2 Corinthians 3, and we're just
going to look at one verse, verse 6. Paul says, God also hath made
us able ministers of the New Testament, not of the letter,
but of the Spirit. For the letter killeth, but the
Spirit giveth life. Now, God does not find His ministers. God makes His ministers. He makes His ministers. Paul
said He made us able ministers. He comes to us with the gospel
and creates His preacher anew, just like He does every other
sinner of His. He teaches us the gospel. He
sends His preacher, He gifts His preacher, He preaches His
preacher, and He makes the word effectual in the hearts of His
people. He makes His ministers able ministers. So that's great assurance to
you right now. You know, there was a prophecy
in Jeremiah 3.15 where the Lord said, I will give you pastors
according to my heart, which shall feed you with knowledge
and understanding." That's a prophecy. Remember, Christ said, I came
to fulfill the prophets. He's the one that's going to
do that. He's going to give his people pastors after his own
heart, and they will feed, not with lies, but with the truth.
That's Christ's work. He'll do that. Our subject today,
though, I want to look at this last phrase, the Spirit giveth
life. The Spirit giveth life. I want
to show you a couple of things before we get to that, but that's
going to be our focus. And here's what I want you to
see. Christ makes his preachers preach the gospel. the gospel
of Christ. He makes his preacher preach
the gospel of Christ in spirit and in truth. And through that
message, Christ speaks into the heart and puts a new spirit in
his child and continues to quicken the heart of his people. In that
new spirit, he makes us worship him in spirit and in truth. That's
what he does. First of all, Paul tells us here
that Christ makes his preachers preach not of the letter. Letter
preaching, preaching of the letter, in the context right here, means
preaching the Ten Commandments. Because he tells us in verse
7, he's speaking about the law written and engraven in stone. And the Ten Commandments was
the only part of the law written in stone. So he's talking particularly
here about the Ten Commandments. But preaching of the letter includes
anything that is put between a sinner and Christ that he's
required to do. Anything that's put between a
sinner and Christ or anything that is to be added by the sinner
in addition to Christ, that's preaching the letter. That's
preaching law. It's not preaching grace, that's preaching law.
You know, you have some that'll talk about, you have to keep
the works of the law or you can't be saved. Do the works of the
law or you can't be saved. Some will say you have to have
a certain knowledge of doctrine before you can be saved. That's
putting something between the sinner and Christ. Christ is
who we need to know. Not our system of doctrine, we
need to know Christ. Some folks say you've got to
put away your sin and you've got to learn your church creed
and you've got to learn our church rules and all that or you can't
be saved. Some people make the gifts of grace to be a work. Faith and repentance and baptism. They say that's what saves you
and you can't be saved unless you do those things. And they
teach the sinner he can do those things on his own. That's law.
That's preaching the letter of the law. Now, Scripture uses
circumcision to stand for anything that is put into the sinner's
hand to do in place or in addition to Christ. It uses circumcision
and it includes everything, anything that is put into the sinner's
hand to do, to save himself in addition to Christ. And the reason
circumcision is used is because circumcision is what brought
the Jews under the covenant, the old covenant of the law.
But see, that circumcision was picturing circumcision of the
heart, which is done by God in spirit, whereby we're brought
under the everlasting covenant of grace. But the depraved sinner
can't see that. So the depraved sinner looks
to law. And they've even tried to say
that circumcision now, in the New Testament, is baptism, or
sprinkling. And that's why they sprinkle
infants. Because they say that's equivalent to circumcision. But
it's not. Circumcision pictured the work
of the heart. The work God does in the heart. But you remember
the Apostle Peter when he was faced with we're workers. In
Acts 15, Scripture says certain men came down from Judea and
they taught the brethren, they said, except you be circumcised,
you cannot be saved. Circumcised after the manner
of Moses. They're bringing them under the
law of Moses. And they said, except you come back under the
law of Moses, you cannot be saved. And then it says they were of
the sect of the Pharisees which believed. Nobody says they don't
believe in salvation by grace through faith apart from our
works. Nobody says that, but they teach it. Nobody will say
that, but they teach it. They always say by salvation
by grace through faith in Christ, but they teach works. It says
they believed, but it says they came saying it was needful to
circumcise them and command them to keep the law of Moses. You
see, when you do that, you disavow anything you preached about grace.
After you preach grace and you turn around and put somebody
under the law, grace is gone. It's become all works then. But
Peter stood up and he preached and he said, he told them about,
he preached of the Spirit. They preached of the letter,
he preached of the Spirit. And he told them about how God
sent him to some Gentiles. Gentiles never had the law. Gentiles
were never even under the law. Except in some rare cases where
they were converted, but never where God didn't give them the
law. And he said, God called me to
preach to some Gentiles, and I went down there and preached
to them. And he said, and God purified their hearts by faith. He put no difference between
us and them. In other words, it wasn't the
law keeping that made a difference. It was God's grace that made
the difference, not us that made the difference. He put no difference
between us. He made the difference. And he
purified their hearts by faith, he said, and he said, He said,
and we believe we shall be saved, us Jews shall be saved just like
those Gentiles shall be saved. That was a big statement because
he was saying we're going to be saved without the works of
the law just like God saved them. We're going to be saved by the
grace of our Lord Jesus Christ just like they were saved. And
that's preaching of the spirit now. Why do wheel workers tell
you you need to keep the Ten Commandments? You hear this all
the time. And I want the young people,
young believers, to understand this. There's nothing wrong with
the law. The law had to be fulfilled.
But the reason that churches tell people they have to keep
the Ten Commandments is for sanctification, to be holy. and to get more and
more holy, which you don't get more and more holy. You're holy
when Christ makes you holy. You're fit then to be partaker
of the inheritance with the saints in light when he's made you new.
You'll get more holy. You grow in grace and in the
knowledge of Christ in that state of holiness just like when you
were born. You didn't become more of a human
being. You grew in that state of a human being. Well, when
he makes you a new spiritual life, the new man, you grow in
that holy state but you don't grow more holy. But they teach
you that and they teach you it's how it's going to make you obedient.
But listen to what God says. God says that's not what makes
us obedient. What made us believe in the first
hour? The hearing of the faith of Christ. Hearing about Christ
and what He did. That's how He saved us in the
first hour. That's how He continues to do
it. He continues to constrain us by His love, and that love's
only heard of through the preaching of Christ's works and how He
accomplished our redemption, fulfilling the law completely
for us. That's how you're constrained
by His love. I want you to turn to Galatians 3. I want you to
see this. There's a couple of passages
in Galatians I want you to see. Look here, and this is just so
clear. You know, they try to divide
the law between the 10 Commandments and the ceremony so they can
say, but you're not under the ceremony, but you're still under
the 10 Commandments. Well, all the law is one law,
and Christ has fulfilled it. And Christ now, we're under Christ.
We're under His power and His dominion, under grace, and He's
teaching us. Watch this now, Galatians 3.2,
and He's doing it through the gospel. That's what He's talking
about in our text. The hearing of faith is the same
thing as the ministry of the Spirit. Now watch this, Galatians
3.2. This only would I learn of you. Received ye the Spirit
by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith? And when
he says hearing of faith, he's talking about by the hearing
of Christ's faithfulness, by the hearing of the gospel, by
the ministry of the Spirit. And he says, are you so finished
having begun in the Spirit? Are you now made perfect by the
flesh? You're now going to go back to
the law and persevere to the end by keeping the law. Verse
5, He therefore that ministereth to you the Spirit, Christ ministers
to you the Spirit. He that does that and works miracles
among you, the miracle of regeneration and the miracle of faith and
the miracle of continuing in faith. He that's working these
miracles, does he do it by the works of the law or by the hearing
of faith? even as Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him
for righteousness. We saw last night the law of
Ten Commandments wasn't given until 430 years after Abraham
believed God. Abraham was given faith to believe
on Christ and rest in Christ through the gospel of Christ.
Read on, read verse 7. Know ye therefore that they which
are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham, and the
scripture foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through
faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee
shall all nations be blessed. God has always saved His people
through the gospel of Christ. not through the hearing of the
works of the law, through the gospel of Christ. Well, keep
your place right there. I want you to see this. Now,
go to Galatians 2. Well, if Christ is not working through the hearing
of the works of the law, He's only ministering through the
preaching of the gospel, what our text calls the ministry of
the Spirit. If He's only working a work in
the heart through that message, Then who's doing all this you
see in churches where they're turning back to the law and telling
men to go back to the law? Who's doing that? Who's working
that work? Look here, you remember when Peter got up from the table,
he was sitting there eating with Gentiles and he got up when he
saw his Jewish brethren coming and he went over and he sat down
with his Jewish brethren. Why'd he do that? The law said
they couldn't have any fellowship with Gentiles. So when he got
up from that table, just by getting up from that table and going
to sit with the Jews when they came, he was turning back to
the law. And look what Paul said, verse
17. If while we seek to be justified
by Christ, that is, if we claim to be saved by grace through
faith in Christ, by Christ's works alone, and we ourselves
also are found sinners, Now what sin is he talking about? What
Peter just did. Getting up and turning back to
the law. That's the context. That's what
he's talking about. If I'm found to commit that sin
of turning back to the law, is therefore Christ the minister
of that sin? Did Christ minister that in my
heart? Did Christ tell me to turn back from Him to the law
and my works? God forbid. If I build again
the things which I destroyed, I claim the law was fulfilled
when I claimed to believe on Christ. If I build again the
things I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor. Men are doing
that themselves. Christ is not in it. He's just
not in it. And here's the difference. I,
through the law, am dead to the law, that I might live unto God
now. Not unto Moses and the law. Live unto God. Walk by the Spirit. Live of the Spirit. All of the
Spirit. I'm crucified with Christ, nevertheless
I live, yet not I, Christ liveth in me. And the life which I now
live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God.
By his faithfulness, the same one who loved me and gave himself
for me, is working in my heart to keep me following him. And
he's doing it through the preaching of the gospel. That's what he
said. All right now, let's go to the second thing here now.
Why don't we preach the law? Because the law kills. The letter
killeth. He said the letter killeth. He
calls it the ministration of death and the ministration of
condemnation. What does that mean? Go with
me to Romans 7. Now Paul, you remember Paul,
he said as touching the law I was blameless. Concerning the outward
works of the law, if you looked at Paul, you would have seen
a man that you would have said, you can't get more righteous
than that man. He's keeping the law, at least outwardly that's
how it looked. Paul wasn't, he wasn't immoral. We're not talking
about immorality here. And look what Paul says all that
was. Watch this. Sin, verse 8, sin taking occasion
by the commandment worked in me all manner of concupiscence. What does that mean? Concupiscence
is unlawfulness. Remember Paul said the law is
good if a man use it lawfully. Paul wasn't using the law lawfully.
He was using the law to measure his righteousness. And thereby,
he thought he was saved and thought he had life and thought he had
put away his sin. And it worked in him nothing
but self-righteousness and self-sanctification. That's the concupiscence he's
talking about. Look here in verse 8. He said,
for without the law, sin was dead, for I was alive without
the law once. You see, he said that's what
he thought. Sin deceived him and he thought, I have modified
my sin. Look how good I'm doing. The
law says do this and don't do that and I'm doing all that.
I have put away my sin and I'm alive to God now. But he couldn't
hear the law. He was without the law. He couldn't
hear it. But Christ came and made him hear it and he said,
and when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died. You see the opposite? That fruit
of death that he worked in him by the law made him think he
was alive and his sin was death. But that's the letter that killeth. If a man is left in that state,
that letter, when he meets God in judgment, that letter will
kill him and condemnation will be ministered to him and eternal
death will be ministered to him in hell forever. But the ministry of the Spirit
is Christ taking that law and teaching us, it says, you're
guilty and you need Christ. And you need Christ. That's the
ministry of the Spirit that does that. And Paul said because the
Lord used the law and did that to him, taught him that he was
a sinner by the law, And use that law, he said that law bears
witness of Christ. That law shows you, when it shows
you you're unrighteous and not holy and not good, Christ uses
it to show you. As big and wide as that law is,
Christ is the fullness of it. He is the righteousness of it.
He's the just one. He's the good one. And Paul said,
wherefore the law is holy and the commandment holy and just
and good. He said, why is the law, why
do I say that? Because, not because the law
taught me I was holy just and good, because the law told me
I wasn't. That's why I delight in it. That's
why I'm saying the law's good. It's good. You see, that's the
opposite of how the world uses the law. They use the law to
measure their righteousness by it. They're doing it. The law
said I delight in it because it told me I was guilty and I
couldn't keep it. And I delight in it because Christ
used it to show me he's the righteous one. the fulfillment of it. Now
if there's anybody here that thinks you can be saved by law,
listen to the scripture. The whole of our Paul say unto
you that if you be circumcised, and you can put there whatever
it is that you imagine you're doing that's going to somehow
get you a leg up with God. It doesn't matter what it is.
If any man be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing. For I testify again to every
man that's circumcised, he's a debtor to do the whole law.
Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever you are that's
justified by law, you're fallen from grace. Why can't I keep
the law? He said, as many as all of the
works of the law are under the curse, because it's written,
cursed is everyone that continueth not in all things which are written
in the book of the law to do them. You see, you can't just
pick out what you want to keep, You gotta keep it all in thought,
word, and deed. The law is spiritual, and we're
carnal, so to understand, until Christ makes you a spiritual
man with spiritual life, you can't hear the spirituality of
the law telling you that it reaches to the thoughts and intents of
your heart. But when he does that, you realize,
I can't keep the law. I never have kept the law myself.
Well, how do you establish it? Through faith in Christ. He established
it for me. And through faith in Christ.
That's what Paul said in Romans 3.31. We don't make void of the
law through faith. That's what we're accused of.
All y'all are antinomian. No, sir. The antinomian is the
man who's going around bragging that he can keep the law. That's
bringing the law down. That's dishonoring the law. Christ
is the only one that can keep the law or else God wouldn't
have sent his son. And we keep it, Paul said, through
faith in Him. That's the only way. Alright,
now go to this third thing. Now here's where I want to get
into this, He gives life, the Spirit. It's called the ministry
of the Spirit there in our text. He said He made us able ministers
of the New Testament, not of the letter, but of the Spirit.
The Spirit gave us life. Now I want you to pay close attention
here. This is our focus. This helped me and I think it
will help you too. Preaching of the Spirit is what
we preach. It's what you hear here, what
you've heard for years here. Christ fulfilled every aspect
of God's covenant so that when He makes that covenant with us
in our hearts, He's teaching us that all the promises of God
are yes and amen in Christ Jesus. to the praise of the glory of
God's grace. That's what he teaches you in
your heart. There's nothing left for us to do. Believing Christ
is not doing. Believing Christ is ceasing from
doing. Now don't get me wrong, when
God's going to create good works in his people and they're going
to do them, but you're going to do them by him working in
you. I'm talking here about works for salvation. We cease from
that. He changes your heart. He changes
the motive. Now, you rest in Christ. David said, although my house
be not so with God, yet he has made with me an everlasting covenant,
ordered in all things, and sure, and this is all my salvation,
though he make it not to grow. He said, I'm looking at my earthly
house right now, it's not so with my earthly house. There's
nothing but sin in me and God don't make this flesh grow at
all. There's nothing but sin. But that's not my salvation.
Nothing I do is my salvation. My salvation is God made with
me an everlasting covenant and He didn't leave a thing in my
hand. He ordered it and He made it sure in all things and that's
all my salvation. That's preaching of the letter,
preaching Christ and Him crucified. Now the reason Christ makes His
preacher minister the Spirit preach the gospel is because
the Spirit giveth life. Now I want you to look at our
text, 2 Corinthians 3 and verse 6, and notice there, 2 Corinthians
3, 6. See that word spirit? It's spelled
with a little s. See that? A little s. It's not
speaking here of God the Holy Spirit. It means breath. That's what
the word means, breath. It means spirit. It means life. Let me show you. Turn to John 6. John chapter
6. This is Christ speaking. John 6 verse 63. It is the spirit that quickeneth. You see that? It is the Spirit
that quickeneth. Now you don't have that in you
and I don't have that in me by nature as we're born. So what's
he talking about when I watch? The flesh profiteth nothing.
That means you and I don't do a thing to make this happen.
What is the Spirit he's talking about then? The words that I
speak unto you, they are Spirit. and they are life. That's what
he's talking about. That the Spirit giveth life,
he's talking about the gospel. When Christ speaks that gospel,
when he speaks his words, his gospel into our heart, effectually,
he gives a new spirit, quickeneth a new spirit, and he gives that
spirit his life, his spiritual life. That's how we have spiritual
life. Christ speaks it. You know, in
the garden, what happened? God took a dead, lifeless body,
and He breathed into that body the breath of life, and Adam
became a living soul. Well, in the new creation, which
is all of Christ, He takes a dead sinner, just like God took a
dead body, He takes a spiritually dead sinner, And He doesn't breathe
into him the breath of life and make him a living soul. He breathes
into him the Spirit. He speaks His Word in us and
He creates a new spirit and life within us. That's why 1 Corinthians
15.45 says, The first man Adam was made a living soul. The last
Adam was made a quickening spirit. Look at John 5, 21. You wouldn't
believe this, but a man used John 5 the other day. A free
will man used this to try to defend free will. That he could
make himself believe and give himself life and all this stuff.
And look at this. Christ is talking to Pharisees
here. He just spoke and made that lame man at the Poodle of
Bethesda altogether whole. And he said, you're going to
see greater miracles than that. That's nothing. And he's talking
about speaking and making us whole with this new spirit, putting
this new spirit in us and making us alive. Watch what he said.
Verse 24. He says, I'm sorry, verse 21. He says, as the Father raiseth
up the dead and quickeneth them, even so the Son quickeneth whom
He will. You see that? Christ quickeneth
whom He will." Look at verse 25. Very rarely I say unto you,
that means this is of utmost importance, the hour is coming
and now is, when the dead, spiritually dead, he's not talking about
the resurrection yet, he's talking about Him bringing you out of
the grave of your depravity. When the dead shall hear the
voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall live. For as the Father hath life in
himself, so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself."
He's talking about the first resurrection. He's talking about
what God talked about in Ezekiel 37 when he said, look at these
dry bones. Preach to them. Preach to them, pray that the
Holy Spirit will come. And he said, and I'll breathe
life into them. And he said, and as I preach,
God breathed life into them. And they stood up and became
alive. And God said, this is the whole
house of Israel. This is how I'm going to save
my people. And when I've done this, when I've breathed life
into you, and God said and brought you out of your grave. Because
we're just dead by nature. When I've brought you out of
your grave in that first resurrection, then you're going to know I am
the Lord. I am the Lord. And that's what
he's talking about here. And that's how he puts that new
spirit, that little S in us and makes us alive and makes us know
he did it. Look at John 4, 23. You see, John's letter is declaring
Christ Lord. That's what he's doing. Sovereign
Lord. Sovereign Savior. And that's why Christ speaks
so much about this in the book of John. It's because he's declaring
how he's one with the Father and has all power. Well, he always
had that. But he's talking about as the
God-man, he's got that now. As both God and man in one, he
has this problem. Look at John 4, 23. The hour
cometh, and now is, when the true worshipers shall worship
the Father in spirit, the less, and in truth. He's talking about
in the New Spirit that He puts in us where He teaches us the
truth of the Gospel. He doesn't teach us that truth
in the old flesh. He teaches us this in the New
Spirit. He says, "...for the Father seeketh such to worship
Him." God is a capital S Spirit. And they that worship him must
worship him in little s spirit and in truth. He's saying we
got to worship him in the new man, in the new spirit. And we
have to do it in truth. And it's only in that new spirit
that he teaches us the truth. He doesn't teach us the truth
in our old stony heart. No, he teaches us the truth in
that new spirit. He said the Spirit itself, capital
S, the Holy Spirit, beareth witness with our little s spirit that
we're children of God. That's where he teaches us the
gospel. You see, there is God the Holy Spirit in his child
and there is the little s spirit that he puts in us. Get that? It's not just Christ
in you, it's Christ in you working in a new spirit that He put in
you, a new man He put in you. He doesn't believe for us, He
makes us believe in that new spirit. And my flesh does not
believe. My flesh wars against me constantly. It does nothing because He hasn't
taught that flesh anything. at all. That's why Christ said
that which is born of flesh is flesh and that which is born
of capital S Spirit of God the Holy Spirit is little s Spirit. You get what I'm saying? You
get that? Now, why does he call Christ preachers the minister
of the Spirit? Because he does this through
the preaching of the Gospel. That's what Paul is declaring.
He made us able ministers of the New Testament, not of the
letter, of the Spirit, of the Gospel. Because through that,
Christ is speaking these words and creating that new Spirit
in us and giving us life. He said, and Peter said, you've
purified your souls in obeying the truth through God the Holy
Spirit. Christ is working this through God the Holy Spirit.
Being born again, he said, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible. What is the incorruptible seed?
You were born the first time by a seed. That's how you were
naturally generated. How are we regenerated? By an
incorruptible seed. And what is that seed? the Word
of God, which liveth and abideth forever. And this is the Word
which by the gospel is preached unto you." That's what Christ
is declaring in our text through Paul. You hear the gospel preached,
it won't do you any good if that's all you hear is a man preaching.
But when Christ speaks in the heart, you're born of incorruptible
seed. Now, I'm out of time. Can I show you one more thing? He says here it's called the
ministration of righteousness. He calls it the ministration
of righteousness. You know when you minister to somebody, you're
ministering something to somebody. Minister of the spirit, he ministers
a new spirit to us. It's how God said he'd put a
new spirit in us. And he says also he ministers
to us righteousness. Now I told you last night, and
this is so, life is righteousness. with God. When God gives life,
it's righteousness. That's the only kind of life.
God don't give anything but righteousness. And life is righteousness. That's
why if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin. Don't you understand? We understand
what because of sin means. It means our whole body is nothing
but sin. Well, listen to this. But the
Spirit is life because of righteousness. That means that new man that
the Spirit of God has created, is created in righteousness,
in the righteousness of Christ. You get that? That's why he said,
put on the new man which after God is created in righteousness
and true holiness. That's the only kind of life
God makes. We all with open face beholding as in a glass the glory
of the Lord are changed into the same image. There's a new
image recreated within His people. What's God's image? He's righteous
and holy. Can't be anything but. That's
what the new man is. Well, I thought God just imputed
righteousness to us. When God imputes righteousness,
it's because that's what He has made us. That's what imputation
is according to the scripture. It's not God treating you as
if you are, it's Him making you so and therefore He treats you,
I mean He imputes to you righteousness. You can find it in the Old Testament.
He said if a man doesn't bring the blood sacrifice to the altar,
He said blood should be imputed to that man. Why? He has shed
blood. That's what it said. Don't impute
blood to Him and make Him to have shed blood. Impute blood
to Him because He did shed blood. And when He imputes righteousness
to us, it's because He made us righteous by what He did at the
cross and what He's done in the heart. And one day when He gets
done with His work, we will be totally righteous within and
without. And it'll all be the work of
Christ. This is how he makes the new
covenant with you. He said, I'm going to write my
laws in your heart. You know what laws mean? Doctrines. He doesn't write the old covenant
law on your heart. He writes the law of faith and
the law of sin and the law of righteousness, the doctrine of
faith, the doctrine of sin, the doctrine of righteousness, the
doctrine of the love of Christ, the doctrine of liberty, all
those you can find in the New Testament. That's what he writes
on the heart, teaching you Christ is your only righteousness. And
that makes you rest in Christ. And you walk, he said, and you'll
walk in my statutes and my judgments and keep them. Oh, that must
mean we gotta go back to the law. No, you do that by walking
in faith. The law's not up faith. You walk
in faith. That's how. Listen to this. This
is the covenant I'll make with them after those days, saith
the Lord. I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their
minds will I write them. Now listen to 2 Corinthians 3,
3. You are the epistle of Christ written with the spirit of the
living God in the new, submissive, fleshly tables of the heart.
You get that? It's the same thing. And that's
when, of God, Christ is made unto us wisdom, righteousness,
sanctification, and redemption. Everything we need, and we rest
in Him. And this is not a one-time thing,
you know. Our outward man perishes, but the inward man is renewed
day by day. You come out, you come here today,
and Christ is going to quicken you in that inward man, strengthen
you in that inward man, and send you out of here renewed. And
you're going to go out there and you're just going to, your
old man is going to get stronger and stronger and stronger and
stronger until next Wednesday. You're going to come back in
here and Christ is going to renew you again. And He keeps doing it
to the end just like He did it in the beginning through the
gospel. Amen.