Okay, for those of you who have
the handout, I've got everything in the handout. I know some of
you like to go to your Bibles and look through and stuff, but
we've got a lot to look through tonight, so I didn't want to kind of made it easier for me
to put my notes together, and so on. So you can open your Bibles
to Ezekiel, if you would. We're going to spend a lot of
time there. But for the most part, everything else is right
here in the handout. This is part two of what we are
looking into in studying the characteristics of God's grace. and I've titled tonight's study
Regenerating Grace. We began this topical study last
week on the characteristics of God's grace, and we began where
we should in the beginning, before time itself, with the covenant
of grace. That was what our topic was for
last week. And truly, that study will follow
us throughout the rest of all these studies, because that's
the basis. The basis of God's grace all boils down to the covenant
between the great three and one, the love that God had for a people
before a star ever twinkled in the sky. Everything boils back
to that, that our great God, the Lord Jesus Christ, who receives
all the glory. Paragraph two on page one. What
does the word regeneration mean? The Greek word is kalenchi ea. It means spiritual rebirth, the
state or the act that is figuratively spiritual renovation, specifically
messianic restoration, regeneration. It comes from the word palen,
which means anew, make new. I once made a mistake. I once
mistakenly stated, God restored the old heart to himself. And I was immediately corrected.
And rightly so. God does not restore an old heart. He removes it. He restores life
where there was none. Listen to the words of Ezekiel
36, verse 24 through 27. He says, for I will take you
from among the heathen and gather you out of all countries and
will bring you into your own land. He's speaking to spiritual
Israel. Now, at this particular point
in time, Ezekiel was the prophet to Israel. So he was speaking
to the people of Israel, but we know that the people of Israel
were a picture of God's people throughout all time. So he's
talking to all of us. He says, then I will sprinkle
clean water upon you. And we know that the water, usually
99.9% of the time when he speaks of water in the scriptures, he's
talking about the gospel going forth. Clean water upon you. He's gonna sprinkle it. I know
he uses preachers to preach the gospel. But it's God who must
do a work in a man's heart. It's God who does the work in
the heart of men. He will sprinkle clean water
upon you, and ye shall be clean. Isn't that wonderful? I know it's difficult. I know
in this flesh we become weak, and we don't trust some things. We hear them, but we just don't
feel like it. Folks, I'm telling you right
now, don't trust your feelings. This is God's Word. Here's something
you can trust. His Word. And ye shall be clean. If Christ sprinkles you with
clean water, you shall be clean. He doesn't sprinkle people that
he's not going to make clean. From all your filthiness, from
all your idols, will I cleanse you, saith the Lord. A new heart
also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you,
and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and
I will give you a heart of flesh, and I will put my spirit within
you, and cause you to walk in my statutes. and ye shall keep
my judgments and do them. The heart we speak of is the
inner being, the spirit. All mankind come into this world
with spiritually dead hearts, cold, dead hearts against the
truths of God. We have no understanding of spiritual
things. Listen to Romans 8, verses 5
through 8. For they that are after the flesh
do mind the things of the flesh, but they that are after the spirit
the things of the spirit, page two. For to be carnally minded,
that means earthly minded, that means your natural mind is death. But to be spiritually minded
is life and peace. Folks, if God's given you a spirit
of life, if he's given life to a cold dead spirit and put a
live spirit in you, you're gonna have peace at some point. Even
if all that peace is, is I trust God. You're not gonna have peace
with your flesh. Your flesh is gonna battle your
spirit all the rest of these days until the Lord takes you
out of this world. But if your spirit is the spirit
of God, you will have peace in Him. Every time you take your
eyes off of yourself and look to our Lord and Savior, just
as Moses lifted up the serpent above the people, so they could
all look to the brazen serpent. If we look to Christ, we find
there's peace. You look to the flesh, you're
gonna find nothing but turmoil. It says, because the carnal mind
is enmity, enmity against God, for it is not subject to the
law of God, Neither indeed can be, so then they that are in
the flesh cannot please God." Oh, oh Lord, help us to understand
that. There's nothing in this flesh
that we can do that's going to please God. Only in Christ are
we pleasing in the sight of God. The word enmity is a very strong
word. It's ekrathah. Even the Greek
word of it, ekrathot, doesn't that sound like it's harsh? It
is. It means hostility. By implication, a reason for
opposition, enmity, hatred. Folks, we come into this world
hating God, hating his word, enemies with him, and we cannot
discern his truths. We are carnally minded, in other
words, of this flesh. Our natural-born instinct is
to satisfy this flesh, satisfying the lust of the flesh, as we
read in Ephesians 2, verses 2 and 3, wherein in times past ye walked
according to the course of this world, according to the prince
of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the
children of disobedience, among whom also We all had our conversation,
that means our life, our walk in this world, in times past,
in the lust of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and
of the mind, and were by nature the children of wrath, even as
others. I don't know about you folks,
but I know, I know that's where I was. I was blind. But now I see, I
see the color blue. I see the grace of God in doing
a work in a body, in a man who is just destined to earn his
way into hell. Where there was once nothing
but death, life must be given. Life must be restored. Regeneration
must occur. In John chapter 3, verses 1 through
8, we know this story very well. There was a man of the Pharisees
named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. The same came to Jesus
by night. He was ashamed to come during
the day. He didn't want anybody to see him. He came by night.
He was a ruler. He was one of the guys out there
raising up their fist. He did stand up for the Lord
Jesus, kind of, in the trial. Kind of. but not fully. And he came to the Lord by night,
and he said unto him, Rabbi, teacher, didn't even call him
Lord, he said, Rabbi, I know you're a good teacher, is what
he's saying. We know that thou art a teacher come from God,
for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be
with him. And Jesus was doing miracles
all over. You know how many people didn't see that, couldn't see
that at all? Nicodemus saw it a little bit.
And Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto
thee, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of
God. Nicodemus saith unto him, How
can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter the second
time into his mother's womb and be born? And Jesus answered. Now, I ask you, is this not clear? Is this not very, very clear
of what the Lord is saying to be born again? You've got nothing
to do with that. You can't do anything to help
that. You can't do anything to take
it away from that. You had nothing to do with your natural birth.
That's what this is all about. We have nothing to do with our
new birth either. It has to be salvation of the
Lord and of the Lord alone. Can we enter a second time and
be born? And Jesus answered and said, barely, barely, I say unto
thee, except a man be born of water, there we go, the gospel,
and of the spirit. Now remember, what was the spirit's,
what was the responsibility of the spirit last week when we
talked about it? It was to go about and give life. It was to
go about and give, we're gonna look, we're gonna read about
that just here in a moment. We're gonna repeat some verses we read
last week. Marvel not, he said unto thee,
that ye must be born again. The wind bloweth where it lifteth,
and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it
cometh, and whither it goeth, so is every one that is born
of the Spirit. So the expression of the wind
blowing is God speaking to us on our level. Isn't that wonderful?
Every time I turn around, and look at and consider how our
God has communicated to us. It just boggles my mind that
he would think, that he would lower himself to think upon me,
one who shook my fist at him and said, I'll not have that
one to rule over me. The wind blowing is God speaking
to us on our level. It's the Holy Ghost who moves
about like the wind, who goes about giving life, regenerating
those whom the Father gave to the Son. John 6, verse 63, we
read these two verses, these two sets of verses last week.
It is the Spirit that quickeneth, that means made alive. It's the
Spirit of God who gives life. The flesh profiteth nothing.
The words that I speak unto you, says God, they are spirit and
they are life. Titus 3, verse 3-7, we read this,
where we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient,
deceived, serving diverse lusts and pleasures, living in malice
and envy, hateful and hating one another. But after that,
the kindness and love of God our Savior toward man appeared,
not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according
to his mercy, his grace, he saved us. by the washing of regeneration
and the renewing of the Holy Ghost, which I'll back up. I skipped. I went by that a little
too fast now. According to his mercy or his
grace, in other words, he saved us by the washing of regeneration. There's that regeneration. Here's
the grace of God. The grace were saved by his were
according to his mercy. By his grace, he saved us. by
the washing, the regeneration, and the renewing of the Holy
Ghost, which He shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior,
that being justified by His grace, we should be made heirs according
to the hope of eternal life. Life must come before one who
is dead can act in life. It says you must be born again.
That's regenerating grace. That's regenerating grace, to
be born again. Ephesians 2, verses 4 through
5, but God, who is rich in mercy for his great love wherewith
he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened,
made alive, regenerated us together with Christ. By grace, ye are
saved. That phrase, by grace, could
be better translated, writes Charles, virgin by whose grace? It could
go either way, but if you use it that way, by whose grace you
are saved, you can see that it's clearly talking about Christ
himself. Now the Lord of all glory has
given his record, his word, a vision to one of his prophets of old
that is so clear of the subject of regeneration that we must
consider it. So here, if you would, if you're
already interning your Bibles, we're going to look at Ezekiel
chapter 37. And I know this is a very popular
set of scriptures. We've looked at it. In my 25
years of studying the Word of God, I can't even, it's another
part of that Bible, my Bible that is just, I can literally
just flip it right open to Ezekiel 37. And it's right, I mean, if
I go to the book of Ezekiel, It'll flip right all over the
other pages, and it'll stop on 37. That's how many times I've
used these scriptures. But we have to look at this. We have to look at this, because
in the Old Testament, it's so clear in what we see here. Ezekiel 37, verse 1, we read,
"...the hand of the Lord was upon me," writes the prophet.
and carried me out in the Spirit of the Lord." Folks, God's servants
learn nothing until they have an experience similar to that
of Ezekiel. They must be led by the Spirit
of the Lord, and they must have their eyes and mouths opened
by Him, and then they can both see the vision and tell the vision
to others. How often have you heard me say,
I'm just, you know, I'm not a theologian. I don't study the scriptures
like Don Fortman does. I don't study the scriptures
like many other preachers do. I study, but not like others.
I'm just a man sharing with you my experience. Well, how could
I share that with you if I hadn't had that experience from God
and myself? How could I tell you of the greatness
of my Lord's love for me if I didn't have already experienced that
love in my life? And it's the same thing for you
guys. When you talk to someone, don't you get excited about expressing
what God has done for you to them? Doesn't it excite you to
do so? Back in our handout, page four
there, we continue with verse one of chapter 37. It says, and
he sent me down in the midst of the valley, which was full
of bones. Consider it, picture how often,
have you ever sat back and pictured what that must look like? Big
old huge valley. I think of Hope Valley up here
in the mountains right outside of Kirkwood. You drop down off
the mountain and it's so steep. You drop almost 3,000 feet down
into this valley. So when you're up on top, you
can see this huge valley. On both sides, there's mountains.
On the far end, there's mountains, a little place where the river
goes out the other side. Picture a huge grave site in
that valley, battlefield, where the slain had not been buried,
where people had just rotted and died, or died and rotted,
baked by the sun. Would any man go into such a
place without being sent to such a place? I don't think so. I think I'd turn around and go
the other way if God didn't make clear to me that's where he wanted
me to go. Yet it was needful. It was needful that Ezekiel should
be there in order that he might understand and speak the message
of God. Notice the word valley is used. I cannot help but think of Psalms
23, where it says, yea, though I walk through the valley of
the shadow of death. I was telling Pastor Gene about
that this morning. You know, that word, when David's
writing about that, and he's talking about The valley of death
to the world is only a shadow to God's people. Why? Because
our Lord and Savior took our death upon Him. Did we catch that? Can we absorb
that in our minds? God Almighty provided His Son
to take our death. So everything we see around us
that dies is just a shadow of what's to come. We know that
we're not going to be a part of that death. Our Lord's already
taken it for us, and we're going to spend eternity in the presence
of the Lord Jesus Christ. We journey, back in our handout,
folks, we journey through a dying world. All that is of this earth
is dying because of sin. Listen to the words of Genesis
3, 17. And unto Adam, he said, because
thou hast hearkened, here's that. to hear sin entering into the
world, because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and
has eaten of the tree, which I commanded thee, saying, Thou
shalt not eat of it. Cursed is the ground for thy
sake. Now that word ground is everything. That's not just this earth that
we walk on. That's everything. Everything
around us, our entire universe that we know of, is all dying. Our sun is dying. The ground,
cursed is the ground for thy sake. In sorrow shalt thou eat
of it in all the days of thy life. Also notice, if you will,
this valley is full. Folks, there's no life in it.
There was no life in you and I at one time. We were dead in
trespasses and sin. That's called total depravity.
That's total having nothing, absolutely nothing, not even
the ability to reach over and take that medication that so
many false preachers like to, if you just reach out and take
it, if you just make a decision for Jesus. Hogwash. My God made a decision for me.
And I'm thankful for that, because I know what I would have, if
it was left to me, I'd have been just like the people that hung
him on the cross. I'd have said, crucify him, crucify him. Ezekiel 37 verse two, and cause
me, writes the prophet, to pass by them round about. The preacher
had to make a thorough survey of the crying seat. He didn't
get to just look out across the valley. He had to go down and
be passed around it. passed around through it to survey
the grim scene. You can't tell someone about
a place that you've never been. I've tried to express to several of the folks who are
coming out here to go to South Lake Tahoe or go down to Yosemite. And I tried to express them,
and people have tried to express to me too. what it's like to
go to stand before the big rock in Yeshiva. I couldn't express
that to you unless I'd actually gone there and seen it for myself.
And even then, you don't understand it until you go and see it for
yourself. Preacher has to know the scene. You can't tell somebody
about a place you've never been. He had to experience it. For
one to accurately describe something, one must see it in detail. Continued
in verse two, we read, and behold, there were very many in the open
valley, and lo, they were very dry, open to the sun. They were open to the sun for
baking. They had laid there so long that
the wind had dried up all the juices of the morrow bones, and
they were turned to dust. Verse three of Ezekiel 37, and
he said unto me, son of man, Can these bones live? Folks,
God did not ask this question for his own information. Our
God knows all things. But he asked questions, questions
that you and I need to answer, and that's how we learn sometimes. He did not ask the question for
his own information, but for the prophets. The Lord wanted
him to realize the difficulties of the work to which he was called,
that he might be driven the more completely to what? To rely upon
God and not upon himself. Here we have again, another picture
of God teaching you and I to quit looking at ourselves. Quit
relying on what we think of ourselves. Quit looking for a receipt on
what we have done, and look to Christ. Look to Him. Trust in
His word. Lean on Him. We can plant. We can water, but only God can
give the increase. Verses three and four of chapter
37 Ezekiel. And I answered, O Lord, thou
knowest. Again he said unto me, prophesy
unto these bones and say unto them, O ye dry bones, hear the
word of the Lord. Now did you notice the first
thing to prophesy is what? The word. What is the word of
God? Christ Jesus the Lord. In the
beginning was the word. And the word was with God, and
the word was God. Prophesy unto these dry bones. Hear, hear the word of the Lord. Recall the story of Naaman in
2 Kings. He was told by the prophet Elijah
to go and wash in the Jordan seven times. You remember how
foolish Naaman thought that was? He said something to this effect.
Why should I go wash in the dirty, rotten waters of the Jordan? Where I come from, we have the
Nile, we have the Rhine, we have all the beautiful rivers from
where I come from. Why should I go washing that?
It was foolishness. Ezekiel's task of preaching to
dry bones must have seemed to be as useless as that. Yet if
God bids us to do the same, we don't need any other justification
for doing it. The Lord's sending me here. I'll
tell you something, I didn't make any excuses when the Lord
brought me here to minister here that day when he made, when he
obviously, to those of us that were present in that meeting, put me in the position at that
time to be the minister here. I wasn't even sure of it at that
time either. It wasn't for six months. So finally, we prayed
about it and the Lord led me to that. But still, this is what
the Lord put me to do. Charles Spurgeon wrote this,
he says, what is foolish in the side of reason is wisdom and
the judgment of faith. That's kind of like wary of the
wise. Did not God put away all the
wisdom of this world? Is not the wisdom of God foolishness
to this world? In verses five through six of
Ezekiel, we read these words, thus saith the Lord God unto
these bones, behold, I will cause breath to enter into you. and
ye shall live, and I will lay sinews upon you, and will bring
up flesh upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath
in you, and ye shall live, and ye shall know that I am the Lord. He had to tell these dry bones
the unconditional purposes and promises of God. What are those
unconditional and promises of God? I will, what a promise. What a wonderful promise, I will. And he also promises ye shall,
ye shall live. And this is the way in which
God works out his eternal purposes concerning the sons of men. He
bids his servants to proclaim his message and then he fulfills
his own purpose and promises in us. Take my yoke upon you,
says the Lord Jesus Christ. It is easy. Oh, folks. What we can't do, and that's
everything, our Lord can do it all. In verse seven, so I prophesied,
says the prophet Ezekiel, as I was commanded, and as I prophesied,
there was a noise. Folks, that day that James came
here, James Luther, that day that he came here to this church,
I was so surprised. I was like, hey, what are you
doing here? And he told me what he was doing there. And then
afterwards, to see the noise, I heard a noise in that man's
heart. I heard a noise, just like Pastor
Gene saw and heard a noise in you and I when the Lord called
us through the preaching of his gospel. There was a noise, a
rustle, a noise, a movement. Listen to Isaiah 55, 11. So shall
my word be that go forth out of my mouth. It shall not return
unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I plead, and it shall
prosper in the thing whereinto I send it. If God is sending
his word, it will accomplish it. It's a two-edged sword, folks. God's Word's a two-edged sword.
We've had more people walk out of this church after a message
than we've had stick around. Page 6. Continuing on verse seven of
Ezekiel 37, and behold, a shaking and the bones came together,
bone to his bone. What divine power in bringing
the bones to their proper position in the various bodies and forging
the separated anatomy to reform itself. Verse eight, and when
I beheld, lo, the sinews and the flesh came up upon them,
and the skin covered them above, but there was no breath in them
yet. There was no breath in them.
Not much improvement, huh, so far. No, there was only dead
bodies instead of dry bones. There was something more to look
at, but nothing more agreeable. and really no more life than
there was before. But go on in verse nine, then
said he unto me, prophesy unto the wind, the spirit. Prophesy, son of man. Prophesy
unto the wind. What a strange thing to do, huh?
But folks, there are no absurdities where God gives his command.
Lord tells me to go and prophesy somewhere, whether it be at a
funeral or wedding. How about a bar? I hope not. Don't really want to go into
one of those places, but he told me if I felt like he was leading
me to be there, I would go. Also we see in the last part
of verse 9 and 10, and say to the wind, thus saith the Lord
God, come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these
slain that they may live. So I prophesied as he commanded
me. Ezekiel was very obedient. He
only wanted to know the Lord's will, and then he raised no question,
but did it at once, just as he was told to do so. He says, so
I prophesied as he commanded me. It's a prime qualification
in a servant of God that he should do exactly as he is bidden, not
to think how he would like, or to do it, or to follow the plan
that his own wisdom suggests, but just to do it as he is told,
as Ezekiel did. So I prophesied as he commanded
me. Now I wanna stop there for a
moment, because I wanna share with you something. I get a lot of advertisements.
from the world on how to grow the church here in rescue, according
to experts in the world. I've been, I don't want to say harassed,
but I've been, I've received pressure at times from different
ones to preach more than just Jesus Christ and him crucified.
I've been saying, all you do, and I've shared this with you,
all you do is flap around on top of the water. You don't dive
deep enough into scriptures. Folks, we're diving deep into
scriptures right here. We're looking at God's will towards
you and I. As He gives us these instructions,
as He tells us what you don't do, I do for you. He tells us
all these things. This is what Christ is telling
us to do. Go into the world and preach the gospel. Well, what
is the gospel? The gospel is Jesus Christ and
Him crucified. That's what the Lord tells us
to do. That's what we go and do. Everything else will come
about just as the Lord has meant it to be. Verses 10 through 11,
we read these words back in our handout, bottom of page six.
And the breath came into them, and they lived and stood upon
their feet. an exceeding great army. Then he said unto me, Son of
man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. Behold, they
say our bones are dried and our hope is lost. We are cut off
for our plots." Or in other words, they're saying there is no hope
in us. We are dead and worse than dead. Our case is hopeless. There's no possibility of restoration
for us, yet the Lord answered. How often do you and I look at
ourselves in the mirror and say that very same thing? Is there
any hope for me? Is there any hope for me? If you feel at times that your
faith is weak, that the Lord may not love you, that the Lord
is distant from you. Listen to these words. Look at
how the Lord answers in verse 12. Therefore prophesy and say
unto them, thus saith the Lord God. Behold, grab ahold of this. That's what that means. Behold,
grab ahold of this. Oh my people, I will open your graves and cause
you to come up out of your graves and bring you into the land of
Israel. This is the promise to us. Turn
away from what we see in this flesh and look to Christ. Look
to Him and look to Him alone. Folks, there will be a house
of Israel no matter what. God has His remnant. I was speaking
with a brother earlier, that remnant is as the sand in the
sea. We can't even imagine the number
of people that there are that belong to God. The nation of Israel seemed to
be dead and buried at that time. They had fallen away from the
truths of God, but God would revive and restore it. He would regenerate it. Folks,
this is a promise which may apply to us. Dear friends who are heavy,
heavy of heart and full of despair, and who seemed as if you were
as good as dead and buried, our Lord speaks this promise. He
says, behold, all my people, I will open. your graves. Therefore
believe his word as though it had been directed to you personally. Behold, O my people, he says
to you, I will open your graves and cause you to come up out
of the graves and bring you into the land of Israel. And then
we read in verse 13, and ye shall know, ye shall know that I am
the Lord. Why? Because he's made himself
your Lord. He's done everything. He's given
you the ability to believe. He's made himself your Lord. He says, you shall know that
I am Lord when I have opened your graves, oh my people, and
brought you up out of your graves. Great deliverances and almighty
quickenings reveal God to us and make us know how glorious
the great Jehovah is. I was asking someone earlier
today, Do you believe? Do you believe God? Oh, yeah,
yeah, I believe God. Are you sure? Are you sure? Because this is God's word to
his people. What is his word? Whosoever believeth
shall have everlasting life. Oh, God, help us to believe.
I believe, yet Lord, help my unbelief. Verse 14, and shall put my spirit
in you, and ye shall live. And I shall place you in your
own land. Then shall ye know that I, the
Lord, have spoken it and performed it, saith the Lord. Divine regeneration, by grace
ye are saved. What love the Savior has for
his people. Behold, what manner of love the
Father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called the
sons of God. Page eight. Now that we have a small understanding,
folks, that's all we're ever gonna have. We're not gonna have
anything else but a small understanding. of what God's word means completely
to us until we go through that doormark death. But he gives
us, he comes to us on our level, and he gives us a small understanding
of his grace in regenerating us. We clearly see another side
of this multifaceted, multi-sided diamond of grace. But how can
this regeneration be? How can this new life be? And
I thought to myself, you know, there's three points that I try
to make in every message. I forget which minister told
me, I'm pretty sure Pastor Gene has expressed this to me many
times, but in learning to be a minister of God's sheep, I
was told always include three points in every message. Who is the Lord Jesus Christ?
What has he done for his people? And where is he right now? I thought scripture could do
the best way to present that this evening. John 14, six, we read these words. Jesus saith unto him, I am the
way. How can this regeneration be?
How can this new life be? Jesus saith unto you and I, I
am the way and the life. No man cometh unto the Father
but by me. Folks, we gotta stop trying to
come to God on our own path, on our own ways. Every time we
do, we're gonna stumble, we're gonna fall, we're gonna have
doubt. We have to come the only way
there is, and that's through Jesus Christ, our Savior. Who
is this way? In John 10 30, he says, I and
my father are one. You're coming to God boldly before
the throne of grace, coming to God himself. What has he done? Romans 5 verses 8 through 10. But God commendeth his love toward
us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more than being now justified
by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. For if When we were enemies,
we were reconciled. That's regenerated. That's it. That's the same as being regenerated,
reconciled, brought back to what was lost. We lost our Lord in
the garden when Adam sinned. We lost the Lord. We separated ourselves from God
at that point, all mankind. We were reconciled to God by
the death of his son, much more being reconciled, we shall be
saved by his life. Where is he right now? Hebrews
1.3, who being the brightness of his glory, the brightness
of the glory of God, and the expressed image of his person,
and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had
by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the
majesty of God. Amen.