Last time we were together, we looked at why we are here. Paul instructs Titus in this text to remind the believers in essence to remind them why they're here and what they are to be doing. He's teaching them about their attitude and perspective they should have concerning rulers, leaders in this world system, as well as carnal men all around us. 

No doubt, it's a difficult thing to have a spirit of submission. I don't know if you've thought about that as we've studied this text and with all that's going on in our world and the struggles that we have, but it's difficult to have an attitude, a spirit of submission, peace, gentleness, and humility towards those who are in authority, toward carnal men in light of the injustice, the wickedness, the depravity—even the persecution of the righteous—that we see in our world. 

It's hard to see evil appear to be winning, wickedness prospering, and this has been hard for God's people all through history. I was thinking about Noah—120 years a preacher of righteousness, building that boat, trusting God, and they mocked him. They hated him. The thoughts and intents of their hearts were only evil all the time. The scriptures say you can imagine what kind of environment that was—how hard it must have been for Noah to live in that kind of world and keep his faith, keep his focus. 

Clearly, David struggled with this. We read it over and over in his Psalms: a call for justice, a desire for God to punish the wicked, a yearning for righteousness on the earth. And yet we see this admonition to be subject to those in authority several times in the scriptures—Timothy, Romans, here in Titus, many places—and what I've noticed is that it's always tied to peace, to a quiet life, to living at peace with all men for the express purpose of being a witness—of having the opportunity to preach the gospel, to lead men to Christ.

God has given us this desire for justice for righteousness on the earth and you remember from our last message that the promise of righteousness on the earth will only be fulfilled when Jesus comes and sets up his kingdom and when God creates a new heaven and a new earth in which righteousness dwells. This must be the focus of our hope and anticipation of the end of all the wickedness and the establishment of true righteousness on the earth. Our hope cannot be in any construct of man by any carnal means. The scriptures clearly point us to His coming for the fulfillment of this promise.

It's not the purpose of the church; it's not possible for the church to make this world Christian by politics, or law, or government. So Paul said, "Remind them of these things." And then he also instructed us to remember who we were. This is so important because it is in remembering who we were as lost men in Adam. It is in remembering how it was that God's saving grace came to us that we might have a proper perspective of and love toward the lost men of this world today. 

And that is really the heart of this text as we began to explore last time—that God did not give us what we deserved: wrath, judgment, hell, and damnation, but rather He gave us grace and mercy and salvation through faith in Christ. It was not by righteous works as we have done. It was not by law and legislation and my conformity to a standard of man or God that I was saved. In fact, it was apart from any good work, any righteousness of my own. It was by His mercy that He saved us.

The application here for us and for the believers in Crete is to be reminded of our purpose and God's means for accomplishing that purpose and for us to remember who we were and how God acted toward us—how He loved us and gave His only Son for us—exercising mercy and grace toward us in our sinful lost state so that we might have the spirit and heart toward men today that God has; that we might understand and realize that who they are is who we were. And but for the grace of God, the love and goodness of God, we would still be lost, going our own way, haters of God and Christ and all that is righteous.

We must understand that men are not our enemies. We battle not against flesh and blood, but men are our mission field—the ones for whom Christ died. And we must love men as God loves men, being willing to bring the good news message of salvation to every man so that he might understand the goodness of God and be led to repentance and faith in Jesus Christ. This is why we are here, and this is the message that we all need in our time, in our world, that we might be continually reminded, that we might remember so that we can refocus when we are distracted from our mission, from our purpose, and the means that God has given us for accomplishing that purpose.

I give you this by way of review of what we studied last time, and now this morning, I want to dive back into the center of this text in verses 4 to 7 and look at these great truths from a theological, a soteriological point of view. I want to discuss, for our encouragement and edification, the doctrine of salvation, which is made so clear in this short text. Look at verse 4 with me, please: "But when the kindness and love of God our Savior toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness, which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior, that having been justified by His grace, we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life."

I've given you four points on your outline this morning: first, soteriology, which is the study of the doctrine of salvation; security; sanctification; and service. Well, this text in Titus 3 is one of the clearest and most concise statements on the doctrine of salvation in all of the New Testament. And it's so important that we, as believers in Jesus Christ, as witnesses in this world, are abundantly clear in our minds about the doctrine of salvation.

We may take that for granted. We may think we know and understand the gospel, but it's really good to contemplate, to study, to define, and clarify in our minds what the gospel is and what it is not. The fact is there's a tremendous amount of confusion in the evangelical church concerning the essence of the gospel. 

I'll give you an example. I watched a video the other day of three mature Christian men, one of them a pastor, two fervent evangelists—men who clearly love the Lord and really give their lives to preaching the gospel—and a question was proposed to them as sort of a panel concerning water baptism. The discussion revolved around the salvation work of God by grace through faith and what constituted a proper response from the one who believed. They kept coming back to the truth, the elements of the gospel that Jesus became a man, took on flesh, died, was buried, and rose again the third day. They knew this was the gospel; they knew this was the message they were to preach. 

And one man kept emphasizing that it is God that does the saving, but there was great confusion about the response of man to hearing this message and, in their words, what he must do. And they went to Acts 2 and the words of Peter to the men who asked, "What must we do?" What should we do? To Matthew 28, the Great Commission, and then they gave a kind of a misunderstanding of Romans 6, Ephesians 4, and 1st Corinthians 12. 

I watched these three godly, sincere men tie themselves in knots for 45 minutes, arguing whether repentance and water baptism was part of the necessary response of a man to the gospel for salvation. We might say, well, that's kind of out there to think that water baptism is necessary for salvation. But it's not really far off from doctrines like Lordship salvation, is it, promoted by men like John MacArthur? Is it necessary that I make Jesus the Lord of my life in order to be saved? Just exactly what does that mean? How do I measure that? How do I have assurance of salvation? Is repentance defined as turning from my sin in the sense of a greater performance of righteousness in my life? How do I measure that? When do I know I've met that standard?

It matters that we are clear, my friends, about the doctrine of salvation; that we are able to clearly answer these types of questions and make sure that the people to which we seek to bring the gospel get a very clear message and are told the truth. 157 times it says in the Bible that a man is saved by hearing and believing. 

As a believer in Jesus Christ—a one who has been justified by faith, who has been regenerated by the grace of God, and indwelt by the Spirit of God—Jesus is the Lord of my life. I didn't make Him the Lord of my life; He is the Lord of my life. And it's my greatest desire to live in righteousness, to do all things that please Him. But this is a result of my salvation, not a condition of it. Baptism is a symbol, an act of obedience—yes, a promise from God, yes, a witness—yes, but not a condition of my salvation. 

And even in sanctification, as we will see this morning, the fruit and holiness produced in my life is not according to any law or by the means of a standard given, but a result of a daily abiding relationship in the vine as He produces fruit through me by grace through faith. The just shall live by faith. 

So what does our text teach us about the doctrine of salvation, about soteriology? Well, verse 4 is very instructive to start. It says, "But when the kindness and love of God our Savior toward man appeared." This verse, along with three words in the middle of verse 5—"He saved us"—gives us a good start to understanding salvation. It's not that we were searching for God that we found God; He found us, my friends. He initiated the salvation that we have experienced. He planned this saving work through Jesus Christ before the foundation of the world. It is His love, His kindness, His goodness that is the impetus for salvation. It's the goodness of God that leads men to repentance.

We know and see the plans of men in our world in the form of religion. They're invariably man-centered, works righteous, law-dominated, and they fail to understand the essence of the problem of man: the fact that he is a sinner by nature, that he is corrupt on the inside, that he has sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, and there is nothing—nothing—that he can do to save himself. He has transgressed the law of God and he deserves the righteous judgment of God. God must punish sin. God is holy, perfectly just; He cannot look on or wink at even one sin.

So since it is true that all men have been confined under sin, every man born in Adam is dominated and controlled by indwelling sin, is not nor can be subject to the law of God—in the sense of keeping it or earning his own righteousness—then man finds himself in a hopeless condition, with no remedy. The folly of man's created religions is made manifest by a cursory reading of the words of God.

Years ago, I heard it explained this way: Man exists in the natural. He is confined to the natural world. God is supernatural and is able to traverse the natural and supernatural world. The effort of man and religion is to break out of the natural; to attain the supernatural, immortal state, he seeks by the constructs of his religion to earn his way to climb up the ladder to the heavens. This is the first picture of religion, with Nimrod way back at the Tower of Babel. But the fact is man is confined to his natural world and he cannot break free of it. 

So in order for there to be salvation, a remedy, God must come into man's world. It's like Billy Graham's old illustration when he said he was walking down the sidewalk and scuffed an anthill with his shoe. And he looked down at all those ants running around, assessing the damage, trying to repair their world, and Billy thought to himself, "I wish I could become an ant and go down there and help them in their struggle to save them." 

The meaning of verse 4—the good news of the gospel—starts here: God has come into our world. God has entered the natural world to save man. The kindness and love of God our Savior has appeared. This refers to the incarnation. This is John 1—Jesus has taken on flesh. God has become a man and dwelt among us for the express purpose of carrying out God's salvation plan. 

So the beginning of understanding the gospel is understanding the hopelessness and impotence of man and the love and kindness of God demonstrated in the incarnation. If man is to be saved, God must perform this saving work. He saved us, and He saved us. He gave His only begotten Son. Jesus took on flesh because of His great love with which He loved us. It was because of His mercy, His love for God is love. God is justice—yes, He must punish sin—but He is love, and He is mercy as well. And that love and mercy appeared to us in the person of Jesus Christ and the salvation plan that only God could conceive and only God could accomplish.

We see this emphasized in verse 5: "Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy, He saved us." My brothers and sisters, this one phrase, the first part of verse 5, should be an end to all religion: "Not by works of righteousness which we have done." We see this clear statement again and again throughout the scriptures. Turn over to Romans 3 with me, please. 

Romans 3 at verse 19 says, "Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. Therefore, by the deeds of the law, by good works, no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin."  But now the righteousness of God, apart from the law, is revealed, being witnessed by the law and the prophets: even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ to all and on all who believe." Look at verse 28. Paul says, "Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law." 

Well, if a religion teaches that you must have faith and keep the law and do good works and add to what Christ did during your salvation, then that's a false gospel. Look at Romans 4:2. "For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about but not before God." For what does the scripture say? "Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness." Now to him who works, the wages are not counted as grace but as debt. But to him who does not work but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness.

Listen to Ephesians 2:4. "But God, who is rich in mercy because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ." For by grace you have been saved. And verse 8: "For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest any should boast." 

We could go on and on. This is the clear teaching of the gospel in the Word of God: "Not by righteous works which we have done, but according to His mercy, He saved us." The religions of our world, Christian or otherwise, that teach that a man must do works, must keep the law, or participate in sacraments, rituals, or religious rites to be saved, are false religions—false systems of men with no good news. 

It's not good news; it ends in damnation. It's not law; it's not work; it's not my suffering or atoning for my sins in any way. It is His love, His mercy demonstrated in the incarnation, specifically at the cross—the truth that the perfect, sinless Lamb of God, the one and only Son of God, took on flesh, became a man, and died in my place for my sins. It's a substitutionary death. It's Jesus taking the wrath of God, the punishment of God that I deserve, in my place, in my stead. It's His death that saves me. 

That releases me from the penalty of sin, fully satisfying the wrath of God. It's finished; it's accomplished. Jesus has accomplished my salvation on the cross by Himself. That is my only hope. It's not true that Jesus' death simply wipes my slate clean or that it somehow opens a door, and I now, by my works, must live up to the law, must work my way to heaven and walk through that door.

Turn over to Romans 5 with me, please. Romans 5 at verse 6: "For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly." You notice that word? He dies for the ungodly. What a tremendous truth! "For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man, someone would even dare to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." 

We saw this in Romans 4 as well, but it's such an important point. God saves ungodly men—unjust men. It's not the relatively good people or religious people who go to heaven; it's those who come to understand that they have no righteousness of their own, that they are not good, and therefore they turn to the Savior in faith for mercy and grace.

Verse 9 of Romans 5: "Much more than, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life." Paul sounds rather confident, don't you think? "We shall be saved from wrath through Him." This is security—eternal security based solely on what Jesus did. 

Why do we have assurance? Why can we know that we have eternal life, that we possess it now and will forever live in heaven with Jesus? Only because of what He accomplished on my behalf on the cross. He, having by Himself—that excludes me—by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of God. He is able to save to the uttermost; He ever lives to make intercession for us. When we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son. Much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. 

We are secure in Christ because of His love and mercy and grace by faith alone in Him. Listen to the Apostle John, 1st John 5:13: "These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life." John says he's written these words, inspired by God, breathed out by the Holy Spirit, for the express purpose that we who believe in Jesus might know that we presently possess eternal life. God wants us to know! 

Did you know that in the religion that I grew up in, there’s anathema—a curse to hell placed on anyone who says that they know that they’re going to heaven, that they know that they have eternal life? My church—which claimed the name of Christ—placed a curse and anathema on the Apostle John! Why? Because if you're trying to earn your own righteousness through religion, through works, and sufferings and sacraments, you can never know that you're saved. You can never know if you have done enough, and the truth is, you can never do enough. Because you have sinned and the debt must be paid. Religion is not good news; it’s bad news.

But there is good news! There’s this great word used by Paul and John in Romans 3 and 1st John: it’s the word "propitiation." It’s a glorious word! It means a full and satisfactory payment. And Romans 1 tells us that we can know that God is fully satisfied with the payment of Christ on the cross because He raised Him from the dead with power. We have security because Jesus paid it all. 

Not by righteous works, which we have done, but by His mercy He saved us. So we see soteriology, we see security, next we see sanctification. 

Look at verse 4 again: "But when the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy, He saved us through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior, that having been justified by His grace, we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life." 

For our understanding, we can divide salvation into three aspects: justification, sanctification, and glorification. We are saved—justified, made right with God—by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. We are being saved—sanctified—meaning an outward conforming to who we are inwardly, resulting in holy living, a conforming to Christlikeness. We will be fully and finally saved at glorification, when we will be separated entirely from the presence of sin and have a new glorified body and live with Jesus forever. 

We could put it like this: we are saved from the penalty of sin—justification. We are saved from the power of sin—regeneration resulting in sanctification. And we will be saved from the presence of sin—at glorification. 

The key salvation doctrine that we see here in our text is regeneration—the washing of regeneration. Salvation from the penalty of sin—God's wrath is satisfied in Jesus' death, burial, and resurrection. His righteousness is imputed to us, and our sin is imputed to Him. It’s a positional truth; it’s true for us because of what Christ did on our behalf. It’s an imputed righteousness. 

Regeneration is the actual work of God in us, which happens at the point of salvation—recreating us, taking us out of Adam, out of the kingdom of darkness, and placing us into Christ, joining us to His death, burial, and resurrection. This work of regeneration is in the new covenant and promised in Ezekiel 36, where He says He'll give us a new heart, a new quickened spirit, and that the Holy Spirit will come and indwell us permanently. 

It's explained in 2nd Corinthians 5:17, where Paul wrote that anyone who is in Christ is a new creation. The old is gone; the new has come. It’s fleshed out in Romans 6, as Paul describes the fact that we have been moved from the realm of law and sin and death in Adam to the reality of grace and righteousness and life in Christ. We’ve died to sin. We’ve died to the law. We’ve been released from the fear of death and are now married to Christ, living under grace in righteousness produced by the Holy Spirit and life—the abundant life of Christ and eternal life with Him. 

Turn over to Galatians 2 with me, please. We really appreciate Galatians 2:19 to 21, and I want to read that, but I really want to focus in on Galatians 3:1 to 5. 

Galatians 2:19 says, "For I, through the law, died to the law that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. And the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died in vain." 

Look at verse 1 of chapter 3: "Oh foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you that you should not obey the truth before whose eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed among you as crucified? This only I want to learn from you: did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith? Are you so foolish, having begun in the Spirit? Are you now being made perfect by the flesh? Have you suffered so many things in vain, if indeed it was in vain? Therefore, he who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you, does he do it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?"

Salvation is by grace alone through faith alone in Jesus alone. This is true for justification—not by righteous works that we have done. Our justification is based solely on the grace of God and what Christ finished on the cross. But this is also true for sanctification. It is by grace through faith—trusting, reckoning, believing what God has said is true and trusting in His life and power in us to produce fruit for His glory. 

And certainly, glorification is not of ourselves but by the grace and power of God alone as we believe and anticipate the promise. God has poured out His Holy Spirit on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior. Romans 5:1 says, "Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand and rejoice in the hope of the glory of God." 

And not only that, but we glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulations produce perseverance, and perseverance, character, and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us. 

Ephesians 3 teaches us that it’s the Holy Spirit who imparts strength to our inner man, that it’s God who can do exceedingly abundantly more than we could ever think or ask—that He might have glory in the church. Salvation—justification, sanctification, glorification—is by grace through faith. 

So we see soteriology, we see security, we see sanctification, and finally, by way of application in our text, we see service. Verse 8 says, "This is a faithful saying, and these things I want you to affirm constantly, that those who have believed in God should be careful to maintain good works. These things are good and profitable for men." 

Paul implores Titus, as he has Timothy also, to affirm these things constantly, confidently. Why? Why teach constantly good sound doctrine based on the clear truth of the gospel? Why continually remind them of these great truths? So that those who believe in God should be careful to maintain good works. The gospel of grace is so often misunderstood, maligned, and mischaracterized. Paul experiences continually, and those who preach the clear gospel of grace and faith today hear the same accusations.

How many times have you heard, “Well, if salvation is by grace through faith, you can just do whatever you want. You can sin all you want”? Paul said this in Romans 5 and 6. He said the law entered that the offense might abound, but where sin abounded, grace abounded much more, so that as sin reigned in death, even so, grace might reign to righteousness, to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. And then he said, what shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? This is the question, right? He anticipated the argument. If we don't have to keep the law to be saved, if it's by grace through faith alone, then shall we just continue in sin, causing grace to abound? And then Paul says in verse 2, certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?

Here we see an accusation: If salvation is by grace through faith alone, if you don't have to earn your salvation; you don't have to do any good works, but only believe—only by grace—then you can do whatever you want. You can sin all you want. I'm Brady and Rogers used to say, "I do sin all I want. I sin more than I want." He said, "If you want to sin, you better get your want fixed." 

We've had our want fixed through regeneration. Religious men are greatly concerned about good works because this is their perceived means of salvation. But what they do not understand is that without salvation, without regeneration, death to sin, and death to the law, freedom from the fear of death—without the Holy Spirit—in our natural state in Adam, good works are entirely impossible. Pleasing God is not an option. Romans 8:6 says to be carnally minded is death. The carnal mind is enmity against God. It's not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. So then those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

But you're not in the flesh but in the Spirit—if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His. The carnal mind, the man in the flesh, the natural man in Adam cannot please God, cannot be subject to the law of God. But when a man believes Jesus, God changes him on the inside. He gives him a new heart, a new spirit. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit come to make their home in that man. God takes the man who turns from religious works and self-righteousness and turns to Jesus alone in faith. 

This is the definition of repentance, by the way. When the heart turns to the Lord, God takes that man and places him on the cross with Christ. He crucifies him, He buries him, and He raises him to newness of life. This was Paul's testimony in Philippians 3. He counted all that heritage, all those works, all that religious affiliation as dung. He cast it aside to receive the righteousness that's found in Christ through faith in Him. 

And this regeneration is what happened to Saul of Tarsus the moment he believed, just as it is for every believer. In Romans 6:3, Paul says, "Or do you not know?" Right after he says, "How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?" It's not possible! It's not possible for us to continue in sin like we did in Adam because we've been so drastically changed. 

"Do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ"—which means to be placed into His death—the word baptism is not necessarily wet; it just means to be placed into. "Placed into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death. Therefore, we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so, we also should walk in newness of life." For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection.

Listen to verse 6: "Knowing this, that our old man—that man in Adam—was crucified with Him for the purpose that the body controlled by indwelling sin might be rendered powerless, that we should no longer be slaves of sin." Romans 7 and 8 make this truth more clear. We were married to the law. We were seeking to establish our own righteousness through the law, living by the letter. But now we have been delivered from what we were held by. We are no longer under the bondage of sin, of the law, of death. We now live by the Spirit because what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, listen—God did. 

That's the message of Titus 3! God did! God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh on account of sin; He condemned sin in the flesh. God dealt with sin that dwells in me. He killed me; He crucified me—my old man—for the express purpose that I might no longer be a slave to sin, that I might now, by the power of the Holy Spirit in me, live a holy life, bring glory to God, be a witness to men to do good works.

That's what verse 8 says: "Titus, teach them. Teach them these things constantly that they might be careful to maintain good works." I'm all for good works, my friends. It's the purpose of God in salvation to make me like Christ for a testimony to His grace, for His glory. But you better understand that apart from salvation, apart from all that we talked about here this morning, apart from regeneration, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, there are no good works. It's not possible. All of our righteousness is as filthy rags before a holy God. 

So we, the believers of Living Hope Church, we in this world as witnesses, ambassadors for Christ, must know these things. We must reckon them to be so. We must abide in Christ, renew our minds, be reminded, remember, and refocus as we walk through this life so that we might be careful to maintain good works and live the holy life that God has called us to and that is consistent with who we are in Christ as a result of His grace, as a result of His saving work through faith in Jesus Christ. 

And this new life in Christ is a witness to the power of the gospel; it's a validation of our saving message. We must preach Christ and Him crucified, and we must live a life of good works that does not undermine the message we preach. My brothers and sisters, we must immerse ourselves in the Word of God, the truth. We must hear sound doctrine, teaching continually. We must set our mind on things above and not on the things of the earth. We must look unto Jesus as we run this race with endurance, as we seek to fulfill the purpose for which God has us here on this earth, in this place, in this time. 

Let's close in prayer. Father, we thank You for Your word, Your truth so clear. And thank You for the Holy Spirit who testifies with our spirit, who leads us into all truth, who affirms what is true and encourages us and strengthens us, empowers us to live for You. Help us to understand the salvation You have given us in Christ and help us to understand Your means, Your plan for saving lost men and bringing glory to Yourself through the church. In Jesus' name, Amen.