Dear Heavenly Father, we'd ask for your blessing upon the study of the Word tonight, dear Lord. Dear Heavenly Father, we would ask for the Holy Spirit, dear Lord, to open our eyes, to open our minds, to illuminate us, dear Heavenly Father. And we thank you that we can call you Father. We'd ask your blessing upon the Word, dear Lord. We pray that Jesus Christ will be glorified here tonight, dear Lord. We'd ask the Heavenly Father for you to open up the windows of heaven, dear Lord, and to bless your children. We'd ask your blessing upon the Word, in Jesus' precious name. Amen. Turn to Romans, chapter 6, verse 2. Tonight's message is, Died. Well, I'll start with verse 1 from last week. What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not. How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? Sometimes we run across absolutely essential verses in our lives. Sometimes these are verses to us personally. They speak to us more powerfully than other verses. We have specific verses the Holy Spirit has used in our lives at various times, times of trial, times of growth, times of blessings. There are also verses that are absolutely necessary for our understanding of Bible doctrine, of biblical doctrine. The verse before us today is such a verse, absolutely essential. Romans 6-2 is Paul's main argument in this chapter. In verse 1, Paul has raised an objection to his doctrine, asking the question that would have been asked of him often. Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? God forbid. By no means. Kalila was his answer. Profane. Cursed. Don't even let the thought enter your mind. That is his position in a nutshell. Shall we continue in sin so that grace may abound? God forbid. Now he's going to explain why he says God forbid. Paul repeats the idea of having died to sin in verses 3 to 8. As we've just seen in verse 2, that we have died to sin. Verse 3, look with me in verse 3. Verses 3 to 8, Paul is going to cover that idea of having died to sin. Verse 3, all of us who were baptized into Christ, baptized into his death. Verse 4, buried with him through baptism into his death. Verse 5, united with him like this in his death. Verse 6, crucified with him. Verse 7, has died, has been freed from sin. Verse 8, we died with Christ. By the end of verse 10, Paul has explained his doctrine. Look at verse 10. For the death that he died, he died to sin once for all, but the life he lives, he lives to God. You see why the messages died? The word is there quite often. Next, Paul is going to use his practical application in verse 11, count yourself as dead. This application will continue through verse 14. Then in verse 15, Paul begins to do the same thing all over again. From verse 15 on to the end of the chapter is a repeat of what he said 1 to 14, but in another image, using the image of slavery. The main thought of Romans 6 is death to sin. Our understanding, therefore, of verse 2, we died to sin, is critical, absolutely critical to understanding this chapter. But of even more importance than this is the fact that this is the first section in the book of Romans to talk about the Christian life. You always hear about the Christian life. How are we to live a life of holiness that is pleasing to God? They have the seminars and everything. Everybody wants to know how to live the Christian life. If Romans 6 is the key to understanding this section, Romans 6 too is the key to understanding the doctrine of sanctification. You hear that word all the time. Sanctification. Sanctification. To understand this statement is to understand how to live a holy life. Most of us live unholy lives because we do not understand what the key to sanctification is. It is the most important verse before us today. This verse before us today is the most important verse in the Bible for believers in the church today. The church in America is absolutely unholy, absolutely wicked in its practices. It's no different than the pagans around. This verse is the most important verse on sanctification for the church today. Yet it is not an easy verse to understand. Let us first look at a few wrong or inadequate explanations. Let me step on a couple feet today. Let's look at the key words. Romans 6, 2. How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? We died to sin. What does it mean? Before we do, though, look at the word we. It's a relative pronoun. It means we who are of this sort. We, we that died to sin. We who are now in Christ, as Joel mentioned about in him. We, the we is who is in Christ as opposed to who is in Adam, where we see it in chapter 5. You must remember our uniqueness now. Your life has changed now. Our special position now, you have a special position now. Now you are a son of God. Most Christians do not realize who and what they are. This is why Paul emphasizes we. Look back in Romans 5 with me. Let me show you the we's. Look at Romans 5, 1. We have peace with God. 5, 2. We have access. Verse 3. We also glory. Verse 10. We shall be saved from wrath. Verse 11. We have now received the reconciliation or atonement. See the we? The we being what we are makes the question of verse 1 of chapter 6 unthinkable. That's why you should not continue in sin. Because you are of the we now. As opposed to you were of the them before. Alright? Go back to Romans 1. Your condition, your relationship has changed. You're of the we now. We glory. We have access. We have peace. We have been reconciled. We have the atonement. All has taken place already. Before this was your condition, go back to Romans 1. Look with me at verses 19, 20, 21, 22, 24, 26, 27, 32. I'm just going to show you the them and the theys. You are not them and they no more. You are we. Look at verse 19. Your relationship is different. Because what may be known of God is manifest in them. I'm just going to show you the pronouns quickly through them verses. I'm not going to read every verse. Verse 19. In them. God has shown it to them. Verse 21. They did not glorify him. became fuel in their thoughts, their foolish hearts were darkened. Verse 22, they became fools. Verse 24, also God gave them up to uncleanness, dishonored their bodies among themselves. Verse 26, gave them up. Verse 27, receiving in themselves. Verse 28, God gave them over. Verse 32. Approval of those who practice them. See? That was your condition. You was a them-they. All right? You're not a them and a they no more. You're a we now. See? Your relationship has changed. Romans 1 showed the guilt of the Gentile. And if there's any Jews here, he showed the guilt of the Jew in chapter 2. The they and thems in chapter 2. You're not them no more. You see the word? We who died to sin. We're not they and them no more. We are the we now. The second thing, this is so important. Go back to chapter six, verse two. How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? The second thing to keep in mind is the tense of the verb died. the tense of the word we have died. The verb died. It is in an aorist tense. For my brothers that know Greek here, the aorist tense means that it refers to a single action that has taken place in and been completed in the past, never to be repeated again. It has been completed in the past. You died in the past. And it will never, ever be completed again. That's what the Abba's Testament is. Is that correct, James? It's been completed in the past, never to be repeated again. You're going to see how important this is as we go along. Since a number of people read the verse as if died was in a different tense. This is where you get all the false doctrine from. People read the word died in a different tense. It's in the Aorist tense. An action completed in the past will never be completed, never to happen again. No matter how much you want it to happen and no matter how many people tell you. People use that word died there in 6.2, such as the present tense. We are dying to sin. It doesn't say we're dying to sin. It says you have died to sin. That is not present, that is past. Or people, we are dying to sin. Or they use it as a past imperfect tense, we have died and we're continuing to die. We're not continuing to die, you died. You go to the cemetery, the people there are dead. They are not continuing to die, they are dead. You are dead to sin. Or people use the future tense, we shall die to sin. They use the present tense, the past imperfect tense, or the future tense, whereas the tense is aorist tense, never to be repeated again. It's a finished past action. We died to sin. Since this is so critical to live in a holy life, it's so critical to live in a holy life because whatever tends to destroy a sense of the divine favor, Whatever tends to destroy a sense of the divine favor is not a friend of holiness. If you destroy the divine favor of Almighty God, you are not being a friend to holiness. You are being an enemy to holiness. You're not doing God a favor. So let us eliminate some misinterpretations. Number one misinterpretation. The Christian is no longer responsive to sin. Very popular doctrine, though harmful. The argument goes like this. What is it that most characterizes a dead body? It is that its senses cease to operate. It can no longer respond to stimuli. It is argued that the one who has died to sin is unresponsive to it. Sin does not touch such a person. When temptation comes, the true believer neither feels it nor responds to it. What should we say about this? Is that true? The problem with this interpretation is that it is untrue. There is no one like this, and if you think this interpretation is true, you are deceived. The second misinterpretation is that Christians should die of sin. This is the most popular one that you hear today. that Christians should die to sin. This is the view of the Pentecostal holiness people. This is what you hear when you go to the camp meetings. Christians are urged to die to sin. They are urged to crucify the old man. Anybody ever hear that? They are told that it is the secret to a victorious Christian life. That's the secret. That's the mystery. This view is an error. Why? First, the starting point is wrong. It begins with man rather than God. Once again, we'll steal the glory from God. It is subject of, I got to die, rather than object of what God has done for me. The image is wrong. Secondly, one thing nobody can do is crucify themselves. You're not getting the last nail in yourself. So you can't crucify yourself. It's an impossibility. Above all, the tense of the verb, once again, is wrong. The tense of the verb. Paul is not saying we ought to die. What is he saying? But rather, we have died. It's in the aorist tense. It's not a present tense. When you're telling people to crucify themselves, the action has been done already. You can be as sincere as you want. There's a lot of people that are sincere that are running around saying that. You can be as sincere as you want about this. But the foundation of your belief is wrong. And God will not honor your attempts at it. It's like if every person on the planet said, this is the way of sanctification, the Bible says it is not. No matter how many titles is before the person's name, they are wrong. The Bible says you have died to sin. In the Aristotle's past action, never to be repeated. Every devil, every demon ever was could say whatever they want to change the tense, to put it in the present or the future, but it's not going to change what your Bible says. The third ever is that the Christian is dying to sin day by day. To look at the verse that way, though it touches on something true, touches on it. Satan loves to touch on the truth. Nevertheless, it's to get us away from the proper and the only effective way of dealing with sin. Once again, the tense of the verb died is again wrong. If it's day by day, in that view, died is taken as an imperfect tense, that we are dying, rather than an aorist tense that we have died. You see how important your understanding of this verb is? Your whole Christian life, you can go 20, 30, 40 years and be all out of whack. You're trying to crucify yourself, and the Bible says you have been crucified with Christ Jesus, and it's no longer you who lives, but Christ Jesus who lives in you. So, okay, because you're crucifying yourself, you think that, well, that changes the scripture? Fourth error, the Christian cannot continue in sin because he has renounced it. In this interpretation, dying to sin is, once again, something we do. Man loves always doing something. Let me get a little glory. Dying to sin is not something we do or have done, but it's something that has been done to us. God in his mercy has done it to you. He crucified you with Jesus Christ. He put you in union with Christ. You see how he gets all the glory? It's the same as our being joined to Jesus, which Paul is going to talk about in the next couple of verses in the figure of baptism. We did not join ourselves to Christ. Rather, we were where? Chapter 5. We were in Adam. And then God, by His grace, took us from that position and did what? He transferred us into the kingdom of the Son. Look at Colossians 1. Colossians 1, 12 and 13. Giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light. Verse 13, He has delivered us from the power of darkness and translated or transferred us into the kingdom of the Son of His love. He did the transfer. He transferred us in. Okay? He translated us. It was all of God. The fifth error, the Christian has died to sin's guilt. Once again, the only problem with this view is it's not far enough. It doesn't go far enough. Yes, we've died to the guilt of sin, but it doesn't go far enough. True, we have died to sin's guilt, but what is Paul dealing with in this chapter is why. Why we can no longer live in sin. If we say we've died to sin's guilt, that still doesn't answer the question why we can live no longer in sin. If all he is saying is that we're free from sin's condemnation, the question of verse 1 is still unanswered. What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace should abound? He's got to answer why. At the end of chapter 5, Paul spoke of the inevitable reign of grace. Do you remember? With sin increased, what? Grace superabounded. Now in chapter 6, we must be told why. Why is this so? Having rejected these five views, we will look at the view held by James Boyce, John Murray, John Scott, and D. Martin Lloyd-Jones. In Romans 6, there are three verses in which Paul uses the phrase, died or dead to sin. Look at verses 2. Go back to Romans 6. Verses 2, 10, and 11. Verse 2. We who died to sin. Verse 10, he died to sin. Verse 11, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin. In two of these instances, in verse 2 and verse 11, the reference is to us, to ourselves. Say, we died, we're dead. In verse 10, the reference is to Christ. It is, remember this, this has got to do with hermeneutics here. It is a sound principle of interpretation that whenever the same phrase occurs more than once in one context, it should be taken in the same way unless there are powerful reasons to the contrary. If that is so, the first question we have to ask in order to understand how we have died to sin is how Christ died to it. It said what in verse 10? For the death that he died, he died to sin once for all. How did Christ die to sin? The first answer we are inclined to give is that he died to sin by suffering its penalty. He was punished for our sin in our place, right? If that was all, we will be thinking of justification only and of our death to sin. guilt, if we just look at it that way. Let us notice two things, though. First in verse 10, it does not say what? That he died for sin, does it? It doesn't say that in any old Bible, does it? Though he did do that. He died for sin, but what does it say in the text? Though he did, but that he died to sin. Not for sin. He died to sin. The exact thing that is said of us in verse 11, look at verse 11. Likewise, reckon yourself to be dead indeed to sin. See? Do you remember Ephesians 2, 1? It says what? And you were dead in your sins and your trespasses. All right? You were in your sins and your trespasses. But now it says that we are dead to sin. You see the relationship is different. Second Paul does not say only that Christ died to sin, but as the words what in verse 10 once for all This means that as far as sin is concerned Jesus his relationship to it is finished forever his relationship to sin is finished forever and That phase of his life is past and will never be repeated. Christ is not going to suffer for sin again. Okay? He has been killed. He has died to sin. His relationship to it is different. Now we apply that understanding of death to sin to the other two instances in chapter 6, which refers to us. Right? 11 says being dead indeed to sin first to we who died to sin It refers to us. How have we died to sin in the Aristotles? Good because we all still saying that so we think like we got a contradiction how By realizing that as a result of our union with Christ in his death and our union with him in his resurrection, that old life of sin is past for us. That old life, that thing when you was a they and a them, that's past. Your relationship to sin is different now. You see? How's Christ's relationship to sin is different? Your relationship to sin is different also. You was the they and the them, but now you're the we. Your relationship to sin is different. You can never go back. You can never go back to being a they or a them. You're of the we. If you can go back to being a they or a them, you're not a we. Okay? You're a we now. See? You're a we. You're in a different camp. You're in a different sphere. Your relationship has changed. As my brother was saying, we're seated in heavenly places. Is that not correct? See, your relationship has changed. Before you was in Adam, you was of the earth, you was of the world, you was them in Romans 1. Now you're the we of Romans 5, of Romans 6 and onward. We have been brought from that old life, the end of which was death. You died into a new life, the end of which is what? Righteousness. Therefore, since this is true of us, we must embrace the fact You must embrace the fact that we're the we now. You're not the them. That it is true and that you will live for righteousness now. You have died. Your relationship to that old person has changed. Let me give an illustration that John Starr uses. Suppose there is a man named John Jones who was looking back upon his life. He's an old fella now. He looks back upon his life. His life is divided by his conversion, by his regeneration, into two parts. John, before regeneration, when he was in Romans 1, whereas he was the day and the day, and he's looking at his life after his conversion, the we. The old self and the new self. The old man and the new man. Very important. Very important what I'm going to say here. There are not two natures. A lot of people have heard about the two doggies wrestling with each other. Okay? These two forces now, the new man and the old man, wrestling with each other. That there are two natures. That's not what the text is saying. There are two halves of his life, before conversion and after conversion. that's separated by the new birth. Volume 2 is the story of the new man or the new woman. Okay? Not the old nature and then the new nature combined with the old nature. That's not what it is. It's two stories. The old man and the new man. Turn to 2 Corinthians 5. That's why people get messed up. They think there's battles going on. The old nature and the new nature fight with each other. The strongest dog is going to win. If you died to sin, that's not the strongest dog winning. 2 Corinthians 5, 17. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. All things have passed away. Behold, all things have become new, not been joined together. All things have become new. You are a new creation. Volume 2 of your life opened with your resurrection. Your old life is finished. A new life to God has begun. You must have an absolute breaking with the past. It's not, well, I'm going to hold on to the little remnants of this and this and this and this and this and bring this over. You must have an absolute breaking with your past. Where do we go from here now, Bill? Do we continue in a life of sin so that grace may increase? Paul answered that. But do we walk the path of holiness and righteousness? We're going to see later in the chapter. I don't want to get ahead of myself. You had a freedom before when you was wicked to walk in your wickedness with no restraints, except maybe losing your money or going to jail. Now in the same way, we're to walk in holiness and righteousness. By now, you should be able to see that there is no possible alternative to God's path. By now, you've got to be able to see there's no such thing as a carnal fish. You were here or you're there. You're dead or you're not. It's not kind of a limbo deal. I'm half dead. I'm walking dead. Something like that. If you truly say the life of sin is what we have died to, you have died to your relationship to sin. You don't relate to sin the same way that you did anymore. That's what the text is saying. As Jesus died to sin, his relationship to sin, we have died to sin in our relationship to sin. We don't pursue the same things we used to pursue. Our life is different now. See? There's no going back for us, any more than there could be a going back to suffering and dying for sin again by Jesus. Jesus is not going back. He's not going to suffer and die. He's not going to establish his relationship with sin again. It says he died once to sin. And it says we died to sin. He ain't going back. You're not going back. If there is no going back, if that possibility has been eliminated, then there's no direction for you to go but forward. So you've got to go forward. There's no such thing. You're never going to go back. You can't go back. It's an impossibility. You die. But we kind of stay right at the middle. We think that we can go back, where it's like, forget it, you cannot go back, you're dead, that person died. You cannot go back to that person. Some people, a right understanding of Romans 6-2 is the key, the only key to sanctification. Some people try to find the key in an intense emotional experience. Okay? Let me run out to a coliseum and have somebody throw oil on me or push me down or throw a rag on me or speak in tongues or somebody just throwing syllables around, I'll shout it up, I'll die. See, I just spoke in tongues, y'all. See? Look for an intense emotional experience that that's sanctification. If this preacher lay his hands on me or spit on me or put some oil on me or send me a letter or something, that's not the key to sanctification. Thinking that if only they can make themselves feel close to God, that'll make them holy. If I could just get closer, that'll make me holy. Others are looking for a method. Bill, give me five steps, ten steps, fifteen steps, point A, part B, section C. It's not a method. It's not an experience. They think that if they do certain things, if I follow this list of blue laws from 1 to 25, whatever church you're at, follow those bull laws or some prescribed ritual, either oil or holy water or holy oil or whatever. Some kind of a ritual that that will make you sanctified. Godliness does not come in that fashion. In fact, approaches like this is deceiving. There's a reason why people are as wicked as they are that's sitting up in the church. Godliness does not come in that fashion. In fact, approaches like this is deceiving. A holy life comes from knowing. Knowing with your brain, with your head. I stress the word knowing that you can't go back. You're to know that you are dead. Point blank. That's what the text says. that you have died to sin and been made alive to God. John Scott says a born-again Christian should no more think of going back to the old life than an adult to his childhood. Are you going to become five years old again? You just had your 50th birthday. You're not going to become five years old again. Your relationship is different. You're 50 now. You're not five. A married man cannot go back to his bachelorhood. A discharged prisoner to his prison cell. How shall we that are dead to sin live any longer in it? You died. Let me end with this illustration by Martin Lloyd-Jones. Think of two fields. A field on the left, a field on the right, and there's a road between them. The field on the left represents the dominion, the kingdom, the territory, the empire of sin and Satan. That was Romans 1. You was in that field. You was in the field of sin and shame. That is where we all were by our natural birth in Adam. That is when we were the them, the their, the they of Romans 1. You was in this field of sin, Satan, his dominion, his territory, his empire. But as a result of the work of Christ for us, and upon us through the Holy Spirit, we have been, what we just read, transferred, translated to the field on the right of the road. Field on the left, same. Got a road? Field on the right. You've been translated into the kingdom of His Son, of His love. I just showed you that in Colossians 1.13. You are now on the right. You're in the field over here. Yes, you spent a long time in the first field. And the devil is still there in that field. With all of his powers, all of his forces, all his temptations, all his demons, they're still there in the left field. This is a picture of what often happens as a Christian. I am here in the new field. Okay? You're over here, you're working in the new field now. This is what often happens to us Christians. You're over here in a new field, and Satan cannot touch me. Right? As we're told in 1 John 5, 18, the evil one toucheth him not. That's what the Bible says. You're in the field of God. He cannot touch us because we are no longer in his kingdom. He cannot touch us, but he can shout across the road at us. See? He's in his field, all the demons, temptation, sin, and everything. Here's the road, and we're in the other field working. And he's shouting, or maybe he gets close up on the field and whispers to you. All right? Come on, Billy, come on. But you no longer belong to him. He cannot touch you. The Bible says he goes about as a roaring lion. As. A roaring lion. He can yell at you. He can tempt you. He can do all these things. But he's in that field. See, that's what's so dangerous about people all the time. Ah, the devil, the enemy, the devil, the devil, the enemy. You got him hanging out in the field with you and he's over in the other field. We know that the scripture asserts our freedom as an actual fact. That's what God is telling us. You are dead to sin. But because of the old habits, this body of sin that we're going to get into in future studies, this body of sin, we will not get into it today. But because of the old habits, the old influences, we tend to forget we're in that new field. Okay? We tend to forget we're seated in heavenly places, that we've been set down here to work the field of the kingdom. All right? And then Satan speaks to us, we listen to him, and then we fall under his spell. All right? When the Bible says what? That we should resist him, and he will flee. But once again, we fail to realize it. We don't know it, we don't count it as true, we fall under his spell as he's over in the other field. The whole object of chapter 6 is to get us to realize that we're dead to sin. You have died to your relationship to sin. You cannot enjoy sin the way you used to enjoy it. You don't have to give in to those temptations anymore. But Satan says, come on, man, you've been playing with this sin for 20 years, man. You know, man, you a slave to me. I own you. You're never going to break loose from this sin. I absolutely own you. And God says in your Bible that you died to sin. But you go by your feelings, you go by this, you go by that, what this guy said, that guy said, and then you go right into your sin once again. And God says, you're in this field son, daughter, you don't have to act this way any longer. You died in your relationship to sin, but you keep on listening to that voice. The Bible says you have to count yourself to be dead to sin. Dead to sin. Once again, you see why the message is called bad? You are to count yourself as being dead to sin. Maybe you say, it's not true yet, perhaps in your experience. You're not counting yourself to be dead in the life of God. It is not true yet, perhaps in your experience. Notice I said, in your experience. Perhaps it's not true yet. But though it is not yet true in your experience, it is true as a matter of fact. See, you might not have it true in your experience, but the Bible says it's true in spite of what you say. You just haven't experienced that truth yet. It is true, and it's a matter of fact, and it's an historical fact. But you have got to believe it. The Bible says you died to sin. That is an historical fact. But you say, no, I haven't. And Satan says, you wait. Come on with me. Come right with me. Where God says, no, you die too soon. It's an historical fact. It's true of you. You have been translated. Did it say in Colossians that it has happened? You have been translated. That's a fast action. That you're going to be translated. It says you have been translated from the field of sin, death, and hell. See? Sin, death, and hell. You're not going to taste death eternally. You're not going to hell. You've been delivered from that field. Satan, sin, death, hell. And you've been transferred to the field of what? Superabounding grace. Eternal life. Heaven. You're to count it as true. You're to know it and you're to believe it. That's the only key to sanctification. The key to sanctification is to know it, to believe it, and to count it as true. There's no secret mysteries, there's no secret seminars, there's no secret thing God's doing in the backyard or in the front yard or at some convention or anything. For 2,000 years it's been the same. You have died to sin. And the air is tense. An action completed in the past, never ever to be repeated again. And no matter how sincere somebody is in their pleadings, saying, Oh, make Christ Lord once for all. He is Lord of all, always. You don't make him Lord. He is Lord. Okay. Crucify yourself. I'm dying daily. I hear it all the time. Oh, I'm crucifying myself, brother. Like you're dead, what do you crucify yourself for? You are dead. And it says, don't crucify yourself, it says, live to God. You're dead to sin, why? There's a reason why you're dead to sin, that you will live to God. And dear Heavenly Father, we thank you, dear Lord, that you have crucified us with Christ Jesus, and it's no longer we who live, but Christ Jesus who lives in us, dear Lord. And that's another reason why we can't go back to sin. The Holy One of Israel now dwells inside us, dear Lord. And we thank you, dear Heavenly Father, for the Scriptures, That we can know how to be sanctified. That we know how to walk a holy life. How to walk a godly life. And dear Lord, I would pray that the word would go out and touch many, dear Lord. Many of my brothers and sisters that are frustrated in their Christian walk. That they would realize that they have died in their relationship to sin. That they need not die daily, but they have died once and for all with Christ Jesus 2,000 years ago at Calvary. And that they would count that as true. And that they will resist the devil, and he will flee. And they would stop listening to the voices coming from the field of Romans 1. The they, the them, and the theirs, and the thous. That they would understand that they have the we now. And we thank you, dear Lord, that we have been justified by faith. And that we have peace with God. And we'd ask, dear Lord, for that peace in our lives. That we would understand that we are no longer your enemy. That we are your beloved children. And that when you look at us, all you see is Christ. And I pray that as a congregation we would realize that. that we are as Christ in your eyes, as it says in Corinthians, that we have become the righteousness of God. And I pray that we would start walking our way as righteous ones. And we thank you, dear Lord, for having mercy upon our souls. And we ask your blessing upon this word that was preached tonight. In Jesus' precious name, amen.