Come with me in your Bibles to Ephesians chapter 5. Ephesians chapter 5. When God in mercy chooses to reveal Himself, His holiness, His righteousness, His truth to us, We see the Lord like Isaiah did. He was seated. In Isaiah chapter six, he was seated and he was high, lifted up. When we see that, we are resolved to one possible conclusion if he's revealed it. And it can only be believed by faith. It's that everything he requires, he has to provide. We truly see the Lord as he is. We'll see ourselves as we are and realize You've got to produce everything that you require. I can't produce it. I'm other than you in every way. And then simultaneously, which is glorious, by his grace alone, he presents that which does satisfy and please him, the Lord Jesus Christ. He reveals the Lord Jesus Christ as our only hope of eternal life.

This morning our topic is three things that Christ produces that you and I cannot produce in ourself. We cannot produce. Three things that God requires that we cannot merit, that we cannot earn, and that we cannot produce. Let's read our text here in Ephesians chapter five. Look at verse nine through 14. For the fruit of the spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth, proving what is acceptable unto the Lord. And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them. For it is a shame even to speak of those things which are done of them in secret. But all things that are reproved are made manifest by the light. For whatsoever doth make manifest is light. Wherefore, he saith, awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light.

I've titled this message the three words in verse nine. Goodness, righteousness, and truth. Those three, goodness, righteousness, and truth. It tells us in the next verse, that's acceptable unto the Lord, and yet we know by what the Lord has revealed to us, I can't produce any of that. I'm not good, because the scripture tells us clearly there's none good, no not one. Our righteousness is as filthy rags, and there's no truth in us at all. The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Thank God for the Lord Jesus Christ who does produce just that.

Do you know we lack the capacity? It's not just that if we try a little harder we might accomplish this. We lack the capacity. for us to be good in and of ourself, in the sight of God. Now, in men's eyes, you've heard this many times, probably everybody here has. You'll see somebody, somebody that passed away, or somebody that did a nice deed, and they'll say, boy, he's a good man, or he was a good man, or a good woman. You ever heard that before? Not in the sight of God. There's only one good. There's only one good, and it's the Lord Jesus Christ. Scripture tells us, Somebody said, well, I speak the truth. Well, the Lord says, let every man be a liar. Let God be true. Let every man be a liar. We don't let God be true. God is true. What he's saying is God's true. You're a liar. It's just how it is. We're liars by nature. We come from the womb speaking lies. You know, I've been in many, many churches in my lifetime. I've never been to any church where you can look at a congregation and say, every one of you are a bunch of liars and they don't try to shoot you after the surface or something, but it's the truth. We come from the womb speaking lies and the Lord reveals himself and shows us that. We say, we put our hands over our mouth and say, yeah, I probably shouldn't talk. Scott Richardson said this one time, he was a pastor, Katie Baptist Church in West Virginia for years. He passed away some time ago. That's where Marvin Soniker is now. He used to say, never miss an opportunity to shut up. I liked that. Because every time we talk, never know what we might say if we don't think about our words.

Why? Because our heart is deceitful and desperately wicked. And out of the abundance of the heart, scripture says, the mouth speaketh. But you know who is truth? The Lord Jesus Christ. Never one bit of falseness ever. Absolute perfection. Absolute perfection. The Lord Jesus Christ, there is goodness, righteousness, and truth. So I want to speak on those three this morning.

First one is goodness. And I looked up the definition the scripture gave, and it said the quality of being morally good or virtuous in the eyes of God. Now you can be morally good and virtuous in the eyes of man, But the Lord, he's the one that weighs the scale. He is the determining factor. He is the judge. So if you see me as good or virtuous, your eyes and my eyes, if I see you that as well, my eyes and your eyes, they are tainted because they are not holy eyes. They are not what the Lord sees. The Lord looks to the heart. He doesn't look at the external. He doesn't look at the what we produce with our hands, he looks to the heart. And so now I've already told us the heart's deceitful and desperately wicked. So do you think he's going to see any goodness or virtue in me? Absolutely not. Our morals cannot be perfectly kept and our virtue is tainted by sin. This is why the Lord said, there's none good, no, not one. When the rich young ruler came to him and said, good master, what must I do to inherit eternal life? And the Lord said, why callest thou me good? There is none good, but God. In other places it says there's none good, no, not one. It's the Lord that's good. It's nothing else but him. He's the only one that's good. So if he requires goodness, he's going to have to provide it. He's going to have to provide it.

So what is the Lord's goodness or what is goodness? Turn with me to Exodus chapter 33. Exodus 33, you know this account very well, most of us. This is where the Lord is called into the tabernacle, or Moses is called into the tabernacle by the Lord. And this is where Moses says, show me your glory, show me your glory. But normally, I just tell you the story. This time, I would like to read it for what some of the word says here. We're answering the question, what is goodness? So look at verse 12 through 23, through the end of the chapter.

12 says, and Moses said unto the Lord, see thou sayest unto me, bring up this people and thou hast not let me know whom thou will sent with me. Yet thou has said, I know thee by name and thou hast found grace in my sight. Now, therefore I pray thee, if I found grace in thy sight, show me now thy way that I may know thee. that I may find grace in thy sight and consider that this nation is thy people.

I wanna stop there just for a moment because you notice the prayer that he just said is show me thy way. He didn't say show me the way or show me my way, show me your way, show me your way. That's the prayer of the believer versus the non-believer. That's the prayer of one of God's elect is we say, Lord, teach me your ways. I don't need to be taught in my ways, I need to be taught in your ways. That's what he's saying here, show me your way. Verse 14, he said, my presence shall go with thee and I will give thee rest. Now, if the Lord says that to you, regardless of the circumstance, regardless of what you're praying about, the Lord says, my presence shall go with you. There's no greater peace in all the world that would help you know that everything's going to be all right. Because he said, my presence will be with you. My presence will be with you. Whenever we were praying to come up here for me to take this position, I hit this verse right here. Also over in Isaiah, where it says, when you pass through the waters, it will not overtake you. When you go through the fire, it won't consume you. I am your God. I'll be with you. And I thought, huh. So I can go to Pennsylvania. The Lord will be with me. And then I read this right here, and I was like, okay, well, I guess I'll call, I can't remember if I called Steve or Rob. One of them, I called him up, said, all right, you guys talk about it, you let me know, because the Lord's giving me peace on it. If the Lord goes with us, that's all we need is his presence. That's all we need. There's peace with that presence. Listen to what Moses said. Now this is our prayer right here. If, he said unto him, if thy presence go not with me, Carry a snot of hints. Can you relate to that? Lord, if you're not gonna be with me, I don't wanna go. Don't let me go if you're not gonna be with me. Verse 16, for wherein shall it be known here that I and thy people have found grace in thy sight. Is it not that, is it not in that thou would goest with us? So shall we be separated. And I, I and thy people from all the people that are upon the face of the earth and the Lord said to Moses, I will do this thing also that thou has spoken for thou has found grace in my sight. And I know thee by name. He's Moses says unto him, I beseech thee, show me thy glory. Now, before I read this next part, remember, we're trying to answer the question, what is goodness? Look what the Lord says to him. Moses says, show me thy glory. And the Lord says, I will make all my goodness pass before thee and I will proclaim thy name of the Lord before thee and I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious and I will show mercy and to whom I will show mercy. And he said, yeah, thou can't see my face. Thou canst not see my face, for there shall no man see me and live. And the Lord said, behold, there is a place by me. Thou shalt stand upon a rock, and it shall come to pass while my glory passes by that I will put thee in the cleft of a rock and will cover thee with my hand while I pass by. And I will take away mine hand, and thou shalt see my back parts, but my face shall not be seen. I'll make my goodness. Show me your glory. Show me your glory. I'll make my goodness to pass by you. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy. I will be gracious unto whom I will be gracious. That's his glory. That's his goodness. It's the goodness of God that has purposed us to be able to say that we are the benefactors of grace and mercy. Without his goodness, there would be no grace and there would be no mercy. Look at, Verse 19, that's what he's saying here. I will make all my goodness pass before thee and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before thee. So that's the revelation of Christ right there. That's what that is. And he says, I will be gracious and will be gracious to whom I will be gracious and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy. Those of you who desire to see the Lord's glory, there's only one way it's given. according to his will alone and all by grace alone. There is, you want to have goodness. It's found in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. He said, I'm going to declare the name of the Lord to you. Well, what's his name? Jehovah Sitkin you, the Lord, our righteousness. He has many names, but he is, uh, well, you could start with what they call the Lord Jesus Christ. His name shall be called wonderful counselor, the mighty God, the prince of peace, the everlasting father. He's going to declare all of that, and then he's going to tell Moses, I will be gracious unto whom I will be gracious, and I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy. I'm sovereign. This is my salvation, and I'm going to reveal my glory to you. I'm going to show you that you have to be in the cleft of the rock in order to see my goodness, in order to see my graciousness, in order to see my glory, because that's the only place that it's found is in that cleft. Who's the cleft? The Lord Jesus Christ. The rock that he's standing on is the Lord Jesus Christ. The cleft of the rock is the Lord Jesus Christ. His goodness is the Lord Jesus Christ. All of it's him. And the only reason he can be gracious and merciful is because of what the Lord Jesus Christ accomplished. This is the Lord's goodness. This is the Lord's goodness. David said this, and in that light, think of this, David said in Psalm 23, surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord. forever, forever. That goodness is going, if you, when the Lord shows, showed his back parts, as it says here, he's pointing him to the cross that hadn't quite happened yet. That's what we look at, isn't it, is what the Lord's already accomplished. It's his finished work because his work was finished from the foundation of the world, it tells us. The whole world, all of his works were finished from the foundation of the world. Listen to what he says. In Hebrews chapter four, for we, which have believed to enter into rest. And he's, as he said, I have sworn in my wrath. If they enter into my rest, although the works were finished from the foundation of the world. So you have the rock, the cleft of the rock and the goodness of God are all the same person. It's the finished work of Christ from the foundation of the world. We have the revelation of that. He says, you can't look upon my face, but I can show you what I've done to save you from your sin, to give you my goodness. I've put you on a rock in the cleft of the rock. Therefore you can see my goodness. The only way God can show mercy and grace and be just and justifier is in the person and finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ. There is no other way. There is no other way. There's a verse, I believe it's in Ezekiel, and it talks about how men make covenant with death. It says, you've made covenant with death, Lord speaking, and with hell you're in agreement. He said, but when the overwhelming scourge comes, he says, I'm gonna disannul your covenant. Men believe they can hide themselves from God, and we can't hide anything from God. He sees everything. He sees everything as it is because he's truth, and we'll get to that in a minute. But the goodness of God has given us a place that's near to him, the cleft of the rock, a place to hide from the wrath of God. While he endured that wrath, you and I were safe inside him, just like the ark. We use Noah's ark often, don't we? Because as the rain fell, that was the wrath of God. And yet all that were inside were protected from the elements because of the Lord's word, because Christ, our ark, The only place we can hide from the wrath that's due us. Because the Lord Jesus Christ, our substitute purity, took our place on Calvary's cross, became a curse for us, bore our sin in his own body on the tree. And the glorious part about it is, is that He lived a life we couldn't live. He died the death that we deserved, but we're in Him this whole time. So when the Lord looks at us as His people, and I'll say He's resurrected as well because of our justification. So when He looks at His people, He sees goodness. You care to explain that to me? He sees goodness. He looks at me. Why? It's Christ in you, the hope of glory. He sees the goodness of God. He sees the reflection of his son. He sees the Lord Jesus Christ. He doesn't see me in this flesh and this sin. It's been put away. That's what he's showing Moses here. He says, I'll show you what I've done in salvation. I'll show you what I've accomplished by the blood. Nothing that you've done, Moses. You found grace in my sight. I know thee by name because I chose you from the foundation of the world. I purposed to save you by my grace alone. This is what's being revealed to Moses here. This is what the goodness of the Lord reveals. This is what every believer desires of the Lord. Lord, show me your goodness. Show me Christ. Show me Christ. The most glorious part here is the Lord did not tell Moses, okay, get you a hammer and get you a chisel and carve out a cleft in a rock. Let me think about that. It was already prepared. If Moses would have chiseled it out, he would have had something to glory in. Boy, I chiseled out a good cleft of the rock there. I chiseled out a good hole. You know we would. And now I'm safe because of what I did. And that's false religion, every false religion. I'm safe because of what I did. Moses, he got put. He literally says the Lord put him there. I'm going to put you there. That's us being placed in Christ, given to him before the foundation of the world ever was. We were put in Christ. He was our surety. He said, As Judah said to Jacob, said, send the lad with me. If he comes not back, let me bear the reproach. I'll be his surety. I'll be surety. I'll take the full blame, the responsibility, whatever it is, I'll take it. And that's exactly what he did on the cross of Calvary. Took our place. He doesn't require anything of his people in order for them to be saved. He's not requiring anything for you to see his goodness unless he's going to provide it. You have to have faith, somebody says, absolutely, but it has to come from him. It's God-given faith, it's not man-made faith. It doesn't wane or wonder or change, it's constant. With one focal point, the Lord Jesus Christ, the goodness of God. Now let's go back to our text. Ephesians chapter five. Look how this is given. For the fruit of the spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth. It is by His Spirit that these are found in us. It's Christ in you, the hope of glory. It's by His Spirit. Now, a lot of people, especially in false religion, primarily, they will talk about having fruit, bearing fruit. I should be able to see your fruit, you should be able to see my fruit. Like we've been called to be a bunch of fruit inspectors. This is fruit of the Spirit. Fruit of the Spirit. Don't forget that. Because men try to do things in the flesh thinking that it's spiritual. If you wanna be spiritual, look to Christ. Look to Christ. And if you can, you will, but that's because the Lord's called you to, enabled you to. That's spiritual, by faith, looking to Christ alone. By his spirit, his goodness is given to his people.

Now God sees the fruit of his spirit in us because it is Christ in you, the hope of glory. Second thing he says here is righteousness. So I looked up righteousness and you say, well, we know what righteous is. Well, I was curious and I didn't really realize that the scripture meant it this way. It's the quality of being justifiable on your own. It's the quality of being justifiable on your own. on your own, that means you can be justified because of what you have done.

In a court of law, whenever the sentence is passed and you're found guilty, you either, what he's saying here is you should not be found guilty, you should be justified in your actions, meaning the evidence shows that you did it and yet you've been justified as if you never did it. Well, the Lord did so much more than that. When He said that we've been justified freely by His grace, our sin was taken away and in the sight of God, it never happened. It never happened. He tells us that their sin and their iniquity will I remember no more.

Here we are, depraved and fallen. All our righteousness is this filthy rag. So how can I be justified? How can I be justifiable before God? What do I need to do to become justifiable before God? The answer is nothing. You cannot do something to become justifiable. Somebody might say, you should pray this prayer, or you should do this, or you should do that. No, that doesn't make us justifiable. The scripture says, therefore, being justified freely by his grace, we have peace with God. That's the only way, freely by his grace.

But what about pleasing God? Can I please God? Well, we just determined that goodness, we have no goodness in us, so we're not justifiable, we have no goodness in us, so how can a completely sinful creature of dust Be made the perfect righteousness of God because that's what he requires. We're not talking about righteous as in, I've actually heard people describe other people that way, righteous man, righteous woman, because they were religious or whatever. You ever heard that before? That takes good to a whole nother level, doesn't it?

But in the eyes of God, our righteousness is filthy rags. What they mean by filthy rags is it's soiled. It's good for nothing. You would not want to use it. It can't accomplish anything, but it's garbage. That's what he said. That's our righteousness by ourself. And yet, how can a sinful creature of dust be made perfectly righteous? Well, it's simple, but it can only be believed by faith. It's simple. Second Corinthians 521, for he hath made him to be sin for us. Who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in him?

If I am to be made righteous, Christ had to take my place. If I am to be made righteous, Christ had to take my place. There's no way I can be made righteous by what I do. Even if you and I would have endured a hundred crosses that Christ went through and died a hundred deaths, it would have not merited anything because the sacrifice would have been utterly sinful from the top of the head to the bottom of the feet. But the Lord Jesus Christ was offered up as a lamb without spot, without blemish, perfectly righteous before the Father, bearing our sin at his body on the tree. When I say he had to take our place, the scripture talks about him bearing our shame. He was a man of sorrow acquainted with grief. He bore our sin and his body on the tree. And the word, uh, iniquity over in Isaiah 53 when it said, the Lord had laid upon him the iniquity of it's all that also translates guilt, guilt. So why didn't it tank the sacrifice? Cause the blood can't be polluted. The blood can't be polluted. The blood washes away and cleanses from every stain. It can't be tainted or polluted whatsoever. Oh, he paid the awful debt we owed. If we, We forget, I forget, so I'm assuming others do too. We go through daily life. What our Lord really had to endure, and we only know a fraction of it, if you want to call it that, what our Lord really had to endure for you and I to be set free from the guilt of the sin that we are. From the guilt of what the law demanded, from the punishment of having our fists shaking in the face of God from the time we're born to the time he calls us. The Lord endeared all that so that we could be set free from the punishment, from the penalty, from the power of sin. Yes, we're gonna die in this body, but not in the life to come. Our spirit is given back to God which gave it. Our soul will be with him forever. If we're his, we'll be made just like him. We'll see him as he is. The glorious news is that what the Lord sees is not me. He doesn't see me, he sees Christ in us. He sees the Lord Jesus Christ, and he sees you and I, if we're his, his elect, as perfectly righteous right now. There's nothing else that needs to be done for him to see you as perfectly righteous. If you're his, that's how he views you. And if I could grasp that for longer than a second, I mean, it's an amazing thought to think about how, what it costs the Lord to do that. The Lord, his condescension in becoming a man First of all, becoming a creature of dust, and yet dying the death that we deserved set us free. Can you imagine doing that for your greatest enemy? I mean, that's what he did. Not only that, but he made them children. No greater love, no greater love. He offered himself up a lamb without spot, without blemish, and the Lord saw the travail of his soul. When his soul was made an offering for sin, he was satisfied. Satisfied. He said, by my righteous servant shall many be justified. You know what that means? It means now we, God's chosen people, are justified in the sight of God. How do you know? What sign do you have? Christ was raised from the dead. God was satisfied with that sacrifice. God was satisfied with that offering once and for all. Well, how do you know that everything that was accomplished needed to be accomplished, because in Hebrews chapter one, verse three says, when this man by himself purged our sin, he sat down. You heard the verse I just mentioned a little bit ago about entering into the rest. That's what it's talking about there, is the Father resting on the Sabbath. He said, sit thou here at my right hand. The Father's resting in Christ, the Lord's people's resting in Christ, literally, in Yim. And the glorious part about it all is it's all finished. The work's done, nothing left to be do, nothing left. We are now not justifiable in the eyes of God. We are justified, past tense. Doesn't mean we can be justified if we do something. It means Christ Jesus justified his people. Christ Jesus saved his people from their sin. Christ Jesus made them righteous before God. Not a little bit. completely righteous from the top of the head to the bottom of my feet.

Now, am I saying the flesh is righteous? No, not in the least bit. I'm saying the new man created in righteousness that the Lord gives, a new heart that lives by faith, perfectly righteous in the eyes of God.

You know what the scripture says? We're commanded now to come take the water of life freely by his grace. We're commanded to approach that throne throne of mercy that we might find grace to help at the time of need.

Let's read our text again. For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth, proving what is acceptable unto the Lord. And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them. For it is a shame even to speak of those things which are done of them in secret. But all things that are reproved are made manifest by the light, for whatsoever doth make manifest is light. Wherefore, he saith, awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light.

The last thing he mentions is truth. It's the quality or state of being true. That's pretty easy, isn't it? That's pretty, I mean, we can tell the truth, but in us is no truth, did you know that? Not whatever the Lord looks at us, it's all falseness. We have not the capacity to be truth. We can be truthful, but truth is a quality that only the Lord possesses. Only the Lord possesses it.

Verse 10 says that God requires it, it says, proving that which acceptable under the Lord. The Lord's requiring truth in us, but I can't produce that, not what he's asking for. I deceive myself. You ever caught yourself deceiving yourself? What we did in false religion, didn't we? Just deceiving ourself, deceiving ourself, didn't even know we were doing it. We say, well, is the devil deceiving me? Oh, well, the devil didn't even much help. We deceived ourself. We loved ourself, that's why. That's just how we were. and still are but for the grace of God, and still are but for the grace of God.

We have no pride in this in ourself. It was God that came to us and put us in the cleft of the rock. It was God that caused His goodness to pass before us. It was God that gave us His righteousness, and it's the Lord who gives us His truth. We get no glory in this. This truth must be bestowed freely by grace alone.

Turn back with me to John chapter 18. I've quoted this several times, but I chose to read it this time. John chapter 18. I just want to read two verses. But what they say, I mean, is much more than just two verses. I mean, listen to this.

John 18, 37 and 38 says, now the Lord, you read the picture here, the Lord's on trial before Pilate, and Pilate's about to make a judgment upon the Lord. Pilate therefore said unto him, art thou a king then? Verse 37, Jesus answered, thou sayest that I'm a king, to this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth, every one that is of the truth, heareth my voice. Pilate saith unto him, what is truth? What is truth?

This is where most get it wrong. When you ask the question, what is truth? Truth is not a what. Truth is not a what. Truth is a person. We declare the Lord Jesus Christ. We don't declare a what. You say, well, you declare the gospel. That's the Lord Jesus Christ. You declare salvation. Well, that's the Lord Jesus Christ. You declare the cleft of the rock. You declare the rock, the goodness of the Lord. That's all the Lord Jesus Christ. Everything in scripture points to him. Pilate said, what is truth? He, he is truth. He said, I am the way, the truth, not a truth, the truth and the life. No man come to the father. but by me. Only the Lord's people are made to believe it's not a what, the truth is a who." Sounds funny when you say it like that, but it's true, isn't it? The Lord's gospel, the truth of the Lord is a person. Salvation, I don't know if you've heard me say this, but if you hadn't, I'll say it now. Salvation's a person. Salvation is not just an experience. It's not a decision. Salvation is a person. And if I'm going to be saved, it's going to be because that person saved me by his grace. I love the fact that the Lord tells us about his people. It's not that we need to find truth. It's not that we need to seek it out. It's not that we need to learn to get truth. The Lord said, ye shall know. the truth, and the truth shall make you free. And then he says, and if the spirit hath made you free, you shall be free indeed. So he just told you exactly how we are going to receive the truth by his spirit, by his spirit. It's not about how much scripture I memorize. It's not about isms and schisms, none of that. It's about the person, the Lord Jesus Christ. It's all about him. He's the way, the truth, and the life. And it says, and that life was the light of men in John chapter one. So here we have the light, as it's mentioning here, we have the truth that he's mentioning again. This is his truth. Matter of fact, it's all about him. You ever thought how the word history is written? His story? His story, it's all about him. It's all about him. This world was created for his glory and for his honor. Not for my glory and honor, but for his. Now look how this is all accomplished. Again, verse 14, wherefore he saith, awake thou that sleepeth, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light. If you are awake, or if you are awakened by the Lord, he's giving you light. He might just give you a little bit, but He gave you light. So one could say, well, He's just going to give more and more light. Well, that's very true. The Lord's people, we need Him more now than we ever needed Him. It doesn't grow fainter. I see myself as getting worse. My desperation for needing Him is much more now than it used to be. And it'll be more tomorrow and the next day. The dependency that the believer has is complete dependency upon the Lord and His mercy and His grace. And so he's saying, once you arise from the dead, that is the light, because he said life, his life was the light. So once that light shines in and we become alive, he continues to give us that light. Just continues to give us the light. His light shined into his people out of darkness. He alone is truth, brethren. We are false and full of sin. He's full of truth and full of grace. He alone is the way of God and the way to God. Not the way that you, not like you're on a road and you want to get somewhere so you take an exit. No, you can't get there. One time, this is kind of comical, but I'm going to tell you anyways. One time we were driving and I stopped and I scouted for directions. And I hesitate to do that because I'm a guy. But I did. I stopped for directions. And GPS was not cooperating. And I said, hey, man, I'm not from around here. I'm looking for so and so place. He looked at me, he says, man, you can't get there from here. And I said, what do you mean? He's like, well, you got to go back that way. I said, OK, but I can get there from here. I just got to go back the other way I came from. Yeah, exactly. You can't get there from here. Whenever we think about getting to the Lord, you can't get there from here. You can turn around all you want to, but you cannot get there from here. The Lord has to be the one to get you there. He has to put you in the cleft of the rock. Thank God he did for all of his people. Thank God he has made Christ and to his elect all wisdom, all righteousness, all sanctification, and all redemption. Can you say that of yourself? Christ is all my wisdom. Christ is all my sanctification. Christ is all my righteousness and my redemption. If you can say that, the Lord's given you his goodness. He's given you his righteousness, and he's given you his truth. Let's pray. Father, I thank you for being all in your salvation. We ask that you would take these words and bless it for your glory and honor. In Christ's name, amen. Let's take a break.