeased that they were rebuking these
people. He wanted the children to come.
And he said unto them, suffer the little children to come unto
me, and forbid them not, for of such is the kingdom of God.
Verily I say unto you, Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom
of God as a little child, he shall not enter therein. And
he took them up in his arms, put his hands upon them, and
blessed them." So first, the greatest good, what we see there
is the greatest good that we can do for our children is to
bring them to Christ. Bring them in the sense that
lift them up in prayer. When you're praying, think of
your children and ask that the Lord would lay his hand of grace
upon them, that he would have mercy upon them, that he would
touch them and deliver them from the same condemnation of death
that we're all under by nature, that he would be gracious and
open their ear and cause them to hear his word. So that's the
greatest good that you could do for your children. Then next,
just remember how tender and merciful and patient and kind
Christ is to these children. and that we remember that even
with our children and that we seek to do them good and not
offend them and be honest with them, right? Even I would say
to parents, be honest with your kids. I think most of us probably
grew up in a time where a lot of parents said, don't do as
I do, do as I say, and they didn't really give you much explanation,
whereas I guess in our generation, we were a lot more open with
our kids, although our kids let us know our flaws too and how
we raised them, so I can't say it's necessarily better, but
I would imagine it's better to be transparent and open. We're
not trying to say that we're not perfect. We're open and honest
with our kids so that they're not calling us hypocrites and
we're open there, but be gentle with children. And then third,
if we would be saved, what he's saying there is we're to come
as little children, humble, knowing that we have nothing in ourselves,
that we need His strength, and we need His salvation, and we
need His work to save us. We see just as a child needs
someone stronger than them to bring them here, to get them
in the car and bring them here, so we see a picture of the Holy
Spirit, that we're dependent on the Holy Spirit to save us
and to lead us to Christ and that we're to come humbly and
innocently like a little child trusting the Lord, believing
his word and he blesses that word to our hearts. So I pray
that this word is a comfort and a blessing to your souls to see
Christ the faithful husband and what he's done for us and that
Even we who aren't married now or don't have that relationship,
we can still be sweet on our brethren and be kind and tender
to them knowing that it's good. It's good for the body to be
cared for by your brethren. All right, let's pray. Our gracious
Lord, we thank you, Father, for your mercy in choosing out your
people for your son and Lord for your faithfulness to come
and put away our sin when we rebelled against you and sinned
in Adam and did that which was not righteous and not holy but
cast you off and tried to get away from you Lord. We're so
thankful that you weren't turned off or put off by our filth and
pollution But Lord, you made us righteous in your own blood
and you put away our sin and we're so thankful for that. And
we're so thankful that you have revealed your son to us and made
us to know true righteousness in our Lord and Savior Jesus
Christ. Settle us in his arms, Lord. Hold us and keep us and
never let us go. We pray this in Jesus' name,
our Lord and Savior. Amen.