Church: Reformed Baptist Church of Franconia | Text: Ephesians 6:14 | Date: March 20, 2016 | Speaker: Fred Zaspel

Introduction

Chapter 6. We are working our way through this section on the armor of God, and we come today to verse 14, the second part of the verse where the apostle tells us that we must put on the breastplate of righteousness. The implication is we must know how to use it in our defense. Today we will—because so much is assumed in that statement, so much lies in the background—we’re going to take that in two parts. Today we will look at the righteousness itself and what it signifies, and then next time, Lord willing, we will look into how then we can use that righteousness as our defense, as a breastplate.

Today, verse 14, let us go ahead and read the passage again, Ephesians 6, beginning with verse 10:

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore, take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm. Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. In all circumstances take up the shield of faith with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one. and take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, praying at all times in the Spirit with all prayer and supplication. To that end, keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints and also for me, that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains, that I may declare it boldly as I ought to speak.

Again, today we’ll focus on verse 14, the last half of the verse, “having put on the breastplate of righteousness.” Let’s bow together for prayer.

Our Father, our hearts are full this morning with joy in our Redeemer. We are grateful for your grace in sending us your Son. We are grateful for Him who has come and has stood in our place and has been for us and is for us all that you require of us. What a great gospel this is, what a great story it is that we have to sing of, of a Savior come from heaven to our rescue. We pray that you would now further open our minds, give us a closer understanding of the significance of his work for us. In his name we pray, amen.

Well again, today we’ll look at the righteousness itself and then next time at what it means to wear that righteousness as a breastplate or to use it as our own defense.

What Does It Mean When He Speaks Of Righteousness?

Now as we did last time with the belt of truth, I want to begin with some definitions here. What does it mean when he speaks of righteousness? And then next time, we’ll see what it is to wear it as a breastplate. But what does he mean here by righteousness?

I mentioned last time that on a popular level, often this passage is treated as though it is speaking of our own virtues. So in this case, it would be, under that understanding, putting on the breastplate of our righteousness—our righteousness, our virtue, our integrity—so that we will be able to stand in that evil day. As I mentioned last time, I think that approach, that understanding to this passage is really inadequate.

I think it’s inadequate, for example, because of verse 12. We do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, powers, the evil forces of darkness that rule this world. What I need in standing against that kind of an enemy is more than my own righteousness, something stronger. Moreover, I think that that understanding has the cart before the horse. This idea of my own personal integrity, my own personal righteousness, a practical righteousness, important as that is, it is the goal for which I’m striving in this struggle with the angelic realm, the demonic realm. It is not the means by which I struggle. It’s the goal to which I’m struggling to maintain my righteousness, and the righteousness that I need in maintaining that struggle is something better than my own righteousness. So personal righteousness is essential, and we must insist on it. But it doesn’t seem, I don’t think, to be in view here with regard to the armor that Paul is talking about.

Well, then the only alternative is to speak of the righteousness of God or the righteousness of Christ, which, of course, is the burden of this idea of righteousness in Paul’s writing virtually everywhere throughout his letters. Now, when we speak of righteousness, we’re talking about a norm, a standard. If someone is righteous, he measures up to that standard, measures up to that norm. The righteousness of God, then, is to say he measures up to that norm. Well, now that raises a question immediately, because it’s not as though there is some external standard, external to God, to which he must measure up. He himself is the standard.

But when we speak of the righteousness of God, first of all, and most fundamentally, what we mean then is that God always acts in keeping with himself, with his own perfections. He always acts in keeping with his own excellencies, his own perfections and his own righteousness. Some people have called this attribute of divine righteousness the ethical dimension of God’s holiness. He always behaves in keeping with who he is.

Divine Righteousness In The Old Testament

And when we speak of divine righteousness—and we’re going to survey quickly this morning, first of all, how we find that displayed for us mainly in the Old Testament, and then we’ll come to the New—when we speak of God as a righteous God, righteous in himself, it is a very small step then, and the biblical writers do this repeatedly, to speak of God as not only righteous in himself, but therefore demanding righteousness of his creatures. He has made us in his image and he requires us in our behavior to reflect that righteousness which is his. And this is very common in association with the terms of the righteousness of God. So to keep the law, to keep God’s law, is to do what is right, to do what is righteous. It meets up to that standard. Obedience, goodness, virtue in the scriptures is described as righteousness, doing what is pleasing to God. So God is righteous in himself. God demands righteousness of his creatures.

And then there’s another connotation with this term, the righteousness of God, particularly in the Old Testament. And it’s not surprising that often the righteousness of God is a notion that’s associated with God’s judgment. God is righteous. God demands righteousness. And for those of his creatures who do not behave in a way that is in keeping with his righteousness, they must be punished. Righteousness demands vindication. And so this is associated often in the Old Testament with God’s righteousness—not just in the Old, but in the New as well, but it’s a dominant theme in the Old Testament.

For example, Psalm 7, verse 11: “God is a righteous judge who feels indignation every day.” Perhaps the most fearful notion we could ever entertain: not only that God is judge, but that God judges righteously. He calls it by the numbers. He will not compromise. And in pronouncing judgment on sinners, sinners get what they deserve; he judges in righteousness. Psalm 9, verse 8: “he will judge the world in righteousness.” We have the same in Acts 17, verse 31: “God has fixed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness.” Romans 2:5 speaks of the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed. In 2 Timothy 4, verse 8, God is described as the righteous judge. Revelation 19, verse 11: “in righteousness he judges and makes war.” It’s probably the most obvious connotation of God’s righteousness, and there are endless examples of this in the scriptures, that God being righteous, and therefore demanding righteousness of his rational creatures, demands punishment of all unrighteousness because his righteousness—and righteousness demands it—his righteousness must be vindicated.

So that’s all we’ll do on that, but keep this firmly in mind as we go on because it presents something of a riddle and a puzzle that we have to work through. God is righteous, God demands righteousness, and God judges according to righteousness. Now we have some other connotations associated with divine righteousness that we see developing in the Old Testament. Some of them are a little bit surprising. Most importantly, not only is God righteous, not only does God demand righteousness, not only is He judge in righteousness, but we begin to read verses that speak of God saving according to righteousness.

God saving according to righteousness. Now sometimes the salvation itself that God brings is described for us as righteousness. Let me give you a sample of that. Let’s take time to look at a few of these samples as we go through. Look at Psalm 51 and verse 14. Psalm 51:14: “Deliver me from blood guiltiness, O God, O God of my salvation, and my tongue will sing aloud of your mercy.” That’s not what it says, is it? Isn’t that fascinating? “Deliver me from blood guiltiness, O God, of my salvation, and my tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness.” Now here David is in the midst, as you know, of his great confession, his expression of repentance over his sin with Bathsheba and Uriah and all that went on with that. He’d been confronted by the prophet. He’s faced his sin, and now he’s in repentance, and he asks for God’s salvation, his forgiveness, and in response to that he says, “I’ll sing aloud of your righteousness.”

Isn’t that a surprising thing? Righteousness would be, you would think, the very thing that David wants to avoid at this point. And you might expect, “I’ll sing aloud of your mercy.” And of course, he could do that very rightly. But what he says here is, “I’ll sing aloud of your righteousness.” So the salvation that God brings is sometimes described itself as God’s righteousness. I’ll give you another one quickly, Isaiah 46:13. Here in a prophecy, a promise, God says, “I bring near my righteousness, and my salvation will not delay.” Again, salvation is spoken of as righteousness. In Micah 7 and verse 9, again we have a prophecy of the end time deliverance that God will bring, and it’s described in terms of the arrival of God’s righteousness.

Well again, it’s a puzzling thing. It’s a surprising kind of connotation. You might expect that salvation would be described in terms of mercy, love, grace, forgiveness, patience, but here it’s described in terms of God’s righteousness. Or another aspect of that, God’s righteousness is sometimes, in the Old Testament, expressed as the basis of God’s saving activity. It’s the basis of his activity. He saves because he is righteous. And so it becomes the basis of the appeal that God’s people make: “God, save me because you are righteous.”

Isn’t that a fascinating thing? You would think it would have to be, “If you’re righteous, condemn me.” And so let’s see some examples of that. Psalm 31 and verse 1: “in your righteousness deliver me.” Psalm 35, verse 24: “vindicate me O Lord my God according to your righteousness.” Psalm 71 and verse 2: “in your righteousness deliver me.” Now if you’re keeping in mind what we’ve seen before, that God is himself righteous, he demands righteousness, and in fact he judges with an inflexible righteousness, how in the world can sinners then appeal to God for salvation because he’s righteous?

Let’s look at one of these. Look at Psalm 143. Psalm 143, verse 11: “For your name’s sake, O Lord, preserve my life.” That is, because of who you are, save me. “In your righteousness bring my soul out of trouble.” You see how he’s appealing to God’s righteousness as the ground of his appeal, his request for salvation. If you back up to verse 1, you’ll see it again: “Hear my prayer, O Lord. Give ear to my pleas for mercy in your faithfulness. Answer me in your righteousness.” Now what’s fascinating about that is the next verse: “Enter not into judgment with your servant, for no one living is righteous before you.” Isn’t that fascinating? “Lord, save me because you are righteous. I’m not.” And you would think that confession in verse two undoes the appeal of verse one. In righteousness, you would think then the one who is unrighteous must be judged. But because God is righteous, the unrighteous sinner appeals to God for salvation.

Well, you find that in Psalm 143. If you’d like, for those of you taking notes, you can write down Daniel chapter 9. We find it there, verse 16, also verses 7 and 14, where we have the confession that Daniel and his people are unrighteous and therefore deserve judgment. But because God is righteous, they appeal to him for salvation.

And then there’s one more connotation with God’s righteousness that we find in the Old Testament. And this is even more fascinating. Those who receive God’s salvation are referred to as themselves righteous. Those who receive salvation are themselves referred to as righteous. So for example, Psalm 35, verses 27 and 28: “let those who desire my righteousness shout and be glad and my tongue will declare your righteousness.” It’s as though somehow now, because God has acted to save—God who is righteous has acted to save—those who are unrighteous needing salvation have themselves become righteous.

So we have God who is righteous in himself, we have God demanding righteousness, God judging in righteousness, but now we have God saving his people in righteousness, and the salvation he accomplishes, he accomplishes righteously, and the salvation itself is described as righteousness, and the people who are saved then called righteous. Now how in the world do you put all that together? This is something of the riddle of the Old Testament. God demands righteousness. He’s inflexible because he is perfectly righteous. He must judge all unrighteousness. It must be condemned. And yet he saves in righteousness in such a way that not only is he righteous, but those who are saved are themselves righteous. And so at the same time, we find some expressions in the Old Testament that God himself has said to be our righteousness. The famous example of that, Jeremiah 23 and verse 6: “this is the name by which they shall be called. Here’s their name, the Lord our righteousness.” Somehow then this God who is righteous, this God who demands righteousness, this God who judges in righteousness, will find a righteous way to save his unrighteous people, a way for them somehow to become righteous by their association with him.

The New Testament Doctrine Of Justification

Now how in the world is that going to play out? Well, of course, you attend Reformed Baptist Church, you know that. And this brings us into the New Testament doctrine of justification. Righteousness is a favorite theme of the Apostle Paul. He deals with it repeatedly in this context of what we call the doctrine of justification. So turn over, for example, to Romans chapter 1. We’re going to track out a few of the major passages just quickly. We’re going to track with a few of the major passages where Paul expounds this theme. We can’t go into depth with any of them, but we’ll highlight several of them so we can trace it out.

Romans chapter 1, verses 16 and 17: “I’m not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.” Now he gives an explanation. Why is it he is so proud of the gospel? “Because in it the righteousness of God is revealed.” We’ve seen this before. It’s a surprising thing. You would think the good news by definition ought to be a revelation of the mercy of God, the grace of God, the love of God, and indeed it is. But what Paul says most fundamentally is that the good news of Christ is good news precisely because it is a revelation of the righteousness from God, from faith to faith, as it is written—and here he quotes Habakkuk—”the righteous shall live by faith.”

Now this expression, “the righteousness of God,” in the New Testament, Paul in particular, comes to connote many times, most often, righteousness not only that God is righteous, that he demands righteousness, that he punishes all unrighteousness, but he comes to connote righteousness from God. That is the idea that God gives us the righteousness he demands of us. Now this is very important. Because—and I want you to keep this in mind as we go through some other passages as well—in any other context, to justify means that I must demonstrate that I’m right, that I have done what is right. So if you accuse me of doing something wrong, I have then to justify myself; I would have to demonstrate that I did not do wrong, but I have done what is right, or explain some circumstances that make it look differently from how you perceive it. But I’ve got to justify myself. I’ve got to demonstrate that I’m right. But necessarily, when it comes to saving justification, by the nature of the case, sinners cannot demonstrate that they’ve been right. And so what the Apostle Paul expounds at great length is that in justifying us, God gives us the righteousness that he requires of us, and on the ground of that righteousness given to us, God the judge pronounces us righteous. That’s a lot. You kids taking notes today, I feel really bad for you. This is a lot of conceptual things for you to get. Track with me if you can, and next time we’ll put it together, I think, a little bit more practically. But here’s the idea, then: righteousness from God. And that’s what makes the gospel good news. It is a revelation of righteousness from God.

Let’s look at Romans chapter 3. Just turn the page. Here Paul deals with it in verses 21 and following in a very compact way. The tightest argument of justification probably anywhere in the New Testament. “But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the law and the prophets bear witness to it.” That is, this righteousness that comes from God is not given on the ground of the old covenant. It couldn’t do it. But the law and the prophets did talk about it. They pointed us to it. Verse 22: “the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ.” This righteousness from God comes to us by faith in Christ for everyone who believes. There’s no distinction. Because all sin comes short of the glory of God. Nobody can earn it, so it comes by faith.

And we are justified, verse 24—notice how he packs in the terms here—we are justified by his grace as a gift. Now that’s redundant, if ever there was redundancy. Or the older translation, we are justified freely by his grace. That’s redundant, but Paul is pushing it to make sure we understand that this comes to us unearned. Righteousness comes to us from God freely. Now that raises a question. How can God just give us the righteousness that he requires of us when in fact we are unrighteous, deserving his condemnation, and he’s the righteous judge that must condemn it? How can he just give us what he requires of us and still remain the just God that he is?

Well, Paul answers that. We are justified by his grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. That is, redemption, as you know, speaks of a release by the payment of a ransom. Christ in his blood has paid the ransom price that has released us, freed us, liberated us from the penalty and the power of sin and the guilt of sin. So we are justified by his grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. How does that work? Verse 25: “whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood to be received by faith.” That is, God put forth his son and gave him up who stood in the place of sinners and in their place died under the condemnation, the just condemnation of God, therefore appeasing God, propitiating God. God now is satisfied with the sinner because of the substitute that has rendered satisfaction to his justice. They then are released from the guilt of sin, and God now is able justly to justify them who were themselves unrighteous, but because of their substitute are made righteous.

You see his thinking there? And you notice that that’s, in Paul’s mind, is this dilemma of how a righteous God can do that because he goes on: “This was to show God’s righteousness,” not to show God’s love, although it did that. But his point here is that it showed God’s righteousness because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. Was David justified before God? Answer here is yes. How could he be justified? Was he himself righteous? You wouldn’t want to ask Uriah that. How about Abraham? Was he justified? Yeah. Was he righteous? Sarah might have something to say about that once in a while. How is it God, the righteous judge, could righteously pronounce them righteous, even though they’re unrighteous? And God himself remained righteous doing it. And Paul says, well, here they were saved on credit. Because coming was a substitute who would stand in their place. And so for the time being, God was forbearing with regard to them, looking over it to when the substitute would come and be for them what God required of them.

And so, the conclusion, verse 26: “it was to show his righteousness at the present time so that God might be just and the justifier of him who believes in Jesus.” This is fascinating. This righteous judge who demands righteousness and must punish and condemn all unrighteousness takes unrighteous sinners, declares them righteous because the righteous Christ has stood in their place, taken their punishment, appeased God’s wrath. They are saved and delivered from the guilt and the curse of their sin, and God now justly can pronounce them just. That is to say, God has never sidestepped his justice. There have been no loopholes. He has never lowered the bar to save anyone. He’s a just, he’s a righteous God, he’s a righteous judge. He cannot save by sidestepping justice. But on the ground of a full satisfaction of righteousness in Christ, he is able now, justly, to justify the unjust.

Other passages, look across the page, Romans chapter 4. Paul now describes this whole exchange in terms of imputation. “What shall we say was gained by Abraham, our father, according to the flesh? If Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God.” That is, no one will ever stand before God and say, “you owe me salvation.” Well, then how did he get it? Well, what does the scripture say? “Abraham believed God and it was counted to him”—there’s our word imputed—”it was counted to him as righteousness.” Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift, but as is due. And to the man who does not work, but trusts him who justifies the ungodly—there again in a nutshell is the whole riddle, God justifying ungodly, how does that happen?—”but trusts him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness, just as David”—and here he quotes Psalm 32—”David also speaks of the blessing of the one to whom God counts or imputes righteousness apart from works. David says, blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not impute sin.” Is this blessing then only for the circumcised or also for the uncircumcised? We say that faith was imputed to Abraham as righteousness. Now then, was it counted to him? How then was it counted to him? Was it before or after he was circumcised? Not after, but before. That is demonstrating that it was by grace and not by works. He received the sign of circumcision as a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised. The purpose was to make him the father of all who believe without being circumcised so that righteousness would be counted to them as well. Just as Abraham received righteousness by faith, so now those who like Abraham believe, righteousness is counted or imputed to them. And again, you see what he’s telling us here is something of the mechanics of how God, the righteous judge, pronounces unrighteous sinners to be righteous. And the way that he does it is not that they can demonstrate that they were right, but that he gives them the righteousness that he requires of them.

We have the same thing in chapter 5, where Paul expounds it here in terms of the two representative heads of the human race. We have Adam who sinned, and in sinning he died and was condemned. And all the human race in Adam, because he disobeyed, they disobeyed. Because he fell, they fell. Because death came to him, death passed on all men. And unrighteousness is the status of us all in Adam. But notice how he picks it up in verses 16 and following: “The free gift is not like the result of that one man’s sin, for the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation. But the free gift following many trespasses brought justification. If because of one man’s trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ. Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience many will be made righteous.” Now notice the metaphor changes here. Here he’s not speaking of imputation expressly. He speaks of being made righteous, constituted righteous. Just as in Adam who sinned and disobeyed and brought condemnation, we are all constituted condemned and guilty. So now by faith in Christ, we are constituted righteous because he is righteous. And we have in Christ and by our association with him the righteousness that God requires of us.

Let’s look at two more very quickly. Look at 1 Corinthians chapter 1. Just quickly, verse 30. Here Paul has been dealing with the foolishness of God and the wisdom of men, the weakness of God, and the so-called power of men. And he says in verse 30: “He is the source of your life in Christ Jesus.” That is, of God, you’re in Christ Jesus. “whom God made unto us wisdom,” and that wisdom now is described in three terms: “Righteousness, sanctification, and redemption.” That is, the righteousness that I need, I have because Christ has made that for me. The sanctification or the holiness that I need, I have because I’m in Christ and he is holy. The redemption that I need, I have because I’m in Christ. Christ has been made all of this for me.

And then one more, 2 Corinthians chapter 5, very familiar verse, verse 21. 2 Corinthians 5:21: “for our sake he made him to be sin, who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” Now here the language is not imputation. Here the language is not like we had in Romans 5, being constituted righteous. Here the language is we become righteous in our standing before God. And so we have what we call, and have been called for centuries in the Christian church, the great exchange. He takes our sin, and in exchange we have his righteousness.

Well there are others; perhaps next time we’ll look at Philippians chapter 3 where Paul uses the language of having righteousness, having the righteousness of Christ. All of this is to say what we saw in Jeremiah 23 verse 6: “this is the name by which they will be called, the Lord our righteousness.”

I read something a couple of weeks ago in one of Stephen Westerholm’s books on justification. I thought it was just a fascinating observation. He made the point that Paul delights in expressing the gospel in paradox, or you might say he delights in expressing the gospel in irony. So for example, the foolishness of God confounds the wise. You take this message that the world thinks is foolish, and the wise of this world just scorns that, and he confounds them with it. The foolishness of God confounds the wise. Or Paul likes to say, the weakness of God overthrows the mighty. Great theme in 2nd Corinthians: the weakness of God, the weakness of Christ. Christ crucified in weakness. Who would have thought that this weak, seemingly weak, defeated man, crucified on a cross, could successfully save so many? The weakness of God overthrowing the mighty.

So we have the gospel expressed in irony: the foolishness of God confounding the wise, the weakness of God overthrowing the mighty, and now we have another paradox of the gospel, and that is God justifies unjust people. The righteous God finds unrighteous people righteous. The righteous judge judges unrighteous people to be righteous. And the real kicker is he remains righteous in doing so. How does he do that? Because as the righteous judge, he will judge unrighteousness always. But in our case, in order to save us, He presents his Son as the substitute, and his judgment falls on him, and the Son willingly takes it in our place. And our sin and our curse become his, and in his exchange, his righteousness is given to us. And because we stand in association with Christ, God, the righteous judge, is able, righteously, to pronounce us righteous.

That is to say, our standing with God has nothing, nothing, nothing—and this is very important for next time—nothing whatever to do with our performance. Our standing before God has everything and only to do with the performance of Jesus Christ. He is our righteousness. And in pronouncing us righteous, God has not sidestepped justice. He’s not created a loophole. He’s not lowered the bar. He has had no special pleading, but God has pronounced us righteous on the ground of a full satisfaction of righteousness by our substitute, the Lord Jesus. And this is the sure standing of every Christian, that we are at the same time and always both a sinner and righteous. In myself considered worthy of condemnation, guilty. In Christ, righteous and accepted before God.

Let me say to those of you who may not be Christians: The Lord Jesus and the gospel comes to you with this great warning that your righteousness is never enough. The Lord Jesus calls you: forget it, give it up. There’s nothing you will ever do to earn a right standing before God. There’s nothing on your best day that you will ever do to make you acceptable to God. But the glory of the gospel is that Christ has done for sinners all that God requires of them. The righteousness that he requires of us is given freely by faith in Jesus Christ. My whole standing before God today has nothing whatever to do with anything that I’ve done. It has to do with what Christ has done for me.

So we love to sing it, don’t we? “Nothing in my hands I bring. Simply to thy cross I cling. Naked come to thee for dress. Helpless look to thee for grace. Foul I to the fountain fly. Wash me, Savior, or I die.” My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness. My hope is in the Lord who gave himself for me. No merit of my own. Thy work’s not mine, O Christ. That’s the confession of every Christian. Joined to Jesus Christ, I have all of the righteousness that the righteous judge can righteously require. No other righteousness will do but no other righteousness is needed, and this is the ground of our confidence before God. And next time we will see how then do we put that on as a breastplate for our defense and our use. Amen.

Let’s pray. Our Father, how grateful we are the great gift of your son in whom we are declared righteous. Lord, give us a greater appreciation for him and for the great value of him. Give us a more clearly focused faith in him and appreciation for the wonderful standing that is ours because of him. In his name we ask, amen. Amen.

Well, we will close the service this morning by singing the song that’s in your bulletin, actually, the benediction. Let’s stand together and sing this benediction as a closing today.