While the girls are going down to be seated, I want to also thank Miss Donna and Miss Heather. You see all the beautiful decorations that are around. They've been working hard on these, the harvest decorations, the one you see outside. So I really appreciate their work on keeping that stuff up and making it look good. Oh my gosh, you guys are a clapping bunch this morning. Good for you. Appreciative, that's good. Now let me tell you, you were dead in your sins and trespasses. Right, we start in Ephesians chapter two this morning, so if you have your Bibles there, let's turn to Ephesians chapter two. And it is in the glory of understanding who we were, we receive more of who we've become. We appreciate more of who we've become. And Paul begins in this passage in chapter two with these difficult words to hear sometimes, but it's good to to recount what God has brought us from so that we can see the majesty of his grace and mercy in Jesus Christ. I mean, we were wicked, wretched people. We were sinners. We were opposed to God, and Paul reminds us of that this morning. So that smarts a bit, but as we hear that, it also highlights the love and the mercy and the grace that God has given us in Jesus. So let's read the first 10 verses this morning of the second chapter of the book of Ephesians. As we begin, Much time in that first chapter, and of course that'll be our foundation as we launch into the rest of Paul's epistle to the church at Ephesus there in Asia. Such an important church, such an important book for them then and for us today. Read with me, follow along. Chapter two, book of Ephesians, verse one. Here he says it plainly. And you were dead in your trespasses and sins in which you once walked. following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirits now working in the sons of disobedience, among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, and we were carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind, but God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love of which he has loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ, by grace you have been saved, and raised up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace and kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not of your own doing, it is a gift of God, not a result of work so that no one may boast, for we are his workmanship, and we've been created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God has prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. The word of the Lord, let's go to the Lord in prayer. Our gracious Father, as we come to this passage this morning, this new chapter in our walk through the book of Ephesians, I just ask that you go with us this morning, that your Holy and Spirit work through these words and enliven the hearts of the beloved that are here this morning that are gathered not only to sing praises of your name, but Father, to feast on your word. It brings us life, it sanctifies us, the grace that we find in it brings strength, it brings growth in our life, it makes us something, it gives us something that sin has robbed in our lives. Father, how precious your word is to us. Speak to us, Father, boldly this morning, show us not only who we were but who Jesus is and what you've done, the grace that you've given us, the grace that you've given us in your Son's blood, Jesus, and the grace that's yet to come, the immeasurable riches of your grace that you will shower upon us as your elect, as your people, as your nation, as your kingdom of priests. Father, these are admonitions that we know we don't deserve, and that's, why we need to grasp a hold of this grace this morning. Because it's by definition undeserved. It's a gift from a God who loves us so. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Just one admonition this morning. Only God has power over death and only grace can bring life. Only God has power over death and only grace can bring life. So Paul says to remind these Ephesians of who they were and as I say to you this morning as we look through these things, be reminded of who you are so that you can be renewed in who God is. So that you can see his power over death and the grace that brought you from death to life when you were dead in your sins and trespasses. And I will remind you that a dead man can do nothing. A dead man can't get up and make his own toast in the morning, right brother? He can't even do one thing that makes his salvation a work of accomplishment before a holy God. So Paul uses the declarative statement here that these believers in Ephesus about this condition of their death that God had saved them from. He said, you were dead, and you were dead in your trespasses and sin, and it was in that one statement that the Apostle Paul declares the wretched position of man in sin before God. You were dead spiritually and rotting physically, literally, but it was there as well as where the greatest of human needs were met, spiritual life. It's there where the greatest of human needs met the transcendent power and grace of the greatest of gods to resurrect the dead to life, to bring beauty from the ashes, right? And for God to do that is an exposition of his greatest of graces that God extends to follow mankind. This is grace, and we pick up on this truth because of the way that Paul marries this desperation of man's condition together with the resurrection power of Jesus Christ. We spent much time in the first chapter of the book of Ephesians and it is the workings of God that Paul prays for in this church's life. He wants them to know literally, to be filled with the knowledge and the spirit of wisdom and revelation of the knowledge of God. Because it's in the filling of this knowledge and revelation of who God is, we get the full-on benefit of understanding of what God's done. We understand who we are, we understand what God has done, and better yet, we know what God is going to do, what He's gonna do for us, what immeasurable riches of His grace that He's going to continue to pour out on us. So Paul prays, he wanted them to be full of the truth and power and work of God, and to know, verse 19, chapter one, the immeasurable greatness of his power toward the believers. And he says that's illustrated, that power, the immeasurable greatness of it. I can't imagine, I often think about what we will think about in heaven and in the new heavens and the new earth, and I've said it many times, but we will study the mind of God, we will study the goodness of God, we will study the holiness of God throughout eternity and we'll never master that mind. and that goodness and his holiness. That power is certainly a feature of that holiness that he raised him from the dead and seated him at the right hand in the heavenly places. And as you see here in chapter two, that's the promise to the believer, that he raises you from dead, even now, the spiritual death that you're experiencing, and he is raising you to the right hand of power in those heavenly places to pour out his immeasurable grace upon you. Do you feel that this morning? Come on. I know you guys are all thinking about the election Tuesday, right? This is why this passage fell on this week. I almost guarantee that God had this working from some time ago. He wanted us to be filled with his glory because if we look at this world, we're gonna be confused and disappointed and full of desperation and despair, right? That better describes what we see in the world. But if we look at God's promises, he's saying that I took you from death to life, I've raised you up and seated you in heavenly places in Christ Jesus so that I can pour out my immeasurable grace upon you. That's power. That is only God's power and that is grace. It's used to bring you from death to life. When he made us alive together with Christ, by grace you have been saved and raised up with him. This is power. and this is grace. Only the power of God can make a dead man live and only the grace of God can apply that power to the spiritually dead corpse of a man. Let me say that again. This is power and this is grace. Only the power of God can make a dead man live and only the grace of God can apply that power to that spiritually dead corpse of a man. We can't do that ourselves. Nobody can do that for us. Only God can work that work in us and only out of his mercy and his grace. Man was at his most helpless of his states, and God, by grace, gives man life. By grace, you have been saved. Paul uses this great juxtaposition of life and death, perhaps the greatest one in all of scripture, to help the Ephesian believers see the level of depravity of man, see the depravity, the power, and the totality of their sin, ultimately. And it's in seeing that great chasm between us and God that they clearly then understand the marvelous grace that saved them by the power of God and Jesus Christ. Paul says, and you were dead, physically alive but spiritually dead. Listen, that promise of death, a dead man walking, is no different that he will be condemned for eternal life short of turning to Jesus Christ for forgiveness, that promise is no less. He may be physically alive, but if he is spiritually dead, his promise of condemnation is no less than those who believe in Christ's promise of eternal satisfaction in Christ. It stands, it stands today, because if he dies a physical death in that sin, that spiritual death, he will continue for eternity in damnation and hell because of his sin. So that promise is very real for those who are not in Christ this morning. And because spiritually bad men can do nothing to alleviate their own death because they're dead, it has to be grace. It always has to be grace. Only God can work grace and apply his grace to us. And don't let the apostle confuse you here for this death, this death that he's talking about, We experience it still today that there are many dead men doing what they would consider good works. So let's name it something different. Let's call it a living death, because that's what it is. Though they're alive physically, they're dead spiritually. John Stott writes this. He kind of helps us understand that, I believe, a little bit. He said, lots of people make no Christian profession whatsoever. They even openly repudiate Jesus Christ. but they appear very much to be alive. One has the vigorous body of an athlete, another the lively mind of a scholar, a third perhaps the vicacious personality of a film star. Are we to say that such people, if Christ does not save them, are dead? Yes, indeed, we must and do say this very thing, for in the spear which matters supremely, which is neither the spear of the body, nor of the mind, nor of the personality, but the soul, they have no life. And you can tell it, they are blind to the glory of Jesus Christ and the death to the voice of the Holy Spirit. They have no love for God, no sensitive awareness of his personal reality, no leaving of their spirit towards him in the cry, Abba, Father, no longing for fellowship with his people. They are as unresponsive to Jesus Christ as a corpse. So we should not hesitate to affirm that a life without God, however physically fit or mentally alert these people may be, is a living death. and that those who live it are dead even while they are living. To affirm this paradox is to become aware of the basic tragedy of fallen humanity. It is that people who were created by God and for God should now be found living without God. Indeed, he says, that was our condition until the good shepherd found us. They're dead. What caused that death? Well, that's a much debated topic today. I'm fascinated by our world of science and how debauched it's become and how far and how disconnected it is from reality. And I can't believe that there are people, and I'll use this word from the pulpit, stupid enough to believe the things or scientists devoid of wisdom to such a degree to study this or govern its nativity enough to award large sums of money to facilitate this research. But I've just recently read an article by a transhumanist speaker Entrepreneur and author, his name is Zoltan Isfan, writing in the UK, he says these things. He makes this declarative statement against Paul's declarative statement to the Ephesians. Again, I'll remind you of Paul's, and they were dead in their transparencies and sins, but I will remind you also of what the transhumanists believed because of their religion of science. Death could someday be a curable disease, he says. I know, you can laugh out loud, it's okay. I should put an emoji on that, right? LOL. They believe that death is a curable disease. That's why I use the word stupid, because when you get to that point, I mean, it may be to a point where you can't learn, though Christ can save anyone. He says the primary goal of transhumanism is to overcome biological death. Over the past few years, he writes, there's been a surge in the amount of money being pumped into research on how to overcome death. Billionaires, scientists, and entrepreneurs have arrived at the revolutionary conclusion that the human body can be dramatically remade into something better, stronger, and far longer lasting. I do believe, he says, that we will get to the stage where death will be a curable disease, thanks to technological progress. That's somebody that truly misunderstands. The philosophy often goes under the umbrella term transhumanism, which literally means beyond human. And transhumanist citizen scientists, who often go by the term biohackers, promote genetic editing as a way to achieve this, turning our bodies into alien-like creatures. Other like billionaires, naming you're hearing in the news a lot, Elon Musk, think we should consider merging our brains with machines. and upload our consciousness. But whatever the science transhumanists want to use to become a better species, overcoming biological death is the movement's primary goal. I think they're going to be disappointed in the end, don't you? Noting that most deaths in the world are caused by aging and disease, as approximately 150,000 people die every day on the planet, Earth caused devastation and loss to loved ones and communities. Indeed, they do. But that is not why death happens, is it? not spiritual death, nor physical death. I've got news for the transhumanists. Death is not overcomable. It's a result of sin. Both spiritual and physical death are the result of sin, and there is not one of us this defect does not claim. Romans 3.23 says it very plainly, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. In Romans 6.23, For the wages of death is sin, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ. In other words, sin is the cause of our spiritual death and sin is the cause of our physical death ultimately. All who have sinned will die a physical death short of the Lord Jesus Christ returning before your physical death. So sin, sin is the cause of our spiritual death and our physical death. So Paul reminds them, you are dead in your trespasses and sin. Their former state was death, they were dead. They were the cause of that death. The totag in the morgue would have said it's trespasses and sins. Do you see that there in verse one and two? It is trespasses and sins that have caused your death. Not only trespasses and sins, but you were enslaved to these trespasses and sins. And that word trespass in the Greek is a very important word, I think. Your death was caused by your active will against God. That's what it is. That's our nature. We were born with it. eternal and internal defect. Now, there's two ways that sin acts on us, and we're gonna talk about that a little bit later, because we're sinful from the inside out, but also we live in a world that tempts us, that is sinful as well. That is the internal and the external effects of sin. But it is our nature that we were enslaved to, and these trespasses are those who have caused us to question and even to move away from this holy God. We saw it in Genesis 2 verse 17, but of the fruit of the trees, of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat of it, for in the day that you eat of it, you will surely die. There's the promise of death for sin, death for disobedience. We know that Adam and Eve did not physically die immediately, but they spiritually died to me. Now this is how God's moral law works. It was a law that was written on the heart of man, even Adam there, the first man, knowing what God expected of him, and that caused him to become a responsible moral agent before God. You see, it's in God's covenant that he makes a covenant with each human being, and as soon as God says thou shalt not, and you fill in the blank, thou shalt not lie, thou shalt not commit adultery, thou shalt not have idols, thou shalt not, thou shalt not, thou shalt not, whenever God says that, he is attached to you in such a way, because you are a free moral agent, he has made a covenant with you that you can either choose to follow or not follow that law. To follow and be obedient to him and to break that rule and to receive death as a result of that breaking of that covenant. But it's also a rule to live by. God's law is also a rule to live by. In other words, that when we follow God's law and we try to the best of our abilities, we will by nature live flourishing. But try as you may, you cannot not sin. And the human condition is by nature we are sinners and the power of that sin is enslaved and it causes death, spiritual death. And it is the rotting agent in the physical death. Now notice what Paul says as he goes on there in chapter two. And you were dead in your trespasses and sin and whence you once walked. In other words, it was a way of life. You walked in this. And the New Testament uses walking as understanding a way of life as we walked with Christ. We walked without Christ, right? We walked in our sins. We follow the course of this world. It goes on to say, following the prince of the power of the air. Following the course of the world, we were captive to the devil and to be, and carrying out the passions of our flesh, body, and mind. I mean, we were all in for sin, right? And this may be hard for some of us this morning because you think you're a pretty good person. But before Christ came, as Stott writes, No matter what your talent was here, no matter what gifts you've been given, no matter how good you thought you were, no matter how good deeds you thought you did, you were still dead spiritually before God, before holy God. Following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air. Not only did we follow the ways of this world, and that is the path of least resistance, right? We often say the devil made me do it, everybody else is doing it. We use all of those excuses because everybody else is caught in sin. We live in a world of sin and that's the external pressure to sin, but it goes even farther. Paul doesn't let down there. He explains evil in a different manner. He says you were also following the prince of the power of the air. You were a boy or man or girl of the devil. You were in the cabal with everybody else. That's how evil works. That shows us our death, that explains evil. You might think your sin is yours and yours alone, but you're following or going the way of the whole world who's under the control of the evil one. You can't take fire. to your chest and not be burned, or at least smell like smoke. You and your sin are a cog in the wheel, a wheeling participant of the system of evil. That's who you once were. Your sin adds to this, and it sustains the evil workings we see in the whole world. So what Paul is saying is he's doing a little thing about the treaties of sin a little bit. He's helping them understand that not only were you by nature internally sinful, you were born into it, but the whole world system, the external pressure for sin. In Romans 7, 8, says the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's laws. Indeed, it cannot. Not that it chooses not, but it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. They are spiritually dead. For God's sakes, for God's sake, you want to see the system you're a part of in following the prince of the power of the air, take one look at the season we're living in in this world. Look at the promise of the politicians that are looking for your vote. If you want to see the sin around you and the evil system, just pay attention to what you see on the TV news. It's a system that's all around us. And we were in that system. We were in that system. We were dead. We were sinners. We were wholly in. It wasn't just partway in. We were wholly in. It had killed us. It had taken our life. We were dead spiritually, and we were carrying out the passions of our flesh, mind, and body. We were condemned before God. Scripture says you were dead and you were condemned, you were there, you were, as Paul puts it here, children of wrath. Boy, that's a bad place to be. Let's talk just a minute about the wrath of God because it's perfect, it's not capricious. God is not like me when I get mad and once in a while I get mad and I just kinda like fly off the handle. My wife's here, she'll tell you how I do that sometimes, right? God is not like that, beloved. His wrath, His justice is perfect. He will met out the payment for sin to the perfect measure to everyone who chooses to pay for sin themselves. And it will be eternal. If you're lost in your sins here this morning, you may hear all of this and you may say to yourself, you know, I'm not that person. I'm not that sinful. And I would say to you, it probably feels like that. And I felt the same way. And when I still sin today, I feel like that, right? I feel like, well, you know, I'm not as bad as, and I point, I'm not as bad as she is. I'm not as bad as he is. And I look at worse behavior to justify my behavior. And when I point, I understand what I'm doing and saying that it's not my, I'm not the measuring stick here. God is. His holiness is. It's him that we have to please and it's his law that we have to fulfill and we intimately know we fall short of that. We were by mind and by nature children of wrath. We were condemned like all the rest of mankind. But then comes verse four. Then comes the hope. But God, it's the greatest adversative, do you know what an adversative is? It's the juxtaposition of, it is the opposite of, it is the antithesis of. In other words, when we juxtapose God's holiness and God's life and God's grace against man's death, sin, and destruction, it is the farthest of two equals that you could ever have. We went from night, death, dead, and dying, and unable to help ourselves, to being blessed, being lifted to the heavenly places, being poured out on God's grace upon us, to life, everlasting life, but God. That's the adversity in verse four, chapter two. Paul says, you were dead in your trespasses and sin in verse one. Verse four he says, but God. All right? It totally changes our outlook. And if we look at this part of it enough, beloved, I think that we can fly high on eagle's wings, as the scripture says, that we can have victory over this place of death because but God means that I don't have to do it. He has done it for me. That's the exact definition of grace. I could not have earned it because he has done it for me. But God, beloved, this is the strongest adversity of all the scripture. In understanding it, we understand who we are and who God is, our pitiful state before his glorious splendor. And the only right response is to fall to our knees and plead for mercy in Jesus Christ. Man was sinful and wretched. He had no hope of life beyond the grave, but God. But God, in his sovereign choice and desire to bring salvation to his people, plunged down into the midst of this sinful place, born of a virgin, to be tested as a man, to live as a man, and to be found innocent of sin and be persecuted to death on a Roman cross on our behalf, to be punished for your sin so that God could pardon your sin and give you life and mercy and shower grace upon you. throughout eternity. This is the greatest truth that man can grasp this morning. But God, but God, we were enemies of God. And this is not a neutral designation. There are no neutrals in our world. One of the greatest words that I loathe today is the word secular. There is no such thing. Jesus said you are either sowing with me or against me. You're either for me or against me. There is no neutral. You're either dead or alive. You're either sinful or you're forgiven. There is no neutral. We were enemies of God and at enmity with God. We were actively opposed to his will and by nature children of wrath and willing participants with a prince of the power of the air. Think about that for a minute. You were Satan's children, enemy combatants against the holy righteous God of heaven, a war that could never be won against the creator of all the ends of the earth but God. We live for our own glory, not his. We live for our own laws. Not to be obedient to his, we live not for his glory, but for our own, but God intervened. He changed us, beloved. He saved us, he bought us with the blood, and he is making us new creations. I said in my opening prayer this morning, and I mean this, and I teach this constantly, Scripture and the truth of God is giving us something back that we could not establish on our own. If the beginning of the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, then the purposeful putting away of the truth of God is the beginning of insanity. When we hear God's word and we receive God's truth, he is building us up. Grace is making us something that we can't be on our own. God's word is doing that in us. But God, he has given us the Holy Spirit so that we can understand that word and we can be built up. He had a plan for us. He had a plan for his elect. Jeremiah 29 11 says it like this. I know the plans that I have for you declares the Lord. Plans for your welfare and not for evil to give you a future and a hope. Then you should call upon me and pray to me and I will hear you. You should seek me and you will find me. And when you seek me with all your heart, I will be found by you declares the Lord and I will save you. This hope of Israel. was spoken at a time of the Babylonian captivity, but rings no less true today for the church. It was God's people then, it's God's people now, but God, his plan is to bring all those who he chose in Christ before the foundations of the world. We just spent time, you see it there in Ephesians chapter one. Let's begin at verse three. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundations of the world. that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he protested us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, but God. And we receive this with joy, beloved. We receive what God's done, this grace with great joy, this glory because Christ spoke. As we celebrate weekly, as we renew the covenant, as we speak from 1 Corinthians 11, Jesus spoke these words, this cup is the new covenant in my blood. That's the new covenant. He drank down God's wrath so that we can live in God's glory. His righteousness imputed to you, to me. and my sin, your sin, imputed to him, and he suffered that wrath, that holy, righteous wrath. God's wrath for our sins. All of it for our sins. Hear me well this morning, beloved. This is a place of total and complete victory for the believer. It may look at times like this world's one, And you may think at times that this world has won, and you may feel defeated, but I'm here to tell you this morning that your heart is desperately wicked. It's deceiving you. But God is your victory. Live in joy, live in peace, beloved. The manifold glorious promises of God all find their yes in Jesus Christ. For this is why we utter our amen to God for his glory, for what he's done in Christ. that he would pour out his blessings on us. But God, and it is in Christ, here is the key. Here is the key. It is in Christ. It is for his glory. His is the victory. But if it is his the victory, it is our victory for those who are in him. His beloved saints, his beloved bride, his beloved branch, his beloved building, his beloved body. Who are all those for? It's us, beloved. It's the church. We are his building, his body, his branch, and his bride, the church. So it is your victory, and it is assured on his earnings. Turn with me to the book of Romans. It's just a few chapters over. The book of Romans, chapter eight. Beginning in verse 32. Familiar words this morning. Let's go back to verse 29. I looked at the clock and it said one o'clock and I thought I've done you really wrong this morning. But God, right? It's all in the work of God. His election before the foundation of the world to place you in Christ. His bringing of Jesus Christ at the perfect time to pay for your sins, Ephesians 1, 7, right? The blood of his cross. and then for His working and power in the Holy Spirit to move us. As the gospel came to us, the Spirit worked in the words of the Holy Spirit, worked in the words of the gospel. We understood who God was and who we are as sinners and we saw our need in Jesus Christ. Our hearts were converted and we were changed. We were able to respond in repentance and it's that repentance, it's in that life that we live. It's in that grace that we live. It's in what God has done. And we can live in victory. We don't have to live in the corner of our closet. We can live in total victory over this world. Don't let this world drag you down. It is so good at that. When you see the things, just stop and tell yourself time and time again, but God. You know, the divorce rate is up, but God. The murder rate is up, but God. So and so won the election. That can't be good, but God. Right? His promises prevail over all of what we see. Sometimes just close your eyes and say to yourself, but God, remind yourself of these promises beginning in verse 29, Romans chapter eight. For those whom he foreknow, he's predestined them to be made like his son, to be made in the image of his son, in order that he may be firstborn among many brethrens. And to those whom he predestined, he called them. He's faithful, these are all in the past tense. And those whom he called, he's justified, right? In the blood of his son, Jesus Christ. Those dead people that he called out of the grave, this is the but God, this is what he's doing. He called me out of the grave and he justified me in the works of his son, his righteous works were imputed to me and my sin was imputed to him. And because I'm justified, I will also be glorified. And I'm in that part of my life. The Lord Jesus Christ has come in and he's converted who I am. God's done that work. I'm no longer spiritually dead. I will physically die short of the Lord coming back, but it doesn't matter. The promise is not any less because this is God's doing. So the answer to this begins in verse 30 then. What can we say? Can we say the things of this world are greater? No. Can we say that there's promises that can take away the promises of God? No. If God is for us, who can ever be against us? He who did not spare his own son but gave him up for us all, how will God also graciously give everything that he's promised? Who can bring any charge against us? Beloved, here's where the world works in the life of the believer. They wanna kneecap you. They want you quiet in fear. But that's not what God wants for you. When you see that, when you sense that, when that wave rolls over you, look in the mirror, look in your phone and turn the camera around, take a selfie, put it on Facebook and say, but God, but God made all these promises. But God made all these promises. Who can bring any charge against God's elect? It's God who justifies us. Who can condemn us? Christ Jesus died for us. More than that, he was raised from the dead, who's at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding. Listen, there's nothing more beautiful than the truth that Christ is indeed interceding for us. And one day, we've already spiritually been raised to the right hand of power in Christ, in the heavenlies. Did you read that in chapter two? raised us to the heavenlies, just like he did his son Jesus. But now we are spiritually there beside Christ, holding his hand. Can you see him now? Can you see it in the vision of your mind's eye? Christ bowed there at the right hand of the father, interceding for my behalf, for the believer's behalf, for the church's behalf. Him in power praying for you. How can these things be not true? How can you not live the life he's called you to live if these things are true? Verse 34, who is to condemn? Christ Jesus, the one who died. More than that, who was raised and is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation or distress or persecution, listen, those things are promised. The greater you stand for the cause of Christ, the greater these things are gonna come upon you. So persecution or distress or famine or nakedness or danger or sword, as it is written, for your sake, we're killed all the day long, we're really, from this world's perspective, regarded as sheep to be slaughtered. No, in all these things, we are more than conquerors through him who loved us, for I'm sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, no rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all of creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. But God. Beloved, it's, It's that word conquers there that rules in my heart. Not only have we won the victory over death, but we're called to win the victory because he's making a kingdom of priests, a royal priesthood out of us. We are the kingdom that has come on earth. Take heart, take dominion, I say. Take all that the Lord Jesus Christ has conquered on your half. Don't be fearful. The victory is ours. Live as such, plan as such. this victory. Let's, as a church, Park Bible Baptist Church, live in this victory. Let's, as a people of Pennsville, New Jersey, live in this victory. Let's live in such a way that we affect everything that we see around us. If people look at those people over at Park Bible Baptist Church and they go, what's going on over there? Those people act like they've heard some promise that's greater than any we've ever heard. Let's live like that. Let's plan like that. Let's take on big projects for the Lord like that. Let's bring glory to the name of Jesus Christ because we can't be stopped. It's his victory, the promises have been made, and we are his people, but God. Every time fear comes, just say it. Selfie, but God. Put it on Facebook. To his glory. Gracious heavenly Father, we come to a close this morning. We see the goodness. Oh, we see the goodness. I don't want to think of myself as that dead person, but I was. I don't want to think about myself, knowing what I know about your wrath today, ever being in the line of that fire, but I was. As commensurable as those things are, what is greater is that you pulled me as a brand from the burning. Father, if there's one person here this morning, if there is one who has not turned to Christ in forgiveness of sins this morning, I pray that you work in their heart. Help them to know, as good as they are, that their sins have condemned them. And as good as, as condemned as they are before you, that your grace can save them in Jesus Christ. That's the great hope of the message of the gospel. that you will save us in Jesus Christ. Father, let us be people of that victory as we go from this place this day. Strengthen us in the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Now, as we come to our time,