If you would turn to Mark chapter
7 Mark chapter 7 And I want to read like the first 13
verses Then came together unto him the
Pharisees and certain of the scribes which came from Jerusalem
and And when they saw some of his disciples eat bread with
defiled, that is to say, with unwashing hands, they found fault. For the Pharisees and all the
Jews, except they wash their hands oft, eat not, holding the
tradition of the elders. And when they come from the market,
except they wash, they eat not, and many other things there be
which they have received to hold as the washing of cups, and pots,
brazen vessels, and of tables. Then the Pharisees and scribes
asked him, Jesus Christ, why walk not thy disciples according
to the tradition of the elders, but eat bread with unwashing
hands? He answered and said unto them,
Well hath Esaias prophesied of you hypocrites. As it is written,
this people honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is
far from me. Howbeit in vain do they worship
me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. For laying
aside the commandment of God, ye hold the tradition of men
as the washing of pots and cups, and many other such like things
do ye do. And he said unto them, Full well
ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own
tradition. For Moses said, honor thy father
and thy mother, and whoso curses his father or mother, let him
die the death. But ye say, if a man shall say
to his father or mother, it is korban, that is to say, a gift,
by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me, he shall be free. And ye suffer him no more to
do ought for his father or his mother. making the word of God
of none effect through your tradition, which ye have delivered, and
many such like things do ye. That's where I'm going to stop,
at least the reading. And the title is, Making of None
Effect the Word of God. Making of none effect the word
of God I Was actually gonna preach on
verse 15, but I didn't get that far I got stuck here Because
right here this making the word of God of none effect through
your tradition which ye have delivered and many such like
things do ye and Believe this is one of the most serious statements
of our Lord Jesus Christ This is a pointed accusation of the
son of God to these religious Pharisees and scribes right here
in this place This is who he was talking to this is who he
was speaking to this is a direct accusation And I gotta say it man is no
different now Man is certainly no better now at all. And to be honest, sometimes this
worries me, this statement. Because the thing Henry Mahan
preached one time, and I can't remember for sure which one it
was, but there's a statement he makes in there, and he says
this. Would you be, if your parents
were heathen hot and tots, would you be a heathen hot and tot?
Are you just where you are because this is where you were raised?
And it's a valid question. I was born and raised Catholic,
and I was, well, sort of happy to be there. I didn't know anything
different. But there is a question here. There's a reason to examine ourselves
and what we do, what we do, our format, our way of worshiping
here. I don't want to do things here
just because that's the way we've always done it. I want to do
it because it's what the scripture says. I want to do it because
this is the way it is. And this is the accusation that
Christ is leveling against these Pharisees and these scribes.
You're just doing it because that's the way you've been taught to
do it. You're keeping the, you've rejected the commandment to keep
your traditions. I don't want to do that. This
is extremely serious. I want to obey the word of God
and not make it of none effect. Now I looked at this statement,
and this is part of what got me, because I have a tendency I like
to look at it, well I have what they call a, I can't even think
of what it's called now, where you have the Greek and the English
together. And it does it actually in the order of the Greek and
the words you look at. Well, this word making is not
there. It's not there. But what it is,
is they have broke down into four words. Making of none effect,
one Greek word. It's one word, making of none
effect. That's actually one word in the
Greek. I'm not going to try to pronounce it. But it's translated
into four words in the English to bring across the meaning of
this one word. And the definition of this word
is to invalidate, to to render void, which is another word,
oh boy, to disannul. And that's what Christ was accusing
and telling these Pharisees and scribes they were doing. If Christ
said it, it was true. If he said they were making the
word of God of none effect, they were making the word of God none
effect. Or they were making of none effect
the word of God. And this Greek word is a verb,
and it's in the present tense, and it's active. This is what
these men were doing actively. These religious Jews were actively
invalidating the word of God. And they were doing it right
there as Jesus Christ spoke to them. They were actively doing it.
And I'm going to tell you something, this is the definition of a transgress.
Full well you reject the commandment of God to keep your traditions.
That's a transgression. That's breaking the law. Now, I did look at Young's little
translation because I like it. And what it says is, setting
aside the word of God for your traditions. And I thought about
that. I thought, man, that really didn't
quite seem as, I thought it was understated, put it that way,
until I considered what was being set aside. Because here he is telling these
Jews, these are Pharisees and scribes. These are studiers of
the law, studiers of the scriptures. And he's telling them that they
had the word of God. Under them were delivered the
oracles. And they took that and they set it aside to pursue their
own traditions. That's not good. Matter of fact,
it's very bad. But that's what they do with
the Word of God. That's what they were actively
doing. They will set aside the Word
of God. And this is the Logos of the
Theos. They set aside the Word of God
for their traditions. They want their traditions. This
is what they are doing, and this is how serious this accusation,
what this fact is that Christ stated, plainly, that they were
doing this. They disannul, they render void,
they invalidate, they make of none effect the Word of God. the truth of God that's how serious
this is now let me be very clear because
I wanted to Debbie and I talked about this a little bit on the
way up because of something she asked me about something different let me be very very clear here
it is not possible never possible not even close to possible it
is impossible to invalidate or to render void the will of God. It is impossible to invalidate
the purpose of God. And I'll be even cleaner. It
is impossible to invalidate or make of none effect the spoken
command of God. Isaiah is always very clear.
Those things, God's will, God's purpose, and God's spoken word
are inviolate. They are supreme. They are untouchable
by man. Isaiah put it this way, so shall
my word that goeth forth out of my mouth. It shall not return
unto me void. But it shall accomplish that
which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing Where unto? Where to? I sent it. Now, if
he sent it for somebody's blessing, it's going to bless him. If he
sent it for someone's damnation, it's going to damn him. I mean,
that's not what it means to make of none effect the word of God.
They have set it aside. It is invalidated to them. They no longer validate the word
of God. They won't say amen. They've
changed it. And they do it in two ways. They
take away from it, and they add to it. And sometimes they do
both at the same time. It's not possible for anyone
or anything to invalidate anything that the Lord has put forth out
of His mouth, that the Lord has purposed, or that the Lord has
willed to happen. Our God is in the heavens. He
hath done whatsoever He hath pleased. It is entirely possible, though,
and it is totally natural for the religious men and women to
deny, to dispute, and or ignore the written and spoken word of
God put forth by his servants. I got a feeling all of us have
had a experience along those lines in one way or another,
one time or another. I know I certainly have had. My God wouldn't do that. You're
right. But the God of the Bible said
he did. Jesus didn't go in and run people
out of the temple, did he? They made that up. That was a
Hollywood part. No, that's actually part they took out of the Bible
and put in the movie. And it surprised me when they
did. But see, they think that cast Christ
in a negative light. No. That cast Christ as exactly
how he is. Holy. You've took my Father's
temple and made it. a den of thieves. What had they done? They were
making the Word of God of none effect. They were rejecting the
commandment and inserting their own traditions. There is absolutely, positively
nothing wrong with the Word of God. Walter said this more on
the radio, the scriptures are all we have to go by. The scriptures
are all we have to go by. And there's absolutely nothing
wrong with the scriptures. Old Testament and New Testament.
There may be a lot wrong with our understanding of it, but
there's nothing, absolutely nothing wrong with the scriptures. What's
wrong is that these men, these Pharisees and these scribes right
here, as told by Christ, they ignore it. They bypass it. They explain it away. They deny
it, they change it, they fight it, they misquote it, they lie
about it. They will do anything and everything
except believe it as it is the word of God. They invalidate
it for themselves. They render it void to themselves. They disannull it for themselves
and for everyone who will listen to them. They are blind. And guess what? They are leaders of the blind. And the blind love to have it
so. They're happy. In the blind lead the blind,
they're both going to end up in the ditch. But the blind are
happy to be led by the blind. Therefore, they both end up in
the ditch. Why? Because they're out of the way.
That's why. That's why you're in the ditch.
If you're out of the way, you're going to be in the ditch. And
they're out of the way, they're out of the truth, and they're
out of the life. And they're out of the light. But Christ
here is explicit in why he tells us, he actually tells us how
they are invalidating the word of God to themselves. It's very specific. He says,
through your tradition. He lays the blame right where
it is. It's yours. That's what he told these guys.
That's what he told these Pharisees and certain scribes. It's yours,
not God's. It's your tradition, not God's
commandment. It's your tradition, not God's
word. God's word is to be supreme over
the rule of the church. It is. Now, in all these places
around us, this is part of what Debbie and I were talking about.
In all these places around, you will hear so much stuff that
it's ridiculous. The amount of error and basically
traditions gone bad. And I don't know, you don't know
how far back they've gone. I really don't know. Because
every one I read, I listen to Martin Lloyd Jones in the late
50s and the 60s. And I listen to Earl talk about
it. Guess what? Man was exactly the same then.
I've been reading C. H. Macintosh. The first of his
book, I don't know his lifetime, whatever it was, but the first
of his books that I've got was printed in 1892. And guess what
he tells us about? People making the word of God
of none effect for themselves, and they try to do it to you.
This is nothing new. Man has not changed. Man is exactly
the way he is now. We are surrounded by people who
will argue us to death if we would allow them. They're traditions. That's all
it is. Because there's no basis in this
book for anything other than the Word of God. Again, the problem is with men.
It's your traditions. Through your tradition, you invalidate
the word of God. And Christ said, it's all yours.
It's all yours. Because this is man's, not God's. And there's a definite difference
laid right here between a tradition and the word of God. If the word of God says it, you're
to do it. You're to believe it. You're
to adhere to it. You're to, what Joan said this
morning, what Debbie and I were talking about, you are to submit
yourselves to the word of God. And if your tradition doesn't
fit the word of God, you submit to the word of God. Thus saith
the Lord. This is the only rule, it is
sola scriptura. Solely, only, the scripture is
the only guide we have. It's not an interpretation problem.
This is an elevation problem and a usurping problem. Because
they've elevated their tradition above the word of God. They have
usurped the word of God through their tradition, by their tradition. This is the way we've always
done it. If it was good enough for mom and grandma, And you
always have to bring mothers into it. You don't bring fathers
usually, but you bring mothers. Because nobody's going to say
anything bad about my mother. That's the way we are. Guess what? That's a tradition. What did Christ say about his
mother and his brethren? These are my mother. This is
my mother. This is my brethren. This is my family. Those who
believe what? The word of God. They don't invalidate. They don't disannul. They don't
deny. They don't change the word of
God. And then it says, which ye have
delivered. See, it ain't enough. They can't keep it to themselves.
They got to spread it around. Because see, if you're doing
something different, you're invalidating what I do. You're invalidating
my tradition if you don't keep it. These men defiled themselves
because they ate with unwashed hands. Our tradition. Why aren't you
keeping our tradition? Well, because it's yours. It
ain't God's. And I believe Christ knew exactly
what God's commandments were. Because he goes on in verse 15. And this is a wonderful verse.
And I might preach on it next week. I might not. I don't know.
There is nothing from without a man that entering into him
can defile him. It doesn't matter if he eat with
unwashing hands. And here, just think about it.
This is a Jew saying this to Pharisees and scribes who know
all about clean and unclean animals. No, there's nothing. Nothing,
nothing that goes in a man that's going to defile him. Oh, I know
them Pharisees and scribes hated that. He called all the people
together to tell them that. He called everybody together.
Then he explained it a little later on. Excuse me. These men said, which ye have
delivered. This is what they bring to religion. Christ said it. You delivered
it. You brought them. God did not declare them. They
come from you. They are of you. They're your
tradition. And you've delivered them. Who's at fault here? The Pharisees
and the certain scribes. Why? Because they were adding
to and setting aside the Word of God. And the reason it upset
them so much about eating without unwashing hands, and they'd defile
themselves if they did that. These guys had the wrong idea
that they were clean. Okay? They weren't clean. It's not that there's nothing
bad you can't eat. Okay? It's not that there's nothing
bad you can't drink. That's not the problem! See the
problems was with the Pharisees and the scribes, the problem
is with your heart. And that's what Christ goes on to explain
to them. These fellas thought they were
clean. And they weren't. Okay. If you drink too much,
it's because there's a problem with your heart. It comes out
of you that you're putting that much into you that you're drinking
yourself senseless. It comes out of you if you've
taken so many drugs that you've drugged yourself senseless. That's
a problem within. It's not the drugs. It's not
the alcohol. It's not the cigarettes. It's not the tobacco of any kind
that defiles you. You're already defiled. And they
didn't know that. And they would not have that.
Because it's in the Old Testament. There's nothing new in the New
Testament other than Christ. He was all prophesied all throughout
the Old Testament. It's in there, but they will
not have it. They want their traditions. If
we wash our hands, we won't defile ourselves. Because we don't want
to be defiled. You already are. You already
are. And this is what you're delivering.
You think you're clean, and you're going to avoid defiling yourself.
And guess what? That is making the word of God
of none effect to yourself and to those who believe you. And
many such like things do ye. Guess what? That ain't the only
one. That ain't the only one. By any stretch of the imagination,
the direct reference here is by Jesus Christ to them about
washing hands. And then he brought in that rejecting
the commandment of honor thy father and thy mother. They didn't
even bring that up, he did. But guess what, it hit them where
they lived. You boys can't even keep the Ten Commandments, and
you're worried about defiling yourselves by eating with unwashing
hands. You don't know what the problem is. You don't know what
the problem is, and that's man's problem. He doesn't know what
the problem is. Here's your problem, you don't
know what your problem is. I can't fix that. Christ can. Christ does. But I can't fix
it. But that's the problem. You don't
know you got a problem. We are so perverse we think ourselves
clean when we're defiled. We are so perverse we think other
people are more defiled than we are. At least I'm better than that.
No, you ain't. No, you ain't. You just may not
show it as much. You might dress a little better.
You might wash yourselves a little more often, which I approve of
wholeheartedly. I'm not against washing. I'm
not talking against washing. Washing your hands before you
eat, or washing your food before you eat it, or washing your cups
and your plates. There's nothing wrong with that.
But the lack of that is not what defiles you. You're defiled within. You're born defiled. We use the
word depraved. These Pharisees thought that
eating with unwashing hands defiled them, and they didn't want to
defile themselves. They were transgressors of the
law when they circumvented, that's the nice way of saying broke,
the commandment of honoring your father and mother. See, they
thought they had a workaround. That's what I call it work. I
may not know how to do exactly something, but I can work around
it. I can do what I need to do. That's what these guys were doing.
They had to work around for that commandment. It's not that they
broke it. It's just that, well, you know. You broke it. You broke it. Christ said you
broke it. He called you bluff. He called you a liar. He called
him a liar. And guess what? He meant every
word of it. Then Christ goes on to explain
to his disciples. Guess what? There's nothing that
comes into a man that defiles a man. It's what comes from without
you. Guess what comes from without
man? Now he goes in here. I mean, there's a whole, there's
one of them litanies, Walter, we talk about. Evil thoughts,
adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, all these
evil things come out from within and defile the man. That's verse
21, 22. In 23. I mean, there's a whole
list there. I'm not going to go into that,
but I'll tell you this one right here. Guess what comes without
a man, from without a man, from within out? The traditions of
men. That's what comes. And we've
got some today. Have you heard the saying, one
thing leads to another? Well, scripture puts it this
way. A little leaven leaveneth the whole lot. That's what it
says. It starts out small. It starts
out small. It gets accepted, and then it
gets altered a little way down the road. And pretty soon, I'm
going to tell you this, pretty soon you end up with Jehovah's
Witnesses coming to your door knocking on it. Ends up with
Mormons. Ends up with Roman Catholicism.
Ends up with Free Will Baptists. Ends up with Lutherans. Methodists,
all gone away. They have this work. They have
this work. They have it in their possession
now. But they have set it aside. Why? For their traditions. That's the way of the religious
man in the past, and in the present, and I'll tell you this, it will
be in the future. Because man has not changed and
has gotten no better. Christ here spoke of this in
his time, but now we both have the same things and different
things here. Now, I wrote down, I think I
got six traditions. And boy, yeah. I'll just name
them off, because here are some of today's religious traditions.
I got six of them. Sunday school. Now, I'm for the education of
the congregation. I'm not against that whatsoever.
That is a command. Pastor and teacher is one office.
The education of the young, though, is mainly, from what I see in
the scripture, the parent's responsibility to raise their children in the
nurture and the admonition of the Lord and to bring them to
church to hear the word preached. That's what it says. Pastor and
teachers are to educate when preaching. We use this scripture. as basis. And if it's not the
basis, it's not preaching. There's no ordinance, command,
or example for organized education. Age and gender separated, of
course. Number two is the choir. Earl's favorite subject. I remember
the first time he ever told me, he didn't call it the choir,
he said, I always called that the war department. Because he
had more trouble out of choirs and choir leaders and choir singers
than anybody else all of them put together. Even more than
Sunday school teachers, I think, the way he talked. Walter preached it this morning
on the radio. The congregation is the same. Everybody is the
same. It doesn't matter if you sing
well. It doesn't say you have to sing well. I can't sing. We know that. We hear you. It's
OK. Ain't none of us setting the
world on fire. Taylor Swift is not here, whoever she is, but
I think she's a singer. We're not going to do opera.
I want a song that the words I can understand, Mason, the
words I can hear, the words enunciated, the music, subject to the subject
of the music. I don't mind the piano. As long
as Ellen doesn't start doing the honky tonk thing and banging
it so loud I can't hear. I've been in places where, we
were down there that one place, Walter Pine Grove there. And
my gosh, I mean that was a big place. And that guy over there
on the piano, when he took over, he was banging the dickens out
of that thing and you couldn't hear yourself talk or sing. We are to sing, congregational
singing is in this book. But not choir singing. I'm sorry,
it's not there. Sprinkling or baptism. If it's sprinkling, it's not
baptism. If it's not a believer, it's
not baptism. If it's taught as necessary to
salvation, it's not baptism. It's tradition. That's what that
is. Baptism is the answer of a good
conscience toward God. That's what the word says. You
got a problem with that? That's your problem. It's your
tradition. Dietary restrictions. No meat on Friday. That's what
I grew up with. But I found out, according to
my parents in the Catholic Church, fish don't count as meat. I don't
know what it is. I guess it's just fish. I hate
fish. I mean, I don't like fish. But
for some, it's no pork. And I like pork chops. Not just
Muslims, but some Baptists. Remember, pork sausage killed
my grandma. That's what one of the Baptist
preachers said on the radio. I heard it. I heard it at 98
years old or whatever she was. It's like, my God, man. I remember
that show we watched on PBS about the story of English. This fellow
told us that we're talking about the accents and all this stuff.
And this one fellow said, he said, cider drinking killed me,
grandpa. And I love that. I love that accent. He says,
of course, it took 84 years to do it, though. But that wasn't religious. This
fellow here was talking about religion. He said, eating sausage
killed my grandmother. Some Mormons are totally against
caffeine. It don't matter whether it's
in coffee or soda. A lot are against alcoholic beverages,
although beer, bread, and rum cake are acceptable for bake
sales. They don't count for some reason.
And please, whatever you do, don't go home and Google the
word prayer altar. Because that's another tradition.
There's no altar of prayers spoken of in here. If you Google it,
you will get 18 million hits. And they will try to sell you
one. Altars are for sacrifice. I remember when Earl was talking
about that. Now, I do know about the Golden Altar in the tabernacle,
okay? The incense was burned on it,
and that was a form of the prayer, going up as a sweet savor unto
God, okay? But it ain't yours. It's Christ's
prayers. It ain't yours. That's not your
prayer altar, see, so we can have one at home. No, no, no. Christ said go in your closet.
Pray in secret. Don't let your left hand know
what your right hand's doing when you're giving money, and
pray in secret. And my Father which heareth you shall reward
you openly. It's the prayers of Christ in
that golden century. He's prayed for us. And guess
what? His prayers are always answered
yes. Mine aren't. And of course the sixth tradition
of men is the worst one. Free will. It's the exaltation of man. That's
what it is. Because man wants his will to
be supreme over the will of God. It attempts to dethrone God as
supreme creator and mover. And I'm going to tell you something
really scary. Scientists have just about caught up with the
Bible. I printed this off yesterday.
Debbie found it. I wasn't even looking for it. Debbie found
it. Free will could be an illusion. Excuse me, free will could all
be illusion. Scientists suggest after study
that shows choice could just be the brain tricking itself. What have we said all along? If you're deluded, you don't
know you're deluded. If you've got a delusion, you
don't know it's a delusion. This new study builds on the
work that says that the brain rewrites history when it makes
its choices, changing our memories so that we believe we wanted
to do something before it happened. You understand? You did something,
and then you get to thinking, well, I wanted to do that all
along. Hey, that's human nature. The world has been denying it.
Here, the idea of free will may have arisen because it's a useful
thing to have. Giving people a feeling of control
over their lives and allowing for people to be punished for
wrongdoing. Well, you did it of your own
free will. You've got to be punished. All right. Now, this is a funny thing
here. OK, it's all funny. The scientists
cautioned that the illusion of choice might only apply to choices
made quickly without too much thought. But it also might be
persuasive and ubiquitous. That means built in. Governing
all aspects of our behavior from our most minute to our most important
decisions. This is in quotes, whatever the
case may be, they write, our studies add to a growing body
of work suggesting that even our most seemingly ironclad beliefs
about our own agency and consciousness experience can be dead wrong. Science ain't as bad as I thought
it was. That's exactly what it is. It's
dead wrong. Now, the conclusion. Boy, sorry Walter. What are we to do? Because I
want to bring this back around to us, okay? Because there's
a difference between us and them. There is a difference between
the word of God and the tradition of men. What are we to do? I
agree with Earl and Walter. Now, right now, we have to try
as close as we can to format, to pattern ourselves, to conduct
ourselves as a New Testament church worship service. Now,
we don't have a whole lot of specifics sometimes, but we do
have some stuff that is specifically stated. We are, and we do, gather
together as the people of God. This is not our club. This is
the church. We are the church. And we are
not to forsake the gathering of ourselves together as the
manner of some is. And even more, the closer the
day approaches. And we're 2,000 years closer
than we used to be. No one is excluded. Although
many have excluded themselves, or excused themselves, or gotten
just left mad. Second thing, I got six of these. We sing. Walter covered that
abnormally this morning. A loud congregational singing
together to the praise of the Father, the Son, and the Spirit.
Now we also do have individual singing. There's nothing wrong
with that. Now, there is no call for an
organized choir. I'll still stick by that, or
a choir director, or whatever. Song leader's just fine, because
we need somebody to lead us, just to keep us on the melody,
and possibly in tune. But that part doesn't matter.
Like I said, you don't have to sing well. And I've said it up
here. Come on, stand up, sing loudly, because you're praising
and honoring your God. You're praising and honoring
Christ with the words and with the music. Sing out. Praise Him
in the music. We sing. We gather. We sing.
Third, we pray to the Father in the name of the Son through
His Spirit. We are to pray that His will
be done on earth as it is in heaven. And we are to praise
His holy name in prayer. Fourthly, we preach. In-season
and out-of-season. Guess what? That's all the time.
If you're in-season, OK. If you're out-of-season, OK.
That's every time. That's all the time. There ain't no other
time than in-season and out-of-season. Fifthly, we listen to the word
preached, to the word of God expounded, proclaimed, and declared. And sixthly, we give. Money, time, talent, effort,
work. We give as God has blessed us.
That goes from song leading to taking care of the recordings
in the internet. It doesn't matter, to playing the piano, to whatever
God has given you, give to your brethren as we gather together
here. That's the sixth thing. Now the
big question is why? Well, the answer is because the
Word of God says to. It has directed us to do so.
And we believe His Word. We believe, thus saith the Lord. That's why we worship the way
we do. I mean, Earl and I talked about it. I know Walter and I
have talked about it. And Earl and Walter, I'm sure, talked
about it. This is the reason we do things this way. We have
a scripture reading. You should read aloud the word
of God when you're gathered together. We pray, we sing, we preach,
we listen, and we give. You gave yourself here to come
here. Because believers understand
one thing very well that the world will never understand.
Psalms 100 verse 3, I'll just read it. Know ye that that the
Lord he is God It is he that made us and Not we ourselves
We are his people and the sheep of his pasture Believers are
his sheep His people because God hath made us and not we ourselves. These fellows here, these Pharisees
and these scribes, they're trying to make themselves. They thought
they were making themselves. They thought they were clean
and they were trying not to defile themselves because, oh, they
didn't want God upset at them. God is upset at them, but not
for the reason they think. It's not that you defiled yourself,
it's that you are defiled. Like I said, you don't know the
problem. Believers don't have to worry about things entering
and defiling them because believers know from the spirit of God,
from the law work, that we are defiled, we are depraved. But believers also know, even
though they are not sinless, even afterwards, they are still
depraved, they are still ungodly, but they know that Christ died
for the ungodly. And Jesus Christ gave himself
for sinners. And guess what? Because of that,
we gather, we sing, we pray, we preach, we listen, and we
give. Sounds like he does it all for us. He does. Why did he do it? He said he
did it to bring us to God. Not that so you could come, although
we do come. He did it to bring us to God. What? To present us holy and
unblameable and unreprovable in his sight. That's some good words. Thank you, Lord, for all that
you have done. Father, we pray and praise your
holy name. And thank you for the work of
your son on our behalf, for himself and for you, but also on our
behalf. And thank you for your spirit,
which you've sent. Thank you, Lord, for everything. In Christ's name, amen.