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[0:00] because it is based on our behavior. Now, John chapter 13. Before the feast of the Passover, Jesus, knowing that his hour had come, that he should depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.

[0:18] And during supper, the devil having already put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon, to betray him, Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands and that he had come forth from God and was going back to God, rose from supper, this is the famous Last Supper, laid aside his garments, that means he took off his outer robe, he laid aside his garments, and taking a towel, he girded himself about.

[1:02] This towel was probably quite long, and he wrapped it around his arm, much like a waiter would who was going to serve a table.

[1:14] He is now taking the position of being a servant. So, he is engaging in a task that is considered very menial, certainly a task that is well below what you would expect of an honored host or of royalty.

[1:35] I mean, this is the kind of job you assign to servants, to paid help. But Jesus girds himself with the towel. And verse 5 says, Then he poured water into the basin and began to wash the disciples' feet, and to wipe them with the towel with which he was girded.

[1:59] I don't want to get far afield, but I do need to take just a moment, especially for the benefit of the young people, to kind of bring them up to speed as to what's taking place here.

[2:10] This is a very old practice in the Mideast. And you must understand that the culture in that time is still much the same today, especially out in the rural areas, is that people wore open sandals, much like you do today.

[2:32] Only they call them, what do they call them? Footies or thongs or something like that. And when you are out walking in the pathways, why, your feet get dirty and dusty very quickly.

[2:44] And when you would come to the home of someone where you had been invited, you would enter the door, and just inside the door there was always a basin of water and some towels.

[2:56] And you, as the arriving guest, would be seated. And if the household was a wealthy household, there would be servants appointed, and they would come up to you and provide the basin.

[3:09] You would put your tired, dirty feet in the basin, and they would begin to wash your feet and dry them with a towel. Now, we look upon that with some kind of dislike.

[3:24] We say, oh, you know, that's pretty gross and washing people's feet. You've got to understand cultural differences. And these people did not look upon it as gross at all. They looked upon it as an act of benevolence, an act of hospitality, an act of real friendship.

[3:40] This was something that you could do for a friend. And anybody who has spent a whole lot of time on their feet know that when you're able to sit down, relax, and kick your feet up, and your dogs are really tired, it's really great.

[3:53] And if you've got a nice warm bath or cool water and somebody washing and caressing your feet, it can feel pretty good. But that was considered a servant's task.

[4:04] So Jesus is doing this for the disciples. And he came, in verse 6, He came to Simon Peter and said to him, Lord, do you wash my feet?

[4:16] Jesus answered and said to him, What I do, you do not realize now, but you shall understand thereafter.

[4:28] Peter said to him, Never shall you wash my feet. In other words, Peter is rebelling at this idea. He is taking the position that he thinks is a position of humility.

[4:45] He is saying to Jesus, I can't let you do this. Something is really wrong with this picture. I just would not be comfortable with you.

[4:58] Not you. Not you. Washing my feet? No. No. No. And Jesus said, Well, Peter, if I wash you not, you have no part in me.

[5:17] Wow. What does this mean? What a comeback. I'm sure it must have been alarming to Peter for Jesus to say that.

[5:30] And what Jesus is saying really is, You are submitting your feet to me, your master, to perform this servile work on your behalf.

[5:46] And yet, even though I am taking the position of a servant, and treating you like you are the master, you are being required to submit to me now in obedience.

[6:02] And I'm asking you to cooperate with this. Now he sees it in an entirely different light. And now Peter says, Well, if you want to put it that way, not just my feet, but wash me all over.

[6:21] In other words, he is saying, I want to be as submissive, and as obedient, as possible. I want to be as agreeable as possible. I want to show you, how much I am with you.

[6:34] So, if that's the case, don't stop with my feet. I want to be washed all over. And Jesus said to him, something I think very significant, and it ties in with what we are saying.

[6:46] Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head. And then, Jesus said to him in verse 10, He who has bathed needs only to wash his feet, but is completely clean.

[7:06] And you are clean. But not all of you. For he knew the one who was betraying him. For this reason, he said, not all of you are clean.

[7:18] Now, what in the world is this all about? He who has bathed needs only to wash his feet. I think this is a perfect illustration of what I've been talking about and trying to explain between our position and our practice.

[7:31] when you put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ as your personal Savior, and you receive his forgiveness, and you enter into that position with him, that constitutes a spiritual bath for the totality of your personhood.

[7:52] It happens only one time. That is at the point of salvation. There is a bathing, a spiritual bathing that takes place.

[8:10] There is no soap. There is no water. It is a spiritual bathing. It is a cleansing that God can provide and God only can provide it.

[8:23] The individual is completely cleansed for eternity. But again, that's the position.

[8:34] What about the practice? Well, that's where you get your feet washed. Because in your practice, you are very capable of doing things that displease the Lord.

[8:50] You are capable of sin. You are capable of bad behavior. So, what do you do? Do you get a new spiritual bath where you are cleansed without all over again?

[9:04] No. The only thing you need to do is to have your feet cleansed. Now, what are your spiritual feet feet?

[9:14] Did you ever see a spiritual foot? Our position in Christ is spiritual as well. It isn't physical. It isn't material. It is spiritual.

[9:27] And so is the feet washing. Now, Jesus is doing something very literal. He is using real H2O. There's nothing spiritual about this water.

[9:38] It is water in a basin. And he is girded with a physical towel. And he is washing their feet physically with physical water and drying them with a physical towel. But he's teaching a spiritual lesson.

[9:50] And he's saying, Peter, those of you who have already put your faith and trust in me as the Messiah, you've already received your cleansing.

[10:03] But we know that you engage in behavior that is not always becoming of a believer. And what do you need to do to correct that? Well, you don't go and take a bath all over again.

[10:16] In other words, when a believer sins, they don't get born again, again, and again, and again. They don't get saved all over again.

[10:27] They don't become a Christian all over again. They become cleansed. They become forgiven. And that is our fellowship.

[10:40] fellowship. When we are placed into union with Christ, that establishes the relationship. The fellowship then is how we act and how we think within the confines of that relationship.

[10:55] And sometimes it isn't as we ought. So, we confess, we acknowledge, we agree, we admit. And by the way, this point needs to be made.

[11:07] I think I made this before, but let me repeat it if I did. We do not ask God for forgiveness. Matter of fact, that's somewhat insulting.

[11:20] Because we are assured of God's forgiveness. He is faithful and just to forgive us our sin and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. What's that based upon? It's based upon the first part of the verse.

[11:31] If we confess our sin. What do you do when you confess your sin? You simply acknowledge it. You admit it.

[11:42] You take ownership. You act responsibly. You do not justify it. You do not excuse it. You do not blame it on someone else.

[11:54] You take responsibility for your actions. That is the confession of sin. It's admission. And when you do that, God responds, and he will always, always forgive us our sin and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

[12:12] How long does that last? Until you need cleansing again. For some of you, it may be 15 minutes. For others, it may be longer.

[12:22] It all depends on what you are confronted with in your day and how you respond to it. Every believer is either walking, living, operating out of, functioning in the spirit or walking, living, functioning out of the flesh.

[12:40] And when you operate out of the flesh, you do fleshly things. And fleshly things are those things enumerated in Galatians 5.

[12:53] And it all has to do with behavior that is unbecoming of a believer. And when we walk in the spirit, we demonstrate the fruit of the spirit. And the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, goodness, gentleness, meekness, kindness, all of these things.

[13:09] It has to do with the way we treat one another more than anything else. So, Christ is setting forth a principle here, and I think it points out the difference between our position and our practice, and he is addressing both of those.

[13:24] Now, I want to move on because I think we've spent enough time on the forgiveness aspect, and if you will turn, please, to, well, for starters, let's go to Romans chapter 3.

[13:43] Romans chapter 3, and we'll be in some of the other epistles of Paul, and by the way, it ought to be mentioned as well that the vast majority of these things that we are going to be pointing out to you as regards the benefits of belief are found in the Pauline epistles, and there's a very good reason for that, and that is because with the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ, this whole host of benefits, divine operating assets that we're going to be talking about have been made available to us, and they are all predicated upon the finished work of Christ, but before Christ accomplished that work, before his death on the cross, most of these things that we're talking about did not exist, because Christ purchased them, he made these things available to us based upon his work on the cross, so that's why you do not find these benefits existing as such prior to the death of

[14:46] Christ on the cross, so you do not find these things in the gospels, you find certain principles, and we just shared one of them with you from John chapter 13, but here is this justification by faith that we need to look at in Romans chapter 3, and verse, well we'll start with verse 21, and by the way, I just want to make this admission up front, I know that a lot of these things that I am talking about now, and we'll be talking about for the next few weeks, I know much of this is really ho-hum stuff to a lot of grace people who have been around here for a number of years, and yet I don't apologize for it because it is the truth of God, and I have warned you time and again, and I'll warn you again, if I may, I don't really have anything to say to you that is original, I don't think I have an original bone in my body, all I'm saying to you is what others have said and what the scriptures have said,

[15:57] Peter reminded his audience that I am telling you these things all even though you already know them, but I am stirring up your pure minds by way of remembrance, remembrance, and I thought, well, boy, if Peter can do that and get away with it, I ought to be able to do that, so I'm just stirring up your pure minds by way of remembrance, and that's what 95% of preaching is, is just reminding people of what they already know, so that's what I'm doing, and here in Romans chapter 3, we've got an incredible passage, this is the truth that touched off the Reformation, this is the truth that so gripped the heart of Martin Luther that he went down to the church door at Wittenberg and nailed his 95 theses on that door, and this was the beginning of it, what we are talking about right here is what set

[17:05] Martin Luther off, and changed the world, this justification by faith is, well, it's just the most incredible thing, I can't top it, it is based upon the grace of God, and look at verse 19 of Romans chapter 3, now we know, Paul says, we know, we don't think or suspect, we know, that whatever the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be closed, and all the world may become accountable to God, the reason that mouths are closed here, is because nobody has anything to say, you don't have anything to come back with, because the works of the law, no flesh, by the works of the law, no flesh will be justified in his sight, for through the law comes the knowledge of sin, but now, apart from the law, the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets, even the righteousness of God through, this is how it is obtained, the righteousness of God through faith or confidence or trust or reliance or belief in Jesus

[18:30] Christ for all those who believe, for there is no distinction, for all have sinned, this is a picture of all humanity, no exceptions, no exceptions, would you include Mother Teresa in this?

[18:47] Yes! Billy Graham? Yes! Peter and Paul and James and John? Yes! Everybody! Everybody! There is no distinction, all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified as a gift by his grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus, whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation or as a satisfaction in his blood through faith.

[19:28] This was to demonstrate his righteousness, that is, God's righteousness, righteousness, because in the forbearance of God he passed over the sins previously committed.

[19:40] For the demonstration, I say, of his righteousness at the present time, that he, God, might be just and the justifier wonder of the one who has faith in Jesus.

[19:54] This justification is just I don't have words to describe the wonder and the glory of this.

[20:06] Justification means to be declared or pronounced righteous. Which, even though you aren't, you are pronounced that way.

[20:30] You are justified or declared to be righteous on the basis of your having put your faith and trust in the only one who actually is righteous.

[20:47] And when you do that, an incredible transfer takes place whereby God gives to you by imputation that righteousness which Jesus Christ has in and of himself and he places it on you and in you.

[21:16] And it becomes yours. So, you no longer stand before God in your righteousness which condemns, stands condemned, but you now stand in an imputed righteousness given to you as a gift, just a gift by God himself.

[21:50] It cost you nothing. It cost God everything. He paid your debt money.

[22:03] You could not pay. And he offers the benefit of the payment to you. And all you have to do is receive it.

[22:18] Do you understand why this is called good news? Have you ever heard that saying, I'm sure you have. if you ever hear of a deal that sounds too good to be true, it is.

[22:35] Well, here's an exception, and this is the only one I know of. I know people come back, I've heard it for the last 50 years, well, it can't be that easy.

[22:49] It's not that simple. Oh, yes, it is. Yes, it is. This is precisely why many people reject it, because they consider it below them.

[23:02] They want something really profound and difficult and hard to get your brain around, something that only the intellectual elite can appreciate and understand.

[23:14] Then they would be impressed with it. But this is so simple. You mean it's a gift? You mean God wants to give this to you?

[23:27] Does it cost me anything? Listen, it costs God everything. It costs you nothing. Someone has said salvation is free, but don't confuse that with cheap.

[23:41] Nothing cheap about it. It costs God everything to provide a gift that you can only receive.

[23:55] I've often thought of it this way. God did the very most that he could do so that he could then require from you the very least that you could do which is just believe him.

[24:11] Just believe him. Just accept that because it's true. This is the great transaction of the universe of all time and space.

[24:25] It was Jesus Christ being made sin for us. this is the theme of the ages.

[24:38] And let me say this dear friend. I care not what you are into. I care not what your capabilities are or what your interests are or what your potential is.

[24:52] If you miss this, if you miss this, you miss everything, it doesn't make any difference what you are right about.

[25:12] If you are wrong about Jesus Christ, who he is, why he came, what he did, why it matters, nothing that you have right makes any difference.

[25:26] This is the watershed issue. Romans chapter 5 and verse 1, look at that. Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

[25:46] Man apart from Christ is at enmity with God. That means you're at loggerheads with God. You're on the outs with God. But when you place your faith and trust in Jesus Christ, the basis for warfare is over.

[26:03] And now peace is available. Peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Solely on being justified on the basis of grace.

[26:15] And we are justified freely. And that word freely means without cause, which is just amazing. This is what makes grace grace. We are justified freely.

[26:26] That means we are justified without a cause. Now think of that. What that means is God wants to declare you and me righteous because he is righteous and he wants to declare us as righteous and he looks at us and tries to find some reason in us to declare us righteous and he can't find any he has no cause to declare us righteous he has no rational basis for doing that he looks at one and he says well there's a lot about this person that is commendable but I can't pronounce them righteous I don't have a cause to pronounce them righteous and he looks at Marv Wiseman and says oh good grief no way and he just goes down the line he cannot find any rational holy justifiable basis for pronouncing anyone righteous so he justifies us without being able to do so and that is because of what

[27:50] Christ did that's it it has nothing to do with what is in you we have nothing in ourselves that is commendable to God we listen we have a whole lot in ourselves that is commendable to each other we can muster up a lot of human goodness and we can all find somebody else that makes us look really good but that's not the point the point is what looks good before God and God looks at all of us and he can't find any possible reason to justify us or to declare us righteous and he looks at Marv Wiseman and he says if this guy is going to have any righteousness that I can accept I'm going to have to provide it because he can't he just can't then why should God even bother why should he care and the only answer

[28:54] I can come up with is that God has a love affair with humanity it is love that will not let me go it is God's love that we do not deserve love and yet he wants to bestow it anyway that's because he's that kind of a God it's gone to incredible lengths incredible lengths of of somehow dissembling the trinitarian nature of God so that the God man could come down to this earth and be made one of us and die as a substitute representing man and representing God and here is God in Christ reconciling the world unto himself and not imputing their trespasses unto them but putting their trespasses on

[30:05] Christ just just absolutely amazing we are forgiven we are justified then in Colossians chapter 2 and verse 13 we are regenerated and this has to do with the washing that I mentioned earlier and we looked at the word genetic and how that it means we are regened spiritually we know that physically speaking we are the genetic production of our mother and our father and we acquire attributes from both of them but we have a spirit part of our being as well that is just as real as the physical but it certainly isn't as obvious and it is this human spirit that every human being has that is wonderfully and mysteriously made over is renewed

[31:09] Titus tells us in chapter 3 and verse 5 not by works of righteousness which we have done but according to his mercy he has saved us by the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Spirit God God washes your human spirit when he saves you makes you a new creature in Christ we don't understand how he does that we don't even understand our own spirit James says what Paul in first Corinthians says what man knows the things of a man save the spirit of man that is in him and you don't know what's in my spirit and I don't know what's in your spirit but we both have one and in this spirit this is where our will and our motivation and a whole host of other things that make up our humanity live and when you put your faith and trust in Jesus

[32:23] Christ it is this unseen intangible non-physical part of our being called the spirit that undergoes an extreme makeover and God does it and that's what he baptizes into the body of Christ and this by the way this human spirit is that portion of you that when you die physically it leaves the body and it goes to be with the Lord absent from the body present what's absent from the body you the real you you are not just your body your body is just what we use to identify the real you the real you exits the body leaves this lump of clay behind and people take care of it and bury it and the spiritual part of our being that God made over new is that which leaves the body and goes to be with the

[33:31] Lord and Paul said you know what that's what I'd really rather do I have a desire to depart and be with Christ which is far better and that's what we do when we die as a believer we don't understand how God performs this operation but we know that when you are regenerated when you are made a new creation this is what Paul calls it if anyone be in Christ he or she is a new creation this is why it is called being born again it's starting a whole new life all over again everything is new you are remade you're still the same person you still look the same you still have a lot of this you still have the same memory but what changes is your perception your desires your interests your motivation these are the things that become your perspective when someone places their faith in

[34:53] Jesus Christ we don't know how it occurs but one of the first things that often becomes obvious to them is I don't understand exactly what it is that has happened to me but I know I see things differently now I can't really explain it but my perspective has changed my view of the world has changed my value system has changed my interest level has changed I can't explain it I don't know what's going on but things are not as they used to be and have you ever have you ever talked with people or has anybody ever expressed anything to you from the standpoint of is this all there is is this it is this is this all that life has to offer do you ever feel like you're really missing something and you don't know what it is you can't put your finger on it but it just somehow seems like there ought to be more to this thing called life than this well there is this is what

[36:14] Jesus Christ meant when he said I'm come that man might have life and have it more abundantly the Christian life is not designed to take anything away from you except our sin it's designed to bestow upon us the very riches and blessing of God Paul said he who spared not his own son but delivered him up for us all how shall he not with him also freely give us all things I tell you we have such a grace giving loving God it's just incredible you would think that people would stand in line to receive this kind of forgiveness and this kind of grace from God and you know yet man can be so arrogant and so stubborn in his unbelief that he turns up his nose at it and says well thank you just the same but I think I'm a pretty nice person just the way I am unbelievable and they think that

[37:30] Christians who say they know that they are going to heaven they think that they are arrogant all we are doing is simply believing what God said we are justified we are regenerated we are accepted Ephesians 1 6 is just boy I tell you this stuff just gets better and better to the praise of the glory of his grace which he freely bestowed on us in the beloved in him we have redemption through his blood and the word blood here don't be thrown by that it is simply a synonym that refers to the death of Christ when you talk about the shedding of blood that is a synonym for death having occurred and it is through the death of Christ we've received the forgiveness of our trespasses according to the riches of his grace which he lavished upon us lavished

[38:40] God pours this out on us he doesn't give it to us like a salt shaker but it's like a fountain like a spigot opened he isn't cheap God isn't chintzy about bestowing his grace he lavishly pours it out upon us it's incredible and we are accepted accepted how many people today young people and old are just crying for acceptance for some sense of belonging somewhere to some family to some group to some accepting receiving entity we have a desire to belong to be approved of to be received and that's exactly what

[39:40] God does in Christ he approves of us and that's a precious thought when you accept someone God's acceptance of us means that God approves of us doesn't mean that he's always pleased with what we do you know there are young people there are children who crave that from their parents and some never get it some never have that assurance of having really been accepted and approved of by a parent especially a dad I think this kind of approval is a lot more forthcoming from mothers than it is from dads lots of dads are just really reluctant to show too much approval too much acceptance they may slack off they may stop trying hard you know you don't want to let them know that they've got it made with you well that's the basis for a child's security and stability is the assurance and the knowledge of where they stand with their parents especially with their dads and

[41:06] God says that he approves of us and he accepts us in the beloved think of this how do you think God accepts and approves of his own son as much as could be right that's the same way he accepts and approves of you same way to the same degree in the same fashion why because you are in Christ and in Christ you have that acceptance and that approval that's amazing it's also true and it isn't true just for some Christians it's true for everyone in the body of

[42:07] Christ even those that are behaving in an ugly fashion yep yep you think a father loves a son who is misbehaving in a way that he doesn't in a way that he loves another son sometimes the love might even seem to be greater because maybe the need is greater because of the disobedience and because of the rebellion reminds you of the story of the prodigal in Luke 15 and the acceptance and love of the father who ran out to meet him that's the way our God is with us then while we're here in Ephesians I want you to look at this we are adopted in verse 4 chapter 1 he chose us in him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and blameless before him in love he predestined us to adoption as sons through

[43:11] Jesus Christ to himself all of these these prepositions are wonderful he predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to himself now we ordinarily think of adoption in our culture in our society as parents who go through an adoption agency and they're looking for a newborn or a child six months old or something like that and they go through the legal paperwork and the government signs off on it and they receive legal papers of adoption whereby this little child that was born to someone else becomes an official member of this family by legal adoption and nobody thinks in terms of adopting an adult you only adopt children but that's in our culture

[44:12] Paul is writing about a mid eastern culture 2000 years ago and it was really different so if we want to know what adoption means we've got to know what it meant to them and this is adoption of an adult child whereby well let me put it this way in the Roman family and Paul was a Roman citizen and I think he's writing against this backdrop a father who was a Roman citizen would have a son and this son would begin to grow and mature and very often a Greek tutor would be brought in to teach the child and train the child and this child is growing all the while and when he reaches the age of 12 or 13 then the father makes a decision and that is I know this sounds pretty cruel but this is the way the culture worked when the child reaches the age of 12 or 13 then the father makes a decision whether or not he is going to declare him as his son and if he doesn't he just ignores him and the boy goes on and grows up to manhood and that's it and he has no official standing but the background against which

[45:38] Paul is talking is that when this son reaches the age of 12 or 13 the father proves of the son considers him to be the heir and he makes a public announcement that there is going to be an adoption ceremony it's very similar to what the Jewish people did with the bar mitzvah and the father would send out the announcements and people would come in and friends would gather and relatives etc and a legal document was drawn up and the father would sign it there in the presence of everyone and this is this boy this 12 or 13 year old boy is this man's biological son but he's not his adopted son and the adopted son is what gives him the legal status so the father makes a big spiel and he explains how pleased he is with this son and how he welcomes him officially to the family and he is designating him as the heir apparent and he signs publicly the papers of adoption and that son becomes the adopted son the legal heir in addition to having been the biological son all along now in our culture we say it's the biological son who automatically has certain rights just because he's the biological son but against this backdrop is what

[47:08] Paul is talking about and when you place your faith and trust in Jesus Christ God adopts you as a legal child of his and once again that comes into play with the fixed position we are accepted in the beloved and you've got to look at the way that verse reads we are predestined to adoption as sons legal status through don't leave this part out this is the key through Jesus Christ to himself so one more and that is in 2nd Corinthians 5 there are a lot more but we've only got time for one more and this is related to what we've been saying right along 2nd Corinthians 5 and verse 17 if any man is in

[48:11] Christ he's a new creature old things passed away behold new things have come all these things are from God who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation namely that God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself not counting their trespasses against them and has committed to us this word of reconciliation what Paul is saying here is look this is the most incredible thing that God has done he has reconciled the world to Jesus Christ through himself and he has appointed us as ministers of reconciliation and you know what tell everybody about this the noise this abroad broadcast it get it out get the word out tell people go everywhere you can tell everyone you can as often as you can in as many places as you can this is called the preaching of the gospel this is the dissemination of the good news how can people believe it if they never heard it and how can they hear it without a preacher and how can they preach except they be sent this is the whole sum and substance of the proclamation of the gospel of

[49:29] Jesus Christ and it is to go everywhere it is to be preached to everyone it is to be received by everyone oh yes there are those who will reject it most do reject it on the first hearing many rejected on the second and third hearing it can't be that's too good to be true I can't believe it I don't have enough faith there's got to be more to it than that and we come up with all of the objections I've been there I've had all the objections and finally with a recognized inner emptiness and longing that we are finally willing to admit to coupled with this gracious provision that God has made through Jesus Christ it breaks through and we say oh now

[50:36] I get it now I see have you come to that maybe you're still in the rejecting mode if you are I understand all I'm saying is God is patient we don't know how much time we have but my my advice to you is go to God and tell him I'd like to believe but I got these problems I don't understand this or that I don't see how I don't this doesn't make sense to me I can't and you know what God really loves sincere honest questions and he isn't put off by them and he can handle them you just go to

[51:36] God and tell him I don't know if what this guy is saying is true or not I suspect maybe it isn't but I really want to know and I want to open myself to you it's your job to show me I'm willing to be shown will you do that for me he will he will and he is unlimited in his creativity as to how he might bring it about but when he does you'll know you'll be the first to know and then when you embrace these truths somehow or another it will all become so clear to you you will say I can't believe

[52:36] I didn't see this before how could I have missed it I can't believe how dense I was and then I say welcome to the club we know exactly what you're talking about pray with me please father we believe no one is here this morning by accident we believe that the truths that you have in your word will not return void and we know that there are hearts and minds that want to believe and simply have honest and legitimate questions and we know you're very patient and you're very sensitive about that because you were with us and we know it'll be no different with them so for anyone who's saying

[53:37] I want to think about this I want to mull this over I want to consider I want more evidence we know that you are eager to provide it and we pray that they may stay in a mode that is open and available to your truth but for any who who are here who have seen the truth of this and are prepared to embrace it and just don't know what to do or how to go about it we pray that you will speak to their hearts right now and cause them to know and to understand that all you are waiting for and all you expect from them is simply and nothing more than Lord Jesus I really believe this I don't believe that your word can lie I believe that you have expressed yourself in this book the Bible and

[54:38] I want to embrace it and take it at face value I believe that Jesus Christ died in my place for my sin and I simply want to put my trust in him thank you for providing this great gift for me dear friend if that is your prayer I can assure you that God will hear you and God will regenerate you and God will save you and God will forgive you and he will justify you and he will adopt you and he will regenerate you and so much more thank you father for the wonderful wonderful things that were accomplished on that old rugged cross never throughout eternity will we be able to exhaust our praise and our gratitude to you for what you have done through him thank you for the privilege of sharing this once again with these people in

[55:49]  Christ's wonderful name amen hope to see you Wednesday evening seven o'clock above