Good morning. Ephesians chapter 5. So we continue in our study of this important chapter. Just a little refresher here. I'm going to read starting at verse 5. Then we'll pray and then we'll get into it. So, for you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure, or who is covetous, that is an idolater, has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. Therefore, do not become partakers with them. For at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. walk as children of light, for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true, and try to discern what's pleasing to the Lord. Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them, for it is shameful even to speak of the things that they do in secret, but when anything is exposed by the light, it becomes visible. For anything that becomes visible is light. Therefore, it says, awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you. All right, well, we'll stop right there, and then we'll come back up to starting in, well, especially, we're especially going to spend time today on verses nine and 10. and ten, the fruit of the light, and trying to discern what is pleasing then to the Lord. So let's pray. Father, we thank you for your word. We pray that you would enable us now to understand the truths that we have put before us here, that we would, as Paul says, Work now to discern what is pleasing to you. And we thank you for this great salvation you've given us in Christ. We pray now that we would, by studying your word with the help of your spirit, we would grow further and further in Christ to bring more glory to you. And we pray this in Christ's name. Amen. All right then. I just wanted to comment, make a couple of comments here first on verses five and six. We've talked about these, but it's so important to emphasize these things. These are absolute, this is like black and white, okay? Verse five, you can be sure of this. Everybody that's walking in sin, characterized by it, immoral, impure, covetous, and so forth, has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. In other words, they're not saved. And Paul goes on, let no one deceive you. Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. I'm finding, and this is probably nothing that you don't know, but even among people who might even claim to be Christians, certainly they claim to be moral and they claim to be conservative in their views and so on. They inevitably, they're not genuine Christians, inevitably they want to do an end run around what Paul is saying here. They don't like the certainty of it. They don't like being told, even when they're being told from God's word itself, they don't like to be told that, look, if a person is such and such and such, then they are not a Christian. They don't like that, and they don't like the positive side of it. Say, if a person is really a Christian, if they've really been born again, these things are going to be true of them. And they don't like that certainty. And the reason they don't is because they're not Christians themselves. A lot of people that claim to be Christians, but they don't. But this certainty is all over the Bible, right? It's all over the place. This is just one example. Now, for us, we who know the Lord, that we really are Christians, then Paul's warning us, Don't listen to this stuff. Don't be deceived by it. You can be certain of this. The wrath of God comes upon people who are walking in sin. They have no part in the kingdom of Christ. In other words, they're not going to end in heaven. They're going to end in hell. So don't partner up with them. Verse 7. Don't become partners with them. That means not only don't do the things that they're doing, don't live like they are living, but don't embrace their mindset. Don't think like them, all right? They are not light. They are darkness. So he gets in, in verse 8, he gets into this subject. At one time, you were darkness. They are darkness. But you aren't. If you're a Christian, you were like them. You were darkness. But now, the very essence of who you are is radically changed. Literally, the difference between black and white, light and darkness, right? You are light in the Lord. So be who you are. walk as children of light. And so then in verse 9, he adds, they put in parentheses here, and it's kind of a parenthetical statement of explanation. He says, lookit, Walk as children of light. This is who you are now. Now, the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true. So, those are some things we want to look at. He brings in the concept of fruit. and fruit-bearing. You'll see it down here in verse 11. Again, take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, then, you see. So, now, anyway, so don't be deceived. You know, this stuff is all around us, and I suppose you might say it's especially in the visible local churches. People are being taught this stuff that, well, basically what they're saying is you can be a Christian and on your way to heaven and still live like the world. Okay, you can still do that. Or, you know, you can be a genuine Christian and these positive fruits of the spirit. They might not be found in you, but, and see, so people in the churches, for example, are not being challenged by their pastors. They're not being challenged from the pulpit to examine themselves. And so as a result then, you see, they're being deceived. And so don't you be deceived. And so he gives us another fact here. about the light, about Christians. Of course, the light is Christ, and we have become light in Him when He saves us. And that light, being in the light, means there's going to be some fruit bearing. And that fruit is good, right? The fruit of the light is found, is found in all that is good and right and true. So let's talk some more. We'll get to the fruit here a little bit more. Let's talk some more about this matter of the light. Children of the light. When we're born again, we become light. You might say the lights go on. We were darkness. In what way? Well, of course, we belonged to the kingdom of darkness before Christ saved us, before we were regenerated. And now we are in the kingdom of light. But also, when you're in the kingdom of darkness, when you're still dead in your sin, there is darkness in your mind, right? So that you cannot understand God. You can't understand his truth. You can't know him. And so what we would expect then is when a person is born again and the lights come on, First and foremost, that light is going to evidence itself in the person's mind. What was it? Was it back in chapter 4 where we saw this? Let me see if I can find it here. Let's see. Yeah, here it is. Here it is. Verse 17 of chapter 4. Now I say this and testify in the Lord that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do. That is, loving the world, covetousness. character, you must not be living like the world, like the unsaved man, the Gentiles, because that's not who you are anymore. And notice where the sin, the darkness, notice where it begins in the non-Christian, right? It's in the futility of their mind. The emptiness of their mind. The lights are not on in verse 18. They're darkened in their understanding. Understanding of what? Their understanding of God and of his truth, of his word. They're blind to it, alienated from the life of God. Why? Well, because of this darkness, which results in this ignorance that's in them. And it's willful. It's due to their hardness of heart. And so they give themselves up to sensuality, greedy practice, and so on. All right? So he's talking about pretty much some of the very same things right here. when he's talking about us being at one time darkness, this darkness. And so you would expect then, when a person is saved, that it's like a light bulb comes on in their mind. the lights come on they're able to see the ignorance is dispelled then you see and the person has a knowledge that was not only wasn't there before but which couldn't be there because there was only darkness there then. So now this is not This light is not just a knowledge about God. I mean, it entails that. But it's more than that. It is a knowledge of God himself, right? So when Jesus prayed his high priestly prayer back in John 17, he prayed for his elect that they might know you. He's praying to the Father that they might know you. to know God. When we're born again and the darkness and blindness is dispelled and the light comes on, we have the ability then to know God Himself then, you see, and to then be in that loving relationship with Him. The unsaved person can't do that. They can talk all that they want about, oh, I believe in God, but they don't know him. Right? They don't, they don't know. And that knowing has more, that knowing has to do with what? Being a friend of God, having him, loving him and having him, him love you. It's, um, it, it's the difference between you saying, well, Oh yeah, I know that person. Somebody's talking about them. Oh yeah, I know that person. But really what you mean is you know about them, you have a knowledge that they exist, you know what their face looks like and these kinds of things. But it's vastly different than when you are in a real friendship, relationship with the person and that you You know them and they know you. And that's the difference then. Here's a little paragraph from Lloyd-Jones. Non-Christians lack this. They have minds. They have intellects. If you present them with a political situation, they can understand it and can reason about it. They can take it in. And they can do the same with poetry and music, sociology, science, and a thousand and one other subjects. But when you bring them to the realm of spiritual truth, they have no faculty which enables them to understand. They see nothing in it. It's foolishness to them. It is all a lot of nonsense. They dismiss it with a wave of the hand. There are many such people. And they are given great prominence on radio programs and television, but have you noticed their ignorance of spiritual truth? Have you noticed their complete failure to think spiritually? They can't help it, of course. They're blind. They're lacking in the faculty. They're not light in the Lord, they're darkness. They are afflicted by this ignorance. Their foolish hearts are darkened and their minds are blinded by the God of this world. And so you see this when you begin to, and you can be talking to people who claim to be Christians. But then you bring up a subject, some spiritual truth, some truth from God's word, like this. Now this would be a perfect example right here, okay? Look it. Everyone who is sexually immoral or impure or who is covetous, that is an idolater, has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. And so then you say, say you're talking to these kind of people, and you say, well you can see what this is saying, what Paul is saying here. a person who claims to be a Christian but who is walking in sin. That they're living like they always have been. They're characterized then by, darn, is not a Christian. And suddenly, even with these verses right in front of them, these kind of people will begin to sit up and they'll become sometimes even hostile to you, right? Why is that? the lights aren't on for them. They can't grasp spiritual truth, and they harden themselves then against it, right? Lloyd-Jones goes on here, he says, the moment a man becomes a Christian, the first thing that he becomes aware of is that he's got a spiritual ability now. He now possesses an understanding in the realm where formerly he was such a stranger and felt himself an outsider. He begins to have an apprehension of God, of the being of God, of the truth about God and about himself, right? And in addition, he begins to realize that he has a soul. It's only the man into whom the light has entered who really becomes concerned about his soul. Other people are not concerned about their soul at all. And that's true of so many of the people then, right, that are around this. If you are really a Christian, you've been born again, you are light in the Lord, then you probably have experienced this frustration. of bringing up subjects that are very, very plain in the Bible, all right? Very plain. It might be truths about the character of God. It might be what the Bible plainly says about justification by faith alone in Christ alone, and that Christ is the only way, truth, and life, okay? These kinds of things. And you begin to see them start to backpedal. Now, to the degree that you realize that a person is definitely not a Christian, well, you would expect that. But where it really becomes evident is in people who claim to be Christians. And that's the majority of people nowadays that claim to be Christians, when you bring these subjects up. These things, right, if you're a Christian, these kinds of things, these kinds of certainties, absolutes if you will, are very plain in the Bible. If a man says he loves God but hates his brother, he's in the darkness, right? He's not a Christian. He's lying. If he says he loves God but he hates his brother, he's a liar. And so, there is fruit. There is evidence, there is evidence of salvation when a person is truly then born again. But you can see this. So this is a great evidence that a person is not saved. when they begin to backpedal on these things and oppose you in regard to these things. And you can bring up many other subjects. I remember one time, I probably mentioned this before, but in our first church in Montana, There was a man there who was a member of the church, claimed to be a Christian. He was on the church board. And I had very recently stumbled across R.C. Sprouls. teaching materials, and I had gotten him a little tape, a cassette tape of his message on, really well known, on the holiness of God, right? And in the course of, so I played that tape for the class, and then we're having some discussion about it, and I asked them, so just how holy How perfect does a person need to be to be acceptable to God, right? And it was quiet, right? Nobody was saying anything. And so I said, well, let me answer the question. 100%. God requires perfection. He requires perfect holiness. He requires perfect sinlessness. And you can see this guy begin to squirm and have this odd look on his face. And he said, well, that can't be. That can't be. Nobody would could make it to heaven then. No, no, that just can't be true. So you see, here he is, here's a guy claiming to be a Christian, supposed leader in the church, but the fact that he's unsaved becomes very evident. Why? His mind is darkness. He has no capacity to understand God's truth, and he doesn't like it, then, when he hears it. He later ran off with another guy's wife, and that whole story there, you know, and so on, as those situations usually usually turn out. So this is what happened. These are the things that always happen. A person, their mind comes out of the darkness then and into the light. And another thing that happens when we're born again then and we become light instead of darkness is that we understand, we begin to understand sin. Our sin. and how ugly sin is, and what a mess this fallen world then is in. You know, here again, the fake Christian, right, the counterfeit, will take objection, oh, you know, God understands we're all sinners, and their whole effort is to try to minimize sin. But this, again, just shows the darkness then that is in them. When we're saved, we begin to realize how we've trespassed against God, that we are born into this world ungodly. unrighteous, sinners, enemies of God. And you see, if you backpedal on the nature of sin, if you minimize sin, you necessarily then minimize any understanding of the love of God. Because it was while we were still in that state, while we were still enemies of God, that he sent Christ then to come and die for us. So all of these things are the non-Christian, the unsaved person, they don't grasp and they don't worry about. They suppress them. They suppress these kinds of things. And as a result, then, the person that's still in the darkness cannot grasp the true way of salvation, right? He can't get it. You know, you think about it. The gospel is pretty simple. It's profound, but it's pretty simple. Here's the deal. Man is a sinner, dead in his sin, unable to take the slightest step toward God, and he doesn't even want to, okay? All right, he's headed for hell. Christ came into this world and paid the price on the cross for his people. And our sins were credited to his account. And we're saved by placing our trust in Christ and in nothing else, not in ourselves, not in our work, but only in Christ and then when we turn in repentance and faith in Christ, he regenerates us, and so on, all right? So those are profound things, but they're not that difficult to have explained. And yet, the man who's still dead in his sin has no capacity. He'll run right back to salvation by works, or worse, or just blow it off. Now there's another thing that happens when the lights come on, okay? At one time you were darkness, but now you're light in the Lord. Walk as children of light. What else happens? My will, my desires, my affections, the objects that my love is set upon, all changes. I'm given a new heart. And so that I used to love the world and the things in it, but now I love the Lord. I used to hate him. But now I love him then, you see. And so then, so what's happening? What's the overall picture here? Well, it's this. In Eden, things went wrong, right? Things went wrong. Adam and Eve sinned. The Bible opens with Adam and Eve being in a natural condition. That is, before the fall, they were what man was supposed to be by nature as God created him. But after the fall, once Adam sinned, man was unnatural, all right? It's not natural for man to hate his Creator. It's not natural for man to hate God's law and disobey God's law and sin. It's not natural for people to kill each other or nations to go to war with each other. These things are not natural if we define natural as nature was originally created. We have never lived a second in a world that is as it should be, right? We live in the middle of everything gone wrong, everything gone wrong. Well, what happens then, in a way begins to happen, but what happens then when a person is saved, when they become light instead of darkness, then they begin to function naturally again. That is, according to the nature that God created man in. So he begins to love his neighbor. He loves his creator and gives him thanks, then, you see. He's humble. So God in Christ is putting things right again. I've got another paragraph here in Lloyd-Jones here, Exposition of Ephesians 4 and 5, published by Banner of Truth here. Listen to this section. Man begins to function as he was meant to do, when the lights come on. That's what the subject is here. The business of a fruit tree is to produce fruit. That's the natural order. But how often do we think of the Christian in these terms? On the other hand, non-Christians are unnatural. They're monstrosities. They are a denial of the true being of man. It's Christianity alone that makes us men worthy of the name. Again, there's never anything artificial or mechanical or machine-like about the life of the Christian. Now, this I really want to emphasize here. This is really important. I'm starting to realize more and more how much unsaved people, but especially, especially counterfeit Christians, hate the doctrine of the new birth. They hate it. They hate this truth, you must be born again. And they hate certainties. They hate the idea that if you're a Christian, this is what he'll talk about here, if you're a Christian, you're going to bear fruit like a good tree bears fruit. And if you bear bad fruit, You're not a Christian, you're a bad tree. Listen to this some more. There's never anything artificial or mechanical or machine-like about the life of the Christian. The life of the Christian is rather reminiscent of the way fruit grows on a tree. The Christian should never give the appearance of being machine-like or machine-produced. Now what he means by that is giving the appearance or having the idea that Christianity is about things that I do myself. I do, or that is being demanded of me. These works, works because, works that are not fruit born out of a heart that's been born again, but rather works that I set out to do in my own strength, okay? Christians cannot be produced to order, neither can their life or activities and actions. This is of tremendous importance. It's here that we see the real difference between Christian living on the one hand, and the kind of conduct and behavior that characterizes the devotees of the cults and false religions and counterfeit Christianity. These latter are always machine-made. They're produced to order. You know, somebody is saying, all right, now this is what you have to do. This is what you have to do. This is what you have to do. And so they do it, you see. There, what a fine Christian then I am. The life of the Christian should never give the impression that he has imposed a certain number of things upon himself. His life is comparable to a tree. whereas the life of the false religions resemble a Christmas tree. In the case of the Christmas tree, you have to hang the fruit on it and the gifts and the presents. It's an artificial tree. But the characteristic of the real tree is that the fruit grows out of it. You don't have to hang it onto the branches. So the Christian, in his manner of life, should never give the impression that he's imposed upon himself a certain line of conduct and of behavior. And we want to give a lot of thought to that. And this is why a counterfeit fake Christian who has convinced himself that he is just a fine Christian. I mean, it just goes without saying, I'm on my way to heaven. Absolutely. I'm a Christian. I'm saved. But where is he getting his assurance from? Well, it's from the plastic fruit that he's been hanging on his own life, right? It's not emanating from a heart that now loves God and from a mind that the lights have come on and he understands the truths of God's Word and so therefore, and this is what we're going to get to in verse 10, therefore he tries to discern what is pleasing to the Lord. Why does the real Christian do what he does and not do what the darkness does. Why? Because he wants to please the Lord. Why does he want to please the Lord? Because he's been born again. The Lord is his father now. He is God's child. He understands what Christ has done for him. dying for him while he was still an enemy against God. Christ died for him. He understands him. He loves God, and he knows that God loves him, so he wants to please the Lord, and that's what is motivated, not some external source like Okay, your church is telling everybody, this is what a Christian does. This is what a Christian doesn't do. And they're, okay, all right, then I better do those things, and I better not do these things over here. Or, It's, well, you know, I don't want to have a guilty conscience and I don't want God to be mad at me as such and so, okay, well, I'll do this. I don't really want to do this stuff, but this is what I really want to do over here, but I won't, okay, I won't do that. I'll do this over here. That's plastic fruit, you see. It's not natural fruit. Natural fruit loves to find it. That's why we study God. That's why we're doing what we're doing right now with the right motive. See, you can even study the Bible and boast about it and say, okay, and you can learn all kinds of facts from the Bible and so forth and talk about doctrine and everything, but you can do it all for the wrong motive. Not because you're trying to find out what pleases the Lord because you love him and he loves you, but you're doing it for yourself. I don't want to go to hell, or, well, other people expect that of me, so, okay, I'll do this. And besides, you know, by doing all of this stuff, I can be pretty highly thought of in my church. You know, this kind of a thing happens all the time. in children that are being raised up in the church. It happens all the time. So what is a thing that happens? Maybe you're in, let's say you're in, okay, you're in a conservative Bible-believing church, and where the Bible is believed, Bible study is regarded as important, expository Bible sermons are expected, and so on. And so the children from the earliest ages, are taught to memorize Bible verses. And they're taught to, and they're rewarded for it. Can you remember going to vacation Bible school and you were told, if you learn the books of the Bible, and you recite the books of the Bible, then you're gonna get this reward here, this prize, some toy or something. or whoever brings the most guests to Vacation Bible School, then they're gonna get this prize and everything, and you look at that, and you, of course, I can remember that happening with me, and I was all the time, to me, memorizing the books of the Bible seemed like an, what's the word, undauntable, a daunting task, you know? And then the, And then the idea of inviting people to come or whatever, that was beyond me. But the idea of getting a reward like that, wow, that was really something. Now, is it wrong to teach and encourage children to memorize the books of the Bible or Bible verses? Of course not. But you'd better be teaching them why. See, that's what's missed so often. Why are we memorizing Bible verses? So that we can know Jesus better, that we can know the Lord Jesus, and we want to learn what is pleasing to Him. because he loves us. He sent his son to die on the cross for us. He loves us and we love him. We know him, right? And so we want to please him. And it pleases him when we study the Bible and when we memorize verses from it and so forth, you see. But this is the difference. This is the difference between the good moral person who isn't a Christian. But, you know, oftentimes people will say, oh, come on, aren't there, there's certainly, not everybody's bad, there's good people in this world. Well, that's why Ephesians 5.10 is an extremely important verse. It's extremely important because this is where, this is the answer to these kinds of questions. This is one. Aren't there lots of good people in the world who aren't Christians? Come on, you need to cut them some slack. What's all this stuff about God's wrath being on everybody and so on? And remember, when I say those kinds of things and use those kinds of examples, I'm primarily thinking of people that claim to be Christians. You don't have to go outside the visible church to find lots of people who will take, I don't know, God's wrath is on them. I'm not so sure about that. That's kind of overstating the case. But look at the so-called good moral person in the world, but they're not a Christian, is not good, neither are they moral. Why? Because they're not doing it to please the Lord. They're doing it to please themselves. They're doing it to look big in the eyes of other people. They're doing it to tell God himself, look how good I am. I've done all these things. But the Christian, the real deal, the real Christian, been born again, the lights have come on, delights in trying to learn more and more about what is pleasing to the Lord. And so there is the difference, you see. Oh yeah, that's a good example. Verla said, you know, it's like the Pharisees, everybody thought, oh wow, look at how fine Christians they are, right? What fine Christians they are. But that was just an appearance. They cleaned the outside of the cup. It was all external, their so-called good works and so on. But the inside of the cup, Their heart was what? How's it go? Greed and selfishness. Okay. It's just full of wickedness and stinking, stinking sin. And there, there is, that's the difference. Yeah. That's a perfect, that's a perfect illustration you see. So, um, so don't fall for that. The person that rejects Christ, And when I say rejects Christ, I mean, they might even say, oh, I believe Christ was a great teacher and oh yeah, Christ was really a good man and so forth. Well, they're wicked because they're rejecting what God's word says. But they can go, people can talk lots about God, about, how wonderful God is, and oh, I believe in God, and they can even talk about Jesus. But they're not good people. They're not even moral people because Everything they say, well I put it this way, nothing they say, nothing they do emanates from a true desire to please the Lord because they love Him. And that then is the difference. Now do you see also here that this necessarily demands that we conclude that a real Christian, that is the person who's really been born again through faith in Christ and is a new creation, who is light now instead of darkness, right? Who now loves the Lord. who is now striving to discern and understand what is pleasing to the Lord, so that he might please the Lord more and more. That kind of a radical transformation in a person is going to evidence itself You're gonna see it. The light is visible, okay? The light is visible. It's there, you can see it. And yet, so many of the local churches today are teaching people, oh yeah, you guys are saved. There's no light there. You don't see them having a zeal to be saved. to learn more about how they can please the Lord because they love Him, you don't see it. What do you see? What do you see? Well, you might see some variations here. Some people might put on a better show and so forth for the externals cleaning the outside of the cup. But what is so typical is, here's say a professing Christian. And yet, they're just careless. Careless, without care, right? In regard to what we would call the means of grace that God's given. You know, when we talk about the means of grace that God has given us for growth, it's things like remembering the Lord's day, fellowshipping with God's people, prayer, the study of God's word and giving yourself to that, okay? Those kinds of things. And so here's this person that claims to be a Christian, but in regard to the, they're careless about these things. Well, is so-and-so in church this week? I don't think so. And it's like, you know, myself as a pastor, I'm like, because there's always been these kinds of people, you see them, they claim to be a Christian, but you see them being careless. careless about the means of grace and so on. You just don't see much fruit. And so it's like, come on, you need to be in church. Come on, you need to be studying your Bible. Come on, you need to be doing this. And you know, after all these years of being a pastor, here's the conclusion I've come to. I don't I am not responsible for being constantly having to be the spark plug that makes people's Christian engine run. If they're Christians, they are going to love God's Word. They're going to be working at discerning what's pleasing to the Lord. They're going to be bearing fruit. If they aren't, all I have to say to them is, you need to examine yourself to see whether you're born again, you see. And it's kind of like, well, come on, we need, come on, so and so, you know, they're kind of lagging here, we need to get over there. But when I And sure, we are to encourage one another. A real Christian can falter here and there. But I'm talking about, this is characteristic of people. It's just character all the time. Years go by, you see no change in them. No change then at all. And so those are the kind of people where it's like, you know, if you're really born again, I shouldn't have to be constantly pushing you and pushing you and pushing you. If you're born again, the lights will have come on in your mind. You're going to love the Lord. You're going to want to please Him. And you don't need to be pressured into it. So I do my part. I preach and teach God's Word, right? Here it is. And it's like if you're a Christian, you're going to hunger and thirst for God's Word. You're going to love God's Word. You're going to give yourself to it. And you're going to grow in Christ. If you don't, then I don't want you coming to church just because, well, boy, I better go, you know, the pastor's gonna be on my case, or I better go to church because, or I better go to the Bible study because, if that's where your experience as a supposed Christian leaves off, then you're not a Christian. You're not born again then, you see. Well, we're going to talk next time some more about this verse 10, because it's so important. Trying to discern what is pleasing to the Lord, and he goes on in, let's see, oh, And we also tied in with that, right? We want to talk about some more, the three fruits here, you might say, that are mentioned in verse nine. What does it mean, the fruit of the light is found in all that is good, right, and true? It's easy for us to blast by terms like that, assuming that we understand what they are. But what does Paul mean when he says, goodness and righteousness and truth will blossom in the Christian's life? What did those three things look like? And we'll turn to that next time. Father, we thank you for your word so that we can learn what is pleasing to you. We pray, Father, that you would impress these things upon us and that We would grow in Christ and love you more and more, understanding more and more about how much you have loved us in sending your son to die for us. And we give you thanks for all this in Christ's name. Amen.