for a little while longer. I
want to go back to verse 7. Actually, let's just go back
to verse 3 and hear the Word of
the Lord, verses 3 through 17 of Hebrews chapter 12. Consider him who endured from
sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not
grow weary or faint hearted. In your struggle against sin,
you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.
And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons? My
son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be
weary when reproved by him. For the Lord disciplines the
one he loves and chastises every son whom he receives. It is for
discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons.
For what son is there whom the father does not discipline? If
you are left without discipline in which all have participated,
then you are illegitimate children and not sons. Besides this, we
have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected
them. Shall we not much more be subject to the father of spirits
and live? For they disciplined us for a
short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us
for our good, that we may share his holiness. For the moment,
all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later
it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who
have been trained by it. Therefore, lift your drooping hands and
straighten your weak knees, and make straight paths for your
feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint, but
rather be healed. Strive for peace for everyone, with everyone,
and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.
See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God, that
no root of bitterness springs up and causes trouble, and by
it many become defiled, that no one is sexually immoral or
unholy like Esau, who sold his birthright for a single meal.
For you know that afterward, when he desired to inherit the
blessing, he was rejected, for he found no chance to repent,
though he sought it with tears." Now, we have dug into this text
numerous times over the last few weeks, and we're sort of
sidestepping our typical midweek method. We're not just reading
through and commentating. We're coming to the place where
we need to spend a little bit more time pounding out some details
here. for several reasons. One, for
doctrinal purity. We need to understand the context
in which Paul is speaking and do so in light of the gospel
and the text that he has before it. We did that some last week,
if I remember rightly. And secondly, we need to go through
this text in some specifics because of some topics, some topics that
need to be handled. And then thirdly, we need to
deal with this text in a place of application. Because the application
of all scripture, of course, ultimately ends in the praise
of the glorious grace of God. But there are some applications
that are absolutely practical. There are some applications that
are authoritatively personal. And we need to share those in
our congregation and we need to hold each other accountable
to these things. And to that end, I'm going to
speak this evening. When we see this text, we have
been told that the people who are receiving this letter are
suffering, and they're suffering in the faith. They're considering
stepping backward. They're considering following
back into the rote idealism of the law of Judaism. They're being
tempted to listen to people who are in error. They've been tempted
to misunderstand grace. They are being tempted continually. And through that temptation,
they are struggling. They are struggling not only
in their person and in their mind and in their hearts and
in their spirits, but they are struggling relationally. They
are struggling most definitely financially. They are struggling
in many different ways. And Paul is exhorting them and
encouraging them to hold fast to that which is absolutely certain
and eternal, which is the finished work of Jesus Christ for his
people, of whom they are, and there is nothing that can separate
them from God and from the redemption that is in Christ. And along
with that comes these practices, to hold fast to the confession
of our hope, to not ignore the truth of the gospel, to live
at peace with others, to not neglect gathering together as
some are in the habit of doing, to not, you know, forsake, if
you will, the gospel, to not consider the fact that there
are different ways through which we might please God in righteousness,
but that Christ has done all of these things. And we see that
faith and faith alone and only faith and always faith, and it
has always been faith granted by God the Father, through the
Spirit, through the promises that He's given. It is a supernatural
work of God. It is something that we refer
to historically as all of grace. The gospel is all of grace. The
gospel is all the doing of God from start to finish and forever. Before the foundation of the
world and anything that was created, the gospel was. And when all
things are gone and recreated, the gospel will continue to be
the work of God. It is God's promise and covenant
and contract. This is what God has done to
secure salvation for his people by his own righteousness. And his righteousness is his
justice. And in the redemption that he
has given the elect, there is justice. And that justice brings
peace. It brings peace for us. So we
are struggling in our faith. We are laboring hard in our faith. Despite that it may all be different
in the context of discipline, all the suffering that we endure
as believers is part of the discipline of God's love for us. Understand
that. It is the will of the Lord that
we suffer. It is the will of the Lord that we work hard to
rest in the sufficiency of the gospel while we work hard to
maintain our focus in this life. It is a labor that is very costly. But the good thing is, is it's
not about our hard work or our labor, even though it does cause
us to labor. It is about the sufficiency of
God's grace. It is about the power of God
under salvation and the power of God under preservation in
the midst of suffering. Because what would be the point
I mean just logically of salvation granting absolute peace and harmony
and absolute perfection in this world. It doesn't even fit with
the scheme or the theme of grace and justice. So here we have
this gospel, and here we have the writer telling us to consider
Christ, to look to Him, and to remember what He endured, so
that as we look to Christ in our suffering, we will not be
fainthearted, we will not be weak, we will not grow weary.
But beloved, I'm going to be honest with you, it is very hard
not to grow weary. The promise is found in the Word,
and the promise is found in the assembly of the saints. God has
promised that through his people together that he will provide
peace in the midst of trials. He has promised that as we live
according to the promises that he has given us, that it is through
these things that he will bring about our understanding of why
we labor. Because beloved, our flesh is
not going to cling to the gospel. Our flesh is not going to run
to the word of God when we are hurting and when we are scared
and when we are in any other way trying to do things on our
own. But through the saints and through
the collective assembly, we see that we are encouraged to maintain
an intimacy. And I'm gonna talk about that
at the very end of our time together tonight, what that looks like.
And that we are to endure and that is the reason that we are
enduring is for the discipline of the Lord to teach us of His
righteousness, to teach us of His holiness, to inform us continually. See, a lot of people think that
the gospel is something you learn once and then that's the end
of it. Well, that's the dumbest thing that could ever come out
of our mouths because we are learning the gospel continually. We are learning the gospel in
its simplicity because it is all of grace. That's the simple
reality of the gospel proclamation. It is all of grace, it is all
of Christ, it is by faith alone. These simple things, but we also
learn those same things in deeper ways. Not because of our intelligence,
but because of our intimacy with the word of God and our intimacy
with the people of God. How is it that you will understand
grace? By reading the word, yes. And
how else? By living the word with someone
else. Is that living the word with
other people who are going to do and be exactly what you want
them to be? No, it is not through absolute harmony and utopian
ridiculousness that God disciplines us. It is absolutely a promise
of God that the saints, when they come together, there will
be factions, there will be frustration, there will be suffering, but
we do it well by the mercies of our Father, and we do it by
the power of Christ. And so we learn to grow. And
we learned that this pain, that this labor, even though it seems
unpleasant, yields the promise, doesn't it? It is the fruit of
life. But the true fruit of suffering
is eternal life. Not that suffering gives us eternal
life, but that the suffering of Christ in which we partner
promises eternal life. So it is not the light momentary
afflictions that we focus on, it is the eternal reality of
God's love. So therefore, verse 12 is a command
that is absolutely certain for us to be able to do. But it is
not something that we can do on our own. Moses himself, as
he looked, and we're getting to verse 18, I promise. But Moses,
as he looked at Sinai, the scripture says that he was filled with
great fear. It says, I tremble with fear,
is what Moses says in verse 21. I tremble in fear. Have you ever
been so fearful that you shook? That your body shook and your
teeth rattled? and your eyes were blurry. I've
been that fearful. I've been that fearful for my
life. I've been that fearful for the life of my family. And
it's not something that you ever forget. Imagine standing in the
presence of God as a sinner. I tremble with fear, Moses said. But as we'll see in the coming
weeks, come to that place. We don't come to the fearful
platform. We come to the throne of grace.
We come to the blood of Jesus. We come to the Christ. And so
these afflictions, these trials, these stresses, God has promised
to carry us through these things, through the assembly of the saints
through the promises of his word as we walk together and as we
serve the Lord Jesus through our service to one another. As
Moses even is illustrated in this testimony of the Old Testament,
as Moses was to hold up his hands so that victory belonged to Israel,
when his hands were tired, the brothers of the faith held his
hands up for him. Now let's put verses 12 through
17 in the context of the local church. Let's put these verses
in the context of your life right now. Here is the application.
If we go back to, you don't have to, but you can just hear, I'll
read it to you very quickly. If we go back to chapter three
and we look at verse 12, we will see these words. I will tell of your name to my
brothers in the midst of the congregation. I will sing your
praise. We see Jesus and the gospel work
calls us siblings. The point of the gospel is that
God has a people for himself. As we see over in chapter 12,
in the, let's see if I can find it here, in chapter 12, verse
23, and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in
heaven. These are all the saints. This is the universal church,
the only place in the entire Bible that talks about a universal
church. All the believers is at the day
of glory when we come to stand in the festal gatherings of worshiping
our savior together. If we go back to chapter four,
We can see that Paul has exhorted these believers to not only understand, but they should understand that
there is a promise that is given them. They should understand
that we are to strive to enter the rest. Remember how I talked
a minute ago about laboring? It's not easy. It's not easy
living by faith. It's not easy living as a person
of faith. It's not easy living as a body
of faith. So we're always in a place of
droopiness. We're always in a place where
our knees are weak. We're always in a place where
there seems to be something in our way to keep us from walking
as we want to walk and as we think we should be walking. We're
always hurting. There's always some ligament.
There's always some joint that's lame. Near to be broken. But the scripture
tells us to lift those hands, strengthen those knees, walk
straight the path. and to heal what is lame, instead
of allowing it to be put out of joint. Now let me ask you
something. When you first heard this, and last week when I almost
stepped into this week's topic, did you think that that was written
to you for yourself? See, we do, don't we? I've got
to lift my dripping hands and strengthen my knees. I mean,
if we did this, wouldn't we look funny? It'd be our new worship
dance, wouldn't it? Make straight paths for our feet. The children
do that after every service. Make straight paths for their
feet. Let's get what's lame. Don't let it be put out of joint.
Don't trip. Don't fall. Don't do this. I'm not gonna
fall. No, it's not about me doing this
for me, but I am to see your hands drooping and hold them.
I am to see your path inundated with obstacles and sweep it clean.
I am supposed to notice when you have a lame joint, when you
are limping, and instead of watching you fall down the stairs and
break your ankle, I am supposed to carry you so that your lameness
may be healed. And you are supposed to carry
me. And someone else is going to
carry. We carry each other. We hold each other's hands. You
will not receive this promise if you are not with the body
of Christ. And you can pray all you want
to pray. And you can believe anything you want to believe
about what culture has told you about the promises of God and
the Word. But if you are not gathering with the saints by
faith, you will not receive the promises that are yours in this
text. You see? It's impossible. Because God has equipped me to
give to you And God has equipped you to give to one another. We
are equipped to give to one another. And we best understand that is
the context of the New Testament writing. There, even when these
letters are written to one person, they are written to one person
so that they may instruct the assembly. The assembly. Now, don't hear what I'm not
saying. I didn't say anything about salvation in that little
rant. I'm talking about the body. If I dismember my body tonight,
I will not be working tomorrow. If I have aches and pains in
my left foot and I cut it off despite it, I will not be running
a race. We have a responsibility to watch
out for each other. We have a responsibility because
of the endurance of Jesus Christ, because of the promise of eternal
life, because of the struggle of our Savior who has saved us. We have been empowered and called
to take care of his body. And some like to say, well, who
is the body? Who is the body? As far as you
and I are concerned, those who gather under His name and confess to believe the gospel
of grace. And there was no other test by
which we can discern who we are responsible for and who we are
responsible to. Because there's no other test
given in this text. There's no other test given in
Galatians. There's no other test given in Romans. There's no other
test given in the book of Ephesians. There's no other test given by
the writing of Peter or John. There's no other test given in
the Gospels. The test is that we are responsible. And that is a gospel picture
of Christ, of the mind of Christ. See, a lot of people think the
mind of Christ is heavenly knowledge of doctrinal things. The mind
of Christ is laying down one's life for their enemies. The mind of Christ is knowing
the promises of the Father are effectual and certain by His
power and mercy. and being subject to them even
when they disturb the very reality of what common sense says. The mind of Christ is being God
but becoming nothing for the sake of those who deserve nothing. So we are to strive. Remember I said, I think I said
this last week or the week before. I don't remember. I should have
said it. If I haven't, I'm saying it today. These are not, in verses 12 through
17, these are not shotgun things that Paul just needs to get off
his chest and strive for peace and seek for holiness and all
this kind of stuff. This is not, these are, this is a point Paul
is making. This is a teaching. This is a
direct command of God. We are to lift and take care
of the needs of the body, especially when they are dysfunctional,
when they are in disaster, when they are divided. It is not a gospel picture when
we all are getting along and everybody's taking care of each
other. It is only the gospel picture when we continue to love
one another in the midst of great uncertainty. In the midst of
great division. and in the midst of what seems
like no peace. Strive then because this is our
job. We are to strive for peace with
everyone. And we are to strive for the
holiness without which no one will see the Lord. Now remember
I told you I was going to give you the two ways in which we should look
at this verse. The first way is an obvious way. Let me tell
you what it doesn't mean. It doesn't mean that if you're
not striving to obey or striving to become more like Jesus that
you're not going to go to heaven. It doesn't mean that. That's
not the context of Paul's writing. That's silly. But that's the
way we've been taught to read the Bible, right? We've been
taught to read the Bible as if it's written to reprobates. Or
as if it's written to lost people, but it's not. It's written to
those who cannot be discarded. That God the Father himself cannot
take them out of the hands of the Savior. Don't you understand
that? How dare you say what God cannot
do? He said what He cannot do. He cannot lie. There's assurance there, beloved. So the holiness without which
no one will see the Lord, this is very akin to John's first
letter. You want to see the Lord in your life? You want to see
the Lord in your fellowship? You want to see the Lord in service?
Then watch me serve you. Watch me set my life apart. Holiness. Watch me set my life apart for
the service of you. Watch me step aside what my needs
are so that I may hold your hands up while you walk. You see, that's
one way. And the other way, within the
same context, is to strive for the holiness
through which we will see the Lord. You see the contrast? How
is it that we can obtain holiness that will qualify us to see the
Lord? We've already heard it. Holding fast to the confession
of our hope who is Jesus Christ. When God desired to show more
convincingly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable
character of His purpose, He guaranteed it with an oath, so
that by two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for
God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong
encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us. We have
this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that
enters into the inner place behind the curtain where Jesus has gone
as a forerunner on our behalf, having become a high priest forever
after the order of Melchizedek. And I could read dozens of passages. Therefore, holy brothers, you
who share in a heavenly calling, consider Jesus, the apostle and
high priest of our confession, who was faithful to him who appointed
him, just as Moses was faithful in all God's house. Jesus has
been counted worthy of more glory, as much more glory as the builder
of a house has more honor than the house itself. Moses was faithful in all God's
house as a servant to testify to the things that were to be
spoken later. But Christ is faithful over God's house as a son, as
we are his house, if indeed we hold fast our confidence and
are boasting in our hope. Therefore, the promise of entering
the rest still stands. Let us fear, lest any of you
should seem to have failed to reach it. For good news came
to us just as it did to them, but the message they heard did
not benefit them, because they were united by fate with those
who listened." You see the plurality here. You
see the assembly here, you see the context. And I could go on,
I could literally read and just skip over every, just do a little
skip and just read the text of Hebrews over and over and over
and over again. But Paul's already said, some
of you guys have grown dull of hearing, my beloved brothers.
Open your ears and listen to the grace of God. Hear the promises
of God. Watch out for each other. As
long as it is called today, encourage one another. And he's saying
nothing different here. In verse 15 of chapter 12, he
goes on to say, see to it that no one fails to obtain the grace
of God. Now we approached this last week,
but let's land on it right now. And this will be the last thing
we're able to do tonight. No one fails to obtain the grace
of God. You see what they're saying there? You see what he's
saying in the context that I just painted out for you? Is that
God's grace to His church, of course it includes saving grace
unto salvation, but there is continual grace upon grace upon
grace, 1 John. I mean John chapter 1. And this
grace upon grace upon grace is the power of God unto salvation
for the gospel is the power of God and we are not ashamed of
it. The power of God is about His mercy working for His people
and it doesn't stop at salvation. It doesn't stop at conversion.
It continues unto preservation and it continues unto joy. So
now this command is given to me and to you. See to it, beloved,
as you help each other in your weakness, as you walk together
by faith, as you strive for peace, because if you're not at peace,
you are at war. And if you are at war, you are
destroying the fabric of gospel, of the gospel, you are destroying
the body of Christ. And even if there are those among
the body of Christ who are to be excommunicated in time because
of unrelenting sin and division, when we do not strive for peace
with everyone, we even shun the very elect of God to which the
Bible says it would be better had we not been born. And then a few things are said
after that. But look at this verse 15. See
to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God. In other words,
work hard to help each other in this discipline. What's that
look like? It's sort of like Paul saying,
watch out for each other. Don't let a brother or sister
flounder. Don't let a brother or sister sit and stew. Don't
let a brother or a sister settle on just being the status quo
or giving up or throwing away their faith or throwing their
hands up. Don't let this happen. Don't let error reign amongst
your family. Don't let sin just continue to
just go unchecked and uncorrected. Do something about it. For the
grace of God is yours in Christ Jesus, and all of your confidence
is in him, so therefore you all should make sure that you are
taking care and watch for every one of you. What happens when
we're not watching out for our brothers and sisters in the faith? What happens when we allow our
brothers, sisters in the faith? To just, without warning, fall into laziness or despair. Paul even makes comment in 2
Corinthians 6 about receiving the grace of God in vain. We see Paul talking to the Galatians.
He says something very similar to that in the way that we have,
how does he put that? Let me look. In chapter 5 of Galatians, for
freedom Christ has set us free, stand firm therefore, and do
not submit again to a yoke of slavery. Look, I, Paul, say to
you that if you accept circumcision, Christ has no advantage to you. And I testify again to every
man who accepts circumcision that he's obligated to keep the
whole law. Don't you see? You're severed from Christ. You would
be, you would be justified by the law. You cannot be justified
by the law and be justified by grace. Don't fall away from grace. For through the Spirit, by faith,
we ourselves eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness. So
remember what I'm saying here, church. Circumcision or not circumcision
is worthless. It counts for nothing. But only
faith working through love counts for anything. Let brotherly love continue.
Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers. Remember those
who are in prison. Remember those who are mistreated
since you are the body. Let marriage be held in high
honor. Let the marriage bed be underfiled. You know God judges
the sexually immoral and the adulterous. Don't be like them.
Keep your life free from the love of money and be content
in what you have. For God, our Father, has said,
I will never leave you, nor will I ever forsake you. So we can
say confidently, the Lord is my helper, I will not fear. What
can a man, or what can man do to me? See to it that no one
fails to obtain the grace of God. So we need to do a few things. If we do not do these things,
The consequence is this, that a root of bitterness springs
up and causes trouble and by it many become defiled. Now I
want you to ask yourself what a root is. A root is that which
gives life and source to a plant. Metaphorically, the root is the
foundation of a problem. So in this, I want you to think
of the root that Paul is dealing with here as a root of a very
invasive weed. Yep, you can understand that,
right? A root of a very invasive weed that'll take over the indigenous
vegetation and destroy it, and destroy the very landscape itself. It'll destroy the very ecosystem.
It will remove, it could very well remove natural food for
certain species, that those species will die out, then other species
who need those species will die out. Hypostasis is gone. and life in and of itself begins
to erode. That's just a weed. Failing to strive in this way
according to the command of God is failing to administer grace. So if we don't do these things
according to the gospel by faith, beloved, Paul's not commanding
us here to be perfect in these things, and I don't want to get
you off the hook, but I also don't want you to leave thinking,
well, I'm a terrible Christian. We're all terrible followers
of Christ, except that we are not terrible followers of Christ
because we follow by faith. We trust in Him. And this is
the point. We're going to find ourselves
always tripping and failing and weak and in need. Even when we
think we're strong, we're actually weak. so that together we collectively
are to inquire about each other's well-being. I want you to give,
there's three I's here that's in my head. Here they are. Inquire
about each other's well-being. I mean, how many strangers a
day do you say, hey, how you doing? How's it going? What's
up? We don't care. We're just, it's
like saying hello. And we may care, but we only
wanna hear the answer as we pass in the aisle. Six feet apart,
of course. We need to inquire much more
than that for our brothers and sisters in the faith. How are
you spiritually? How are you in the Word? What are you reading? Let me
tell you what I'm reading. That's another I though. We'll
get to that at the end. We need to inquire. And we also need to instruct.
We need to instruct each other in the gospel. We need to instruct
each other in the gospel, we need to inquire, we need to listen,
we need to instruct and teach and say, listen what the words
help me, look what the Bible has taught me, look what the
scripture is showing me. Let's share this life of faith
together in these two ways. And what does all this mean?
Well, here's the third I that I think. That we are investing
in each other's lives. We are investing spiritually. We are sowing into each other's
lives spiritual truth, spiritual hope, spiritual life. And this
is the grace of God. This is the grace of God. And
when we do these things, the root of bitterness doesn't spring
up and cause trouble and scatter the sheep everywhere and confuse
everybody and scare everybody. Because everybody is always doing
that which is congruent with the mercies of God. And then
at the end of it all, everything, even the deepest of divisions
amongst the people of God, the purposes of dealing with them
biblically, patiently, lovingly, together, is that when reconciliation
comes, it is to the praise of God alone, and not to the praise
of any man. What are we to be looking for? So if I'm to inquire, instruct,
and invest in your life and vice versa and all of each other's
lives, what are we to be looking for? Not the specs, because we've
got logs. We're to be looking for the joy.
We're to be seeking hope. We're to be investing and inquiring
and instructing for rest. The body of Christ isn't supposed
to be in turmoil with itself. That's why all these letters
have been written so that we can get it straight. It is about
Christ. It is about the grace of God.
God himself has judged his son in the place of his elect. And
we have not come to the judgment of God. And that is why the very
next thing that he talks about is Sinai. We have not come to
the judgment of God, but we have come to the grace of God. And then he says, see to it that
you do not refuse Christ who is speaking through my words
this very day. That's what Paul says. For if
they do not escape then who do you think will escape
if we reject him who warns from heaven? And there's a lot to
unpack there. That's why I wanted to sort of
slow down there. Chapter 13, it gets more into the practical
essence of closing this letter out. Because of the gospel, we
are called to live a high calling. It is not an easy calling. It
is not a calling that we are empowered to perfectly by the
spirit even. It is not a calling that many
of us will ever grow in every single aspect, but it is a calling
just the same. And more than a calling for ourselves,
it is a calling for ourselves to be interested in the lives
of each other. Because is that not the mind
of Christ? Though he was equal with God,
he did not take equality with God, something to be grasped.
that he became obedient unto death, even death on a cross. Therefore, God exalted him, exalted
him for the name he has is above all names, all names. and at the name of Jesus, every
tongue will confess and every knee will bow, and every tongue
will confess that Jesus is Lord. Beloved, this is an encouragement
for us. Paul would say, if I live in
the flesh, it means that I live fruitful labor for you. To live is Christ, to die is
gain. If I live in my suffering, he
says to the Church of Colossae, I do so that it may fill up what
is lacking in the suffering of Christ for your sake. Paul understood
the mind of Christ because God the Spirit showed him this truth
and then he wrote it down for us to learn it and to live it.
And beloved, there is no greater purpose in life. So long before
we begin to figure how else we can serve the Lord. Let us serve
the Lord by the clear and present teaching of the direct commands
found in the doctrines of Christ and his commands, which are all
of grace and all of faith to love one another with the love
of Christ. Let's pray. What a tall order, Father. And we will never get credit
before you even when we do our best of days of loving because
Christ has loved greatly and perfectly. Christ has loved supremely
and eternally and even in his incarnation, Father, he loved
perfectly even his enemies. The character of Christ exudes
perfect love. And Father, the greatest love
is when he laid his life down for the elect, when he died on
the cross for his people. And when he satisfied your wrath
so that all of your people for all time and forever are forgiven, they are saved through the blood
of Christ. So Lord, because this is true,
help us to help each other be strong in the faith, to be reminded
of the suffering of Christ on our behalf. To be reminded that
it is Christ who makes us holy because his righteousness is
ours. To be reminded that we are going
to fall and struggle and feel the pain. But it is because of
your love for us that you discipline us to teach us of these things.
Let us teach each other. And father, by all means, hold
us fast by your spirit that we may know the truth and rest in
it. And we thank you for Jesus, the author of our faith and the
finisher of our salvation. And that all of us who are sanctified
in him are sanctified forever. And in that alone do we see the
holiness where we are now presented and can be presented blameless
before you because of Jesus. In his name we pray. Amen.