The NXR Podcast - September 24, 2023


SUNDAY SERMON - Christians Are NOT Totally Depraved


Episode Stats


Length

55 minutes

Words per minute

148.98882

Word count

8,310

Sentence count

364

Harmful content

Misogyny

10

sentences flagged

Toxicity

1

sentences flagged

Hate speech

29

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

Join us in 1 Timothy 1:12-17 as we read from the book of 1 Timothy. Our text for today is "The Gospel is for SINners" by Paul. In this text, we see that Paul acknowledges his sinfulness and looks to Christ as the only savior for his sin.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
Toxicity classifications generated with s-nlp/roberta_toxicity_classifier .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
00:00:00.000 Our text for today is going to be 1st Timothy chapter 1 verse 12 through 17.
00:00:04.660 Would you join me now in standing for the reading of God's Word in order to show reverence and
00:00:09.440 respect for how God has chosen to reveal himself in Scripture? I'll read the text. When I finish
00:00:14.720 reading the text, I'm going to say this is the Word of the Lord, at which point I would appreciate
00:00:18.880 very much if you would respond by saying thanks be to God. One final time, our text for today
00:00:24.340 is 1st Timothy chapter 1 verses 12 through 17. The Bible says this, I thank him who has given me
00:00:32.720 strength, Christ Jesus our Lord, because he judged me faithful, appointing me to his service.
00:00:40.140 Though formerly I was a blasphemer, persecutor, and insolent opponent, but I received mercy
00:00:47.420 because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief and the grace of our Lord overflowed from me with the
00:00:55.240 faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance
00:01:02.360 that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am the foremost. But I received
00:01:12.400 mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost Christ Jesus, might display his perfect patience
00:01:20.280 as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life. To the king of the ages,
00:01:27.680 immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen. This is the word
00:01:34.640 of the Lord. All right, please be seated. Let's begin. The first thing that I've written in your
00:01:41.020 notes is the following. In verse 15 of our text, Paul says, the saying is trustworthy and deserving
00:01:47.060 of full acceptance that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am the foremost.
00:01:55.420 The first thing that we must recognize from our text today is this, the gospel is for sinners.
00:02:02.040 If you are not a sinner, Jesus is not for you. If you are not a sinner, the gospel is not for 0.62
00:02:11.000 you. If you are a basically good person who's made some mistakes along the way, the gospel is 0.97
00:02:18.220 not for you. If you are a victim, then ultimately all of your failures can be tracked back to the
00:02:25.780 sin of someone else. But you yourself, if protected in a vacuum, in a perfect scenario, a perfect
00:02:33.420 context, if it wasn't for all the toxic people around you, you would have done very well. If
00:02:38.800 that's you, then the gospel is not for you. Christ died for sinners. He died for sinners.
00:02:49.120 It is true that Christ came to save the world. John 3, 16, 17, 18 and following, we see, for God
00:02:56.560 so loved the world that he sent his only begotten son, that whoever should believe in him shall not
00:03:01.480 perish, but have eternal life. God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but
00:03:07.060 in order that the world might be saved through him.
00:03:11.180 Jesus came to save the world.
00:03:14.940 He came to save the world, to save humanity, to save people.
00:03:20.640 But throughout scripture, we find that there is a specific type of person
00:03:25.020 in a particular sense that Jesus came to save.
00:03:28.780 He came to save people, yes, but he came to save specifically sinners.
00:03:35.540 Now, the reality is that all people are sinners.
00:03:38.140 All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.
00:03:40.640 If Christ came to save sinners,
00:03:43.000 then there is a sense in which Christ came to save all
00:03:45.880 because all fall into that category of sinners.
00:03:50.540 But what's unique in our text today,
00:03:53.340 what rises to the top of what Paul's saying
00:03:55.680 is not only that Paul is a sinner,
00:03:58.740 but what we should glean from the text
00:04:00.620 is that Paul has an acute recognition of his sinfulness.
00:04:05.200 It's not only that he is objectively sinful,
00:04:08.020 but it is that he is aware of his sinfulness.
00:04:12.320 The sinners that Christ came to save are not just great sinners,
00:04:16.060 but great sinners who are aware and acknowledge their great sinfulness.
00:04:23.120 Everyone is a sinner.
00:04:25.280 The determinative factor between the two,
00:04:28.580 the sinner and the self-righteous,
00:04:30.480 is not at the objective level of someone who actually didn't sin,
00:04:34.620 that person doesn't exist. Everyone at the objective level, he is in fact a sinner. The
00:04:39.340 determining factor between two different kinds of people, the sinner and the self-righteous,
00:04:44.740 is that the sinner admits his sin. He acknowledges his sin and he looks to Christ as the only savior
00:04:53.380 for his sin. And this is the gospel that Paul exalts in in our text today. Stephen J. Cole
00:05:02.320 and his commentary on this particular passage says this,
00:05:06.240 Christ came to save sinners.
00:05:07.800 If you're a basically good person, church-going person,
00:05:11.180 then Christ did not come to save you.
00:05:13.160 He came to save sinners only.
00:05:15.920 If you're a person with a few faults and shortcomings,
00:05:18.640 then Christ did not come to save you.
00:05:21.420 He came to save sinners only.
00:05:23.780 If you're a person with too much dignity,
00:05:26.480 too much self-worth, right?
00:05:28.940 You're just self-care, self-love, right?
00:05:31.500 You're just trying to, you know, love yourself so you can better love others, right?
00:05:34.480 Because you love your neighbor as yourself.
00:05:35.980 And we know that the proper, you know, exegesis of that text is I need to really focus on
00:05:40.300 myself right now, ultimately, so that I can be more caring towards others.
00:05:44.480 If that's you, guess what?
00:05:47.360 Jesus didn't die for you.
00:05:51.200 He's not your savior.
00:05:54.000 He's not.
00:05:54.760 Christ came to die for sinners not basically good people not church going people
00:06:01.760 not victims and not self-care enthusiast Jesus came to die for wretches 0.61
00:06:10.540 Jesus came to die for sinners and this is years arguably even decades perhaps 25 years some
00:06:22.260 biblical historians and commentators would argue, after Paul had been converted, the Apostle Paul.
00:06:29.800 And yet he still is remembering, as though it was just yesterday, the severity of his sin.
00:06:38.720 The severity of his sin. And this is what it is to confess. When we confess our sin, we're not
00:06:47.900 informing God of our sin. God does not need to be informed. He is all-knowing. He is omniscient.
00:06:55.000 We're not bringing new information before the Lord that he previously was not aware of.
00:07:01.560 To confess our sin is not merely to inform God of our sinfulness. Confession is not informing God.
00:07:08.040 It's agreeing with God. It's not informing God of our sin. It is agreeing with God that we are,
00:07:15.580 in fact sinners, and not only agreeing with God about our sin, that we are sinners, but in regard
00:07:22.440 specifically to the severity of our sin. That when we confess sin, we are saying, let God be true,
00:07:30.340 though every man a liar. There's a sense in which David even says in his great prayer of confession
00:07:36.880 in Psalm 51, he says, so God may be proved blameless in his judgments. That's part of his
00:07:44.720 prayer of confession. What David is saying is that as he confesses his sin before the Lord,
00:07:49.800 one of the things that he's doing, one of his aims, his goal in confession of sin is, as it were,
00:07:56.820 in a subjective sense, to exonerate God. Now, God needs, in the objective sense, no exoneration.
00:08:06.460 David recognizes that God is just even if every person on the planet lied about him. God will
00:08:13.200 remain, in the objective, eternal, and truest sense, just in all his judgments. He is neither
00:08:20.120 harsh, nor cruel, nor petty, nor capricious. He is just. And David knows that God remains just
00:08:30.240 whether he acknowledges that God's judgments are fair or not. But in the subjective sense,
00:08:36.640 David, a man after God's own heart, who loves God above all other things. David wants to exonerate
00:08:43.860 God, as it were. You always have to add that phrase, as it were, right? Anytime you talk about
00:08:50.140 the Godhead and you're getting a little cute, just say, as it were, as it were, as it were, as it were,
00:08:55.540 and you usually can come through unscathed without being deemed a heretic, all right? So just as it
00:09:00.500 word. That's a, you know, pro tip right there. Jesus, or David, rather, is exonerating God
00:09:06.980 by saying he is blameless in his judgments. That's one of the things that we're doing when we
00:09:13.240 acknowledge our sinfulness, not just that we are sinners, but a step further acknowledging the
00:09:18.220 degree of our sin, the severity of our sin, is we are saying, in a sense, that God is just.
00:09:27.520 That God is not petty.
00:09:28.740 God is not cruel.
00:09:29.660 He is not capricious.
00:09:30.760 God is just.
00:09:33.020 And that all he does is fair.
00:09:35.120 All he does is right.
00:09:36.960 All he does is good.
00:09:39.860 And there are many in the world today,
00:09:41.780 and sadly, even many who would actively participate in churches,
00:09:46.080 they would think of something such as hell.
00:09:49.560 And they would wrestle with the concept of hell.
00:09:52.800 They would wrestle and think,
00:09:54.120 How in the world could a good and loving God punish people in such a severe way?
00:10:02.360 And the reason for this disconnect, this confusion is quite simple.
00:10:07.980 It's because we do not fully understand the holiness of God.
00:10:13.780 And by way of consequence, we fail to grasp the fullness of man's depravity.
00:10:20.440 That God doesn't send people to hell to be cruel
00:10:25.700 God sends people to hell in order to uphold his justice
00:10:32.100 That if God punished people in some lighter capacity
00:10:38.380 Then he would be compromising his own character
00:10:42.280 He would be compromising his own justice
00:10:46.500 that part of what it is to be a good king
00:10:49.980 is to uphold equal weights and measures,
00:10:55.000 to exact judgment and punishment
00:10:58.100 in proportion to the crime.
00:11:02.600 An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth,
00:11:05.320 life for life.
00:11:08.080 And what is the only appropriate judgment
00:11:10.480 for someone who has sinned against
00:11:12.540 an infinitely kind and good God?
00:11:16.500 an infinitely holy God.
00:11:21.760 We misunderstand, we fail to grasp the fullness
00:11:25.980 of God's holiness and by way of consequence,
00:11:30.420 the severity of our sin.
00:11:33.940 Going on in your notes, I've written the following,
00:11:35.780 that Paul, the apostle, calls himself the chief of sinners
00:11:39.700 in the King James Version.
00:11:42.500 He does not say in the past tense
00:11:44.100 that I was the chief of sinners,
00:11:45.880 even though he certainly had a wicked past
00:11:48.640 and that's precisely what Paul is calling
00:11:51.740 to people's attention.
00:11:54.340 He's not speaking of present sin
00:11:56.740 although he is still a sinner.
00:11:58.640 He's speaking of past sin.
00:12:00.620 He's speaking of the worst things that he's ever done
00:12:03.260 over the course of his life.
00:12:05.340 The fact that he was a blasphemer, persecutor
00:12:08.240 and an insolent opponent.
00:12:11.020 That he was persecuting the very church of Jesus Christ
00:12:14.740 And yet, when it comes to categorize himself, to label himself, to give himself a name,
00:12:22.620 he uses the present tense.
00:12:25.520 Not that I was the chief of senators, but I am.
00:12:32.460 And Paul does not make this statement as a new believer.
00:12:35.940 As I've already said, he makes this statement in the dating of this writing,
00:12:40.900 arguably a decade or more after faithfully serving christ we can actually trace a chronological
00:12:49.780 progression and this is interesting to do of paul's statements about himself throughout his epistles
00:12:55.660 in the new testament now there's some contention with this in the dating of various new testament
00:13:01.440 books but i think that this is probably accurate and generally true in first corinthians chapter
00:13:07.160 15 verse 9, Paul says, I'm the least of the apostles. In Ephesians chapter 3 verse 8,
00:13:14.840 written a few years later, he says, I'm the very least of all the saints. And then here in 1
00:13:20.940 Timothy chapter 1 verse 15, written even still later, Paul says, I'm the chief of all sinners.
00:13:28.440 And notice that Paul begins chronologically by saying, I'm the worst of the best,
00:13:34.040 right the least but of the apostles all right so top shelf but bottom rung right i'm the worst
00:13:43.060 of the best but then you know he's gaining in his humility he begins to defend himself
00:13:48.620 or describe rather himself by saying well i'm not just the the least of the best the least of the
00:13:54.420 apostles but i'm the least of the christians not merely the apostles but but anyone who bears the
00:13:59.600 name of Christ, all those saints, all those born again by grace of faith in Jesus, not just Peter
00:14:04.940 and James and John, but of all the saints, I'm the least even of them. But then later on, as he's
00:14:11.380 writing to Timothy, the language shifts from being the worst of the best to being the chief of the
00:14:17.580 worst. He's no longer arguing, I'm the least of the apostles or the least of the saints, but I'm
00:14:24.300 actually, I'm actually the gold medal prize winner of the wretches, of sinners, the worst of the worst.
00:14:37.760 See, the closer a person walks with God, the more they become aware of God's holiness,
00:14:42.660 and again, the severity, degrees, and depths of their own sinfulness. C.S. Lewis, in Purging the
00:14:50.880 poisoned well within, writes the following, when a man is getting better, he understands more
00:14:57.400 clearly the evil that is still in him. When a man is getting worse, he understands his own badness
00:15:04.260 less and less. Let me read that once more. When a man is getting better, he understands more clearly
00:15:11.720 the evil that is still in him. When a man is getting worse, he understands his own badness
00:15:18.080 less and less. I think that perhaps not explicitly, but implicitly, there's an argument. This very
00:15:27.160 principle could be argued from the particular text of a woman who was caught in the midst of
00:15:31.860 adultery. They bring her before Jesus in order to trap him. It's not about her. It's not about
00:15:38.900 upholding standards of holiness and being faithful to the law of Moses. They're simply using her as
00:15:45.280 upon in order to trap Jesus because they know that Jesus is abundantly compassionate and merciful
00:15:51.560 but they also know that Jesus is righteous and holy they're trying to position him in such a way
00:15:58.820 where his sympathy for the woman might tempt him in order to compromise the law of Moses
00:16:03.500 and then they would be able to prove that he was in fact a heretic that he was a false teacher
00:16:09.480 and jesus kneels down and begins to write in the dirt many people have different speculations in
00:16:17.660 regards to what he was writing i'm of the position that it's likely he was writing out the ten
00:16:22.120 commandments or perhaps being god in the flesh instead of merely writing the ten commandments
00:16:30.920 in the general sense he may have been writing out individual specific sins of the people in
00:16:36.400 the crowd watching. Maybe in his kindness, just not adding their name to it. But in either sense,
00:16:45.180 what we see in that particular text is that one by one, the accusers of the women, they turn around
00:16:52.000 and leave. But what I want to draw out specifically is this, that it begins with the older ones and
00:16:59.960 then to the younger ones.
00:17:03.120 And think about that for a moment,
00:17:04.580 back in light of what C.S. Lewis says.
00:17:07.340 I'll read the quote once more.
00:17:09.100 When a man is getting better,
00:17:10.340 he understands more clearly the evil that is still in him.
00:17:13.640 When a man is getting worse,
00:17:14.840 he understands his own badness less and less.
00:17:18.100 Or back to our primary text,
00:17:21.320 the Apostle Paul later in life,
00:17:23.960 adopting the language, the label,
00:17:25.900 the name chief of sinners. 0.79
00:17:29.960 The older men are the ones who turn around and depart first.
00:17:34.400 And then eventually it's the younger men who walk away.
00:17:38.040 Jesus says, he who is without sin, let him be the one to cast the first stone.
00:17:44.240 And the younger men are the ones who realize the significance of what Jesus has just said.
00:17:49.680 It takes them the longest to realize that they're the butt of the joke.
00:17:55.140 but the older men they seem to be the ones who realize it much more quickly
00:18:00.700 not just because they're old and they've had more life more years to actually commit sin
00:18:08.460 but likely part of what's going on in this particular historical event is that these
00:18:15.500 older men not only have more sin to account for because they've lived more years as sinners on
00:18:21.620 the earth, but over the course of time through age, they've not only accrued more sin, but they
00:18:28.200 become more acutely in tune and aware of their sinfulness. And this would be a good sign.
00:18:37.580 We're not called by God to wallow in our sin. It is an objective fact that if you are in Christ,
00:18:48.020 you are a saint. You have a new heart. Even in regards to the doctrine of total depravity within
00:18:56.000 the Reformed tradition, yes, we uphold the doctrine of total depravity, but total depravity does not
00:19:02.660 apply for the Christian. It doesn't. The Christian is a new creature in Christ Jesus. He has been 1.00
00:19:12.760 born again his heart of stone has been removed and has been replaced now with a heart of flesh
00:19:18.920 a heart that by its very nature is soft and malleable and receptive to the voice of god
00:19:25.180 they are now sheep in a sense always were but now sheep that have been found
00:19:32.360 and are in the fold of the shepherd responding to the shepherd not only hearing his voice but loving
00:19:39.920 his voice. Now those who are born again, those who have been saved, are still sinners, but not in the
00:19:50.620 same way. The sin nature has been done away with. Now the flesh still remains, and I believe this
00:19:58.000 is precisely what the Apostle Paul addresses in Romans chapter 7. The sin still resides within
00:20:03.640 the members of my being. He says, and I believe this is not pre-conversion, but this is Paul
00:20:10.040 speaking as a Christian. He says, so I find this law at work, that when I want to do good, evil is
00:20:17.240 right there present with me, so that the good that I want to do, this I cannot carry out.
00:20:21.860 Oh, what a wretched man I am! Who will save me from this body of death? And that's key.
00:20:30.980 He doesn't say who will save my soul
00:20:33.060 or who will replace my heart of stone
00:20:36.280 with a heart of flesh.
00:20:38.200 No, these things have already occurred.
00:20:40.160 And yet Paul still recognizes
00:20:42.240 that although he has a new heart,
00:20:44.540 although his soul has been justified already,
00:20:48.760 his body is still fallen
00:20:50.900 and in need of redemption.
00:20:53.740 There is a sense in which
00:20:55.040 Paul is waiting to be saved.
00:20:57.780 Although in the same sense,
00:20:59.420 he recognizes that he has been saved. Salvation is a big banner. The simplest way that I could
00:21:07.000 explain it is like this. Justification, sanctification, glorification. Justification
00:21:13.400 pertaining to the soul, being declared righteous in an instant at the moment of conversion.
00:21:21.240 Sanctification, the lifelong process in between justification and natural death. Sanctification
00:21:28.000 is the renewing of the mind. So justification speaks to the declaring of righteousness with
00:21:34.740 the soul. Sanctification, the process of renewing the mind. And then glorification is the future
00:21:41.900 salvation and restoration of the body. Soul, mind, body. Justification, sanctification, glorification.
00:21:49.320 And in that sense, we can say truthfully that we have been saved. We are being saved. Ephesians
00:21:56.560 uses that present tense language, being saved and we will be saved. And the will be future tense is
00:22:03.300 the way that Paul speaks of salvation in Romans 7, who will save me from this body of death. He
00:22:10.040 recognizes that his soul has been justified. His mind, Romans 12, is being no longer conformed to
00:22:16.840 the pattern of this world, but rather transformed the renewing of his mind daily through the process
00:22:22.020 of sanctification, and yet he still recognizes there is still a fullness, a culmination of the
00:22:28.660 salvation that Jesus has purchased for him, that he is yet to receive, that is waiting for him in
00:22:35.060 the future, and that is the glorification of his flesh. And in the meantime, he recognizes sin still
00:22:42.260 resides within the members of my flesh, that there is, there remains in me in this life, in this
00:22:47.560 fallen flesh, an inclination, a temptation towards sin, that the flesh has not yet been
00:22:55.460 redeemed. But the sinful flesh is distinct from the sin nature. In theological categories,
00:23:03.860 these should not be conflated as one. The unbeliever has the sinful flesh and the sinful 1.00
00:23:10.300 nature. The believer in this life still has a sinful flesh to make war with, but no longer the 1.00
00:23:17.960 sinful nature, but clearly what the Bible teaches, a new nature. And the new nature is not bent on
00:23:25.560 sin. That's what Paul was speaking to in my inward being. I delight in the law of God. Well, that's
00:23:32.140 what David says, but then Paul arguing, he says, he says that I long to do what is good, but I find
00:23:38.240 this law at work. That when I want to do good, I genuinely desire to do good, not just a moral
00:23:44.080 superficial goodness, but good according to the immutable standard of God with right intents and
00:23:49.580 right motives, with right heart for God's glory and by his grace. And yet even when I want to do
00:23:55.460 that, my flesh is still at war against me. I want to do good, but cannot carry it out. Oh, what a
00:24:02.120 wretched man I am who will save me, who will complete my salvation in the fullness future
00:24:07.540 sense by redeeming not only my soul, but also my flesh, my body. If you're in Christ Jesus,
00:24:16.040 you still have sin residing within the members of your flesh. The three great enemies of the
00:24:22.660 Christian is the world, the devil, and the flesh. You still have to wage spiritual warfare 1.00
00:24:29.220 by the Spirit, walking by the Spirit, that you might not gratify the sinful desires of the flesh.
00:24:35.540 This is a daily war that the Christian must engage in.
00:24:39.240 And even though you've been born again and justified and given a new heart, 0.98
00:24:43.700 there is still a war against the flesh.
00:24:46.980 But you do not, if you are in Christ, possess a sin nature.
00:24:51.340 And so in that sense, in theological terms, you are not totally depraved.
00:24:57.100 No longer.
00:24:59.400 So when Paul is talking about being the chief of sinners,
00:25:02.280 this is not some masochistic beating of his own flesh flogging himself
00:25:12.200 this is not him saying oh low is me i'm as bad as i ever was i haven't changed at all 0.58
00:25:20.500 of course he's changed he was killing christians now he's a preacher it's a substantial change
00:25:29.720 of course he's changed
00:25:32.160 but what he's doing is he's recognizing that although in objective terms
00:25:38.860 he has been sanctified and radically improved by the grace of god
00:25:44.060 in the subjective sense of perception he is more acutely aware of the severity of his past sin
00:25:51.420 and even the present sin which still remains i've used this illustration before i'll use it once
00:25:57.000 more i can't i'm sure there's a better one but i've used it so long at this point if it ain't
00:26:02.100 broke you know don't fix it so imagine that following jesus it could be illustrated by
00:26:09.840 christ in one hand holding a full body mirror and in the other a fire hose and you and i
00:26:19.200 filthy after wallowing in the mud in our sin are now being closer and closer pulled to Christ
00:26:28.300 and it's not even just that we're walking towards him I think the last time I shared with you guys
00:26:32.940 uh this illustration I said maybe and this illustration you know Jesus has a third hand
00:26:37.780 and with that one he's got a lasso and so he's you know fire hose mirror and then pulling us in
00:26:42.920 towards him and as the Christian born again is getting closer and closer to the Lord
00:26:49.840 The fire hose, the water of the word is rinsing him, washing him, being washed in the word. 0.99
00:26:58.720 The filth and the grime is actually, in the objective sense, being removed.
00:27:03.140 You are becoming more Christ-like.
00:27:05.980 You are getting better.
00:27:07.900 You are being conformed day by day into the image of Christ.
00:27:10.840 This is true, undeniably true.
00:27:13.040 but in the very same breath as you get closer to Jesus in the fire hose
00:27:21.160 the pressure increases and is blasting away the grime and the filth to where you're actually
00:27:27.380 becoming more not less but more clean you're also getting closer to the mirror or you're getting a
00:27:34.020 clearer and clearer view of the filth and the mud that still remains and I don't know about you but 0.84
00:27:41.300 that has been my experience in following Jesus year after year after year, that it's actually 0.57
00:27:49.740 at times hard to even believe that I'm being sanctified, and in the objective sense, growing,
00:27:58.300 being conformed into the image of Christ's likeness, because that second half of the story,
00:28:04.100 the other side of the coin, the subjective sense of perception, I'm becoming so much more aware,
00:28:10.140 and not only aware, but grieved and burdened by the sin that still remains.
00:28:17.460 And not only the sin that still remains, but past sins that I know are dead and been buried with
00:28:22.660 Christ and fully forgiven, even the memory of past sins, I'm now aware much more fully of how
00:28:31.660 serious those sins were. In the moment that I committed those sins, I recognized that they
00:28:38.400 were sins. I recognized that I needed forgiveness, but I didn't realize how serious the sin really
00:28:43.140 was. And now later in life, a year later, in some cases, you know, over a decade later, I look back
00:28:50.500 and I'm like, whoa, I knew it was wrong. I knew I needed forgiveness. I confessed that sin to the
00:28:56.320 Lord. I confessed it to saints, to others. I've been assured of Christ's pardon and forgiveness.
00:29:02.660 I've repented and by God's grace been restored
00:29:06.000 that's not the man I am any longer
00:29:07.940 and yet even a past sin
00:29:10.040 grieves me in some ways more today
00:29:12.920 than the day that I committed the sin
00:29:16.120 not because I'm under condemnation
00:29:18.440 not because it isn't forgiven
00:29:20.140 and not because I haven't improved
00:29:21.860 not because I'm still that man
00:29:23.560 but because the softness by God's grace
00:29:27.800 the softness of my heart
00:29:29.660 to be pierced and grieved by sin
00:29:33.000 is much more profound at this point of my life
00:29:37.480 than it was when I was younger.
00:29:41.100 And all that is grieving on the one hand,
00:29:44.920 but on the other,
00:29:47.920 should be a profound and deep encouragement
00:29:50.040 because it is one of the surest fruits
00:29:53.660 of real salvation
00:29:55.960 that you have in fact been born again.
00:29:58.900 But you do, in fact, belong to Jesus, because you no longer merely acknowledge failure and sin, but you're grieved by it.
00:30:10.680 And it is, according to 2 Corinthians, godly grief that leads towards repentance and life.
00:30:20.040 So the Apostle Paul, he begins our text by pointing out not present failures, but past failures.
00:30:26.840 I'm the least of the apostles, the least of the saints.
00:30:29.420 And in this context, I'm the best of the rebels.
00:30:34.280 I'm not just the least of the best, the worst of the best.
00:30:36.840 I'm actually the best of the worst.
00:30:38.260 I'm the chief of sinners.
00:30:40.540 But the sin that he recalls to mind are past sins.
00:30:44.840 That he's a blasphemer.
00:30:46.340 He was a persecutor, an insolent opponent.
00:30:49.860 And yet he uses present tense language,
00:30:52.460 not to say that he's actively committing these same sins today,
00:30:56.640 but to recognize that he is still a sinner saved by grace.
00:31:02.720 If you're in Christ, you are a saint, but you're also a sinner.
00:31:08.280 There is a sense in which we simultaneously hold both of these identities.
00:31:15.920 This is an age-old argument. 0.95
00:31:18.340 All right, are you a sinner? Is the Christian a sinner or a saint? 0.96
00:31:21.220 Well, I know that the Christian is a saint
00:31:23.800 in terms of forensic justice,
00:31:26.780 in terms of justification by grace alone
00:31:29.680 to faith alone and Christ alone,
00:31:31.180 in the courtroom of heaven
00:31:32.800 that you've been declared righteous,
00:31:35.280 not merely innocent, but righteous,
00:31:37.280 clothed in the perfect righteousness of Christ.
00:31:41.420 So the verdict is saint.
00:31:44.900 But then you can easily beg the question,
00:31:47.500 but do you still sin?
00:31:49.120 and if so how often right well yeah i still sin do you sin every year well yeah every month
00:31:58.960 yeah every week yeah every day yeah i mean if somebody jogs every day they're a jogger
00:32:08.500 right i mean i wouldn't want to admit it you know but you know i jog every day
00:32:16.080 I might be a jogger
00:32:18.680 I don't know how you can sin
00:32:22.560 without fail every day and not be a sinner
00:32:25.200 but the root of your identity
00:32:27.720 is saint
00:32:29.860 a saint who sins
00:32:32.340 who still wrestles with the flesh
00:32:34.220 and the flesh consistently gets the best
00:32:36.140 but here's the irony
00:32:39.520 that I think so many of us miss
00:32:41.200 because of a shallow gospel understanding
00:32:43.920 it is precisely the awareness of our sin
00:32:48.680 both the severity of past sin that is forgiven
00:32:52.120 not condemnation is forgiven
00:32:53.700 but the awareness of the severity of past sin
00:32:56.400 and being in a godly sense grieved by remaining sin
00:33:01.040 that's what propels us further into sanctification
00:33:05.400 that's what drives us to Christ
00:33:10.140 and so here at the end what i want us to focus on is the first use of the law of god we cover this
00:33:17.040 in our liturgy every single lord's day but we have chosen deliberately to put a specific emphasis on
00:33:23.020 the third use of the law precisely because it's the third use of the law of god that has been so
00:33:28.180 neglected in evangelical churches today so a brief synopsis of the three uses of the law of god
00:33:36.560 The first use of the law of God is that the law of God functions as a mirror.
00:33:41.580 It reveals to us the holiness of God, but in seeing God's holiness,
00:33:45.080 by way of consequence, it reveals to us our own sinfulness.
00:33:49.340 How far we fall short from the holiness of God.
00:33:53.160 The second use of God's law is that the law of God functions as a shield,
00:33:58.300 that it restrains wickedness.
00:34:01.120 It works like this in a corporate sense for whole societies and nations,
00:34:05.180 but it also works this way even for the individual.
00:34:08.380 Romans 1, and particularly Romans 2, speak in this regard,
00:34:12.820 that men are created in the image of God,
00:34:15.660 and though fallen, still there is a vestige of the image of God
00:34:21.040 that remains within the image of God.
00:34:23.260 This includes rationale, reason, but also the conscience.
00:34:29.380 And Paul, when arguing in Romans chapter 2,
00:34:31.460 says that for the pagan that has not received even a letter or a word of special revelation,
00:34:37.040 a prophet or the scripture, that even for them, their conscience bears testimony against them. 0.81
00:34:43.440 They know instinctively that murder is wrong, that their conscience condemns them because they are
00:34:51.440 an image bearer, the living God. And so even at an individual level, the law of God and its second
00:34:57.520 use as a shield is it restrains outward manifestations of sin. It's powerless to
00:35:04.880 change the heart inwardly, but it can restrain the sinful heart from manifesting in terms of
00:35:11.620 outward behavior those sins coming to life. There are plenty of people that are not born again,
00:35:18.160 they're unregenerate, completely pagan, and actually in the heart eagerly desire to murder, 0.85
00:35:25.360 but ultimately will not on two accounts one the conscience testifying against them made in the 0.88
00:35:33.480 image of god secondly if they live in a society that has been shaped by god's standards like ours
00:35:41.500 the fear of legal punishment will hold that desire at bay to where if they could murder
00:35:52.940 and knew for a fact that they would get away with it,
00:35:55.060 perhaps they would.
00:35:57.340 But because of the standard and the penalties,
00:36:00.860 they're dissuaded.
00:36:03.180 So that is the law of God,
00:36:04.780 not changing the heart at the inward level,
00:36:06.800 but it is the law of God
00:36:08.360 restraining the outward manifestations of sin,
00:36:12.580 both because of the individual
00:36:13.760 at the level of their conscience,
00:36:15.140 the Imago Dei,
00:36:16.080 and society using the law of God
00:36:19.100 in its legal system to punish those who do evil
00:36:22.900 and reward the righteous.
00:36:26.160 People are not getting worse in our society today.
00:36:29.420 Not in the objective inward sense.
00:36:32.820 The reason that we see more crime
00:36:34.820 is not because people are born in the 2000s
00:36:38.960 with worse hearts than they were in the 1950s.
00:36:42.980 The heart is just as evil as it ever was
00:36:45.420 apart from saving grace in Christ alone.
00:36:47.360 the difference though is that now you can walk in with your friends to a store and rob them blind
00:36:54.540 with no consequences that's the difference it's the erosion of the second use of the law of god
00:37:01.540 it's not the heart getting worse it's the society and its laws being eroded so that the law in its
00:37:10.760 second use as a shield restraining outward manifestations of evil that shield has a lot
00:37:16.180 of holes in it these days. Then the third use of the law of God, which is the one, again, that we
00:37:21.840 emphasize here at Covenant Bible Church, perhaps more than the other two uses combined, because it
00:37:27.920 is so neglected in the evangelical church at large today, the third use of God's law is that it is a
00:37:35.000 guide. First use, mirror. Second, shield. Third, compass. That's perhaps the easiest way that you
00:37:42.660 could remember it. Mirror, shield, and compass. The first use of God's law reveals God's holiness
00:37:48.520 by way of consequence, our sinfulness, the need for Christ. Second use, a shield, not changing the
00:37:54.040 heart inwardly, but outwardly restraining manifestations of evil. Third, the law of God
00:37:59.980 is a compass, a guide, or as David says in the Psalms, it is a light unto my path, a lamp unto
00:38:06.580 my feet that the law of God shows the Christian who has been born again the way in which to live
00:38:14.340 the way in which to go the path that he should take and not the path that he should take in order
00:38:20.600 in order to merit salvation but the path that he should take not to salvation but from salvation
00:38:28.360 having been saved this is now how I should live not in order to earn or merit the love of God
00:38:36.160 but as a response of gratitude for the free grace I've received in Christ alone.
00:38:42.400 That's the third use of the law. 0.96
00:38:44.780 That even for the Christian, the law still has a use. 1.00
00:38:49.540 That the law still sets the standard. 0.99
00:38:52.060 It's still the compass.
00:38:53.360 It's still the guide.
00:38:54.340 It points.
00:38:54.960 It's the North Star showing us the direction.
00:38:58.320 Legalism says, obey God's law and you'll be saved.
00:39:01.940 but the bible says obey god's law because you have been saved
00:39:09.340 evangelicals today say to mention god's law at all is legalism no longer under law but grace
00:39:19.540 let's never preach the law at all amen go home be lawless and that's why we preach the law
00:39:27.840 because that is most sermons today.
00:39:31.860 The law is ridicule.
00:39:35.460 But for this morning,
00:39:37.700 Paul's emphasis is not on the third use of the law of God,
00:39:41.520 the way in which we should walk,
00:39:43.180 having been saved by grace through faith in Christ.
00:39:46.140 And it's not the second use of the law.
00:39:48.480 All these by way of implication can be found,
00:39:50.820 but that's not the emphasis.
00:39:52.420 The second use of the law as a shield
00:39:54.180 restraining both the individual and society as a whole
00:39:57.620 from outward manifestations of evil.
00:40:00.000 No, the emphasis, the headline of our text today
00:40:03.880 is the first use of the law of God.
00:40:06.820 That in looking into the law of God,
00:40:09.160 his perfect holiness and righteousness,
00:40:11.600 Paul now sees with abundant clarity
00:40:14.320 his immense and severe sinfulness.
00:40:19.300 And when we see God's holiness for what it is,
00:40:23.140 and we see by way of contrast our sinfulness
00:40:26.700 for what it truly is,
00:40:28.960 then what we recognize
00:40:30.040 is the infinite chasm
00:40:31.480 that exists between us and God
00:40:34.260 apart from Christ.
00:40:37.100 See, when the law of God
00:40:38.660 is preached rightly,
00:40:40.700 not watered down,
00:40:41.880 not the standard lowered
00:40:43.160 so that you wouldn't feel bad
00:40:44.980 on your way home.
00:40:47.100 No, when the law is preached
00:40:48.620 and it's preached truly and rightly
00:40:51.580 that God is thrice holy,
00:40:54.560 holy, holy, holy,
00:40:55.940 and when the sins not just sins of old but the sins of today are addressed from the scripture
00:41:04.740 from the pulpit not just beating a dead horse right sins are usually preached 50 years after
00:41:14.120 that sin has already been addressed and done have you noticed how peculiar it is
00:41:18.960 that now we want to preach about racism
00:41:21.240 that would have been super helpful
00:41:25.760 like a hundred years ago 1.00
00:41:26.960 but we don't want to preach about feminism 1.00
00:41:33.840 right and by God's grace if we win that battle 0.97
00:41:37.880 you know what there'll be pastors lining up 1.00
00:41:39.900 to preach sermons about how bad feminism is 1.00
00:41:42.740 after it's already been slain 0.95
00:41:44.540 once it's safe
00:41:46.540 and a lot of pastors like to wield the sword
00:41:50.800 at a dragon that's already been killed, right?
00:41:53.380 They go up to its dead, bloated carcass
00:41:55.300 decades after the dragon was actually killed
00:41:58.040 and they pretend and jab it in the stomach, you know,
00:42:01.120 and like, look at me, he's fighting, fighting the enemy.
00:42:04.320 It's a dead enemy, dude.
00:42:06.480 Somebody else killed it.
00:42:08.140 And all the guys who killed it, by the way,
00:42:09.900 you would excommunicate from your churches today.
00:42:14.120 Talking about how much you like Martin Luther, please.
00:42:18.760 Have you read Martin Luther?
00:42:19.920 you would have kicked them out of your church.
00:42:23.100 Oh, you like John Calvin?
00:42:24.540 You would have excommunicated John Calvin.
00:42:32.640 But churches that preach the law of God rightly,
00:42:35.200 not minimizing God's holiness
00:42:36.560 and applying the law of God
00:42:38.320 specifically on the sins of the day.
00:42:42.380 The reason why it matters
00:42:43.800 and the reason why it's good,
00:42:45.000 not only right, but good and loving
00:42:46.740 is because what it does
00:42:48.300 is it paints a picture
00:42:49.640 of the holiness of God accurately
00:42:52.080 and the sinfulness of man accurately
00:42:53.960 to where the chasm in between God and man,
00:42:57.160 it widens rather than shrinking, it grows.
00:43:00.820 And the reason why that's a very loving thing to do
00:43:03.220 is because if the chasm between you and God grows,
00:43:07.080 well, then the cross, which bridges the gap, grows.
00:43:11.980 You have a bigger gospel.
00:43:14.520 You have a bigger savior.
00:43:17.580 And those who have been forgiven,
00:43:19.060 not little, as Jesus said. Those who've been forgiven little, they love little, but those who've
00:43:23.420 been forgiven much, loveth much. Now the reality is for all those who are in Christ Jesus, you have
00:43:30.040 been forgiven of all your sin. And in all our cases, our sin is much. In the objective sense, there's
00:43:36.780 not one Christian who has ever been forgiven little. All have been forgiven much. But again, Jesus is
00:43:43.040 speaking to the perception, the subjective sense. Those who recognize, sure, you've all been forgiven
00:43:51.000 much, but not all of us recognize the full depth of that forgiveness. And the reason why we miss
00:43:57.320 the sheer magnitude of God's grace in the gospel is because we miss how holy God is and how sinful
00:44:05.240 we are. If you miss God's holiness and you miss man's sinfulness, you miss Christ's forgiveness.
00:44:13.040 and the irony is that the forgiveness of christ his assurance of pardon the gospel of free grace
00:44:20.260 is the very wind in our sails that drives us towards obedience to god's law in its third use
00:44:26.800 the person who is following the light to their path and the lamp to their feet that's a person
00:44:32.580 who's radically been changed and impacted by the free grace of jesus and the forgiveness of sins
00:44:40.060 The reason why we always say David was a man after God's own heart
00:44:44.400 despite his sin with Bathsheba. 0.92
00:44:46.420 No.
00:44:48.240 No, David was a man after God's own heart 0.93
00:44:50.100 precisely because of his sin with Bathsheba. 0.92
00:44:53.680 That sin along with a litany of others, 0.87
00:44:55.860 it's not the only one,
00:44:57.740 but it's profound sins like that
00:44:59.520 that made David cling so closely to Christ.
00:45:04.820 It's not that he loved God despite his sin.
00:45:07.780 He loved God for his forgiveness in light of his sin.
00:45:12.840 Like the woman who's using her tears to wash the feet of Jesus and her hair to dry.
00:45:19.700 She does this, why? Because her sins are many.
00:45:22.840 And she knows her sins are many.
00:45:29.940 But there's something there. There's an application there.
00:45:32.840 because that woman, her sins in one sense 0.98
00:45:36.420 were no more many than the sins
00:45:38.860 of the religious rulers of Jesus' day. 0.82
00:45:42.080 In fact, you could argue in some sense,
00:45:44.300 perhaps even less. 1.00
00:45:46.020 At least she didn't have the sin of self-righteousness.
00:45:49.940 These other guys, Jesus even says,
00:45:52.160 you did nothing for me.
00:45:54.060 You've exercised no real hospitality.
00:45:57.280 I came into your house.
00:45:59.580 You gave me nothing.
00:46:00.680 you didn't wash my feet but since she's entered the room she has not ceased to weep and wash my
00:46:07.600 feet with her tears and dry them with her hair her sins are many now jesus is telling them to
00:46:14.920 their face so are yours namely the sin you're committing right now by ignoring the messiah
00:46:20.520 the sin you're committing right now by your arrogance pride and self-righteousness 0.99
00:46:25.040 so there's a very real sense in which these pharisees and sadducees are just as sinful as 0.99
00:46:31.260 a woman perhaps even more but why is she so profoundly broken by her sin and therefore
00:46:37.480 driven in her worship of the savior because she had the sins that were despised of the day
00:46:44.600 she had the sins
00:46:47.780 that all of society agreed on 0.99
00:46:50.660 were sinful
00:46:52.160 I'll just make it really clear
00:46:55.560 I like to apply
00:46:56.620 this is how we get in trouble
00:46:57.580 this one was the equivalent of somebody
00:47:01.800 who got caught on social media
00:47:03.520 saying something that was actually racist
00:47:05.700 but then Jesus enters the scene and says
00:47:10.760 I love racist
00:47:11.980 and I forgive you
00:47:14.080 now that person stands a high likelihood of washing the feet of jesus with immense devotion
00:47:22.920 and gratitude for who he is whereas in the meantime a litany of other professing christians
00:47:30.200 are worshiping women instead of christ never engaging the sin of racism but drinking
00:47:38.480 the sin of feminism
00:47:40.100 by the bucket load, 1.00
00:47:41.920 not driven
00:47:43.820 in a profound sense
00:47:45.340 of humility
00:47:45.900 and contrition of heart,
00:47:47.520 knowing that Christ
00:47:48.580 and his forgiveness alone
00:47:49.720 is the lonely hope
00:47:51.040 that they have.
00:47:52.640 Because even though
00:47:53.660 they are in the objective sense
00:47:55.060 just as sinful,
00:47:56.520 if not perhaps even more,
00:47:58.900 than the repentant racist,
00:48:01.420 their sin is not
00:48:02.240 the sin of the day.
00:48:04.460 Their sin isn't the one
00:48:05.900 that's been deemed a pariah.
00:48:07.780 now paul is acutely aware of his past sin and although each passing day puts his past sin
00:48:20.400 further in his past he becomes as he's sanctified into the image of christ more and more aware of
00:48:27.900 how serious that sin was and more and more acutely aware of sin that may be smaller than
00:48:35.820 blaspheming or persecuting the church, but still, as he becomes more sanctified, even the small
00:48:42.860 sins grieve him more deeply. And the final thing that we see in our text is this, that as Paul is
00:48:50.880 being sanctified, and this is the life of all Christians, indicative of all of us, not just
00:48:55.920 the apostle Paul, as he's growing in Christ's likeness, becoming more sensitive in his heart,
00:49:01.720 more softened, more grieved by his sin, sins of old and sins of the present.
00:49:10.060 It all culminates in our text in verse 17.
00:49:14.440 To the king of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.
00:49:22.060 And this isn't just Paul being Paul.
00:49:23.940 Because sometimes, you know what, it's easy to look over these verses.
00:49:26.900 It's like, yeah, that's what Paul does.
00:49:28.020 right he's making a really good logical point from the scripture or he's exegeting some whole
00:49:32.860 testament text and making sense of it and then he has these random verses where he's like god god
00:49:37.320 i love you god i love you you're very immortal you're you know no no you can't skip over that
00:49:42.440 it's not a platitude it's not paul just being um uh you know exercising his public piety for all
00:49:50.900 no paul under the inspiration of the holy spirit cannot help himself that when he writes a
00:49:56.860 theological truth, particularly a gospel truth, that is so profound and so moving, he cannot help
00:50:04.000 but be moved into doxology. See, right theology, particularly right theology, the holiness of God,
00:50:13.220 the sinfulness of man, and the grace of Christ that bridges the gap, it always leads towards
00:50:18.580 right doxology, that is, worship. Those who believe rightly should live rightly and worship
00:50:29.340 rightly. It's not random. It's not a coincidence that churches that have bad theology also tend
00:50:36.480 to have bad doxology. Churches that have bad theology, weak preaching, usually have weak
00:50:43.760 worship the preaching is shallow the worship is sensual
00:50:47.660 but when the preaching is true when the preaching is right and when the preaching doesn't just
00:50:56.500 address the things that we're called to do in obedience but also addresses not just the third
00:51:02.560 use of the law how then shall we live having been saved by grace but also the first use of the law
00:51:08.420 the sin which still remains. You are a sinner in need of the grace of God, the continual
00:51:14.180 ongoing grace of God. When sermons are preached like that, with true biblical theology, it always
00:51:21.720 will fuel right, true biblical doxology. Nothing motivates the heart to praise and thanksgiving
00:51:30.740 like a fresh realization and remembrance of our sin.
00:51:38.440 That we were utterly and completely lost
00:51:41.520 and without hope in the world.
00:51:45.380 That all the things that we see in our society today
00:51:48.520 is terrible as it is and such were some of you
00:51:51.620 apart from Jesus and his changing power. 0.55
00:51:56.720 the difference between you and the pagan is not that you made a wise and calculated decision
00:52:05.860 and it's not the sheer power of the will it is not the doctrine of sola bootstrapia 0.88
00:52:12.580 and the gritting of your teeth it is the grace of god that changes sinners into saints and does
00:52:21.840 so in such a way that the saints do not become proud, but they constantly remember their
00:52:27.240 sinfulness. Not that they might wallow in pity, but that it might cause them to exult in God's grace.
00:52:36.820 Thomas Goodwin, he said it like this. I think it's applicable for all of us, but
00:52:42.600 it certainly applies for me. When I was threatening to become cold in my ministry,
00:52:49.400 and when I felt Sabbath morning coming
00:52:52.080 and my heart not filled with amazement
00:52:54.000 at the grace of God
00:52:55.080 or when I was making ready
00:52:56.460 to dispense the Lord's Supper
00:52:58.200 do you know what I used to do?
00:53:00.640 I used to take a turn up and down
00:53:02.860 among the sins of my past life
00:53:04.840 and I always came down again
00:53:07.400 with a broken and contrite heart
00:53:09.200 ready to preach
00:53:10.700 as I preached in the beginning
00:53:12.620 the forgiveness of sins
00:53:14.000 I do not think I ever went up
00:53:16.320 to the pulpit stair
00:53:17.460 that I did not stop for a moment at the foot of it
00:53:21.180 and take a turn up and down
00:53:23.000 among the sins of my past years.
00:53:26.220 I do not think that I ever planned a sermon,
00:53:29.600 that I did not take a turn around my study table
00:53:32.300 and look back at the sins of my youth
00:53:34.440 and all my life down to the present
00:53:37.400 and many a Sabbath morning
00:53:39.280 when my soul had been cold and dry
00:53:41.680 for the lack of prayer during the week,
00:53:44.680 a turn up and down in my past life
00:53:46.980 before I went into the pulpit always broke my hard heart
00:53:50.600 and made me close with the gospel for my own soul
00:53:54.700 before I began to preach it to others.
00:53:57.840 Let's pray.
00:53:59.240 Father, we thank you for the gospel of Jesus Christ.
00:54:03.060 And we thank you that in the objective sense,
00:54:05.280 there is no record of our sins being held against us.
00:54:08.480 For those who are in Christ Jesus,
00:54:10.240 there is now therefore no more condemnation.
00:54:13.760 You do not hold our sins against us.
00:54:16.480 They have been nailed to the cross.
00:54:19.720 But we remember our sins.
00:54:22.820 And it is good that we remind ourselves of these things from which you have saved us.
00:54:29.280 That it might propel our hearts into further and further praise and doxology and worship, but also obedience.
00:54:39.640 Your law reveals our sin.
00:54:41.500 it reveals your holiness and the chasm in between the gospel bridges the gap but then the gospel
00:54:49.500 propels us to go back to your law with newfound vigor seeking to obey grace and law grace and law
00:54:58.020 like two pedals on a bicycle working perfectly in concert with one another help us to love your law
00:55:06.120 to love it as a compass guiding us in the way we should live
00:55:10.340 but never to forget the first use of your law
00:55:12.960 that it doesn't just tell us how to live
00:55:15.420 but it reminds us of how we already have lived
00:55:18.520 and we have failed
00:55:19.840 but that you were merciful
00:55:23.760 and gracious to us
00:55:26.060 and that Christ came to save sinners
00:55:30.120 of whom we are the foremost
00:55:33.500 thank you for this gospel
00:55:35.260 use it to motivate us to live the lives that are worthy of the gospel for your glory
00:55:42.360 and for the good of your people. We pray this in Jesus name. Amen.