Well, good morning. What a great day to be here to celebrate the Lord together. What a great truth that last song was that we just sang that we know that he loves us. And that is perhaps the greatest truth that we could ever know, that the Lord Jesus Christ loves us and gave himself up for us. And we're here today because he did that. There are a lot of other things that we could be doing today, but we're here to glorify him and to lift him up and to adore him and to exalt him. And to be together with other people who want to do the same and so we want to take our Bibles this morning and turn to Romans chapter 7 Romans chapter 7 we're going to be looking at the last half of the of this chapter verses 14 through 25 today And I must say as as we have already started our study of Romans 7 and we're going to finish it up today Understanding Romans chapter 7 is absolutely vital in the life and heart of every true believer in Jesus Christ who struggles with sin And so hopefully today we're going to be encouraged as we look into this great chapter at least the second half of it today and we're going to be encouraged hopefully to be able to Be able to live more for our Savior who loves us Romans 7 verses 14 through 25 When I was in high school, I started out playing basketball, baseball, and football. I had done that through my junior high years as well. But after my freshman year, I quickly realized that that was going to be way too much. And so I just decided I'm going to dedicate myself to two sports. And I began to dedicate myself just to basketball and baseball. And so while I played three sports as a freshman, I played just two sports throughout the rest of my high school career. Well, during my playing days, we had some very intense rivalries with other schools in our city and in our conference. And these were intense rivalries. Looking back, there was an unhealthy disdain for other schools. But that disdain was born out of a loyalty for our school. For reasons that I can't remember, one of my athlete friends transferred from our school to a new school, which meant then that he had a new loyalty. He was no longer a part of our school, but he was now a part of this other school. And so our relationship changed. We went from friends to rivals. But every so often he would call me and he'd want to hang out. He had a new loyalty, but there was always this tug and this pull to hang out with his old friends at his former school. And this is sort of how it is for us as believers in Christ and what we want to consider today. We were once loyal to sin, but now as new believers in Jesus Christ, our loyalties have changed. We're new creatures in Christ. Sin is no longer our master, but there is still this ongoing tug and and pull to hang out with sin. We know we shouldn't do it, but we do. And when we do, we're disgusted with ourselves and we wonder why we do it. So as we come to the last half of chapter seven in our study of the book of Romans, Paul is expounding on this inner struggle that the believer in Jesus Christ has with sin. And as we said last week, beginning in verse nine, he he begins to use himself as the example. So let's take a look at our passage for this morning, then we're going to examine why we have this this ongoing struggle in the Christian life. beginning with verse 14 of chapter 7 for we know that the law is spiritual but I am a flesh sold into bondage to sin for what am I for what I am doing I do not understand for I am not practicing what I would like to do but I'm doing the very thing that I hate but if I do the very thing I do not want to do I agree with the law confessing that the law is good so now no longer am I the one doing it but sin which dwells in me For I know nothing good dwells in me that is in my flesh, for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not. For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want. But if I'm doing the very thing I do not want, I am no longer the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me. And I find then the principle that evil is present in me, the one who wants to do good. For I joyfully concur with the law of God and the inner man, but I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members. Wretched man that I am who will set me free from the body of this death. Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then on the one hand, I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other with my flesh, the law of sin. Well, as we look at this a little bit closer this morning, using himself as the example, Paul explains why we have this ongoing struggle. And he gives at least three reasons. And so we want to look at those this morning, three reasons why we have this ongoing struggle. And I don't have to set this up for you. You know exactly what I'm talking about. If you know Christ as your Savior from sin, you understand this internal struggle that we have. We desire with all of our heart and soul and mind and strength to please and honor the one who saved us and yet we still struggle Daily with this whole thin thing in our lives And we don't like it. Do we? We don't like that struggle that we have within us. And so paul addresses that in this passage today And so we want to look at three reasons why we have this ongoing struggle And the first reason is this Because even as believers, we are still of the flesh. Even as believers, we are still of the flesh. Verse 14 says, for we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of flesh, sold into bondage to sin. It's important to note, and I pointed this out earlier in our study, that as believers in Christ, we're no longer in the flesh. but we are of the flesh. If you take a peek back at verse 5 of chapter 7, Paul says that we used to be in the flesh, meaning that we had no choice, we were bound by the flesh and our fleshly desires, and they had mastery over us. But if you jump ahead to chapter 8 and verse 8, we're no longer in the flesh, but we are in the spirit. Look at verse 8, and those who are in the flesh, cannot please God. However, you are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him. And so all true believers have been changed by the power of the Holy Spirit who is in us. But going back to chapter 7 in verse 14, Paul says that he is still of the flesh. And so what does that mean? Well, when he says that he's of the flesh, he's referring to the fact that he's still bound to his earthly body, still mortal. He's not yet glorified. He is of the flesh. And we are still of the flesh. We still deal with these fleshly desires in our life. John MacArthur says the idea is that although believers are not still in the flesh, the flesh is still in them. Paul said in 1 Corinthians 3, 1, and I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual men, but as to men of flesh, infants in Christ. In verse 3 of that same chapter in 1 Corinthians 3, Paul says that they are still fleshly. And so Paul's greater point is that as those who are still of the flesh, the flesh is not our friend. The flesh is our enemy. And so Paul will ask himself a very intriguing question. If that is true, then why does he still desire to hang out with his enemy? Why does he still hang out with sin? Why is it that you and I, as believers in Christ, still, at times, have the desire to hang out with sin? Well, the second reason that we struggle with sin is because, as believers, we still have the indwelling presence of sin. as believers we still have the indwelling presence of sin we find out more about this in verse 15 and following verse 15 for what I am doing I do not understand for I'm not practicing what I would like to do but I'm doing the very thing I hate sound familiar but if I do the very thing I do not want to do I agree with the law confessing that the law is good so now no longer am I the one doing it but sin which dwells in me For I know that nothing good dwells in me that is in my flesh. For the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not. For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want. But if I am doing the very thing I do not want, I am no longer the one doing it, but sin, which dwells in me, Find then the principle that evil is present in me the one who wants to do good Well first here in verse 15 Paul says that he finds himself doing the very things that he does not Want to do this is the great apostle Paul This is the one whom God used to write most of the New Testament epistles This is the greatest missionary that ever lived This is the one that said for I am not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ For it is the power of God unto salvation to the Jew first and also to the Greek This is the one who rebuked the church at Corinth. This is the one who encouraged the church at Ephesus This is the great apostle Paul and he says I'm doing the very things that I don't want to do Verse 16 he says it's not the law's fault It's my fault. You know, we've been given so many wonderful examples of godly men and women in the Bible, haven't we? It's so great to turn to Hebrews chapter 11. There's so many passages in scripture. And this is why God has, in his providence, inspired his word so that we will see the lives of others and be encouraged by it. See the great faith of those who walk before us. And all throughout scripture, from Genesis all the way to Revelation, we have these great heroes of the faith. But you know, as much as we have these wonderful examples of godly men and women in the Bible, there are no super-Christians. These are just real flesh and blood people. These are just people who have gone before us, who walk with God in the same way that we walk with God. same struggles that we struggle with, same types of circumstances that we deal with. You see, God hasn't made any super-Christians. No Christians who have not struggled with the indwelling presence of sin in their lives. There's been no living person who has ever really totally whipped sin. And so Paul, honestly and humbly, shows us that he's just like us. And so we have much to learn today Because he's saying, look, he's being very vulnerable in his life. He's saying, look, I'm just like you in many ways. God has used me, yes, and in ways that I do not deserve. And he's used us in ways that we do not deserve. And yet Paul was just like us. He was not a super Christian. He was a man empowered by God to do a task. He was one of the great apostles that the Lord used as those who would build the foundation of the church. God used him in a mighty, mighty way. We learn from the life of the Apostle Paul. But have you ever asked yourself why you just did something or said something when you knew it was sinful, but you did it anyway? Down deep, you didn't really want to do that. You didn't really want to say that, but you did it anyway. And all of us have been there far, far too many times in our lives. And after we did it or we said it, we became disgusted with ourselves. You ever get disgusted with yourself? Oh, there are times when I am alone and I am just so disgusted with myself. for something perhaps that I have thought or something that I didn't do that I should have done or something that I did that I shouldn't have done or whatever it is. And I think you probably know and understand exactly what I'm saying. This is what Paul's saying. I am so disgusted with myself. I'm doing the very things that I don't want to do. Why in the world would we or the apostle Paul or anyone do those things. Because down deep, and we know the heart of Paul, and down deep we know our own hearts, we want to please Christ. We want to honor Him. We want to be holy. We want to be righteous. But despite our true desires, we sometimes succumb to our flesh and we sin. And sometimes we may even sin grievously. In verse 17, Paul goes on to talk about the indwelling presence of sin in his mortal body, his unredeemed flesh. And then in verse 18, he says that nothing good dwells in his flesh. And then he goes on in verses 19 through 21. And if we didn't know any better, it almost sounds as if he's saying that he can't help it. I just I just can't help it. I have these desires to do what is right, and yet I do what is wrong. I think this just points out to us that the flesh is really that powerful and I really don't think that's exactly what he's trying to get at here. Certainly not. He's not blame shifting or trying to not to take responsibility for his sin. I believe this is made clearer in verse 24 where he calls himself a wretched man. Takes upon himself all the blame for his sinful behavior. And then this leads us to the third reason that we struggle with sin. And it's because as believers, there's a real war going on inside of us. There's a real war going on inside of us. Notice what he says, verse 22, for I joyfully concur with the law of God and the inner man, and we've spoken much of the law of God. But I see a different law in the members of my body waging war Against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin, which is in my members wretched man that I am Who will set me free from the body of this death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord sir then on the one hand I myself with my mind I'm serving the law of God, but on the other with my flesh the law of sin War is ugly There's nothing pretty about war. We watch the carnage of war on television and we're aghast. I've talked to friends of mine who served our country during wartime. It's so awful that they don't want to talk about it. And if they do talk about it, they don't want to talk about it long. Paul says that there's an ugly war going on inside of every Christian. But this is a war that we need to talk about. We said over and over that we sin from the inside out. Paul reiterates that the battle is for our mind. Our mind is such a powerful engine that pulls the train of our actions. We are like Paul, wretched men and women. And the battle will rage on until we're one day glorified in heaven. And so what are we to do in the meantime? Do we just succumb to the desires of our flesh? Do we act like we're not in a battle? What are we to do as the people of God who want to honor Christ with our lives? Because if we just stopped here in our passage and we closed it down for this morning, I think most of us will walk away from here this morning pretty depressed and pretty exasperated. But the Lord has not left us hanging. He's not left us without instructions. to combat the enemy that is our flesh. We know that we have three enemies as Christians, right? We have the devil, we have Satan and his demons, we have the world system, and we have our own flesh. And I will say that of the three enemies, the one that's closest to home, the one that causes the most concern is our own flesh. We often want to blame certain things on Satan and his demons. And certainly we do have that spiritual struggle. And so we don't want to minimize that in any way. But our biggest struggle is with our own flesh. And so we have this enemy without. We have Satan and his demons. We have this world system. But our greatest enemy is within. And it's our own flesh. So the Lord hasn't left us hanging. He's not left us without instructions to combat the enemy That is our flesh. And so I want to close this morning by giving you nine Ways to fight the battle. This should be such an encouragement for you It would be like asking a person to go and build a house and him not have any tools to build it Could you imagine you would be so frustrated you'd go and you'd say I I I've been given this task. It's my job. It's what I've been empowered to do is to build this house. I Don't have a screwdriver. I don't have a nail gun. I don't have a hammer. I don't have anything to build the house And we would be left holding the bag if that was the case in the Christian life, but it isn't I And so this should be such an encouragement for us when this is the reality that Paul is laying out for us, that we struggle with sin still as Christians, even as mature Christians. Some of you walk with God for 50 years and you could write a book on still struggling with sin. I've been a Christian for 37, 38 years. And granted, God has done amazing work in my life over those 37 or 38 years, but guess what? I'm not a super Christian. You're not a super Christian. We all struggle with the same thing, the power of the flesh. And so in God's providence, even though he has saved us from the penalty of our sin, and he saved us from past, present, and future sins, And so He has covered those sins with His blood. We have eternal life, everlasting life. There's no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. And yet, there's still this unredeemed part of us, this unredeemed flesh that we deal with day in and day out in the Christian life. So we want to talk about that this morning. Nine ways to fight the battle. First, we need to realize that all of this that we've just spoken about is a reality in us. All that we have just talked about is a reality in us. Even as believers, we are of the flesh. We have the indwelling presence of sin. There's this real war that's going on inside of us. There is no chance to win the battle if we're not aware of the enemy, and if we're not aware of his tactics. J.D. read for us Galatians chapter 5 this morning, verses 16 through 18 say this, But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desires of the flesh. For the flesh sets its desire against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh. For these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please. But if you're led by the spirit, you're not under the law. You see, as I said earlier, all true Christians have this innate desire to please God. We want to please God. We want to honor God. He has saved us from all of the garbage and yet we still deal with this warring that goes on between the spirit and the flesh inside of us. So we need to realize that all these things are true. We need to understand the enemy, our flesh. We need to understand the tactics of our enemy. Second, We need to stop making provision for the flesh. Stop making provision for the flesh. If I could go around to churches all across America, this would be one of the themes that I would preach on. Stop making provisions for the flesh. All of us need to stop making provisions for the flesh. Remember what Romans 6, 13-14 said. said and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead and your members as instruments of righteousness to God for sin shall not be master over you for you're not under law you are under grace we talked about that last week so don't set yourself up don't make provisions for the flesh Romans 13, 12 through 14, the night is almost gone and the day is near. Therefore, let us lay aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. Let us behave properly as in the day, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual promiscuity and sensuality, not in strife and jealousy, but put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh in regard to its lusts. We understand the enemy. We know his tactic. Jesus calls for radical measures in dealing with sin and temptation. In Jesus' great Sermon on the Mount, in Matthew 5-7, He said, if your hand causes you to sin, then cut it off. If your eye causes you to sin, then cut it out. Stop making provision for the flesh. If you struggle with a particular sin in your life, don't set yourself up to date the sin. Don't make an appointment with the sin. Don't date the sin. Do everything you can possibly do to put that way over there. Don't get close to it. Don't go up to the line and think that you can go up to the line and not cross over. Make no provision for the flesh. Third, We need to flee sin, resist temptation, and pursue righteousness. We need to flee sin, resist temptation, and pursue righteousness. And let me say this, all of these that I'm sharing with you today are all acts of the will. These are all things that we are to do. These are all pieces of equipment that God has given us to build the house. These are things that we must do. He's given us the tools. We got to build the house. He gives us the power to build the house. He gives us the tools to build the house. But we must do something. We must do these things. And so we need to flee sin. We need to resist temptation. We need to pursue righteousness. So not only are we to make no provision for the flesh, we're to flee sin and pursue righteousness. James 1, 13 through 15. No one, let no one say when he is tempted that I am being tempted by God. For God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one. But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. You see the tactic. It's. Come here. It's OK, come here. Lurison. Luring us in being enticed by our own desire, being enticed by the flesh, then desire when it is conceived, gives birth to sin. And sin, when it is fully grown, brings forth death. 2 Timothy 2.22 says, So flee youthful passions, pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart. It does give us a little solace, I think, to realize that we do run the race the Christian life with others I think it does help us we talked about that in our fruit of the spirit class that it's it's very helpful to have accountability in our life if there's an issue in your life that you are really struggling with if the flesh is is really enticing you in a certain area then hold yourself accountable make yourself accountable to somebody else who who maybe isn't enticed by that sin but they can help you and you can be accountable to them fourth We need to repent of sin, regularly confessing our sin to God. And I think this is missing in the lives of most Christians today. 1 John 1.9 says if we confess our sins, He's faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. The word confess there means to say the same thing that God says about our sin. And I think we miss it. Often miss it. I think we sin so much that we just keep on doing it and we don't think how this is offending God, how this is an offense against our God. This is not something that He is pleased about in our life. As I've said before, 1 John 1.9 is not a verse about salvation, it's a verse about fellowship with God. And so we need to have that sweet communion with God, that koinonia fellowship with God. And so we have that when we regularly confess our sins and he is always there. He's always faithful He's always righteous to forgive us of our sins to cleanse us from all unrighteousness Kathy just put up a Chalkboard thing. They actually have These things that stick to we have one inside of our cabinet door and And she writes out the menu. And it's kind of neat, because you can actually write on this thing, and it's a peel-off thing that you can put up, and then when you're done, you just peel it off, and you're, you know, it doesn't, it's not like painting it on there. But she writes this menu for the week. Well, at the end of the week, then she erases it and writes a new menu. And I think this is the idea. If we confess our sins, He erases the board for us. He cleanses us from all unrighteousness. And we have a nice new clean slate in our fellowship with God. Fifth, we need to saturate our minds in the Word of God and dwell on what is right. We need to saturate our minds on the Word of God and dwell on what is right. Again, are you in the Word? Colossians 3 16 says let the Word of Christ richly dwell within you How can the Word of Christ richly dwell within us if we never pick the Bible up and read it? Philippians 4 8 Finally brethren, whatever is true honorable right pure lovely whatever's of good repute if there's any excellence and anything worthy of praise dwell on these things Well, what things do you think that he's talking about? to the Philippians Where do we find these good? things, these true things, these honorable things, we find them in the Word of God. Romans 12, 2 says we're to continually be renewing our minds. Continually putting the Word of God into our minds. Your word have I hid in my heart. So that I will not sin against you. Sixth, we need to set our minds on the things above. We need to set our minds on the things above. Colossians 3.2, Therefore if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things above, not on the things on the earth, for you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. The word set in Colossians 3.2, it's a word of intentionality. just like we set our alarms and we we set our our watches we set our schedules we need to intentionally set our minds on the things above and not on earthly things and as I said this is an act of the will this is something that we must do intentionally set our minds on the things above having a heavenly perspective as we go throughout our day 7th We need to obey the commandments of God. We need to obey the commandments of God. And this means to actively obey. We want to obey because we love Christ and we desire to please Him. The kids in our church will understand this. When I was a kid, there were times when I didn't want to obey. I don't know You know, my parents would tell me to do something and I didn't want to do it. I just didn't want to do it But I did it anyway Because I loved them and I had a healthy fear of my parents One of the things that Kathy and I talked about early on as we became parents was we want our kids to like us we want our kids to feel like they can come to us we want we want to have a good close relationship with our kids but a little healthy fears not all that bad a little healthy fear I remember that I had a number of opportunities to do things in my high school years where I was I went to a public high school and so you know I there were a lot of things that I was exposed to that I could have certainly gotten myself into And honestly, I'd like to take credit and say that I was really spiritual and I didn't do these things because I was, you know, wanting to please God and honor God. That wasn't really it, necessarily. It was because I didn't want to face my dad if I did certain things. You know what I'm saying? Kids, you know what I'm saying. Parents, you know exactly what I mean. And so, having this healthy fear of our parents is a good thing. Having this healthy fear of God is a good thing. We want to obey because we love Christ and we desire to please Him. John 14, 15, Jesus said, if you love Me, you will keep My commandments. And so our motivation to obey is our love for Christ. Which leads us then to the eighth reason. And we need to be filled with the Spirit. We need to be filled with the Spirit. This is Ephesians 5.18. Be filled with the Spirit. Don't be drunk with wine, he says, but be filled with the Spirit. So the imagery there is simple. Don't allow yourself to be controlled by something external, but allow yourself to be controlled by the Spirit of God who lives within you. And we've said often that the two words that we can tie to this idea of being filled with the Spirit is surrender, surrender to the control of the Spirit of God, and then saturate ourselves in the Word of God. And part of this, I believe, is the confession of sin. Having that fellowship with God, but we surrender to Him. We surrender to the control of the Spirit who lives in us, and we saturate ourselves in the Word of God. And then ninth, we need to glory in Christ as our Redeemer and Friend. This makes all the difference in the world. What Christ has done for us We've talked a lot about preaching the gospel to ourselves every day. Jesus is our Redeemer, which means that He purchased us, handpicked us, out of the slave market of sin. Sinners, wretched sinners, just like Paul, wretched man that I am, wretched man that I am, wretched people that you are, God reached down, He scooped us up out of the slave market of sin, He purchased us, and He owns us, and He loves us. Colossians 127 says it is Christ in us the hope of glory And so while it is true that we are in this ongoing battle with the flesh 2nd Peter 1 3 says that God has given us everything we need for life and godliness in his word He's equipped us with this Holy Spirit to keep fighting the battle against the flesh Well when I was coaching back in the day, no one wanted to win more than me. And it was a probably a almost an idol in my life. I wanted to win. We didn't play the game just to go out and have a little recreation. We wanted to win the game. So we practice, we prepare, we do all the things that we need to do to win the game. That's the object. And so that's what we wanted to do. That's what we wanted to accomplish. We wanted to be as excellent as we could be as players and as coaches. That was my desire. But guess what? There were times when even though that was our desire, we would get a little complacent, especially if we thought that we had a team on our schedule that we would whip in our sleep. There was a particular team when I was coaching. It was a little tiny public high school, a little hole-in-the-wall school. They were on our schedule. They were perennially terrible. They never, as far as I know, ever had a winning record as a team. Their program had no consistency with their coaching staff. Coaches would go in, they'd coach a year or two, and then they would leave. They'd already been beaten by a couple of teams that we had already played that year, and we had crushed the other teams, they had crushed this team, and so we were complacent. Plus, we had already beaten that team early in the year in a tournament by 30 points. So we didn't go scout them. We took them very lightly, and guess what? They snuck up and beat us on their home court. We were not on our toes. We were not ready to compete. We had become complacent. As we think about this this morning, we cannot take the flesh lightly. This is Paul's point. It is a formidable foe. We cannot ever underestimate the flesh. Instead, we must stay diligent and humble And in the power of the Holy Spirit, be prepared to fight the daily battle against the flesh. As I said earlier, it's one thing to have an enemy without, and we have those, but we have an enemy within. You know, there's nowhere that we can go to get away from our flesh. Where's that one place that you really like to get away from the world? Maybe you like to take baths in your home And maybe that's your getaway place. Maybe you have a closet that you like to go in and even to pray and be alone with God. Maybe you like to go for drives, just a nice scenic drive up in the mountain and it's calming to you, it's soothing to you. Where's that place that you really enjoy to get away? You know what? The flesh is with you. Wherever we go, the flesh is with us. And it's true. We will not fully mortify or kill the flesh in this life But we have been given everything we need to fight the battle and folks. We ought to be so grateful I had nine ways this morning. I could have probably added another nine. I God has given us everything we need to be successful in the Christian life, to love Him and honor Him and please Him. We're going to fight the battles. We're going to fight the flesh. It's going to be there every single day of our life. But we want to honor Christ. We want to be true to Him. We want to be in His Word. We want to know Him more. We want to honor Him, be in awe of Him, glorify Him with our life. And I believe that is the true heart. of the true Christian. But we have this ongoing battle, but God has given us everything we need to fight the battle. And for that we thank him and we say a man. Well, as Paul has shared with us today about our sin. And our flesh as we turn our attention this morning to the Lord's Supper. Talked a lot about sin, haven't we? Talked a lot about the flesh, but we've been encouraged by all the things and all the ways that God has allowed us to fight it off But we're reminded in first Corinthians 15 1 through 4 which says now I make known to you brethren the gospel which I preached to you Which also you received in which also you stand by which also you are saved If you hold fast to the word which I preached you unless you believed in vain for I Delivered to you as a first importance what I also received that Christ died for our sins According to the scriptures and that he was buried and that he was raised on the third day according to the scriptures Let's pray father. We are so grateful as we turn our attention to the Lord's Supper this morning as we hope and pray that we honor and please you as we commemorate the death of your son and We thank you that you have done so much for us wretched sinners like us. Lord, thank you that we can come to you with full confidence today that we know you and that you know us and that you have provided eternal salvation to us through the Lord Jesus Christ. Thank you for the doctrine of justification by faith. Thank you for this ongoing process of sanctification that we've been learning about in Romans. And thank you, most of all, for the person of Jesus Christ. And it's in Him that we pray, and it's also in Him that we commemorate this morning. And so, Lord, may our hearts be full of admiration and appreciation for Christ today. In His name we pray, Amen.