If you would take out the Forms and Prayers books again and turn in them to page 189, and then a little bit at the top of 190, we find our place now in the Belgian Confession, Article 33. We're gonna read in connection with that, Romans chapter five, the first 11 verses. For those of you who are visiting with us, indeed we consider in one of our services are our confessions, that which summarizes completely the truth of the Scriptures regarding the various doctrines that we embrace. And we are at the point of the sacraments this morning. So Article 33, we're going to read that, not now, but a little bit in the course of the beginning of the message. But Romans chapter 5, recently as I had a couple of weeks to engage in that time of visitation, I always try, I explain to a number of the people that I was able to visit that I always try to pick a theme passage to consider with everyone, and this time it was Romans chapter 5, 1 through 11, which is indeed a powerful passage, it is a very, very comforting passage, but once again, even though I had read it more times than I can even begin to count in my lifetime, and especially in the course of the ministry that God has given to me, it was different this time. And so notice with me, especially in the first couple of verses and throughout, that Paul, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, he says, there's a reoccurring theme, he says, we have, we have, we have, we have. And then at one point, He says, in essence, because of what we have, this is what we will have. He doesn't say it that way, but that's in essence what Paul says. Because of what we do have, this is what we will have. So Romans chapter five, beginning at verse one through 11, this. to is God's holy, inspired, infallible, and inerrant Word. Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through Him, we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us. For while we were still weak at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly, for one will scarcely die for a righteous person, though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die, but God shows his love for us, and that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, and here it is, Much more shall we be saved by Him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more now that we are reconciled shall we be saved by His life. More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation. We have been justified by faith. We have peace with God. We have obtained access by faith into this grace. The Holy Spirit has been given to us. We have been reconciled to God and therefore we shall be saved by him from the wrath of God. When you and I as believers come to that point of death, it is not the wrath of God that we fear. but it is the glorious presence of God into which we will be ushered. Father in heaven, we thank you again for the blessing of your Holy Word. We thank you, Father, that we are able to read it, that we are able to hear it, yet we know that it is impossible to understand it apart from the working of your Holy Spirit, which we also desire, we crave, and we plead for. But we thank you also, Father, that as we are reminded this morning You have given us something to see by which we are reminded of these glorious truths that we hear. So Father, open our hearts and minds in the way that you know we need, illumine us as you alone are able to do, and may it be, Father, that you would truly receive all the glory and the honor and the praise. In Jesus' name we pray these things, amen. Well, beloved in the Lord Jesus Christ, as I have already mentioned, Belgium Confession Article 33 deals with the sacraments. And then if you look a little bit further after that, you see that it's followed by two lengthy articles summarizing the entirety of what the Bible teaches about the two sacraments, the only two sacraments instituted by our Lord Jesus and given by Him to His church, namely baptism in the Lord's Supper. And you may recall, I trust, I hope, that we had actually considered article 34 about a month and a half ago in the context of an infant baptism. We've already dealt with that one. But the fact that Article 33 deals with the sacraments, you might be wondering now, well, pastor, why did you read Romans chapter five, one through 11? Because that doesn't speak about either, at least not directly, it doesn't speak about either baptism or the Lord's Supper. It doesn't even use them by name. But we also remember, again, that the articles of whether the Belgium Confession, the Canons of Dort, or the questions and answers of the Heidelberg Catechism, they are a summary of the complete teaching of Scripture. And it's hard sometimes to find a particular Scripture passage that says, in essence, the very same thing, and that's okay. But as well, you see, the word sacrament, beloved, is not found in the Bible, yet in the Christian church and in the history of the Christian church, that word sacrament has stood for something special, something sacred, something set aside for the worship of God. The Heidelberg Catechism gives a beautiful definition In question and answer 66, what are sacraments? Sacraments are visible, holy signs and seals. They were instituted by God so that by our use of them, he might make us understand more clearly the promise of the gospel and seal that promise. And this is God's gospel promise. He grants us forgiveness of sins and eternal life by grace because of Christ's one sacrifice accomplished on the cross. The sacraments are holy signs and seals, visible holy signs and seals. And because they are visible, as an older version of the catechism says it this way, they are holy, visible signs and seals for us to see. And therefore, beloved, what is it that we are to see in the sacraments? Very simply, we are to see the gospel promise. We are to see salvation in Christ and through Christ. That's the promise of God's holy word. We are in essence to see in the sacraments the cross of Jesus, his work accomplished on that cross, and what that means for you and me. That is what both baptism and the Lord's Supper point to. And then as signs and seals, They cannot be separated from the thing to which they point. They cannot be separated from the thing that is signified and sealed. And therefore, then, there are many scripture passages that we would be able to turn to to consider the thing signified and sealed. Again, that is the gospel promise. Including, for example, as we sang in the very first hymn, inspired by Psalm 103, that we are ransomed, healed, restored, forgiven. And then Romans chapter 5, and many, many others, of course. Beloved, because of the unbreakable bond between the sacraments and the gospel promise to which they point, Our confidence and our assurance is that whenever we witness the administration of baptism and whenever we participate in the Lord's Supper, we enjoy with our eyes and our other senses, we enjoy salvation's visible message. and we enjoy the nourishment that the Holy Spirit provides for our faith. So if you have the Forms and Prayers books open to page 189, follow along as we read this article of our confession, The Sacraments. We believe that our good God, mindful of our crudeness and weakness, has ordained sacraments for us. And then why? To seal his promises in us, to pledge his goodwill and grace towards us, and also to nourish and sustain our faith. He has added these to the word of the gospel to represent better to our external senses both what he enables us to understand by his word and what he does inwardly in our hearts confirming in us the salvation he imparts to us. For they are visible signs and seals of something internal and invisible by means of which God works in us through the power of the Holy Spirit, so they are not empty and hollow signs to fool and deceive us, for their truth is Jesus Christ, without whom they would be nothing. Moreover, we are satisfied with the number of sacraments that Christ our Master has ordained for us. There are only two, the sacrament of baptism and the Holy Supper of Jesus Christ. So as we consider the precious gift of salvation and the visible demonstration of that gift to us, we want to consider the three points listed for you. The purpose, the place, and the power of the sacraments. First of all, the purpose of the sacraments. Article 33 begins again, we believe that our good God, mindful of our crudeness and weakness, has ordained sacraments for us to seal His promises in us, to pledge His goodwill and grace toward us, and also to nourish and sustain our faith. The purpose of the sacraments, beloved, is because of our weakness and our crudeness. That doesn't sound very nice. Another version says because of our infirmities and weakness. In other words, the purpose for the sacraments is because of our sin, even as believers. We are weak and sinful people. We are those who struggle each and every day with our sin to various degrees. We are also those who struggle with our faith. If you are sitting here this morning and you sometimes struggle with your faith and you feel guilty about that because you think, well, nobody else struggles with their faith. Everybody else's faith is so very strong. Why am I the one who struggles? That's simply not true. We all struggle to an extent with our faith. We struggle with that which we claim to believe. I can't tell you how many times I have to sit down and I think to myself, could it really be true? Could all of this really be true for me too? You see, beloved, with the sacraments, God had us in mind. He gave visible demonstrations of His promise and of the truth of our Lord Jesus Christ. Knowing that we are prone to wander. Knowing that we are prone to walk by sight because of the sin that remains in us. Our Lord Jesus Christ gave us the sacraments which in a very simple fashion, with simple everyday elements, help us to understand the truth of our salvation. And therefore it's not complicated. God gave to us tangible signs and seals of his promise to save us from the guilt of our sin, to free us from the bondage of our sin, to give us that new life in Christ, and to satisfy us for all eternity. And beloved, it is as simple as water, and as bread, and as wine, or as juice. so that the sacraments then become a wonderful source of spiritual nourishment and a reminder of God's favor in Christ Jesus. And the purpose of the sacraments also includes the fact that they are signs and seals of the covenantal relationship that God has brought His people into with Himself. And therefore, we are not to separate or think of the New Testament sacraments, baptism and the Lord's Supper, apart from the Old Testament sacraments, namely circumcision and the Passover. For example, we know and we believe as the Bible teaches that baptism takes the place of circumcision in the Old Testament. Paul makes that clear in Colossians chapter two. We considered that a month and a half ago as we considered article 34. Paul makes it very, very clear. There is continuity between the Old Testament and the New Testament seen in a very, very particular way through circumcision and baptism's connection to it. And the Lord's Supper takes the place of the Passover as our Lord Jesus Christ, the final and perfect Passover lamb, he instituted the Lord's Supper with his disciples on the night in which he was betrayed in connection of their observance of the Passover feast. Now thinking of circumcision again, circumcision was a sign of purification and membership in the covenant community. Genesis 17, 11, God says to Abraham, you shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskin and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and you. And then Paul picks up on that with regard to Abraham and points out that it's not only a sign, but it's also a seal. Romans 4, verse 11, he, that is Abraham, received the sign of circumcision as a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised. Passover then, we know, was a sign of their deliverance from bondage by the blood of another, and it pointed to nourishment for the journey. And therefore, both circumcision and the Passover were sacraments of blood, literal blood being shed. Both of them emphasized the need for reconciliation with God. Both of them pointed forward to the promise of Christ and the promise that we have in Christ. And now baptism and the Lord's Supper both look back to the very same Christ who has come, who has shed his blood. who has made the needed sacrifice so that reconciliation with God could and would be secured. Beloved, the sacraments separate the church from the world, and they also make a visible difference between the church and the world. Both of them point to the truth, as Paul says in verse one of Romans five, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. We read that the Heidelberg Catechism calls them holy signs and seals because they were ordained, they were given by our Lord for a holy purpose as signs. We know that a sign points to something, generally speaking, that is invisible, that is not yet, that cannot yet be seen. Boys and girls, you know that with regard to road signs, if you're driving on Highway 6 and you see Wilson Avenue one mile, you can't see Wilson Avenue yet, but it points to the truth that Wilson Avenue is coming up. You can't see what is being pointed to when you see the signs. Think about a billboard when you're traveling cross-country, for example, and it advertises a restaurant. It could be several miles away. But that billboard tells you it's coming up. Prepare for it if you want. The signs tell us that whatever they are pointing to is real. The sacraments as signs teach, without mistake, what we have in Christ Jesus. And the elements of the bread, or the water, the bread and the juice, bound to the Word of God, are a visible sermon. These simple, everyday elements, as they are received in the sacraments, they preach powerfully and clearly of the cleansing and the refreshment of our lives through Jesus Christ. And they point to the reality of His body and blood. And they are also seals. Boys and girls, not talking about that water animal now, but the different kind of seal. A seal, as it is a pledge, it is a guarantee of something. The sacraments are seals, a guarantee of a powerful and a wonderful truth. We think of the Food and Drug Administration seal of approval that on a package of food, it guarantees that the food is safe to eat. It doesn't guarantee that it's good for you necessarily, but it guarantees that the food is safe to eat. In the Old Testament, the king would use his ring and using that ring as some sort of a stamp, an official seal on laws that had been written down or letters that whatever was on them was true, authoritative, binding. God's people, as God's people, we live by His promises. And the sacraments, beloved, are seals, they are pledges, they are guarantees that God's promises are real and sure, and therefore the sacraments are not first and foremost about our oath to God, but they are about God's oath to us. The water of baptism not only points to the blood of Jesus, that blood that alone washes away sins, it not only points to new life in Christ, but that water then is a promise, a guarantee for those who truly believe in Him, that their sin is really and truly washed away, and that that new life that is found in Christ is really real. The bread and the juice of the Lord's Supper not only point to the body and the blood of our Lord Jesus, but they are a promise, they are a guarantee that Jesus Christ indeed gave himself to take the punishment that you and I deserve. They are a guarantee, as Paul says in Romans 5 verse 8, that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. And verse 9, we shall be saved by him from the wrath of God. God confirms his gospel promise to us in a visible, in a tangible way. One minister said this, we actually get wet, talking of course about baptism. We actually hold in our hands and taste with our mouths the bread and the wine. The early church Father Augustine says of the sacraments, and this language was then adopted many, many years after Augustine in Article 33 of our Confession, he said that the sacraments are visible signs of invisible grace. That is, beloved, you can't see the blood of Jesus wash away sins. You can't see that. but you can see and you can feel the water that pictures that cleansing. You can't see the broken body and the shed blood, but you can take in your hands and taste with your mouth the bread and the juice that point you and me to his body and blood. Boys and girls, even you know that the bread and the juice and the Lord's Supper are not literally the body and the blood of Jesus. But you see, there is such a close connection between them. The reality of one points to the reality of another. In Lord's Day 28, question 75, how does the Holy Supper remind and assure you that you share in Christ's one sacrifice on the cross and all his benefits? The answer includes, as surely as I see with my hand, as surely as I see with my eyes the bread of the Lord broken for me and the cup shared with me, so surely his body was offered and broken for me and his blood poured out for me on the cross. and then as surely as I receive from the hand of him who serves and taste with my mouth the bread and cup of the Lord given me as sure signs of Christ's body and blood, so surely he nourishes and refreshes my soul for eternal life with his crucified body and poured out blood. There's such a close connection. When Jesus, on the night in which he was betrayed, was with his disciples, he was holding physical bread, and he was holding physical wine, and he said, this is my body, this is my blood, take and eat. Now what did they eat, what did they drink? They ate the physical bread, they drank the physical blood. They didn't, boys and girls, as it were, take a bite out of the arm of Jesus. They weren't munching on the literal flesh of Jesus. There's such a close connection, you see. so that the reality is that when we believe the promise of baptism, and when we eat and drink with a believing heart, then spiritually, by faith, we really receive Jesus Christ. And we can really be assured of all of his promises, that they are true for you and for me. God knows us perfectly. He knows perfectly what we need, and he supplies it simply. through simple water and bread and juice. But secondly then, what is the place of the sacraments? Well, the place of the sacraments very simply is that they are joined with the word of God. They are joined with the gospel. Bottom of page 189, that second paragraph, he has added these to the word of the gospel to represent better to our external senses both what he enables us to understand by his word and what he does inwardly in our hearts confirming in us the salvation that he imparts to us. The place of the sacraments is that they are joined with, that they must be joined with, they can only be joined with the word of the gospel, even as instituted by Jesus himself. He preached the gospel message on that night. He said, this is my body broken for you. This is my blood shed for you as well. You see this connection was practiced by the early New Testament church in the book of Acts. We never read that they broke bread in the sense of the Lord's Supper apart from the word of God and prayer. It was always in connection with each other. Because the signs are nothing without the thing signified. The sharp turn ahead sign. is worthless if there is no sharp curve ahead. And the sacraments do not replace the pure or the accurate preaching of the word of God, but the sacraments are a visible proof, a visible confirmation of the gospel message preached and of the truth as Paul says in Romans 5 verse 6, for while we were still weak at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly. Beloved, the sacraments have no place, they have no purpose, they have no effect or power, they simply have no message apart from the Word of God. But with the preaching of the Word of God, which the Holy Spirit uses that preaching to work, to give, to begin faith in the believer's heart, And along with that faith then, the Holy Spirit uses the sacraments to nourish and to strengthen the very same faith as the sacraments make promises that the gospel of the gospel salvation makes that gospel salvation promise visible to us and it is a seal and a guarantee of these promises and placing them in our hands as it were. Through the sacraments, through the elements, the water, the bread, and the juice, the promises of God are made tangible. Boys and girls, something that is tangible is something that you can see and taste and touch and feel and so forth. So that the water on one's head and the bread and the juice in one's hands and on one's lips are proof, a guarantee of God's promises made real by faith. It's like an engagement ring that a young lady receives from a young man. That ring is there. She can feel it, she can see it, she can touch it, and she can remember the promise that that young man made to her to take her to be his wife. But as we consider the place of the sacraments, beloved, it's good for us to also talk for a moment about the similarities and the differences between the Word of God, the preaching of the gospel, and the sacraments. They're similar in that both of them are ordained by God by His grace. They are similar in that they have the same central content, which is Jesus Christ and the fullness of His person and work. They are similar in that both of them are completely dependent upon the work of the Holy Spirit for their power and their effect, but they're also different. In Romans 10 verse 14, Paul says, how then will they call on him in whom they have not believed, and how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard, and how are they to hear without someone preaching? And then the familiar words of 1 Corinthians 1.21, Paul says, for since in the wisdom of God the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. They are different in this sense. Hearing the word of God and responding to that is indispensable. It is absolutely necessary for salvation. There is no salvation without that. The sacraments are not necessary in order for one to be saved, as the Roman church teaches. Indeed, we are to desire them. We are to desire, as Camden does, to come to the Lord's table. But the simple point is one can die and be saved without having been baptized. without having come to the Lord's table, but one cannot die and be saved without hearing the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ and responding in faith. They are different in that the gospel is to be preached to all men everywhere, but the sacraments are restricted to and reserved for believers and their seed gathered by God into his church. They're different in the sense that the Word of God, the preaching of the gospel, the Word of God creates. It creates and then nourishes and strengthens faith by the power of the Holy Spirit. But the sacraments in and of themselves do not create faith. They only nourish and strengthen faith as they are connected again to the gospel. and they nourish and strengthen faith by the very same power of the Holy Spirit. Beloved, God did not give the sacraments because his word is incomplete or insufficient or ineffective or weak or anything like that, but God gave the sacraments because of our weakness, because of our infirmities, so that the sacraments therefore do not add anything to the gospel. It's not a different kind of grace. but they are like pictures in an illustrated book. Boys and girls, think about your books, your books with pictures and words as your mom or dad is reading the words. You look at the picture and in a sense, the words match the picture. The picture is a visible demonstration of what the words are saying. That's what the sacraments are like. They're like pictures in an illustrated book. They are the visible preaching again. God gave us the only pictures needed to understand His promises in Christ Jesus. He teaches through the gospel, and He illustrates through the sacraments in picture form that complete salvation rests in Christ alone. And therefore, apart from preaching, beloved, the sacraments lose their significance. Apart from preaching, they have no meaning, and therefore they are only for the corporate worship of God's people alone. Well, finally then, what about the power of the sacraments? The very bottom of page 189 to the top of the next page, for they are visible signs and seals of something internal and invisible by means of which God works in us through the power of the Holy Spirit, so they are not empty and hollow signs to fool and deceive us. Again, beloved, the sacraments are effective to confirm, our faith, to nourish our faith, and to strengthen our faith when they are properly connected to the Word of the Gospel, so that the power and the effect of them does not come from the sacraments themselves. We call them a means of grace, and as a means of grace, through which our confidence of God's promises becomes stronger, that grace does not come from the mere exercise of the sacraments or from the visible physical elements. They're not some sort of a magic formula. It's necessary for us to say this because in the Roman Catholic Church, number one, there are seven sacraments, not the two that Christ clearly instituted. And in that teaching, one receives that grace of God just by participating in and receiving the sacraments. Just by having that physical water dripped on one's head and taking of the elements of the bread and the juice. And therefore, unbelievers also, just by participating, somehow receive the grace of God, which is simply impossible. as the sacraments point to the saving work of Jesus Christ, received by faith alone. The power of the sacraments, beloved, comes only from the Word of God. and only from the true object to which they point, namely Jesus, applied by the Holy Spirit. Boys and girls, you know I trust that that physical water itself, that physical water, even though it'll wipe dirt, it'll clean dirt off one's arm, yet that physical water simply does not and cannot wash away our sin. You know that that tiny little piece of bread and that tiny sip of juice and the Lord's Supper, you know, of course, even though it's physical nourishment, it's barely, it's not even enough to nourish and satisfy our physical body and our physical hunger. but through the power of the Holy Spirit, as we witness the sacrament of baptism, as we participate in the Lord's Supper by faith, as we are reminded of the saving sacrifice of our Lord Jesus, more and more God's promises to us are ratified, they are guaranteed, that God's promise to us in our baptism, His promises are true, that all of my sins are washed away, and that Christ's sacrifice for me, and that He took my place, means that I am reconciled with, and I have peace with God, and I will be satisfied with Christ for all eternity. The sacraments are only powerful and effective for those who have been given the precious gift of faith. Paul makes that clear in Colossians chapter 2, where he says that it's not the circumcision made with hands, it's not that physical circumcision that matters, but it is that circumcision of the heart by the work of the Holy Spirit. there is a danger if one participates without true faith. Now, it's not that that strips the sacraments of their truth, it doesn't. But if one participates without true faith, and particularly the Lord's Supper, if one participates, there is no positive effect for the unbeliever. Instead, Paul makes it clear, there is a negative effect. As he says, for those who do not discern the body, they eat and drink judgment unto themselves. You see, regardless of the presence of faith or not, the Lord means what he signifies and seals in the sacraments, but they only have power for you and me through faith by the power of the Holy Spirit. Now, beloved, one day our faith will become sight as we see the Lord Jesus Christ face to face. Until that day, we see Him by faith in the Word of God, which we receive with our ears, and in the sacraments that bring the very same Word and its truth to our eyes. Now, boys and girls and young people, every day, whether you think about it or not, and I suspect maybe you don't, I didn't, that's for sure, but every day you live with the mark. If you've been baptized, and most if not all of you have been, you live with the mark of God's promise on your forehead. I'm not talking about the literal water, that water that was put on your forehead, that's long gone. It was wiped off probably before your mom and dad brought you back to the church bench after you were baptized. That's long gone, but not God's promise. God's promise is still there. I think about one of those special lights when you have a certain stamp at an amusement park, you gotta run your hand under that light and it makes that stamp show up. In essence, if God were to shine the light of the Holy Spirit on your forehead, we could say that God's promise is there on your forehead. You live with that. It is a guarantee to you that if, if, if you understand your sins. And if you repent of your sins and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, all of your sins are washed away. At the same time, if you do not repent of your sins, if you do not believe on the Lord Jesus, you don't, you cannot have that assurance because you're not forgiven. You're not washed by the blood of Jesus and therefore that same promise is a call to you to seek the Lord, to believe in Jesus, to repent of your sins, to trust in Christ alone for your salvation. Our blessing as a people of God is that every single time we witness the sacrament of baptism, as God's promise is signified and sealed to another covenant child, and every time we eat and drink in faith, eat and drink the bread and the juice in faith, God ratifies, he confirms, he validates his promises and the truth of his promises to us. Every time we hear those wonderful words, this is my body broken for you, This is my blood shed for you. We are reminded that God's wrath has been completely turned away from you and me. And it was turned to and placed on Christ. And we have received reconciliation with God. We are at peace with him. If you do not believe in Christ, the sacraments then serve as a visible warning to those who reject Christ. A warning that these truths are not true of you. And again, they are a call. The sacraments themselves are a call to you to repent of your sins, to believe in Christ alone because He alone is our hope. He alone is to be our heart's desire. There is only peace with God through Him. Beloved, praise God that in a world of darkness, He has given to us the eyes of faith. to be comforted by and to walk according to the light of His truth in Jesus Christ our Lord. And may that then give us strength for life, for this life in preparation for the life to come when our faith will indeed become sight as we behold the Savior, not through the water, not through the bread, and not through the juice, but as we behold Him in the flesh face to face. Let's pray together. Lord God, our faithful Father, we do thank you for the precious gift of the sacraments. We must confess that at times we treat them as just something that we do. It's a part of our custom. It's a part of our tradition. Indeed, Father, help us to recognize that they are so much more than that, and that as we experience the sacraments throughout our lives, that they have such valuable and important meaning for us. And we thank you, Father, that because our faith is often weak, and because we are called to walk by faith and not by sight, knowing our weakness, you've given to us something to see, something that makes sense, something that even a young child can understand. So, Father, bless us, we pray, with this truth on this day and every single time we have the privilege to participate in the sacraments. We thank you, Father, that in profession of faith as Camden's this morning, that he and we who have also professed our faith, that in that we claim the promise that you give to us in our baptism, even as infants, And what an amazing truth and gift that is. So, Father, bless us. And because of these things, may we always be able to say, whatever the circumstance, it is well with our soul, both now and forever. In Jesus' name, we pray these things. Amen.