Okay, if you could open your
Bibles back to the book of Ecclesiastes chapter three. The longer I preach, the more
often it seems when I get here, get up here to preach, it suddenly
hits me, I think I've preached on this before. But I guess after
so long, you're gonna feel that way a lot. I know I've referred
to this passage of Scripture many times. If I've preached this before,
I'm about to preach it again. And we'll just take it as from
the Lord, it needed another go around. Now, not many messages
are preached from the book of Ecclesiastes. Most sermons preached
from this book simply take a single verse and preach on what they
think it means, but this often leads to error because no verse
of this book can be properly understood until you understand
the theme of the book. The book is an explanation of
the world, even of the universe, and in particular, our lives.
It's an explanation of these things as we experience them. For this reason, it is the most
philosophical book in all the scriptures. I know in the King James, it
talks about vain philosophy, I think at one point. And so
some people think we're not supposed to study philosophy. But you
have to understand that from, again, the context it was written. There were men who had traveled
around, they were called sophists. And because the Greek word Sophia
means wisdom. And they made their living spouting
their opinions about things. And Paul says, don't pay any
attention to them. They don't know what they're
talking about. And the reason they didn't know what they were talking about,
actually, is contained in this book. And that is, they sought
to understand the world without reference to God. And you're
never going to get to truth unless you begin with the one who is
the truth. But this book sets forth two
world and life views. Now, I don't know if that's a
phrase everybody's familiar with. I was introduced to it in my
philosophy class, a world and life view, which basically is,
you know, how do you explain the world and what goes on? That's
your world and life view. What's the reason we're here?
What's the purpose for our existence or the existence of anything?
And this book sets forth two of them. There is a world and
life view that says that the creation as we see it and our
life as we experience it is all that there is to reality. Truth only goes as far as what
I can see, hear, touch, smell, taste, or invent some instrument. They can detect it and communicate
it to me. This view is expressed in this
book as life under the sun. That's a phrase you run into
several times in this book. And really, to understand this
book, you've got to understand what Solomon meant by that phrase,
life under the sun. The old view of the universe
was a flat earth covered by a dome called the firmament. And in
this firmament were the sun, moon, and stars. And the sun
was the farthest thing out there. And so when I talk about life
under the sun, they're saying, all that's real is what's from
the sun to me and in between. That's reality. That's a world
and life view, a cosmology, if you will. Well, what are they leaving out?
What's that view leaving out? Anything beyond the sun, which
means anything beyond the normal experiences of life. Anything
beyond what I can see and detect. They don't consider it. Such a world and life view logically
leads to despair. Now there's a lot of people that
have pretty much that world and life view, and they go on being
happy, but their happiness is inconsistent with what they believe. Such a world and life view, which
essentially is saying there is no God, or God is irrelevant. Such a world and life view robs
existence of any meaning or significance. We cannot answer why we are here,
nor can we discern any purpose for our existence if all there
is, is life under the sun. Because let's face it, what do
we see in our life under the sun? We're born, we die. And others are born to take our
place and eventually they die. Spring comes, you plant, crops
rise, harvest them. Where I grew up, I didn't see
a lot of that. Hard to farm much in the hills of West Virginia,
except for little gardens. Moved out here, boy, you can
tell the difference between spring and fall around here. I tell
people, I come from Iowa, the only two colors are green and
brown. You know, because that's pretty much how it is. And I
imagine if you grow up here, that's plenty of colors, because
green means something good's coming. Brown says it got here,
and we've got it all in the storage bin. But nonetheless, it happens
every year, over and over and over again. young people, young men for the
most part, you know, maybe their daddy was a farmer and, you know,
he's, he's getting older, but they're just getting out of high
school or now probably went on to college, but boy, they get
into that farming, you know, and they say, I'm going to just
have the biggest and best farm. We're going to do really good,
you know, and they start it and they find out it's just the same
thing over and over and over again. Why, why do we do this? We see this happening in our
culture right now. After several generations of
dismissing the God of scripture, we have a generation of people
who do not believe in reality, truth, or goodness. Nihilism. Why do you think that in our
culture right now, at least the noisiest part of our culture,
They're trying to figure out what man and woman means. Because they've dismissed the
one who said what man and woman is. Our Lord Jesus Christ said in
the beginning, God made humanity. He made them male and female. And I guess until this generation,
it was pretty obvious to everybody who was who. Kids going into kindergarten
knew who the boys were and who the girls were. Why are we confused
now? I say we, I'm talking about our
society in general. Why are we making such foolish
laws? Because the God who defines things
has been dismissed, therefore there is no real definition. There is no real truth. Have
you ever had someone say, well, you tell them what you believe
is true, and they go, well, that's your truth. There is no such
thing as your truth and my truth. There's God's truth. That's all
there is. And the only question that remains
is, do we believe it or do we not? What's real? By the way, those are the three
major questions that philosophy answers. What's good? What's
truth? What is real? And those questions cannot be
answered apart from an acknowledgment of the God who created our reality. Often when I have spoken with
atheists, I say often, I don't speak with them that often, but
just say most of the time of the several times I've spoken
with them, and it's always been online or something like that,
you know, and actually what they'll tell you is, well, there's no
proof for God. And what are they saying? All
I'm going to acknowledge is what's under the sun. And I don't see
God under the sun. One of the early cosmonauts from
the Soviet Union, you know, which was an atheistic regime, he goes
up there, circles the earth a few times, says, oh, I didn't see
God. You go 200 miles from the surface of the earth, and you
look out on what scientists say, I believe I got the number right,
14 billion light years of the universe, and you're going to
say, I don't see God. He didn't see a lot of things
that actually exist. But he's not going to find God
looking around the universe. People say, oh, but I can see
God in a pretty flower. You can't see God in a flower
unless you've already believed in him. And even then, you can't be sure
that you're seeing God as he is. Creation reveals that there
is a God, but it doesn't tell us a whole lot about him. I ask atheists this question. I say, why is it all right to
kill a cow and eat it, but it's not all right to do the same
thing to a human? Now, you'll run into a few of
them that are so far gone in their atheism, they might equate
killing cows with killing humans. I've heard people talk about
animals being murdered. You can't murder a non-human.
You can kill them, but you can't murder them. Murder is something
that is done to a human being. Now, the Bible gives us a reason
why, at least in this world's fallen state, it is permissible
to kill and eat animals, but you can't do the same thing to
humans. And that's because humans were created in the image of
God. And to assault a human like that is, for all intents and
purposes, assaulting God. When I was in the seventh grade,
I was obsessed with this girl. And I'd say I had a crush, but
my crushes more or less were obsessions. And for that reason,
I hardly ever got near her at all or said anything to her.
But my best friend at the time, he was one of those guys that
all the girls liked. And so he had one of her pictures. And
I was over at his house. And just to irritate me, he took
that picture and put it on the dartboard. And he was a pretty
good athlete. He could throw accurately. And he just filled
that picture up with darts. Now, she didn't know what happened.
She suffered no pain by it. But that bothered me. Why? That's a symbolic act. And when
you kill a human being because of the unique position that humans
hold in this universe as created to be the image bearers of God,
God takes an offense at that that he wouldn't take in killing
anything else. But that's the standard world
and life view of the non-believer. But then there is a world and
life view that says there is something more beyond what we
see and experience. There's something out there past
the sun, you know, within the context of how they viewed the
universe. The sun isn't the farthest thing out there, and that reality
is God. Beyond the domain of time and
space, there is another reality. And it's this reality that gives
meaning and significance to our reality. All matters of good
and evil, truth and error, reality and unreality are decided by
that reality, God. There is a standard. Some people say, and I can understand
how they misunderstand this, but they'll say, oh, the law
is the standard of right and wrong. No, God is the standard
of right and wrong. The Bible is the standard of
truth and error. God is the standard of truth and error. Now, the
Bible being his inspired book, we take it to be all truth and
no error. And so we kind of use it as a
standard, but it is a standard only because it is the God of
creation who inspired it, who is the source of all truth. Without this, and we can call
it transcendent reality if we want to stay philosophical, transcendent
just means out beyond. The reality that's beyond our
reality, or the reality beyond our universe. Without this reality,
we would not exist. God can exist without us, we
can't exist without Him. The Bible says, in Him we live,
move, and have our being. Therefore, how can we understand
our lives, the things we do in them, the very fact that we exist?
How can we come to any understanding of that if we've disallowed any
consideration of God? Without this reality in our minds,
we are left to float like a rudderless boat in a storm, tossed here
and there, and eventually we crash on the rocks. We don't
know why there is a storm. or the sea for that matter. We
do not know where the boat came from or where it's going or why
we are on it or where we are going. We may throw some parties on
the boat, we may try to mask our inner despair over a lack
of meaning or significance and all that, you know, to cover
it all up. And that's what the world does
with its pleasures. It has to go after pleasures all the time
because it has no understanding of why we are here. Now, if we
don't keep this contrast in mind as we read this book, contrast
between just life under the sun or the fact that there's something
out there beyond, we call him God. His name is Jehovah. And if we don't keep those two
contrasts in mind, we'll misunderstand this book because he actually
goes back and forth. Some of the things he says are
conclusions drawn from there's nothing but what we see and experience
under the sun. Some of the conclusions are taking
God into account. I was talking to someone from
one of the churches here in town one time, and these are the ones
that would, well, they can take all the joy out of anything.
And he goes, well, in the Bible it says, better is the day of
our death than our birth. That's true if there is no God. And why? Because when we are
born, we come into this world with no reason to be here, no
purpose to serve, no significance. It's better just to go ahead
and die and be done with it. And I'll admit, because there
is a God, for some people, it would be better if they had
never been born. because they'll leave this world
in rebellion against God. And that's a bad way to leave
this world. Now I want to look at one verse. It's the last of the verses Brother
Eric read to us. I know that everything God does
will endure forever. Nothing can be added to it and
nothing taken from it. God does it so that men will
revere him. Let's just look at five big points
here, not trying to get into real detail about them. The first
one is this, there is a God. He says whatever God does, well,
God doesn't do anything if he doesn't exist. Now you'll notice
Solomon never makes an argument for the existence of God, and
neither does the Bible. The Bible assumes the existence
of God, declares the existence of God. Again, speaking to atheists
via the, I think it was comments on a YouTube video, and you know,
they were spouting their normal points about, you know, there's
no evidence for the existence of God. And I said, I usually
take them off, catch them off guard, because I said, well,
I'll agree with you. Or they'll say, there's no proof. There's
no proof. I'll say, true. And I won't try to prove to you
there's a God. The reason is, by proof, you mean scientific
proof. You mean enough evidence that
you were able to collect with your eyes, ears, nose, tongue,
and hands, the five senses, or the instruments that we invent
that can detect things our five senses can't. But anyway, you
cannot. Put God under a microscope or
finding by a telescope or anything like that. And so you say there
is no God. Well, if that's what proof means,
I'll have to agree with you. I cannot prove to you there is
a God. And you can't prove to me there isn't. I told one atheist one time,
I said, you're every bit as much a man of faith as I am. You say
there is no God, and you have absolutely no way of knowing
whether that's true or not. using your methods. I say there
is a God, and I can't prove it to you. I think it makes more
sense to believe there is a God than to believe there isn't one.
But still, who has seen God? Who has touched him? Who has
heard his voice? God dwells in each the timeless
eternity. We don't dwell there. So we cannot detect him that
way. But there is a God. Our lives
are lived not just under the sun, but under God. The Scriptures teach that any
honest mind will conclude there is a God. Romans 1 says the things
of God, even His eternal power and Godhead, can be logically
deduced from the presence of the creation. You know, there
was a philosopher, and I I think it may have been Descartes. I'm
not sure, but I never really cared who said things. I just
was interested in what they had to say. But he had this famous
philosophical statement, I think, therefore I am. So he proved
his own existence by the very fact that he could even question
his existence. I think, therefore I am. The
universe exists, therefore he is. of all the irrational things
that some scientists believe. They believe the universe came
into existence for no reason whatsoever. I remember one of
them though, he was honest enough to say this, it was Stephen Hawking,
the guy that had ALS, he was in a wheelchair, but he said
the profound problem of physics is not how things came to exist,
but why they bothered to exist at all. And if there is no God, there's
no reason for anything to exist. There is a God, an eternal, timeless
being whom we cannot comprehend. We can know him, but we can't
understand him. Now, there's a difference. A
little baby comes forth from the womb, and there's not a whole
lot of information in that noggin. The mother puts him to the breast,
and real quick, he knows mom. Doesn't know much about her. Knows she's a beneficial thing.
She learned, the babe learns more about mom, but a new mom
from the beginning. God didn't understand him. And
we know God, we don't understand him. These are things beyond
the capacity of the human mind to comprehend. But still, we
know God, even though we don't understand him. So God is. Secondly, the God
of scripture acts. Whatever God does. God does things. Our God is not
like the deists of the time of the American Revolution. Religious people, religious Christians,
they keep trying to prove that the founders of our nation were
Christians. Some of them may have been. Most of them did believe
in the God of the Bible, but they believed in their own version
of him. It was called what was deism, and the idea was, well,
he made the heavens and the earth, he kind of wound them up, tossed
them out there, and just said, well, we'll see what happens.
And they say he doesn't interfere in human activity. Well, that's not what the Bible
says. Our God decrees in eternity. And he acts, he takes action
in time. The Bible said he works all things
according to the counsel of his own will. God's busy, so to speak. Our God is not disinterested
in what goes on in earth. He's not just waiting to see
what happens with curiosity. Rather, he's causing things to
happen as he has determined they will happen. He sets up the kingdoms
of the earth and he takes them down. He gives life and then
he takes it away. In every event of history, the
Lord's hand is at work. From the big things down to the
smallest things. Thirdly, whatever God does, it
endures. The Hebrew word translated forever
in our translation here also appears in verse 11. Look up
here at verse 11. He has made everything beautiful
in its time. He has also set eternity in the
hearts of men. And our translation says, yet
they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end. I
believe that in the King James it says, so that man cannot,
and I believe that's the understanding of it. The word actually means,
at its very essence, the vanishing point. And for us, as we view
time, as we view our existence, it's kind of like standing on
railroad tracks. Now you stand on a set of railroad tracks,
you look out, railroad tracks just seem to get closer and closer,
and finally the point comes where So far as we can tell, they come
together, and we don't know anything about the railroad track after
that. And that's if we look ahead, and that's if we look behind
us. And so it's kind of that, while
they wouldn't have been thinking of railroad tracks, they did
understand the concept of a vanishing point. They use that as kind
of a symbol for eternity. There's only so much you and
I can perceive, but God's purpose finds its beginning and its end
in eternity. And we can't see that. We're
just right here and stuff happens around us and we cannot tell
why they're happening. We don't know unless God tells
us. We observe God's works. We hear of a tragedy. Here a
couple weeks ago or something like that, that guy shot all
those kids and a couple of teachers in the school. Why? Why? What purpose, what good
purpose could be served by that? All the gun control arguments,
just set that aside. It's amazing to me. Our nation
makes something political out of everything. This was a horrible,
horrible tragedy. You said, yeah, God had nothing
to do with it. No, that's not true. It happened because God
decreed it and God ordered everything to make sure it happened. You
say, well, what kind of cruel God is that? It only looks cruel
to us because we can't see far enough
out there to make sense of it. You see, that's why we live by
faith, not by sight. The meaning and purpose of our
existence We call it eternity past and eternity future. They're
both the same eternities, but that's the only way we can talk
about it. Because we think of things going on in the progression
of time. But the reason we're here is grounded in eternity
past. And the purpose that we will
serve and the purpose of all the actions in our lives is grounded
somewhere in eternity future. And all that we can do is trust
God that he knows what he's doing, even though we don't. So God's works endure. We add
grief to our sorrows when we demand that God give an explanation
for what he does, and we add a danger to our joys when we
fail to recognize that they are sent to us for reasons unknown
to us, and there will come a time when they will end, because there's
a time for dancing, and there's a time for mourning, and it's
God who determines what time it is, not us. All we can do is live our lives
in the moment, and when it's time to cry, cry. When it's time
to sing, sing. We live our lives in the understanding
there was a time for us to be born, and that happened. And
there's a time for us to die, and it's unavoidable. In the spring, we go out and
plant. Why? That's what you do in the spring. After a sufficient growing period,
we go out and harvest. Why? It's time. And God has set
the times and the seasons. And all we do is live through
them. He's the one who understands them. Fourthly, God's works cannot
be altered. You can't add to them, you can't
take away from them. Every four years, our country
goes through a frenzy. of presidential elections. And
you always have religious people say, well, God wants this man
in. Let me tell you something. Whatever man gets in, and however
he got in, that's the man God wanted in. Now, we may not know the reason.
He may have sent the man for blessing. He may have sent him
for judgment. Usually, it's a mixture. But I know this. What God has purposed will come
to pass, and all the changes that we experience in our life
do not affect the purpose of God. Our living does not add
to the work of God, and our dying doesn't take away from it. Our
rejoicing does not make to add anything to the work of God.
Our sorrow doesn't take anything away from it. Whatever God has done, it's he
that does it. It lasts forever because he did
it and because he did it in the timeless eternity of his existence
and time can't affect it. And then fifthly, God works like
this for the express purpose of evoking reverence on the part
of man. Now, it shows the darkness of
man's heart that when he can't make sense of his life or the
world or anything like that, he assumes there must be no God. My sister, her in-laws, They
were both atheists. The man was Jewish, the woman
was French, and they'd been in Europe during World War II. Well,
you can imagine. Pretty tough on Jews and the
French in World War II. And they saw horrible things.
And when they saw that, their thought was, well, there cannot
be any God or certainly any God worthy of honor and respect if
he let that happen. That's the wrong way to look
at it. It's true. In fact, God didn't
just let it happen. He made it happen. Instead, what things like that
should evoke is deep reverence. Now, I've not read a whole lot
about what presidents of the past have written, but I do remember
I've always kind of had regard for Lincoln. Not a perfect man, but I think
he did the best he could with the mess that was handed to him.
But, and I can't remember if this was in his second inaugural
address or somewhere, but you know, during the Civil War, he
said that the nation had been involved
in a conflict that cost more and lasted
longer than either side expected it would. And then he went on
to say, but if every drop of blood drawn by the lash must
be answered by a drop of blood drawn by the sword, then what
can we say but that the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous
altogether? He didn't say, why'd God let
this happen? He said, we got what we deserved. We didn't get what we wanted.
He said that. Neither side achieved what they wanted. But God achieved
what he wanted. And that was the abasement of
a nation that had become proud. We should look at our lives and
note what things come in and how it changes. And so often,
the changes are clear out of our hands. We have a happy day,
and we really don't know why, even though we may want to. OK,
what did I do to make that such a good day? Nothing. What did I do to make that such
a bad day? Nothing. I realize there's good and bad decisions,
but you see the point I'm trying to make. Our lives are out of
our control. And that should cause us to have
reverence for the God who controls all things, and to bow before
Him and ask for His mercy, and thank Him for everything He does
for us. Because if He didn't do it, it
wouldn't happen. Paul said, using this figure,
he said, I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. And
he was using farming as a symbol of preaching the gospel. But that's really true of farming.
I mean, farmers can't grow corn. They can plant corn. They can
cultivate corn. They can harvest corn. Only God
grows corn. People have a successful business
or some successful endeavor and they act like They strut around
like they had something to do with that. All that we do would
come to absolutely nothing if God did not cause it to happen. Unless the Lord builds the house,
they labor in vain. Who built it? Having said all that, and like
I said, this book's kind of philosophical, and I've been philosophical to
this point, but this makes the last few points a whole lot better
when we see them fit within this. Even though we cannot make sense
of God's works, we who trust in his wisdom and goodness can
rejoice in his works, even when they cause us temporary pain.
But more than this, we can rejoice when we consider the permanence
of some of his more notable works. Look at Psalm 110. Psalm 100. I think I said 110, but I just
meant 100. Psalm 100. Shout for joy to the Lord, all
the earth. Worship the Lord with gladness.
Come before him with joyful songs. Know that Jehovah is God. It is he who made us. and we
are his, we are his people, the sheep of his pasture. What has he done? Well, it says
he made us. I don't believe this is talking
about the act of creation, though that's true, he did create us.
But it says he made us and we are his, or we are his people.
Here's one of his works, he made us his people. And that isn't going to change.
We can't add to it. We can't take away from it. Most of human religion tries
to add to that. They say that God has a people
and we got to do this to be part of his people. No. He made us. We didn't. We are his. Yeah, but you got to believe.
God made sure that would happen. Remember, his hand is in everything. I believed in my own free will.
Really now? If you think you can believe
of your own free will, just say, okay, for the next five minutes,
I'm going to not believe. You say, well, I can't do that.
I'm a believer. Yes, you're a believer. So you believe. God made you
one of his own and you believed. Your belief didn't add to it.
Your belief arose from him making you his people, his sheep. He said to the Pharisees, you
don't believe because you're not my sheep. This is something God did. And nothing you did added to
it, and all blessed be the name of God, nothing you have done
can take away from that. He made you his people. It is written that He has saved
to the uttermost, that is Christ who is our God, has saved to
the uttermost them that come to God by Him. Have you come
to God through Christ? Now once again, that's not the
reason that you're His people, that's the proof of it. But if
you have, you can be assured of this. He has saved you to
the uttermost. And nothing that you or anyone
else does is going to add to that work. And nothing you or
anybody else does is going to be able to take away from it.
You'll go through all those back and forth that was read there
in Ecclesiastes 3. You know, planting, harvesting,
being born, dying, loving, hating, making war, making peace, all
this going back and forth. And it alarms us sometimes or
distracts us, whatever. None of that. a danger or a help
to the work of God. Look at Psalm 118. Verse 22, the stone the builders rejected
has become the capstone. The Lord has done this, and it
is marvelous in our eyes. This is the day the Lord has
made. Let us rejoice and be glad in
it. Now, the Apostle Peter applied
this to our Lord Jesus Christ. He is the stone the builders
rejected, but God has made him the capstone. And guess what?
Nothing that men do can make that more so, and nothing that
men do can make it less so. I get so weary, or did, I don't
hear it much anymore because I don't run with that crowd.
Make Jesus Lord of your life. Sorry, God already did that.
And you can acknowledge it, but your acknowledgement of it is
not going to make it more so. You can deny it, but your denial
is not going to make it less so. God has made him to be Lord
and Christ. It's done. It's fixed. It's unalterable. And I'm glad. I'm glad we're not waiting to
see how this is going to turn out. It's already turned out. Jesus won. God has exalted him
and given him a name above every name, that at the name of Jesus,
every knee should bow and every tongue confess that he is Lord. And so it's not men's confessing
that make it so. God made it so, and that makes
men confess. Isn't it great this way? I like
this way better than the life under the sun. I don't know what's
going to happen, and when it does, I won't know why it happened. All right, a couple other things
quick, and we'll be done. He has obtained eternal redemption. Most people read that and they
say, yes, redemption is possible for everybody. No, it's not.
He has made redemption possible. He obtained it. He accomplished
it. He redeemed his people. And there's
nobody that can add to that. Why? Well, you can't add to a
debt that's paid. I mean, by that, you can't make
more payment. Once the debt's paid, I mean, you know, Somebody
owed $100,000 to the bank, and then somebody goes and pays the
bank $100,000 on his behalf. If you go down there and say,
well, here, I'm going to throw in my $1,000, too, the bank's
going to say, wait a minute, there's no debt to be paid. You can't
add to it. I mean, we'll take your money, but you haven't added
to the debt payment. Nobody can add to that. You can't
add to it by your tears of repentance. You can't add to it by your shouts
of joy. You can't add to it by your baptisms.
You can't add to it by your church attendance or anything you do.
He has redeemed his people, done, finished, unchangeable, unalterable. And though the devil and all
his angels and all of hell rise up against it, there's not one
thing they can do to diminish that redemption. Not one soul
he redeemed with his precious blood will ever be lost. Why? Because we don't live under
the sun. We live under God. And lastly,
he bore our sins in his body on the tree. This is the work of God. I know we sing things like, I
lay my sins on Jesus. And I understand what's meant
by that. But the Bible says it wasn't us that laid our sins
on Christ. It says, Jehovah has laid on
him the iniquity of us all, all his wandering sheep. And if he laid them on Christ,
nobody can take them back. Nobody can unlay them. And he
made his soul an offering for sin, and he shall see of the
travail of his soul and be satisfied. That was done. You can't take
away from that. There will be no frustration
on the part of Christ or the Father or the Spirit when all
things are accomplished in history and the sheep and the goats are
divided and all that, and God's not going to be saying, oh, I
sure hope for a lot more than that. No. Everyone whose sins were laid
on Christ will appear in his presence without sin. None shall be added to it, and
none shall be lost from that group. Christ bore those sins,
and if He bore them—and I tell you, believers get a guilty conscience,
and we've got a right to it, don't we? But this will help
it. If He bore them, you never will. Isn't that a blessing? Can you
live on that? If Christ bore my sins, I never
will. Heavenly Father, bless Your word. We thank You for Your works.
In Christ's name we pray, amen.