Would you open your Bibles with
me to the book of Second Peter, chapter one. Second Peter, chapter one. While
you're turning, let me just say how grateful I am for your hospitality,
your love, your fellowship in Christ. It's an honor to be back
again tonight. It's an honor to see you come
back to hear the gospel. And it's great to see your pastor
and Nancy here back with us. I'm glad the Lord gave you a
safe trip and brought you back home safely and hopefully a profitable
trip. And we keep you in our prayers. And you pray for me as I travel
south tomorrow and go back home to Ashland Thursday. And then
we have our Bible school starting next weekend. And Brother Gary
Shepard and Brother Richard Wormack will be with us for that week.
And pray for us. We covet your prayers. And we
always have a great time. And it's always a time that the
Lord blesses us in his word. So you pray for us and pray for
the church there, too, if you would. If you can remember to
do that, I'd sure appreciate it. Well, let me read the first
four verses of Second Peter, chapter one, the title of the
message is simply godliness. Godliness. Look at verse one
of Second Peter, one Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus
Christ to them that have obtained like precious faith with us through
the righteousness of God and our Savior, Jesus Christ. And
you may see in your concordance in your Bible that that could
probably be read better as through the righteousness of our God
and Savior, Jesus Christ. Verse two, grace and peace be
multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God and of our Lord
Jesus, our Lord, according as his divine power hath given unto
us all things that pertain unto life and godliness. through the knowledge of him
that hath called us to glory and virtue, whereby are given
unto us exceeding great and precious promises, that by these, that
is, those great and precious promises, you might be partakers
of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is
in the world through lust." Godliness. What is godliness? Now, the world, the religious
world, could give you many, many ideas, opinions, definitions
of that term godliness, and they're all wrong. However we understand
godliness, however we define godliness, it must be understood
and defined As it is revealed in the Word of God. The world
looks at morality. And they say godliness. They
look at religion. And they say godliness, they
look at charitable acts. And they say godliness. But what
really is godliness? And I thought about this for
quite a while. Somebody says, well, that person
is a godly man or godly woman, or they may say they are not
a godly person or not a godly woman. What does that mean? How
does one become godly? Scripture teaches that none of
us by nature are godly. Scripture teaches that as we
fell in Adam, we are a ruined race of individuals ruined family
and that were born into this world spiritually dead in trespasses
and sins. Ungodly, ungodly, unrighteous. You know, I thought about this
too, you know, when we talk about the doctrine of total depravity. How would you define the doctrine
of total depravity? You know, I can't remember who
it was I was reading last week, but they said total depravity
doesn't mean that everybody is as bad as we could be. Could
you imagine that? Could you imagine if God lifted
his restraining hand, even from us, even from children of God,
even from believers, and let the world go, what this world
would be like? It's bad enough as it is. But
could you imagine that? And I thought about this on total
depravity. First of all, it means that there's
none of us righteous before God. None of us righteous. To be ungodly
is to be unrighteous. There's none righteous. No, not
one. No exceptions. I've often said that before I
was brought into a saving knowledge of Christ, I was pretty religious
and I'd read the Bible. And I had the I didn't see it
at that time, but I had the accept me syndrome. I'd read passages
of scripture like Romans 310. There's none righteous. No, not
one. Well, that's got to be talking about somebody else. So I'd read
it. There's none righteous. No, not one set me. Goes on to
say there's none that do it good. No, not one set me. And really,
that's the attitude that most people put it this way, if you
haven't been truly convinced of sin, and depravity. If God, the Holy Spirit, has
not really shown you and me what we are by nature, that's the
only way we can read the scriptures. We have to think that we're better
in some way than those who will not accept Jesus or receive him. That's really what it is. But
total depravity means we're unrighteous. Total depravity also means that
we cannot work one out. We cannot do anything to make
ourselves righteous. The best deeds of the best of
people are not good enough to measure up to the standard of
God's righteousness because that standard is in Christ. That's
why he calls all of us to repent, because he has appointed a day
into which he will judge the world in righteousness by that
man whom he hath ordained, in that he hath given assurance
unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead. So
if I'm going to call myself righteous, then the righteousness that I
go by there must measure up to Christ. And if it doesn't, I
can't work one out. By deeds of law shall no flesh
be justified in God's sight. And then thirdly, total depravity
means this. Not only are we not righteous,
not only can we not work out a righteousness, but thirdly,
none of us want righteousness God's way. We want it, but not God's way. We want it our way. We want in
a way that will give us some room to glory. Now, here's the definition of
false religion in the past. We want righteousness, we want
salvation, we want all of these things, but we want it in some
way that will allow us room to boast. Some way that will exalt
the flesh, but not God's way. God's way won't give us any room
to boast in ourselves. God's way leaves us with one
glory, and that's Jesus Christ and Him crucified and risen.
So with that in mind, what is godliness? Well, I would, you
know, sometimes we try to try to over-define things, and I'm
not trying to do that. I think one of the problems that
we have in our day and age with preachers is that somebody defines
something and then the next thing they do, step one is define it
in your own words. Step two is invest your ego into
it. So that, Jim, if you don't define
it the way I do, me and you, we're just not going to speak
anymore. I won't have you preach for me
and you won't have me preach for you. That's ego investment. Preachers are bad for that. Even
gospel preachers aren't. We let the flesh enter in too
much. But I'm going to give you this to think about. And hopefully
that's not what I'm doing. Hopefully I'm not going to invest
my ego into this. It didn't come from me. But godliness,
I believe, is living life in the grace of God by virtue of
the merits, the goodness, The power, the wisdom, and the Word
of God in Christ. Living life in the grace of God
through Christ. We have a definition here, if
you want to call it that, in 2 Peter chapter 1. Peter opens up here. He says, Simon Peter, a servant
and an apostle of Jesus Christ, a bond slave of Christ. Godliness
is living life as a bond slave of Christ. You know, the difference
between a bond slave and just a regular slave in the Old Testament
was something that is amazing. A bond slave is one who was serving
his master, not in order to pay a debt. The debt has already
been paid. And so he's serving his master
because he loves him. Because he loves him. His motive
of service was not mercenary, trying to earn his keep. And
it was not legal, trying to remove the debt. His motive for service
was grace, gratitude, and love. That's the difference. That's
godliness, isn't it? And that's what Peter says. Simon
Peter, a servant, he means a bond slave. Paul called himself a
bond slave. He didn't say the Reverend Dr. Paul. He didn't say the Apostle
Paul, but he was called an apostle and he was an apostle. He did
defend his apostleship in Corinth because he had to. He said, forgive
me of my foolishness. I'm forced into this position.
But his favorite way of referring to himself was a bond slave of
Christ. May we never rise above being
bond slaves in our own estimation. Somebody said, well, when he
walks into the room, everybody turns and looks, everybody listens. I've often said that the two
worst things that can happen to any preacher is number one,
gain a following for himself. And number two, get into a position
where he can't be questioned. That's dangerous. What are we? We're ministers. You know what
a minister is? He's a servant. He's a bond slave
of Christ. He's the messenger. He's a messenger
boy. That's what he is. I often use
the illustration of when we lived in Georgia 12 years ago and well,
even further back than that. And I had two boys and they were
young boys and we would drive up to Ashland from Georgia on
holidays. different times, sometimes during
the summer. And it was a long drive, 650 miles. And you know
how kids are, are we there yet? Are we there yet? And Debbie
was real good about giving them things to do, things to read
and stuff. But I had the trip divided up into like five or
six what I called legs of the trip. And they'd ask me, said,
Dad, which leg are we on now? Well, on the last leg was between
Lexington, Kentucky and Ashland, Kentucky. And in the middle of
that was a sign that said Ashland. And whenever we'd see that sign,
we'd get excited, the boys would just get excited. Oh, we're almost
there. We're almost there. But it wasn't the sign that excited
them. That just pointed us in the right
direction. It was the destination that excited
them. We didn't stop at the sign and
unload the car and say, we're here. And that's what we preachers
are. We're just the signpost pointing you to Christ. Brother
Scott Richardson used to say this, he'd say, preach Christ
and get out of the way. That's what we're to do. Somebody
asked me one time years ago, he said, would you ever consider
starting a preacher school? Well, if I could find enough
young preachers, yeah, but. I believe if I did start a preacher
school, I would call it the John the Baptist School for Preachers.
And what would be the courses? Well, the first one is, I'm not
the Messiah. I'm not the Christ. There was
an old agnostic who was semi-religious one time. He tried to search
all the world religions, even studied the Bible. And he grew
to a ripe old age and in his mid 80s, he sat down on a bench
and he shook his head and he told his young grandson, he said,
son, he said, out of all my studies and all my searches, there's
only two things that I know for sure. And his grandson said,
what is it grandpa? And he said, there is a God and
I ain't him. Well, thank God. that he's revealed more of himself
to his people through Jesus Christ. Now it's true there is a God,
there's one God. And it's true we ain't him. But
my friend, what in the world, what in the world would we do
if God had not revealed himself to us? John the Baptist. He said, I'm
not the Messiah. Behold, the Lamb of God, which
taketh away the sin of the world. Look to Christ, not to me. I'm not your Savior. Your pastor
is not your Savior. The church isn't built on him.
The church isn't built on me. It's built on Christ. built on him, and he said the
gates of hell will not bring it down. They cannot do it. And then John the Baptist said,
well, let me tell you how I compare to Christ. I'm not even worthy
to untie his shoes. I'm not even worthy to tie his
shoes. I'm unworthy. And then he concluded
his ministry by saying, he must increase, I must decrease. Peter, a bond slave of Jesus
Christ, an apostle, that's a messenger. That's one who has a message
to deliver, gifted of God. Oh, I thank God for the apostles.
The church is built upon the doctrine of the apostles and
the prophets. Not built upon the apostles and
the prophets, the doctrine of the apostles and prophets. And
what was their doctrine? Paul said, I strive not to know
anything among you save Jesus Christ and him crucified. Built on Christ. And then he
says to them that have obtained like precious faith. And what
he means by that is that we who have this precious gift of faith. We who have this precious gift
of faith. We believe. The same gospel. The same savior. You see, doctrine
is important. Doctrine is vital. Who is Jesus
Christ? I had a fellow tell me one time
he said, he said, well, I can preach Christ without preaching
any doctrine. I said, well, what are you going to say? I said, who is Jesus Christ? Do you believe he's God? He said,
yeah. I said, well, that's the doctrine of his divinity. Do
you believe he's sinless man? That's the doctrine of his humanity. What does doctrine mean? It means
teaching. Who does the teaching? God does. They shall all be taught of God.
Now, he may use a clay pot like me or like your pastor. But he's
the one if you're taught, If you're taught the doctrine of
Christ to the point that it has been applied to your heart, God's
the one who taught you. He uses means, and we're not
much, but he taught you. And so he says, like precious
faith, before there can be godliness, There must be faith and knowledge. And I put those two together. Now, when I say there must be
faith and knowledge, there's two things that we need to understand.
Number one, faith is not natural to us. Faith is not natural at all to
us. Faith is the gift of God. For by grace are you saved through
faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of
works, lest any man should boast." And what we are as justified
sinners, believing sinners, it goes on to say, for we are His
workmanship, not our own. We're not self-made people. That's
one thing a sinner saved by grace knows. He's not a self-made man
or she's not a self-made woman. We are his workmanship created
in Christ Jesus. There's the ground. Unto, not
because of, unto good works, which God hath before ordained
that we should walk in. Faith is not natural to us. And
the reason I put faith and knowledge together is because Peter does.
Look down at verse three. He says, according as his divine
power. Now, that's where the power comes
from. It doesn't come from your will. The power of faith is not
the exercise of a sinner's free will. Because, see, a sinner
doesn't have a free will. Your will, by nature, our wills
are just as much in bondage and deception and darkness as our
minds and our affections, our desires, our motives. But it's
according as His divine power hath given unto us all things
that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him
that hath called us to glory and virtue. Look at Romans chapter
10 with me. Why would you put faith and knowledge
together? Well, here's your answer right
here. Verse 13 of Romans 10. For whosoever shall call upon
the name of the Lord shall be saved. Now his name is his glory.
His name is his character. His name is that which identifies
him and distinguishes him from all counterfeits and idols. How
do you know? How do I know that I believe
in the true Christ and not a counterfeit? Well, what's his name? Well,
it's not just saying Jesus, Jesus, Jesus. That name means a lot. It means salvation, doesn't it?
But it's all the things that the scriptures here tell us of
him, who he is, what he did and why he did it, where he is now.
He's God in human flesh. My Savior is Emmanuel, God with
us. He's the perfect God-man. Very
God of very God, very man of very man, every bit God, every
bit man without sin. And what did he do? He came to
this earth according to the terms of an eternal covenant made before
the foundation of the world where God chose a people and gave them
to him. He said, all that the father
giveth me, his sheep. and put all of the conditions
of our salvation upon him. And he came to this earth, assumed
human nature without sin, and walked this earth, fulfilling
all the conditions of that covenant in his obedience unto death,
not trying to save you if you'd let him. There's nothing like
that in the scripture. You know, that's not in the Bible.
That's the psychology of man. Jesus Christ did not come here.
Why did he come here? He came here to his name shall
be called Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins.
He didn't come here to try to save you if you'd let him. And
let me tell you something, if he had come here to try to save
you, if you'd let him, you wouldn't let him. And neither would I. Because we don't want it God's
way. His way. is the way that gives Christ
all the glory. All the glory. And then it says
here, verse 14, How then shall they call on Him in whom they've
not believed? That's the gift of faith. And
how shall they believe in Him of whom they've not heard? What
are you going to hear? You're going to hear the gospel, which
is the power of God and the salvation to the Jew first and the Greek
also. For therein is the righteousness of God revealed. What is the
righteousness of God? That's the merits of the obedience
and death of Christ to satisfy the justice of God for my sins
charged to him and his righteousness charged to me. And how shall they believe in
him of whom they've not heard? And how shall they hear without
a preacher? Look down to verse 17. Faith cometh how? By hearing. and hearing by the word of God.
Go back to 2 Peter 1. That brings me to the second. In order to have godliness, there
must be knowledge and faith. Both are the gifts of God. Both
are the gifts of God. Secondly, to have knowledge and
faith, you've got to have spiritual life. By nature, we're dead in trespasses
and sins. What does Peter say here? Look
at verse 3 again. He first he talks about he talks
about our Savior Jesus Christ. He talks about grace. That's
unmerited favor. And peace, that's peace with
God, God and sinners, God reconciled to his people, his people. And
he says that's through the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ, according
as his divine power hath given. Now, what that means is we didn't
earn it and we don't deserve it. It's given unto us all things,
all things, not part of the things, but all things that pertain unto
what? Life. What kind of life is he
talking? You know, before God saved me,
I was breathing, I was walking around, I was doing things. I
was living, but it was a living death. He's talking about spiritual
life there. He's talking about eternal life.
And he says this life is in his Son. We have to be born again by the
Spirit. Christ told Nicodemus, except
you be born again, you cannot enter the kingdom of heaven.
You can't even see it. That is, you can't understand it, savely,
because the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit
of God. Neither can he know them. What is this spiritual life?
I can't explain it to you, but I can tell you the evidences
of it. There's a new heart. There's
a new knowledge. You know things about God that
you didn't know before. I know I did. I never forget
the first time that I was sitting in the congregation at 13th Street
Baptist Church and heard Brother Mayhem preach on Isaiah 45, a
just God and a savior. You know, I had never heard that
before. I was in a seminary. In Louisville. I had never heard that before.
And that pricked my interest. And I didn't believe it now.
I wasn't a believer then. But I thought to myself, that
sounds like something I need to know more about. He's preaching
from Isaiah 45, a just God in a sense. Because I've been studying
religions, world religions, and I've never heard anything like
that. That was unique with a capital U. And you know, the religion,
the true religion of grace is the only religion that even deals
with that subject. How can God be just and justify
the ungodly? How can a man be just with God,
a sinner? And it just dawned on me, you
know, if God is holy and must punish sin, and he is, The moment
that a preacher makes a statement like this, God forgive sin, you've
got a real problem. How is that possible? If I'm
a sinner and God is just, then how can God forgive me? And that's what it's all about.
How Jesus Christ came and took my place, stood as my surety
under the justice of the wrath of God that I earned and suffered
and bled and died to drink damnation dry. Well, you see, when the
Holy Spirit comes and gives us life, that's what we're taught
in the Word of God. Given a new heart. We're given
eyes to see that we didn't have before. I began to see things
that I never saw before in the scriptures. That's spiritualized
ears to hear things you never heard before. You know, when
I when I heard with the natural ear, I walked out angry. Telling
my mother, I'll never be back there again. But for some reason,
I keep coming back, I wonder what that was. Because it wasn't
by my free will. I kept telling her I don't want
to be there. I was trying to get her out of there. That's
that was my goal to get my mother out of that church. And I used
to think Henry was some mean. Every time I hear him preach,
I said, he's mad at the world. And then when the Lord. Did something
for me and in me. It changed. You know, the Lord
told his disciples, he said about the Pharisees, they seen, but
they see, but they see not. They hear, but the blessed are
your eyes for they see. Blessed are your ears for they
hear. You realize, and this is this is an amazing thing to me.
If we know and trust Christ. And love his word, love him and
his word. We are actually walking, talking
miracles of God's grace. We should never take that for
granted. But that's what he does, it's to be a godly person, we
must have spiritual life. Here's the third thing. To have
spiritual life, before there's godliness, there's got to be
knowledge and faith, gift of God. Before we have knowledge
and faith, we've got to have spiritual life. That, too, is
the gift of God. Before we have spiritual life,
we must have righteousness. There must be righteousness. Now, why is that? Because sin
demands death. Only righteousness can demand
and gain and give life. The only thing that can do it.
That's right. Sin demands death. That's what
the Lord told Adam. In the day that you eat thereof,
you shall surely die, or die and thou shalt die. Death. Without the shedding of blood,
without death, without death, there is no forgiveness. In order to have godliness or
to be a godly person, you must be righteous. And where does that lead us?
Well, where are we going to find righteousness? Are we going to
find it in the church? People say, well, I need to join
the church. Why? What's your motive? What's your
goal? What's your thoughts on that? Somebody says, well, I need to
be I had a fellow called me, said I need to be baptized. Would
you baptize me? I say, man, I don't even know
you. But he needed to be baptized. I had a preacher, Debbie and
I, we go to the YMCA to work out each morning and there's
a fellow where he's an assembly of God preacher, and he was telling
me about a fellow dying in the hospital and wanted to be baptized
before he died. And he couldn't be baptized because
he was physically incapacitated. He couldn't even get out of bed,
couldn't raise up. And so the preacher said, well, I sprinkled
him. And he asked me, he said, would you have done that? And
I said, absolutely not. He said, well, just for his peace
of mind. And I called his name. I said, I don't want him to have
peace of mind because he was sprinkled or dipped or dunked
or swam in the Atlantic Ocean. My goal in preaching the gospel
is that God will give people peace of mind in Christ. Because
peace of mind, peace of conscience, based on anything else is false. Where am I going to find righteousness?
Well, in order to have righteousness, we've got to have Christ. Turn
to first Timothy chapter three with me. Now, all these things go together,
Peter says, to make up what the Bible calls godliness. Godly,
true godliness. Look at 1 Timothy chapter 3,
verse 16. Listen to this. And without controversy, without
debate, without argument, Great is the mystery of godliness.
Now, you all know that a mystery in the Bible is not something
you've got to find clues and figure out. Mystery is something
God has to reveal to us. He uncovers it. Well, what is
the mystery of godliness? Here it is. God was manifest
in the flesh. Justified in the spirit, Christ
was vindicated in his resurrection from the dead. Seen of angels,
the testimony of the messengers of heaven. preached unto the
Gentiles. That was according to all the
prophecies of the Old Testament. The Messiah would come and salvation
would be given to the Gentiles. God's elect out of every tribe,
kindred, tongue, and nation believed on in the world. That's a miracle. What's the power of that miracle?
God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the spirit, and
received up into glory. How was Christ received up into
glory? Turn to John chapter 16. What does that mean, received
up unto glory? Here, the Lord is speaking to
his disciples of the work of the Holy Spirit in the new birth
and regeneration and conversion, and he calls it a work of conviction. Verse 8 of John 16. When he has come, he will reprove
or convince or convict the world of sin and of righteousness and
of judgment. That's his people out of every
tribe, kindred, tongue and nation. Of sin, because they believe
not on me. Now, that is talking about the
sin of unbelief, which is the mother of all sins. But it goes
further than that. I believe what that is mainly
teaching is this. My friend, without Christ, without
his blood to wash away my sins, without his righteousness imputed
to me, I'm nothing but sin. And everything I do is sin in
the sight of God. Without Christ, it's all sin. And that's what he convicts us
of. And then verse 10, of righteousness, Because I go to my father and
you see me no more. He was received up in the glory.
How did he go to his father as the one who finished the work? You read it in John 19 a while
ago. He said it's finished. And you remember what he said
before he gave up the ghost father into the hands, I commend my
spirit. He went to the Father as the one who, Daniel said,
made an end of sin, finished the transgression, brought in
everlasting righteousness, sealed up the vision and the prophecy.
He accomplished the work. And then he says of judgment,
verse 11, because the prince of this world is judged. The
prince of this world is Satan, who is the accuser of the brethren.
And what he means is this. Satan, who is the accuser of
the brethren, having been judged, he can no longer charge us. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It's God that justify who can
condemn us. It's Christ that we've already
been judged, folks. I was judged on the cross of
Calvary, Christ having been made sin for me, my sins charged to
him. And I have his righteousness
charged to me, and then one more verse. Look over at Hebrews 2. To have righteousness, we must
have Christ. And without Christ, I don't care
how much we try or how hard we try, how new and improved we
become. I don't care how many times we're
baptized, how many churches we join, how many missionary trips
we go on. Without Christ, there is no righteousness
for us. Without Christ. Christ crucified
and risen. Look at Hebrews 2 and verse 14.
For as much then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood,
he also himself likewise took part of the same. That's Christ's
humanity. That through death he might destroy
him that had the power of death, that is the devil. The devil's
power of death is not the power to kill you or make you alive.
That's what Job said, the Lord killed, the Lord made him alive.
The devil's power of death is the power of accusation, which
says you're a sinner and you deserve death. Well, Christ destroyed
that power because he took our death. He took our judgment. And he says in verse 15, and
deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime
subject to bondage. That's that legal bondage of
condemnation. There is therefore now no condemnation
to them which are in Christ. For barely he took not on him
the nature of angels, but he took upon him the seed of Abraham. That's the elect of God. Wherefore,
in all things it behooved him." That word behooved there is the
Greek word for debt. Christ took our debt. He became
indebted. That's how he was made sin. "...to
be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and
faithful high priest in all things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation
or propitiation for the sins of the people." He satisfied
the justice of God. Now, one more thing back in 2
Peter 1. Here's what that establishes
now. Christ. As our righteousness. Christ
as our Redeemer. Who gives us gives us righteousness
before holy God. And you realize that now we stand
before God, if we're in Christ, we stand before God in a righteousness
that is perfect. that cannot be blemished or contaminated
and that can never be taken away. And then based on that, having
given us spiritual life and brought us to faith and knowledge, faith
in Christ and repentance, what has he done? Well, look at verse
four. Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious
promises. It's all by promise. And all
the promises of God are in Christ, yea, and in him, amen. that by
these you might be partakers of the divine nature." Now that
word partakers there is an interesting word. If you do a word study
on it, you're going to find it's virtually the same word that
the Apostle John uses in 1 John chapter 1. That means fellowship. Fellowship. It is not partaking
like when we sit down and partake of a meal and we consume it,
we eat it. It's being partners with. It's
being brought into fellowship with. And he's saying that when
the Holy Spirit brings to our hearts these precious promises
that are all wrapped up in the person and finished work of Christ,
we're brought into fellowship with the divine nature. What
is the divine nature? The Father, the Son, and the
Holy Spirit. That's God. We're brought into
fellowship with God. That's godliness. We're not in
fellowship with the world. We're in fellowship with God.
How? Through Christ. We're connected
now with the divine nature. God Himself through Jesus Christ
our Lord. And listen, in Him dwelleth all
the fullness of the Godhead bodily and you are complete in Him. That's godliness. Being in fellowship with God.
Through Christ, let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you
for your word of faith, your word of truth, your word of grace
that's wrapped up in Christ alone, our Savior, our Lord, who died
on the cross to save us from our sins, to make us righteous
before thee. And through whose death we have
life, everlasting spiritual life within so that we might look
unto him who is the author and finisher of our faith, be with
this church and pastor be with us all dear lord as we go throughout
this week guide us and direct us for it's in his name we pray
amen