A tour of the Book of Romans, because I knew this would be a holiday weekend, and we are pressed for time today, and we are also, we have a lot of folks out, new folks in, our folks, a lot of folks out, and so I sort of feel like when they come on the TV and say we interrupt your regular scheduled program here for an important announcement, I want to take the time this morning to chase a bunny that I did not do when we were going through this earlier. It has been sort of a whirlwind tour. It's sort of like one of those trips. see eight countries in six days, you know, you don't know exactly where you are just from one hotel to the other. I feel like that's sort of how we've gone through the Book of Romans, but trying to sort of step back and get an overview of it, and I will resume that when I'm back with you two Sundays from today, a most and most important section of the Book of Romans dealing with how the Christian is to overcome sin in his life. I would say of all the things I'm going to preach in the study of the Book of Romans, this is probably the most important for you and I individually to hear. So I would encourage you to sort of read ahead and look ahead at what's coming up. Today we're going to go backwards. We're going to go back to chapter 1. Chapter 1, verse 16 and 17. Romans 1, 16 and 17, where Paul says these words, For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. For in it is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith, as it is written, The just shall live by faith." The bunny that I want to chase is this little phrase, the just shall live by faith. Paul has just expressed to us the preeminence, the supremacy of the gospel. He is going to Rome. He says in verse 14 that he has been indebted to both Greeks and to the barbarians, to the wise and unwise. Wherever he has gone, the gospel has brought forth fruit, and he expects that it will do the same in Rome. He is now going to the hub of the ancient world. He is going to the most important place he can go. This is sort of like us. We're going to take our show to New York City or to Washington, D.C. We're going to the hub, the center of the world, the world that Paul knew in his day. And he's basically saying that I'm prepared to take on all comers. I have this gospel. that I am not ashamed of it. It doesn't mean that he's ashamed to wear his little cross lapel pin or something like that. He is not ashamed of the gospel intellectually. He's ready to do battle with any and everything, every philosophy that the world can hurl at him. He is more than confident that the gospel will stand up to the challenge. He says it is gospel, which means good news, and it is good news because it is saving news. It is news that will save your soul if you believe it, because it deals with, as we have seen as the argument in Romans has unfolded, it deals with the very commodity that you and I need the most. I'm not talking about gold or silver bars either, even though those would be pretty good commodities to have at the moment, right? But no, we're not talking about a physical commodity. We're talking about the thing that you and I cannot afford to be without, and that is righteousness. You say, well, why do I need righteousness? Because you don't have any. You're absolutely bankrupt when it comes to the righteousness that God demands of men. There is none righteous, no, not one. When it comes to God's perfect grid that he demands of you and I, none of us measure up. The thing that will send us to hell is our lack of this thing called righteousness. And we know it. Lost men know it. You say, how do you know they know it? Because they go about trying to establish their own righteousness. If you ask them, do you think you're going to heaven or hell, they'll all say, well, I don't believe I'm going to that place, that lake of fire that burns forever. I don't believe I'll go there. Well, why don't you think you're going to go there? Well, because I'm pretty good old Joe. You know, I'm a good old boy down here in the South. We have this sort of redneck mentality, as long as you don't shoot dogs and help little old ladies cross the street and little things like that. You're a pretty good old boy, and you're going to make it. Well, notice what you are saying is, is that, well, I may not be that good, but I think I'm going to be good enough. That I have done certain, certain things that will, in the last day, pay off for me when I stand before God's bar of judgment. And so men know that they need righteousness. They know that they need to be good. You catch them doing something, or they need something from God, and they're quick to remind God about how good they've been, what they've done for God. So I'm saying men, by instinct, realize that they need this thing called righteousness. But the question is, where are you going to get it? And the Gospel deals with that very commodity that God Himself has produced righteousness through the work of His Son. And it is a righteousness that Paul says is given to us, communicated to us by faith. You'll notice how he puts it here. It is revealed, this righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith. You say, well, what in the world does that mean? Well, it is a little bit of an ambiguous statement, and it has been understood in many ways. Some say, well, he's talking about that our faith goes from one degree of faith to another degree. In other words, from little faith to great big faith. However, the idea of graduations or degrees of faith are absolutely absent from the text, or really from Paul's discussion about faith. We never see faith presented in that light. Or, others say, well, it's from Old Testament faith to New Testament faith. Or, a rather modern interpretation, the word faith can be understood to be faithfulness, and so some take it to be from God's faithfulness to our faith. And that's certainly true theologically. Our faith is based and predicated upon the faithfulness of our God, but I'm not sure that's what Paul is saying. The NIV translates this probably the best way. It is by faith from first to last. It's all about faith. It's solely about faith. It's only by faith that this righteousness is communicated to you or to me. And so, as the punchline, if you will, the punchline of his argument, the thing that's going to start the ball rolling, is that Paul cites this expression in verse 17. He says, as it is written, the just shall live by faith. That's a remarkable statement. The just shall live by faith. It is found no less than four times in the Bible. It is first found in the book of Habakkuk, and I won't embarrass you by saying who can get to the book of Habakkuk the quickest. I'm not certain that many of you would just naturally off the cuff say, oh yeah, I know Habakkuk, that's one of my favorite books. It is a rather obscure part of what we call the Minor Prophets, but that is where it first appears, and then it is quoted in the New Testament No less than three times. Twice by Paul and a third time by the writer of Hebrews, which of course might also be Paul if you take that position, but it is quoted three times in the New Testament. This is the first time that it's quoted, and it is a remarkable quotation because it's quoted three times and the emphasis is placed on three different words in the quotation. In other words, this contains the big picture right here, this statement, the just shall live by faith. Well, let's look at the first one. It's found here in Romans, of course. Paul confronts us, first of all, that it is the just, and I'm going to put the emphasis this time on the word just. It's the just that live by faith. And the word just here is a term that, well, Paul is going to use it 21 times between this point and Romans 8. It is one of the major concepts of the book of Romans. And so you say, well, what does it mean that you call someone just? Well, sometimes it's used more or less as a synonym for a good man or a upright man. Grace, as you remember, Joseph was called a just man, and when Mary, his spouse-wife, was found to be with child, he, being a just man, was willing to put her away, that is, to break off the engagement privately. In other words, Joseph here is called a just man, and the insinuation is he's a good fella, he's a fair man, he's a man of integrity, he doesn't want to make a public example out of this girl to whom he had been engaged or espoused. And so sometimes the word just is used like that. But in Romans, it's used in a courtroom atmosphere. It is used in what we call a forensic way. It's legal talk. And you see that best, perhaps, by the last time in the book of Romans this phrase is used, or this word is used. Look in Romans 8, verse 33. Romans 8, verse 33. Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth. Or is it God? Now notice that, who shall lay any charge when the officer pulls you over to arrest you? He charges you with something. He charges you with a crime. And that's the language here. Who will be able to lay anything to the charge of God's elect? Who will be able to bring an accusation against God's elect and make it stick? Now we get accused of a lot of things. Satan's the accuser of our brethren. But who will ever, and of course you and I are supposed to be smart enough, that when we have a rhetorical question like this, that we know the answer. Right? I had a lady in my first church that always would answer my rhetorical questions for me, which was bad enough that sometimes she'd get them wrong. That's really embarrassing. Well, we're supposed to know that the answer to this, who shall be able to lay any charge to God's elect, supposed to be nobody. Satan tries, the world tries, but against God's elect, nobody can make an accusation, lay a crime to their charge, and make it stiff, and condemn them. Why? Because God has justified them. God, the righteous judge, has looked at them, and for the sake of the righteousness of Christ imputed to them by faith, has declared them not guilty. And there's no court higher than his. There is no judge above him. So in other words, the insinuation here is that the elect are sitting pretty. There is nothing, no crime, no sin that can be laid to their account and made to stick. because God himself has declared them not guilty. Now, it's in that sense that this word just, or justify, or justification, you're going to find it in a lot of different forms, 21 times from Romans 1 to Romans 8. It's in that sense that this word is being used. The just, the just man, shall live by faith. Paul's purpose is to show from the very outset that this new way of being righteous before God really is not so much a new way at all, that it is an old way of being righteous with God. In fact, he's going to cite Abraham as an example of a man who, by faith, was counted just. Remember the case of Abraham? By faith, Abraham was justified. That's going to be one of his major arguments in the Book of Romans. And to do that, he cites from the minor prophet Habakkuk this statement that the just shall live by faith. Would you turn there? Habakkuk. Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk. If that'll help. It's in chapter two. Habakkuk chapter 2. Habakkuk is a prophet who is foreseeing the Babylonian invasion of Judah, and he is really befuddled. He knows that Judah is not what Judah ought to be before God, but he's basically saying, how in the world can you use the wicked Babylonians to punish a people when the people you're punishing are more righteous than the people you're punishing them with? How can you use evil and wicked, idolatrous men like Babylonians to punish your people, God? And he sort of sits back in chapter 2 and waits on the reply, and part of that reply is found in Habakkuk 2 verse 4. God speaks to Habakkuk and says, Behold, his soul that is lifted up is not upright in him, but the just shall live by his faith. Now there's the original quote, shall we say, the original statement. And I want you to realize that here it is being used as an identifying way of how do we recognize the just man. What does the just man look like? And if you'll look closely at Habakkuk 2 verse 4, you'll see that there's a contrast here The second part of the verse, the just man living by faith, with the first part of the verse, the man whose soul is lifted up. That man, the man whose soul is lifted up, is not upright, not right. The right man, of course, to be just with God is to be right with God. The man who is right with God is the man who lives by faith. See the contrast? In other words, here, as it's originally stated, the writer Habakkuk is setting forth before our eyes this premise, that the proud man, and that's the phrase to be lifted up, to be puffed up, to be arrogant and haughty, to have a high look. You ever know anybody who's got a high look? I don't mean somebody who looks up all the time. They always got their nose stuck in the cloud. If it rains, they're going to drown. You know what I'm talking about. They're looking down their nose at everybody. We use that expression. And they don't literally look down their nose at everybody in the sense that they've always got their head tilted back. But you know what I mean. They're always looking down on everybody else. In fact, in the book of Proverbs, there are seven things the Lord hates that are listed. You know what number one is? That proud, high look. It's that look on your face. Number one on the hit list is that high look. That haughty, arrogant attitude towards God. And so notice the contrast here in Habakkuk. And this is, by the way, Paul's point here. He's trying from the outset to set before us this notion that the man who's going to be right with God will not be a proud, haughty, arrogant man. He will be the opposite. He'll be a broken, humble man. That living by faith is then very similar to saying living by humility. It is not living in self-sufficiency. self-glorification, self-gratification. It is living before God as lowly, as base. We are humbling ourselves. The man who lives by faith humbles himself before his God. In other words, we're having the idea, the character of the man being displayed before us. It is taking the back seat. Let me ask the question. You men that are married, when you take your wife with you, y'all go somewhere, who usually does the driving? I mean, in a lot of cases, your wife's just as good a driver as you are, but is there anybody here? I'm a little set myself up here. Is there anybody? Everybody's hand might go up for all I know. But I'm going to guess, of all the couples that are here, married couples, when you and your wife are in the car, usually—I'm not saying there's not exceptions—but usually, when you're in the car, who's doing the driving? Is there anybody here who would say, most of the time, my wife does the driving? Gerald. Praise the Lord. You know, there's an exception to every rule, isn't there? Okay. But notice that Daryl is alone here for good reason. Okay. But you understand what I'm saying. Now, me and I want to ask you a question. Why are you always doing the driving? And I would guarantee you that the answer is something quite like my answer, is that she's not going to do it right. She won't go the way she's supposed to go. She won't turn where she's supposed to turn. She's going to get lost. And heaven forbid, oh the shame of it, she'll stop and ask for directions. You know, it's absolutely humiliating. Right? That's why we want to be in the driver's seat. Right? We're men. Faith. The man who lives by faith is the man letting God do the driving. And why is it? that we refuse to turn over the steering wheel of our lives to God. It's because we're just certain He won't do it right. He won't take us where we want to go. And you say, well, okay, I'll let God be my co-pilot. I'll let Him sit in the front seat with me. No. In fact, God Doing the driving, it isn't you sitting in the front seat, it's you sitting back there in the child seat in the back seat. Because Jesus said, unless you are humbled and become like the little child, you're never going to enter this thing called the Kingdom of Heaven. You understand what I'm saying? That faith in God requires the utter self-abasement and turning over the keys to my life to Christ. That's what it is to live by faith, and that goes right along with the humble man. That's why humility is an absolute necessity for any man who will be a believer. You will not have a prideful, arrogant, haughty believer in Christ. You can't. In fact, Jesus gave a little story, you recall, about two men praying in the temple, one the proud Pharisee bragging about all he had done for God, the other the poor lowly, humble, publican, beating on his breast, crying, God, be merciful to me, the sinner. And you remember the conclusion Jesus drew? For everyone that exalts himself shall be abased, but everyone that abases himself shall be exalted. That's the law of the kingdom, if you will. It's the rule. Which then takes us now to the second place we find this little phrase. It's in the book of Galatians. Turn over there if you would. Galatians chapter 3. The first time in Romans, the emphasis I would put on the word just. The just shall live by faith. Here, as we go to Galatians chapter 3, I would put the emphasis this time on the last word. The just shall live by faith. You'll see it in Galatians 3, verse 11, but that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evident, for, and here he quotes Habakkuk 2, 4, the just shall live by faith, and can I add verse 12, and the law is not of faith, but the man that doeth them shall live in them. We've sort of broken into the middle of this argument. He's talking about the fact that Abraham has received this great blessing and is to be the father of blessing, but how are we going to get blessing? And his argument is that we will never do it by the keeping of the law. We might say that what Paul is contrasting here is the law method of receiving blessing to the faith method of receiving blessing. Two things being contrasted. And he's showing us the futility of thinking that we can ever receive blessing from God through keeping the law, through the works of the law. And to prove that, he quotes in verse 10 of Galatians 3, this another quote out of the Old Testament, out of Deuteronomy 27, where Israel had gathered in the land between two mountains, Mount Ebal on one side, Mount Gerizim on the other. The priests were divided, and some of them went up on one mountain, some of them went up on the other, and the priests that were up on Mount Gerizim shouted down blessing, and the priests up on Mount Ebal shouted down curses. The curses went sort of like this. Cursed is he who does this, cursed is he who does this, but the last line is the line that Paul quotes here. Cursed is everyone that continues not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them. And the people, you read back there in Deuteronomy 27, said, Amen. We agree. We confirm that. Cursed is who? Everyone. Everybody that does what? Does not continue in all things. which are written in the book of the law to do them. Now let that sink in. It is a curse that is directed to all who do not do all the law all the time. Now let that sink in. Now this is not just talking then about not eating pork, having funny haircuts, This is talking about loving the Lord thy God with all thy heart, soul, mind, and strength. That's what the law demanded. This is loving your neighbor as yourself. That's what the law demands. And cursing is everyone who doesn't do all of it all the time. You beginning to see Paul's point here? is that under the works of the law, all I can earn and merit for myself is never God's favor, only God's curse. And if I would know blessing from God, I've got to seek it another way, not through the works of the law, but through what he calls through faith. Well, what's faith going to do for me? He's talking about a faith in someone. Well, who is this someone? Well, it's in verse 13. Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us. For he's written, Cursed is everyone that hangs on a tree, that the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ. Notice the argument. is that rather than in you being able to do what is good enough for you to earn blessing from God, all you're going to merit by all of your doing is simply bringing down a curse on your head. How then can any man be blessed? That's the question. How can I be blessed with God? How can a man, as Job said many, many years ago, how can a man be just with his God? How can I be blessed? And it is through faith in someone else's doing. Someone who did do all the law all the time. Someone who did love God his Father with all his heart, soul, mind, and strength. One who did love his neighbor as himself. You understand? I am to put my faith, my trust, not in my works, but in the works of another. John Riesinger used to have a quick little trick question he would always ask people. He said, are we justified by perfect works, or are we justified by God's grace? And of course, most folks would pop right up like us and say, well, it's by God's grace that we're justified. John would point out, well, it's by grace that it comes to you and me. But if you really search for the foundation, the ground of justification, it is the fact that somebody kept the law. Somebody did exactly what the law required. Somebody took my place and offered to God the very life that I should have offered Him, and someone took my place on that cursed tree we call the cross. It became a curse for me that blessing might be mine. Oh, I'm saved by works. Not mine. He is. And therefore my faith rests in Him. Now notice that Calvin goes on to say the law doesn't work by faith. You can't keep the law by trusting somebody else. No. The only horse it gives you is a stick horse. The only body the law points you to is you. Here's your hoe. Get after it. Stick them. Here's your duty. That's what Jesus told the rich young ruler, who said he had always kept the law, remember? Well, what did he say to this law keeper? That's right. Hit them. This do, and thou shalt live. You want to look to the law as your hope of salvation? There it is. And you must keep it all, and you must keep it always. But all faith operates by a completely disparate principle. Faith is then not so much a doing but a quitting. It's a giving up on me. It is not so much my performing, it is my ceasing to perform. It is not my working, but it is my resting. My resting in the work and the merit and the righteousness of another. It is coming to a place where I give myself a vote of no confidence. And all my confidence is placed in another." Spurgeon said, it's like there's these ships down in the harbor that are all promising to take us over the sea to heaven. And over here is the ship of good works, and over here is the ship of church membership, and over here is the ship of baptism and all of the various religious things men do. And he said, over here is the ship of Jesus Christ. And I have placed myself on board that ship. You can't ride two ships at the same time, can you? I have bet my hope. I have banked the hope of my soul, the hope of heaven on that ship. If it sinks, I'm doomed. I perish. And I would say, to add to Spurgeon's illustration, there's another ship in that harbor that's my biggest problem. It's the ship called Mark Webb. The ship of me. And I must turn my back on that ship and abandon all hope in me and cast myself on the mercy of God in Jesus Christ, His Son. And so that is Paul's second use of this term. Can we go to the third very quickly? In Hebrews chapter 10, The writer, and it may be Paul, a lot of disagreement about that, but the writer of Hebrews is writing to professing Christian Jews and sort of reading between the lines. Well, you don't have to read too far between the lines. You begin to realize that these are professing Christians who are being tempted to turn back into Judaism, tempted to go back, to fall away from their profession. of faith in Jesus Christ, and the writer is exhorting them in this last part of Hebrews chapter 10 in particular, that they must not turn back, starting in verse 26, the most fearful judgments to those who would follow Christ and then turn back, deny him, or what we would call fall away, apostatize. The fearful judgment that awaits those who would turn back But starting in verse 32, he begins to reason with them. And to some degree, it's sort of like trying to climb a mountain down in Cordoba. There's this huge peak, third highest peak in North America, 30 miles or so outside of town called Pico. Well, everybody calls it Pico for short. And for years, Brother Dan down there and Mateo and some of the others, we sit around and talk about getting in shape so we can climb Pico. The thing's almost 19,000 feet above sea level, and somebody like me has no business even at the base camp, let alone trying to climb the thing. You can imagine the strenuousness and the difficulty of doing that, but we sat around and we sort of talked about it. We'll probably die talking about trying to climb Pico, but can you imagine setting off on an expedition like that? You're about halfway up the side of that peak. And you start, well, I just don't think I can make it. I'm going to turn around and go back. Well, what arguments would you use with someone in that position? And it's exactly the arguments the writer is using here. He's saying, first of all, look how far you've come. Look what you've given up to get here. And the writer goes on and says, don't you remember you were made a laughing stock, a gazing stock, the King James calls it. People mocked you, made fun of you for your faith. You lost your possessions. More than likely, they're being run out of town. They're losing their homes, their possessions because of their profession of faith in Christ. You took joyfully the spoiling of your goods. In other words, what he's saying is, look at how much you've given up. Just look back how far you've come. And then he was saying, look how close it is to the top. Look how far you've come and how little you've got to go. It's just a little while, a little longer. Don't turn back and end that argument. He says in verse 37 of chapter 10 of Hebrews, for yet a little while and he that shall come will come and will not tarry. Now the just shall live by faith. This time I put the emphasis on the middle word. The just shall live by faith. You say, why would you put the emphasis there? Because the next phrase, but if any man draw back, My soul shall have no pleasure in him. In other words, that saving faith is not only that which sprouts from a humble heart. It's not only that which gives ourselves a vote of no confidence and trust completely in Christ and in his doing, but it is that which perseveres to the end. It's a faith that doesn't die. It's a living faith. It is a faith that shows itself and exercises itself in that those who exercise saving faith never fall away. They never turn back. And again, he quotes Habakkuk 2 verse 4 as his text. Well, I said to myself, I was going to quit by noon. Come back four minutes. is that which saves the soul, not for its own sake, but for the sake of its object, the one in whom I trust, the efficacy of Jesus Christ. Faith is a quitting, ceasing, resting faith. And yet at the same time, faith is not an inactive faith. It's that we're at a state of rest, as far as our soul is concerned, while we work. We are working out our salvation. We are showing ourselves, as James will argue in James chapter 2, we will demonstrate our faith by what we do, by how we live, by how we serve our Lord. That faith is anything but inactive, and yet faith in itself is a quitting, it's a ceasing. From trusting ourselves, trusting our own works, we have now banked our life, our hope on Jesus Christ. And yet, the hardest working man you will find on this planet, is the man who has entered into rest in Jesus Christ. Look at the missionaries that have served our Lord in foreign lands, how they have given themselves, devoted themselves, and yet they are resting. They are resting in Christ. And yet it is not an inactive rest, you understand, for they are demonstrating by their very lives the fact that the faith that saved them is a faith that is alive and working within their heart. We touched on baptism in Romans 6, that by baptism we have entered into his death. And I would say that that is the first step of faith. It's the first example of the work of faith whereby I respond by what I do to what God has done for me. It's like lightning and thunder. The lightning both hits and then the thunder resounds. The thunder does not cause the lightning. The lightning causes the thunder. But the thunder is a response to the lightning. Right? So it is that baptism is called by Peter, it's the answer of a good conscience to God. It is my response. It is my thunder to the lightning bolt of His grace that has struck my life. His lightning bolt of grace has changed me, turned my world, my universe upside down, and this is my response to that, my answer, my reply to demonstrate before the eyes of all what my Savior has done in my heart and my life. We were out at the fireworks display in Olive Branch on the 4th, along with Thousands and thousands of others, but anyway, we were quite a distance from where the fireworks were going off. We were over by the new driver's license place there in town, but one of the things I noticed that as the boom of the fireworks would go off, we would have a reflection of that sound from the buildings behind us. And there sounded like there was as much noise behind us as there were out in front of us where the fireworks were going off. Because every time there's a big boom out here, there's the echo from behind us. My friend, that is the place that baptism serves in our life. That it is our echo to what God has done for us. It's my response. It's my reply. It is a rite of passage, as I tried to explain. It is me, like Israel, passing through the Red Sea, baptized unto Moses. It is saying, so long to Pharaoh. I am now under Moses in his ministry, and I'm never going back. We sit here on the anniversary, what is it, 232nd anniversary of our nation, the signing of the Declaration of Independence, and right down there at the bottom, in great big letters, what do you read? Whose name? Written large. John Hancock. In fact, so prominent that we've come to use that expression for our own signature. Put your John Hancock on this. Written so large, he said, that King George could read it without his glasses. Yeah, and written so large, King George could hang him without his glasses. Do you realize that him putting his name on that document that he is signing his death warrant. This thing either has to succeed or we're going to be hung. It was a rite of passage. It was his declaration of independence from good old King George. And sink or swim, live or die, He has made his stand, he has passed the Rubicon, he has passed the point of no return. You understand? And so is it in Christian Baptism. I am declaring my independence from Satan, from this world, from sin, and I am Christ. And I have passed the point of no return, and I am never going back. Sink or swim, live or die, heaven or hell, I have cast in my lot with Jesus Christ. Let's pray. Father, as we would prepare our hearts to Lord confess our allegiance through the participation of these elements portraying His blood, His flesh, our ongoing profession of what baptism first initiated us into, thou, we in an ongoing way today reaffirm once again that declaration of independence. Sin shall not have dominion. over us because we are under grace. That Christ is our Lord. He is our Lord. And we have trust in Him. And if He cannot save us, if He's a liar, if He's a deceiver, if He's false, then Father, I'm headed straight for hell. But I am persuaded, persuaded by Your Word, persuaded by Your grace, persuaded by the Spirit within my heart that He is exactly who He claimed to be. The only Savior, the only way, the only truth in life will save our souls. And so, Father, once again, help me, help each Christian here in this room, as we would reaffirm our declaration of independence, as we would, as it were, put our signature down one more time that Christ is our life. Help us that we would remember, remember the foundation and the basis of it all. Bless us as we would seek to obey you this day, in Christ we pray. Amen.