Good evening, brethren, and welcome back to the worship of our God here at Trinity Reformed Baptist Church. We extend an especially warm welcome to those of you who are visiting with us this evening. Why do we gather here every Lord's Day morning and every Lord's Day evening, and why do we make an emphasis in this church about the importance of attending both morning and evening? Well, the answer is very simple, but it's also a multi-layered answer. The answer is because we're here to worship God, and God ought to be worshipped. But why? Why ought we to be compelled to worship God? Well, all men everywhere ought to worship God for the simple fact that He made them, right? Whether they're redeemed or unredeemed, the most wicked men on the planet ought to worship God for the mere fact that they are creatures and He is the Creator. They ought to worship Him because of who He is in His being. They ought to worship Him for all of His attributes. But for those of us who are believers, we have more reason than anyone to gather morning and evening, every Lord's Day, to worship. And that's because of what God has done for us in the work, not just of creation as being our Creator, but in being our Redeemer. This is scattered all throughout the New Testament epistles, especially where, for example, Paul goes from doctrine about what God has done for us, and he moves straight into doxology, and what our response ought to be, our response of worship. Listen to one of those examples for our call to worship from Ephesians 1, verses 13 and 14. Paul writes, "...in him you also trusted after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. In whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession." Why, Paul? What's the point of all this? Verse 14b, "...to the praise of his glory." And that is why we're here this evening. Let's open in prayer. Our Father, we confess that we do not meditate on these truths as frequently as we ought. We ask you to forgive us for taking for granted the incomprehensible work of redemption that you have done for us to redeem us to yourself and to bring us to glory. We pray that you would help us this evening to praise you for your glory for what you have done in sealing us with the Holy Spirit of promise as the guarantee of our future inheritance, to give us that hope without which There are times when we don't even know how we would make it through life without having that hope. We pray that You would help us to praise You adequately for that tonight. In Jesus' name, Amen. Well now brethren, please take out your blue trinity hymnals as we praise the Lord in song tonight. We want to turn to 452. Savior, blessed Savior, listen while we sing. Indeed may he hear your voices tonight as we sing to our great God. 452, let us stand. Señor, Señor, listen while we sing. you You may be seated, Frederick. I want to go now to the word of God as we worship the Lord and the hearing of the inspired word. And, of course, the Old Testament is as inspired as the new. And we are in chapter 37 this evening of Isaiah, the major prophet. Isaiah 37, those of you who were here last Lord's Day evening when Timothy spoke a little bit and touched on the background of chapter 36 with the mocking of it as it were of the sort of the chief of staff of the king of Assyria comes and sort of mocks Judah and their God and so it's put the fear in them. They've been well known to have already conquered a lot of other cities and nations and so they probably thought that Judah would be a pushover. And with Hezekiah, he finds out about it. That's what we see in the very first verse of chapter 37. And the fear did strike Hezekiah. And what happens though is Hezekiah takes that fear to God in prayer. And so the people of Assyria were not aware that the God of Judah, the king, the God of Hezekiah was the only true and living God who had actual power to destroy them. And their power to do what they did as a mighty nation of Assyria was nothing to God. It's really a story about a great hero, and the hero in this story is God himself, rescuing Hezekiah and Hezekiah's people. Well, it's a fairly long chapter, so you'll see that as we read through it, beginning now in chapter 37. Hear now the word of the Lord, Isaiah. And so it was, when King Hezekiah heard it, that he tore his clothes, covered himself with sackcloth, and went into the house of the Lord. Then he sent Eliakim, who was over the house, told Shebna, the scribe and the elders of the priests, covered with sackcloth, to Isaiah the prophet, the son of Bemaz. And they said to him, thus says Hezekiah, this day is a day of trouble and rebuke and blasphemy, for the children have come to birth, but there is no strength to bring them forth. It may be that the Lord your God will hear the words of the Rapshaka, whom his master, the king of Assyria, has sent to reproach the living God, and will rebuke the words which the Lord your God has heard. Therefore lift up your prayer for the remnant that is left. So the servants of King Hezekiah came to Isaiah. And Isaiah said to them, thus you shall say to your master, thus says the Lord, do not be afraid of the words which you have heard with which the servants of the King of Assyria have blasphemed me. Surely I will send a spirit upon him and he shall hear a rumor and return to his own land and I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land. Then the rapture returned and found the King of Assyria warring against Libna. for he had heard that he had departed from Lakish, and the king heard concerning Terhakaqa, king of Ethiopia, he has come out to make war with you. So when he heard it, he sent messengers to Hezekiah saying, thus you shall speak to Hezekiah, king of Judah, saying, do not let your God in whom you trust deceive you, saying, Jerusalem shall be given into the hand of the king of Assyria. Look, you have heard what the king of Assyria have done, kings of Assyria have done to all the lands by utterly destroying them, and shall you be delivered? Have the gods of the nations delivered those whom my fathers have destroyed, Gozan, and Haran, and Rezeph, and the people of Eden who were in Talasar? Where is the king of Hamath, the king of Arpod, and the king of the city of Sepharvain, Hena, and Avar? And Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the messengers and read it. And Hezekiah went up to the house of the Lord and spread it before the Lord. Then Hezekiah prayed to the Lord, saying, O Lord of hosts, God of Israel, the one who dwells between the cherubim, you are God, you alone. Of all the kingdoms of the earth, you have made heaven and earth. Incline your ear, O Lord, and hear. Open your eyes, O Lord, and see, and hear all the words of Sennacherib, which he has sent to reproach the living God. Truly, Lord, the kings of Assyria have laid waste all the nations in their lands, and have cast their gods into the fire, for they were not gods, but the work of men's hands, wood and stone, therefore they destroyed them. Now therefore, O Lord our God, save us from his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you are the Lord, you alone. Then Isaiah, the son of Mos, sent to Hezekiah, saying, Thus says the Lord God of Israel, because you have prayed to me against Sennacherib, king of Assyria. This is the word which the Lord has spoken concerning him. The virgin, the daughter of Zion, has despised you, laughed you to scorn. The daughter of Jerusalem has shaken her head behind your back, whom you have reproached and blasphemed, against whom have you raised your voice and lifted up your eyes on high against the Holy One of Israel. By your servants you have reproached the Lord and said, by the multitude of my chariots I have come up to the height of the mountains to the limits of Lebanon, I will cut down its tall cedars and its choice cypress trees. I will enter its farthest height to its fruitful forest. I have dug in drunk water, and with the soles of my feet I have dried up all the brooks of defense. Did you not hear long ago how I made it, from ancient times that I formed it? Now I have brought it to pass that you should be for crushing fortified cities into heaps of ruins. Therefore their inhabitants had little power. They were dismayed and confounded. They were as the grass of the field and the green herb, as the grass on the housetops and grain blighted before its grown. But I know your dwelling place. You're going out and you're coming in and your rage against me, because your rage against me and your tumult have come up to my ears, therefore I will put my hook in your nose and my bridle in your lips and I will turn you back by the way which you came. This shall be a sign to you. You shall eat this year such as grows of itself, and the second year what springs from the same, and also the third year sow and reap, plant vineyards and eat the fruit of them. And the remnant who have escaped of the house of Judah shall again take root downward and bear fruit upward. For out of Jerusalem shall go a remnant, and those who escape from Mount Zion the zeal of the Lord host will do this. Therefore says the Lord concerning the king of Assyria, he shall not come into this city, nor shoot an arrow there, nor come before it with shield, nor build a siege mound against it. By the way that he came, by the same shall he return. And he shall not come into this city, says the Lord, for I will defend this city, to save it for my own sake and for my servant David's sake. Then the angel of the Lord went out and killed the camp of the Assyrians, 185,000. And when people arose early in the morning, there were the corpses all dead. So Sennacherib, king of Assyria, departed and went away and returned home and remained at Nineveh. And it came to pass, as he was worshiping in the house of Nisroch, his god, that his sons, Ad-Ramalekah and Shavazar, struck him down with the sword, and they escaped into the land of Arad. Then Esh-Shaddan, his son, reigned in his place. So where the Lord happened exactly as the Lord had promised, and I would say, and then remind you, that it did come about as God was the hero, But Hezekiah prayed. I don't know that the Lord would have still done it, but he prayed and God answered that prayer and saved many people. It's encouragement, brethren, to be praying for our lost loved ones and praying for lost souls. God has the power to do whatever he wants to do. Well, brethren, let's turn our attention to a season of prayer together. We want to pray, or I want to pray with you tonight for the country of Myanmar. I don't know if you've heard or saw anything on the news, but there is a cyclone, as they call them there. We call them hurricanes. But I heard that it's near Cat 5. And Rebecca Hamilton, whom we pray for, their particular orphanage is right in the path. of the hurricane, and it's also in the path of a lot of human people, a lot of bodies, people that just, like she said, it's like a couple million up through that alley that this hurricane is going into. It just could be massive devastation. So we want to ask God's mercy for that. We'll pray for Jeremy Walker, Pastor Jeremy Walker at Maiden Bower Baptist Church. I'd hoped to visit them when we were going to be in London a week from this coming Lord's Day, but I discovered that it's a two-hour get-on-and-off-subway-type trip, and I'm really not interested in doing that. And so I apologize to him, but I want to pray for him and for his ministry tonight. And we, of course, we want to pray for many of you as well. So let's go to the Lord together in prayer. Our great God, what a wonderful narrative to read this evening. As your people who are worshiping you, the God of Hezekiah, you are our God. The same one who defeated the enemy and preserved the remnant, you are our God. You will and have defeated our greatest enemy, which is death. You've dealt a mortal blow to the devil himself. You've given us your spirit to help us, to keep us, to persevere, help us to persevere until the end, Lord. And that we might also continue to be those who worship the God of heaven and earth. Lord, we thank you for revealing yourself to us. Who are we that Hezekiah's God should become our God? And so we thank you for your mercies and grace upon our lives, Lord, that we could gather here this evening in this, your Sabbath day, to offer up praise to you from our lips and from our hearts. We thank you, Lord, for your kindness toward us. You are good to us, Lord, and you hear the prayers of your people. We thank you for what you've done in our church, Lord. bringing Timothy some five years ago and continuing to bring other people here. We are not worthy of this, God. We thank you that though you have done it, you've heard our prayers. You have brought many children to us. You have strengthened our faith. You continue to teach us the word and grow us in the word week by week. We thank you for these things, Lord. You are merciful to us. And so we would pray for your mercies to fall on others, particularly tonight, God, as we think of the people in Myanmar. There may be your reasons that we do not understand of a judgment, but also a work of mercy for your people, that there might be an explosion of the gospel. As we know, Lord, from the Hamiltons, that there are genuine Christians in this nation. This nation that's been in civil war for almost two years, I think, now, Lord. We pray that you'd bring that to an end, that you'd perhaps, God, would even use a cyclone to wipe out those who are even causing the war to go on and killing women and children. Father, we pray that your mercies would flow like a river through there, even as the cyclone does, that, God, you would show yourself powerful and mighty and save your people, that that land may know that there is indeed a God in heaven, Lord, even as Judah found out and as Syria found out here in our chapter tonight. Well, we praise you and thank you for your servant, Jeremy Walker, and the number of years now that he's been the pastor there at Maiden Bower. We pray for him that you would continue to keep him strong and healthy, and he continues to labor to shepherd your sheep there as a sole elder. We pray, Father, as he continues to disciple and bring truths to other young men in his own flock, that you would raise one up among them, Lord, that could come alongside him and help him to shepherd the flock. We pray for his ministry of book writing, that you would give him time for that, and that you would bless his family, his wife and two children, that you would protect them and continue to use them. We ask for your blessings on the congregation, that they would grow. For this is a city, or near London, Lord, there are so many people. We pray that, God, that you would pull out your remnant from among those who are in darkness. And increase, Lord, your people there at Maiden Bower and bless them for your name's sake, even as you did this for your people at Judah. Father, we thank you for our own congregation again, Lord, and for hearing our prayers through the years as we pray for those in need. We thank you and praise you, Lord, for what you've done in Audrey and Jonah's life and bringing the little one into this world and everything going well. We thank you for that. We would offer a prayer for Megan DeBoard as Lord, as she perhaps is getting close to her time, another month or so, we pray, or two, we pray that you would bless her, even as you have blessed all the other ladies in our congregation this year with these wonderful little babies that, Lord, now are a part of our church and we get to see them and see their moms and dads together. God, you are so good to us. We pray your mercies upon them and upon Larry and Tanya with two new grandchildren that you would help them as they help their children. Pray for our brother Rod who has an appointment tomorrow in Charlottesville. You would grant much wisdom to him and to Yolanda as they make a decision concerning his health and the pain and the struggles that he's having that they would have answers for him that whatever it might be, whether it's some work of surgery or something else, oh God, ask you the Lord, please grant them wisdom in making the right decision. We pray for our picnic next Saturday as we gather together as a body, brothers and sisters in the Lord, that we would just gather together and rejoice in you, our God, and be thankful, for not all our days will be such joy. There will be dark days in all of our lives if we live long enough. So Lord, help us to be thankful for those special times where we can laugh and eat good and enjoy some recreation. Pray, Lord, that you will bless that time together. All these things we ask in Jesus' name, amen. Well now, brethren, before Ryan comes to bring the word to us tonight, I'd ask you to turn once more to the Blue Trinity Hymnal to 254. Going to be related to his subject tonight, 254, Come Holy Spirit. We will stand as we sing 254. I invite you to take your Bibles this evening and turn to Romans chapter 8. Romans chapter 8. Our text this evening that we'll be expositing is verses 9-11, but I'm going to read verses 1-11 so we can see the immediate context of the three verses that we'll be opening up. Romans 8, verses 1-11. Paul writes, There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God did, by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh on account of sin. He condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death. But to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God, for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God. But you are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not his. And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his spirit who dwells in you. This is the word of the Lord. Let's pray. Holy Spirit, we need your help. Even as we open up this text that is explicitly about your work, your ministry, we need your work and your ministry here this evening. I need your help here in the pulpit. The listeners need your help. We pray that your word would have its intended effect this evening. Please be with us in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, tonight we come to the third and final part of a very brief mini-series in the first portion of Romans 8 that we began back in January, and then did part 2 in February. And if you don't remember that, that is okay, because I know it's been a while. So I don't blame you if you don't remember that, so we'll just do a very brief review to cover where we have been so far. We've been considering these first 11 verses of Romans 8 as Paul telling us how a Christian who has already been fully delivered from the guilt of sin is then delivered from the power of sin and from the presence of sin. And we saw that at the end of Romans 7, which forms part of the context for Romans 8, Paul is describing this intense battle. You're probably familiar with this, Paul's description of the intense battle that a Christian still has with remaining sin. And that battle peaks in verse 24 of chapter 7, where Paul just cries out, wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death? Paul there is recognizing that his human nature, as mainly characterized by his body, is still plagued by sin, it still drags him down, despite the fact that Paul's inner man has a new nature that delights to obey God. Paul is dealing with this conflict. And Paul answers his own question in verse 25 of chapter 7. Who's going to deliver him from this body of death? He says, I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. And then we might be wondering, OK, Paul, how specifically is Jesus Christ our Lord going to do this? And then he proceeds into Romans 8 to show how this deliverance happens both now and in the future. And as we've been examining these verses, we've covered verses 1 through 8 so far, We've been using the metaphor of the construction of a house, and we've been calling this house the house of the Christian's deliverance from sin, specifically the power and the presence of sin. And we made the case in verses 1 through 3 of chapter 8 that Paul there is showing us the foundation of the house. That's where you start when you're building a house, you start with the foundation. And the foundation of this house of the Christian's deliverance from sin is, not surprisingly, the death of Christ. Because what Paul says is that when Christ died, sin itself was condemned, which resulted in the power of sin, the reigning power of sin over a believer, being broken. Which means that when we were converted, when we were first converted, there was a definitive break. with our slavery to sin, we are no longer under the condemnation, we are completely freed from the condemnation of slavery to sin. We're still subject to part of the curse, we're still subject to the curse in our physical bodies, but our inner man was freed from the curse by being released from its condemnation to being a slave of sin, because our hearts were regenerated by the Holy Spirit. And then in verses 4 through 8, we made the case that Paul there is showing us what I called the superstructure of this house. What do you build on the foundation of a house? You build the superstructure. You build the bones of the house. And in verse 4 through 8, we saw that the bones of this house, what's built on the foundation, is the believer's newfound spirit-wrought ability to truly obey God now. not perfectly obey, but to truly obey from a heart that now loves God and that now delights in His commands. And that ability flows out of this new nature that the Holy Spirit brought in us that is now freed from its slavery to sin. So now tonight, in the final part of this very brief mini-series, we're going to see the completed house. What does the finished product of this house of the Christians' deliverance from sin look like? We have to wait until verse 11 to get there, but Paul's gonna build up to it in verses 9 and 10. And he builds up to it by focusing on the ministry of the indwelling Holy Spirit in the Christian. If I was to give this a longer, more Puritan-like sermon title, it would be, The Christian's Present and Future Deliverance from Sin by Means of the Indwelling Holy Spirit. You can see why I did not make that the official sermon title in the bulletin. Now it's interesting to note that with reference to the Holy Spirit, there is a marked shift in Romans 8 from the first seven chapters of Romans. If you were to read the first seven chapters of Romans, once you get past Paul's introductory remarks in Romans 1, and you start into the meat of the book, the theological content of the book, in the first seven chapters, Paul mentions the Holy Spirit a grand total of three times. In seven chapters. That might be a little bit surprising. But he makes up for it in chapter 8, because in the first 27 verses of chapter 8, he mentions the Holy Spirit about 18 times. So there is a massive shift in Romans 8 to a focus on the Holy Spirit. We could do what John Murray did in his commentary, and we could entitle Romans 8, Life in the Spirit. Verses 1 through 8 of this chapter, the main focus was us as believers walking or living in the Spirit. And now in verses 9 through 11, the main focus is going to be on the Spirit dwelling in us. So us in the Spirit, the Spirit in us. And the indwelling ministry of the Spirit is directly mentioned or alluded to at least five times in these three verses. And so this theme of the indwelling Holy Spirit is going to guide our exposition of these three verses tonight. And we're going to examine these three verses under four heads, and each one of these heads describes some aspect of the indwelling ministry of the Holy Spirit. And here's the four aspects. Number one, it's Trinitarian character, and when I say it, I'm not referring to the Holy Spirit himself. The Holy Spirit is not an it. The Holy Spirit is a person of the Trinity. When I say it, I'm referring to the indwelling ministry of the Holy Spirit. So we're going to look at its Trinitarian character, we're going to look at its guaranteed recipients, in other words, who receives the indwelling ministry of the Holy Spirit, then we're going to look at its present fruit, and then finally we'll look at its eschatological hope. So first of all then, we're going to look at the Trinitarian character of the indwelling ministry of the Spirit. And when you just read these three verses, even with a cursory reading, this really jumps off the page at you. New verse 9, Paul says, You are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His. Okay, so in verse 9 we have Spirit of God and Spirit of Christ. And usually when Paul uses the word God, he's referring to the Father. That's typical in Pauline language. So we have the Spirit of the Father, and we have the Spirit of Christ. Go to verse 10. And if Christ is in you, wait a minute Paul, I thought you just said if the Spirit dwells in you, now you're saying if Christ Himself dwells in you. And then verse 11, but if the spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his spirit who dwells in you. And we'll see when we get to verse 11, I'll go ahead and steal some of my thunder from the fourth point here. He's talking about the father there. So again, now he's back to talking about the spirit being the spirit of the father. So you see how Paul just so seamlessly and effortlessly switches between the spirit of the father, the spirit of Christ. Christ Himself dwelling in you. And we might scratch our heads a little bit and think, well, which is it? Is it the Father's Spirit? The Son's Spirit? Does the Spirit indwell us or does Christ indwell us? And I just want to show, we're not going to dive too deep into this, I just want to show you that Paul here is very consistent with Jesus's theology of the Holy Spirit as recorded by John. Look with me briefly in John chapter 14. And there's an element of this, brethren, that we just cannot fully comprehend. We just have to reckon with that. We have to look at what Scripture says and we have to accept it. Look at verses 15-18 of John 14. Jesus says, he's speaking here to his disciples in the upper room discourse, if you love me, keep my commandments. And I will pray the Father, and he, that is the Father, will give you another helper, that he may abide with you forever, the Spirit of truth. Okay, so the Father will give the Holy Spirit, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him, but you know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you. I will not leave you orphans, I will come to you. Alright, so right here we see Christ saying the Spirit will dwell in you and I myself will come to you. Let's get down to verse 23. Jesus says, if anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, look at this, and we will come to him and make our home with him. So here we have both the Father and the Son coming to dwell in a believer, in addition to the Spirit. Verse 26. but the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things." Alright, so again, the Father sending the Spirit. Now look at chapter 15 and verse 26. So we just saw the Father sends the Spirit, verse 26 of chapter 15. But when the Helper comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father. So here we have the Son sending the Spirit from the Father. Chapter 16 and verse 7. Jesus still speaking, nevertheless, I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away. That's a stunning statement right there. Jesus telling his disciples that it's good for you if I'm not here bodily. That's a stunning statement. How can that be possible? Well, Jesus tells us. For if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you, but if I depart, I will send him to you." Do you see what Jesus' theology of the Holy Spirit here is? The Father sends the Spirit. Jesus Himself sends the Spirit. The Spirit will indwell us. The Father and the Son will indwell us. We see here the unity of the Trinity in the indwelling ministry of the Holy Spirit. And while the New Testament primarily attributes the indwelling ministry of God to the person of the Holy Spirit, that is true, we ought not limit our thinking to only the Holy Spirit indwelling us. There is a very real sense, brethren, in which the Father and the Son participate in the indwelling of believers as well, because they send the Spirit, and there is unity in the Trinity. Now, if you want to ask me to explain it much further than that, that may have to wait for another sermon, probably by someone, not me. But brethren, that is an awesome thought, that the thrice holy God, all three persons of the thrice holy God, indwell his people. If you're a believer here tonight, no matter how weak or immature you may be, the triune God indwells you. And the Old Testament prophets foresaw that as a benefit of the New Covenant, they prophesied it, and we partake of it now. Now that is a flooring thought. We don't meditate on that as much as we ought to. But brethren, that is an amazing benefit of being a member of the New Covenant people of God. So, the indwelling ministry of the Holy Spirit is Trinitarian in character. We see the unity of the Trinity and how God indwells his people. Second of all, Back in Romans 8 verses 9-11, we want to look at the guaranteed recipients of the indwelling ministry of the Spirit. Who receives the indwelling ministry of the Spirit? Verse 9b, Paul could not be any clearer, he says, Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not his. The clear implication being, who receives the indwelling ministry of the Spirit? Every single believer in Jesus Christ, without exception. There is no such thing as a Christian who does not have the Holy Spirit. There is no second thing that happens. First you're converted and then later on down the road you get the Holy Spirit later. That's not the case at all. Given what Paul has said earlier in Romans 8 about the Spirit setting us free and us living in the Spirit, it would be ludicrous to even think it's possible for a true believer to not have the indwelling Spirit. Now, there's certainly varying manifestations of the fruit of the Spirit in believers, aren't there? There's varying degrees of maturity, there's varying degrees of sanctification in believers, but all true believers have the indwelling Spirit, no exceptions, no matter how immature they may be, or how much lack of progress they may have had in sanctification, they still have the Holy Spirit, strong Christians as well as weak ones. So that's who receives the indwelling ministry of the Spirit, is every single true believer. But now, and this is where we'll spend most of our time, the third aspect of the indwelling ministry of the Spirit, we want to look at the present fruit of the Spirit's indwelling ministry. And in verse 9a, starts with the word but, which means Paul's making a contrast with something. What is Paul making a contrast with? Well, let's read verses 8 and 9a together. Back up to verse 8. Paul says, But you are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you." So what's Paul's point here? His point here is clear. You, as a believer, can please God because you're not in the flesh. Verse 8 says those who are in the flesh can't please God. He says, but you're not in the flesh, implying you can please God now. So according to verse 9, the present fruit of having the indwelling ministry of the Holy Spirit is living a life that's pleasing to God. What does that look like? Well, we could go to Galatians 5 and look at that list of the fruit of the Spirit, and then we could go to the second half of pretty much any one of Paul's epistles, where he works out the practical implications of what does it look like? What do those fruits of the Spirit look like in your day-to-day life? But there's a question we need to ask, and it's this. How is it even possible for us to live lives that are pleasing to God now? That's a radical change from where we once were in verse 8. We used to be verse 8, didn't we? Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. We went from the state of can't please God to can please God. How does that happen? Well, verse 10 gives us the answer, and verse 10 also functions as a bridge, seems like kind of common sense, but a bridge between verse 9 and verse 11. And we'll see later what I mean by that. Because verse 9 is a focus on our present life now, and verse 11, as we'll see, is focusing on the end, the eschaton, what happens in eternity. And verse 10 bridges that. Well, let's look at verse 10 here for a minute. Verse 10a, where Paul says, and if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, that word for body, when it's used in the New Testament, it virtually always means the literal, physical, human body. That's what Paul's talking about here. And we may say, well, why is he saying the body's dead? I mean, we're all sitting here breathing tonight, we're not actually dead, we're alive. What he means by that is that our bodies, even though they might still be alive and breathing and have brainwaves and heartbeats, they still live, in a sense, in the realm of death because our bodies are still part of a sin-cursed world. So they're subject to the principle of death and decay. And if Christ doesn't return first, every one of us here will physically die. The brainwaves will stop. The heartbeat will stop. And because our bodies are still part of this sin-cursed world, our bodies have not been fully redeemed yet, they hold us back in our walk with Christ. And we've talked about this in our previous messages. Our bodies still have these old patterns, ingrained patterns of sin that have to be broken. Our bodies get weary, get very distracted, they get depressed. Our physical shortcomings greatly impact our spiritual lives. We're this complex mix of body and soul. So that's what Paul is referring to here, is that our bodies are subject to the principle of decay and death. They are dying because they're in a cursed world. But we do need to be clear about one thing, that Paul is not, when he says because of sin, he is not saying that the believer's death is a judicial punishment for the believer's sin. That is not what Paul is saying. That would go against what he said in verse 1 when he said there's no condemnation. All the judicial punishment for our sin has already been taken care of at the cross. When Paul says that our bodies are dead and dying because of sin, what he means is the sin in a sin-cursed world. We still live in a world that's cursed because of sin, and so our bodies have to bear the consequences of that. It's not a judicial punishment. And this harkens back to Romans 7 24. Paul says, who will deliver me from what? This body of death. Same principle. Now, verse 10b is a little more difficult. There's a couple of interpretive difficulties here that have caused some disagreement among Reformed commentators, and there's two issues here. One is it says, but the spirit is life because of righteousness. The Greek word for spirit there is pneuma, p-n-e-u-m-a, if you transliterate it. That's where we get our word pneumatics. Pneumonia has to do with air. The Greek word pneuma is used for both the human spirit and the human soul, and for the Holy Spirit in the New Testament. And the context in which it's used determines which one is meant. So the question is, which one is meant? In verse 10b, some of your Bibles, like the New King James, I think the ESV as well, and the NIV, have the S capitalized there, meaning Holy Spirit. I believe it's the new American standard that has it lowercase, interpreting it as the human spirit. So we need to answer the question of which one is correct. The second issue is the word righteousness. Because righteousness can either refer to our own personal growing righteousness in sanctification, or it can refer to the perfect imputed righteousness of Christ that we receive at justification. And there's debate among commentators as to which one Paul's talking about. So let's take these issues one at a time. First of all, talk about. the interpretation of the word spirit, or pneuma. The main support for some commentators and translations such as the New American Standard, interpreting pneuma as human spirit is because of the contrast with verse 10a. Verse 10a, Paul says that the body, the physical human body, is dead because of sin. So on the surface it seems to make sense to say the contrast would be with the human spirit. Human body, dead. Human spirit, life. But there's a couple of problems with that interpretation. Number one, in the immediate context of these verses, Paul has already been using the word spirit. We could go back and look earlier in Romans 8. And not a single time has he been referring to the human spirit or human soul. Every single one of those has been to the Holy Spirit. Now that doesn't make this a slam dunk case. That doesn't mean that pneuma can't mean human spirit here, but it is a factor to keep in mind of how Paul's been using it so far in Romans 8. The second problem is that Paul says in the second half, he says the spirit is life. He does not use the word alive. Now, the New American Standard does use the word alive there, but that's not the actual word Paul uses. Paul uses the noun. He says the spirit is life. That's in contrast to verse 10a, where Paul says the body, he doesn't say the body is death, he says the body is dead, and then he says the spirit is life. So we already see that Paul is changing the terms of the contrast a little bit. In the first part of the contrast he uses a noun, dead, an adjective, dead, and then he uses a noun, life. So it's not exactly a one-to-one contrast here. So it's not, it wouldn't be out of character for us to say human body, Holy Spirit. Hopefully that makes sense. Let me see if I can explain it a little bit better. If we interpret pneuma here to mean Holy Spirit, It's consistent with keeping that noun life. The spirit is life. Because how could we say that the human spirit is life itself? Now, if he had used the word alive, that would make sense. Your body is dead, you're dying because you live in a cursed world, but your spirit is alive because the Holy Spirit has regenerated you. But he uses the word life. The human spirit is not life itself. But we could say that the Holy Spirit is life itself. Look back at verse two. Paul says, for the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus. Again, skip ahead to verse 11. Look at the life in this verse. Verse 11b, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his spirit who dwells in you. So here, Paul is talking about the role the Holy Spirit will play in giving life to our mortal bodies. So if we interpret Numa here as a reference to the Holy Spirit, I believe it's more consistent with what Paul says in verse 2 and in verse 11. And it also takes care of that difficulty with the word life that Paul uses instead of the word alive. And it's consistent with how Paul uses it, uses pneuma throughout Romans 8 so far to this point where he always uses it to refer to the Holy Spirit. I hope that made sense. If you have questions about it, please ask me afterwards. I realize that could have been a little confusing. Secondly, much more briefly, the word righteousness, the debate over that word. Is Paul talking about our righteousness that we receive by justification? Or is he talking about our gradual growth in personal righteousness and sanctification? Well, I believe that the commentators who take the position of justification are correct here for two main reasons. First reason is that this exact Greek word that Paul uses for righteousness here He uses it a lot in Romans, and most of the time when he uses it, he is referring to the object of righteousness of God. That's the majority of the time when he uses this word in Romans. Again, that doesn't mean he can't put another nuance on the meaning here, but it does have bearing. That is usually how he uses that word in Romans. But the second reason, maybe a more compelling reason, is that Paul says that this righteousness, whatever he's talking about, this righteousness is the cause of the Spirit being life. If we take Numa to mean Holy Spirit, he says the Spirit is life because of righteousness. Now let me ask, would it be a comfort to you to hear someone say that The Holy Spirit of God is life to you because of your sanctification. How much comfort would that be? If you know yourself well enough, you know how your sanctification goes up and down. It can go up and down from day to day. We backslide. We have times when we're advancing in grace. We have times when we feel like we're retreating in grace. Brethren, our sanctification is not the cause of the Holy Spirit being life to us. The justifying righteousness of Christ is why the Holy Spirit is life to us. That's the basis of the Spirit imparting life. Our own gradually growing righteousness of sanctification is the result of the Spirit's life-giving work, not the cause of it. And that's the main reason why I believe Paul is saying that the Spirit is life to us because of the justifying righteousness of Christ. So here's my, if I was to summarize what Paul says in verse 10, and I use the word summarize loosely because I'm actually using more words than Paul used in verse 10 here, but if I were to explain in one sentence what Paul is saying, Here's what it would be. How is it that we're now able to please God? It's because even though we still have bodies that are subject to decay and death, they're part of the sin-cursed world, they drag us down, they fight against us in our Christian walk, despite all of that, The Holy Spirit is life to us because of the justifying work of Christ. He dwells in us, and by doing so, He gives us a taste of the eternal life to come by enabling us to live to God now. That's what I believe Paul is getting at in Romans 10. And that is a marvelous reality. If you're a believer here tonight, no matter how immature you may be, whether you've been safe for 60 years or 60 hours, that's the reality for you. But as they say in the infomercials, but wait, there is more, because we still have verse 11. And verse 10 bridges us over to verse 11, because in verse 11, Paul continues his thought from verse 10 from this life right into the life to come. What he's going to do is he's going to show us in verse 11 the ultimate sense in which verse 10 is true. There's a sense in which verse 10 is true now, but there's an even greater sense coming. So we've looked at the Trinitarian character of the Spirit's indwelling ministry, we've looked at the guaranteed recipients of it, we've looked at its present fruit, and now finally, before we get to our application, we're going to look at its eschatological hope. An eschatological is simply a big word that means pertaining to the end. What is the end result of all this? Where is it all heading? So in verse 11, Paul tells us What is the ultimate and final sense in which our bodies may be dead because of sin, but the spirit is life because of the righteousness of Christ? Verse 11's answer is that the Holy Spirit has an instrumental role to play in our future resurrection of our bodies unto eternal life. What we experience in this life from verse 10 is just a foretaste of what we're going to experience in verse 11. The Holy Spirit can be said to be life to us, Because our physical death will be radically overcome with eternal life. Your body that has rotted away in the grave for however many years it's going to be there before Christ returns, that condition is going to be radically overcome. through the Holy Spirit, as we'll see here in a minute. And brethren, this is what Paul loves to do. If you go to any New Testament epistle, Paul loves to take any doctrine he's talking about and take it to the end. What is the end result going to be? Paul loves eschatology. It impacts him now, and he doesn't love eschatology and the, oh, this country's going to do this first and this, no. He's looking at eschatology for how does it impact me now, and what is God going to do when he finishes this great work that he's doing in his people? And brethren, this is where we get to see this house of the Christian's deliverance from sin in its completed state. When your body is resurrected from the dead on the last day, and your soul is reunited with your body when you're made whole again as a human being, body and soul, and you're fully delivered from every last vestige of the presence of sin and of the curse, God's building project on you is done. It's completed, and you will then be a perfect, flawless image-bearer of God. And that is God's grand construction project going on right now in His church. And it'll be done on the last day. And verse 11, brethren, is the ultimate answer to Paul's cry from Romans 7, 24, when he says, Verses 1-10 of Romans 8 shows us how that starts to happen now. And there's big steps happening now, it's no small thing what's happening now. But verse 11 of Romans 8, that's the final answer to Romans 7, 24. Now there's one question we need to answer from this verse, and it's who raised Jesus from the dead? Because Paul says, if the spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead, And then he says, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies. Who is he talking about? Because he doesn't name a specific person of the Trinity. Well, I've already kind of, earlier I mentioned that it is the Father, but let me demonstrate that for you. Where we might get confused is that we know from other places in the New Testament that all three persons of the Trinity were involved in raising Christ from the dead. We could go to Galatians 1.1, for example. Paul explicitly says the Father raised Christ from the dead. We could go to John 2.19-22 and to John 10.18 where Jesus says that He will take His own life back. So the Son was involved in raising Jesus from the dead. And we could go to 1 Peter 3.18, Peter says that the Spirit raised Christ from the dead. So who's Paul talking about here? Well, I believe Paul's talking to the Father, because that is most consistent with other Pauline texts in the New Testament, including in Romans. We could go look at Romans 6, 4, where Paul refers to the Father as having raised Christ from the dead. So Paul is considering the Father as the principal agent in the resurrection of Christ, and then he takes that to our resurrection. He says, if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, if you have the indwelling Spirit, then he who raised Christ from the dead, the Father, will also give life to your mortal bodies." But Paul's not done. He says, "...through his Spirit who dwells in you." So similar to Christ's resurrection, the Spirit has a role to play in our resurrection. How exactly will the Spirit be involved? I don't know. Paul doesn't really tell us here, but we can be certain beyond any shadow of a doubt that both the Father and the Spirit will be instrumentally involved in raising us from the dead on the last day. And we could go to texts like 2 Corinthians 5.5 where Paul explicitly says that the indwelling Spirit is the guarantee of our future resurrection. Do you have the indwelling spirit? Then you are 100% guaranteed you will be raised from the dead on the last day. One final question from this verse, and then we'll move to our application. Why does Paul emphasize the fact that Christ was raised from the dead? He twice in this verse emphasizes the fact that Jesus was raised from the dead before he tells us that we're going to be raised from the dead. Well, for the sake of time, we won't turn there, but 1 Corinthians 15 verses 20 through 23 give us the answer. And in those verses, Paul shows us that Christ's resurrection is yet another guarantee that we will be raised. Not only is the indwelling spirit a guarantee that we'll be raised, but Christ's resurrection is a guarantee because of our union with Him. We're one with Him. So if He was raised, Paul says, He's just the firstfruits. He was the first one to be raised from the dead, never to die again. And we will follow after Him. And God will most definitely complete this house of the Christians' deliverance from sin for every one of His people. Well, so what? That was the what, now the so what? Well, when we think of the indwelling ministry of the Spirit, I'd venture to say that most of us probably default to thinking about how it works on an individual level. How does that impact us? How does that impact me as an individual Christian? How does he sanctify me? How does he encourage me as an individual Christian? And that's good. That's not wrong. Please don't hear me as saying we ought not do that. We should. But it is interesting to note, if you read the Pauline epistles, Paul does seem to more frequently apply the Spirit's indwelling ministry at a corporate level in the life of the church. We've seen that in Pastor Adkins' Ephesians sermon series. I want to look at one example from Galatians. Look with me at Galatians 5. And look at how Paul applies immediately. He talks about the Holy Spirit and what the Spirit does, and then he immediately, without skipping a beat, applies it to the corporate life of the church, not to the individual believer per se. Galatians 5 verse 22 and 23 are the fruits of the Spirit. And then verse 24, he says, "...and those who are Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit." Okay, what does that look like, Paul? Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another. Now move into chapter 6. Paul, without skipping a beat now, he's still applying this doctrine of the Spirit's ministry. Brethren, if a man is overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness. considering yourself, lest you also be tempted. Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. For if anyone thinks himself to be something when he is nothing, he deceives himself. But let each one examine his own work. And then he will have rejoicing in himself alone and not in another, for each one shall bear his own load." You see what Paul does. He goes through the fruits of the Spirit, talking about what the Spirit produces in a believer, and where does he apply it? He doesn't immediately go to your devotional life. He goes to the corporate life of the church. Now, I'm not downplaying the importance of our devotional lives, brethren. Those are critically important. But if your devotional life is real, Where is it going to show itself? One of the primary places it's going to show itself is right here. Right here in the corporate context of the church. Just taking this Galatians 5 text as an example, if the Spirit's ministry in us is really working, we're not going to compare ourselves to others to make ourselves feel better about how we're doing. We're not going to deliberately do things to get under our brethren's skin just because they might rub us the wrong way. We're going to be content with our lot in life, instead of envying what God has given to another brother or sister. We're going to come alongside one another and help bear the burdens that each other has. And then when we see a fellow member straying, we're going to gently but firmly go after that church member and pray for their restoration, including when it gets to the point of requiring corporate church discipline. That's an outworking of the indwelling ministry of the Spirit. Do you want to know if you have the indwelling ministry of the Spirit? Then examine how you treat your brethren. How do you treat your fellow members? Why does Paul put this emphasis on church life? Why does Paul so frequently go here? Why doesn't he go to the individual Christian's individual walk with Christ? He does that, but he so frequently goes to the corporate dimension. Why? Brethren, it's because when Romans 8-11 happens and we are raised from the dead, mortality is swallowed up in immortality, as Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15. It's not just going to be me and Jesus. It's not just going to be you and Jesus. Sometimes we hear talk that reflects that kind of idea. That's nonsense in Scripture. We're going to be living among each other. Yes, the most glorious part of heaven will be our fellowship with Christ, our unhindered no sin involved whatsoever relationship with Christ, but we're still going to be in relationship with each other. It is not just going to be you and Jesus. We're still going to be human beings that God designed to have fellowship with other human beings. That's not going to go away. And the corporate church body life on this side of the resurrection, on this side of Romans 8-11, is supposed to be a foretaste of the corporate church life, corporate body life, post-Romans 8-11. of a post-resurrection life, we're going to hurt each other, but it's still supposed to be a real foretaste. And one of God's purposes in building this house of each individual Christian's deliverance from sin, is so that one day, each of us will be a flawless image-bearer of God, fully conformed to the image of Christ, in perfect fellowship with Him, and in perfect fellowship with other flawless image-bearers of Christ. That's one of the primary purposes of what God is doing. And He starts to make that change now. That change doesn't wait to entirely happen after the resurrection. It starts now. And brethren, isn't that what sets us apart from the world corporately? Didn't Jesus say, that's how all will know you're my disciples, if you have love for one another? So brethren, let's make spirit-empowered, not efforts in the flesh, not pulling ourselves up by our own bootstraps, but spirit-empowered efforts to show the fruit of the Spirit corporately, not just in our private individual lives. Well, as we come to a close, I haven't yet addressed unbelievers that may be sitting here who may be wondering what this has to do at all with them. And what you need to understand about what we've been talking about tonight is that your body, too, will be raised on the last day. A resurrection is not reserved solely for believers. But there's a difference, a huge difference. For believers, that future bodily resurrection will be an indescribably glorious thing. The greatest thing the believer has ever experienced. But for you, it will be the single worst thing you have ever experienced. It will be an indescribably horrible thing. Listen to the two warnings in scripture. Listen to Jesus. This is from John chapter 5. These are the words of Christ himself when he was here on earth. Jesus says, "...for the hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will hear His voice and come forth, those who have done good, to the resurrection of life." That's Romans 8.11. and those who have done evil to the resurrection of condemnation." There will be a resurrection for you if you're an unbeliever, but it will be a resurrection of condemnation. Listen to what John writes in Revelation chapter 20. John writes, The sea gave up the dead who were in it, and death and Hades delivered up the dead who were in them. That's everybody. That's everybody being raised. And they were judged, each one according to his works. Then death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And anyone not found written into the book of life was cast into the lake of fire. That is what your bodily resurrection will be like on the last day. Your body will be raised for the sole purpose of the eternal destruction of both your body and your soul in hell for the glory of God. Now that may sound like a strange concept that that's going to glorify God, but scripture teaches that God gets glory from the salvation of believers, he gets glory in the justice that he poured out on Christ on their behalf, and he gets glory through his mercy that he shows to them in saving them. But he also gets glory from pouring out his unmixed justice and wrath on those who are impenitent until the day of their death. Now the question for you is, which will it be for you? Will you be a means of God getting glory through showing you mercy or through showing you unmixed, unmixed wrath and justice? And you will not be able to accuse God of being unfair. Because God has given you more than ample warning of what awaits you, and He has given you clear instructions as to how to make peace with Him. He has given you the terms of peace, and He has been crystal clear about it. It cannot be misinterpreted, except by someone who wants to misinterpret it. And his terms are non-negotiable. God does not negotiate. He sets the terms and then you either comply with them or you do not comply with them. And his terms are that you lay down your weapons of sin, you lay down the rebellion in your heart, and you come to Jesus Christ penitently for mercy while mercy can still be found. Because there is coming a day when mercy will not be found. And at a minimum, that day is when you breathe your last. If you have not repented yet, after you breathe your last, mercy can no longer be found. The writer to Hebrews says it is appointed to man to die once. And after this, the judgment. And just in the past couple of weeks there have been a couple of stark reminders of that. One of which we were made aware of this past Wednesday night in our prayer meeting that not too far from here there was a 15 year old boy who was out riding his bike at night and he was hit by a car. And he was killed immediately and his soul was separated from his body. to go await a face-to-face meeting with God on Judgment Day. And then just this past week, there was a 26-year-old young man, hadn't been married all that long, less than two years, I think. He had an eight-month-old child. He was killed in a car accident this past week. And his soul was separated from his body to go await a face-to-face meeting with God. Do you understand what that means? A face-to-face meeting with God? We hear that all the time. We may think about it, but do we really understand what it means to meet the God of the universe face-to-face? Now where are those two young men? I didn't know either of them personally. I hope they are both safe in the arms of Jesus, but where did their souls go? When their souls left their bodies, where did they go? It's only two possible places. They either went immediately to be with Christ, to await the judgment day, where they will meet God, not only as their judge, but as their father, who will publicly vindicate them, declare them righteous before the whole world, and accept them into glory. And the only other option is that their souls went into hell to await a face-to-face meeting with God solely as their judge, with no mediator in between. Do you know what that means? To stand face-to-face with God without a mediator. We couldn't take it. If it happened now, we would be instantly killed. That's why God, when Moses said, show me your glory, God had to hide Moses to protect him. And my friend, on the last day, you will stand before God with nobody in between you if you have not repented and believed. And the moment your soul separates from your body in death, you will be awaiting that day in dread and horror. Now those whose souls go to be with Christ and await that day, it's a wait of anticipation. They can't wait for their souls to be reunited with their bodies. But my friend, those who don't go to be with Jesus, they are dreading the day of Romans 8-11 where everyone is raised from the dead because they know what's coming. As soon as they die, they know what's coming, and they know it cannot be changed. So my friend, it can be changed now. It can be changed tonight. Christ offers you His terms of peace. Take the terms of peace. I promise you, and more importantly than me promising you, Christ promises you, you will not regret it. You will be eternally grateful. Come to Him tonight. Let's pray. Our Father, these truths are things that we are not able to fully grasp. We are finite human beings. Not only are we finite, but we are still plagued by sin. But we pray that you would give us a true understanding of these things. And we pray for any who are yet apart from Christ, that you would have mercy on them, even tonight. May they think about the finality of death. and come to Christ and make peace. And we pray that we as believers that we would more and more look forward to that day where our souls are reunited with our bodies. And that we would begin to live that out now among ourselves, live out the fruit of the Spirit now corporately as a church body. And it's in Jesus' name that we pray these things. Amen. Thank you, Ryan, for that wonderful word tonight. Very, very encouraging to us as God's people. I know that this issue is something that runs through my mind as a pastor all these years because I've done so, so many funerals. And I've had people that I love and knew very close to me get killed and die at an early age. And so it always seems to be around me sometimes. And of course, that last couple of years, it's been a lot of it as well. So I look forward, and I'm thankful to be reminded tonight that the spirit that lives in me is the guarantee that when I die, because of the righteousness of Christ, I will be with Christ, and then one day I will be raised with Him. And that is a wonderful promise that we have. And this is why we can enjoy that picnic Saturday. And so I remind you to sign up for that picnic. See, this is how I bring the N word with the announcements. I'm working on it. So the announcement is that we're going to get together on Saturday at 11 o'clock, but we need you to sign up so we know how much meat to bring. So I forgot to make that message this morning. Please sign up if you haven't, if you're planning on to attend. Again, don't forget the pastoral oversight. If you've not done that, the calendar is out there. Please use pencil. Kids conference meeting next Lord's Day after the evening service. So a week from this time next week we're going to have a brief meeting downstairs with everyone who's willing to help us. We need everybody who can help. We would appreciate that very much. And then of course the kids conference itself on June 10th. I think we're probably gonna start at 9 a.m This year we haven't officially announced that I think that's where that's going Anything else that I need to announce that I did not announce tonight All right, brethren. Let's stand and be dismissed from the Word of the Lord Very appropriate passage for us to consider is what we've heard tonight that Ryan has chosen for our benediction from Ephesians chapter 3 beginning in verse 17 down to verse 19. Let us be dismissed tonight in hearing from our God. May Christ dwell in your hearts through faith that you being rooted and grounded in love may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Go in peace, brother.