Missing the Mark Series: What Will You Do With Truth?

Missing the Mark Series: What Will You Do With Truth?

Please turn in your Bibles with me to Romans chapter 2 this morning. Romans chapter 2. I'd like to read the beginning in verse number 1. Therefore thou art inexcusable, old man, whosoever thou art that judgest, for wherein thou judgest another thou condemnest thyself. For thou that judgest doest the same things, but we are sure that the judgment of God is according to truth against them which commit such things. And thinkest thou this, old man, that judgest them which do such things, and doest the same, that thou shalt escape the judgment of God? Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance? But after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasures up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God, who will render to every man according to his deeds, to them who by patient continuance in well-doing seek for glory and honor, I'm sorry, in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, eternal life. But unto them that are contentious and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation, and wrath, tribulation, and anguish upon every soul of man that doeth evil of the Jew first and also of the Gentile, but glory, honor, and peace to every man that worketh good to the Jew first and also to the Gentile. For there is no respect of persons with God, for as many as have sinned without law shall also perish without law. And as many as have sinned in the law shall be judged by the law. For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified. For when the Gentiles which have not the law by nature do by nature the things contained in the law, these having not the law are a law unto themselves which show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the meanwhile accusing or else excusing one another. In the day, this is picking up from verse 12, shall be judged by the law in the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my gospel.

Let's mark our Bibles to this important passage of scripture this morning, Romans chapter 2. Let's acknowledge the Lord and ask his blessing upon the reading of his word this morning. Our Heavenly Father, I have been reminded yet again this week, Lord, that it is not by any oratory abilities that we have that a soul can be saved, but it is by just being a mouthpiece and yet it is the word of God and the Holy Spirit working in the heart of that person to open their eyes into their need of salvation. And I'm also reminded this morning that even whether I am preaching to all Christians or there are some here that perhaps do not know you as their Savior today, whichever the case may be, whichever one, Lord, it will need to be your spirit working in our hearts. It's the power of your word that changes, that has the ability to change us into the image of Christ. There is no persuasion or fluency of words that will do that, Lord. It must be a heart that says, Yes, I believe. Yes, I receive that word and I take it for me. We pray for that today, whether saint or sinner here, Lord, that we would all receive the word of God on good ground, that we would hear it, and having heard the word, we would keep it. And Lord, you would help us to bring forth fruit with patience. Blessed now as we continue in this worship service, may it all be for that honor and glory. In Jesus' name, amen.

The thing as we look at this passage this morning, I cannot help but think is we went through a study in recent months on the sins of the spirit when it comes to this. This is obviously being written to the Jew. Chapter 1 is to the Gentiles, to the pagans, to the man that does not have the law. He's not had the privilege of being born and raised up and being taught according to the covenant of God, the law of God. He's not been taught those things, but he has, as Paul will come back around and say here in chapter 2, and even as we read this morning in verse, well, right there in verses, what was it, 13, 14, 15, where it says that even though they don't have the law, the Gentiles, they have a conscience. They have a conscience and they're a law unto themselves. Well, the Jew, Jesus pointed out very clearly when he came, pointed out to them that, and Paul is picking up on that theme, you boast in the fact that you're not doing all, you're doing a lot of external good things. You've cleansed the outside of the cup, but the inside is, it's all hypocrisy. Woe unto you, he would say to the Pharisees, you hypocrites. You do the outside of the cup but inwardly there is sin. You know, it's kind of like saying you show up to church or you dress right or you do all those outward things, but what about your heart? What about the spirit, the inward parts? What Jesus was saying, he says you're boasting because you take confidence in that you may be tithing properly, you give alms, but you do it not as unto the Lord, right? You do it for your own glory and in a sense you're just as far, maybe further from grace than the Gentile is because of the what you've done with the truth.

I want to back up for a moment and I'm going to take this for just a moment from the perspective of someone who is a, we're all, I think we're all Gentiles. I said the other week, I think we're all born in this country. David wasn't born in this country, but I think we're all Gentiles here as far as I'm aware, but taking it from the perspective of someone that does not, they don't know the law, they don't know the Bible, they don't, they weren't raised in church, we might say. They were not raised around that knowledge. Well, we are coming across the path of more people that are like that. They don't have a background in the law or, you know, the gospel. But as I thought about it this week, unless something is right and true, unless there's something, someone, something out there that is right and is true, then how can wrong even exist? If there's not that which is good, how can that which is evil even mean anything? How can it even mean anything that something's evil? Well, there's nothing that's even good anyway, so by what are you defining that? I thought about everyone is efficient, very efficient. I don't think I've met somebody yet that's not, not that everybody I meet does this, but it's a universal thing that people are good at pointing out and finding and seeing sins and thoughts in other people. I've noticed that. It's very easy, very easy to see the wart on someone else's nose, and it's quite a bit harder to see the warts on your own nose, so to speak.

And so there throughout, and yet even as civilizations that are not based upon, you know, they don't have in their constitution God or Jesus Christ mentioned in the prayers of Congress when their country was being begun. They don't have those things in their civilization, yet just reason, conscience helps people to realize, you know, if we don't have some kind of basic moral code or basic laws in place, then we're going to kill each other. We're going to destroy ourselves, so we need to somehow punish at least the worst of the evildoers out there, right? We need to have some sort of, some sort of punishment, imprisonment, death penalty, something for those that kill other people or that, you know, molest other people. They harm others in some way. We've got to keep some sort of civility. We've got to have some sort of civilization here so that we don't just, you know, go off the rails. Even if that's not an accountability to God sort of consciousness, it's a basic acknowledgement that that's not good, and we're not going to allow you to do that. Maybe you can have the right to say something, but you can't go kill somebody and just get away with it and not have any repercussions for that. So Romans 1 spends a lot of time talking about those who sin against the law of conscience. Romans 2 talks about the law of God and those who know that law and yet remain content that they're better than, better than those who sin outwardly. Well, I just keep my sin on the inside, you know. I keep my hypocrisy there, but yet you condemn. What does he say there? Judges them which do such things, and really you're doing the same. Even though it's internalized, you're doing the same thing.

Now, knowing the law, knowing the truth, is not good enough. It's kind of like we said. A civilization, a government, may come to the realization, you know, we need to punish evildoers, and that means the good is the opposite of what, you know, taking life is helping and healing and, you know, supporting rather than taking life. But to know that law, to know that truth, even that God has given us a conscience and we know basic right from wrong, knowing that is not enough in itself if we don't do something about it, right? If we don't do something in Romans chapter one, there are more and more things about truth, even in God's natural revelation, that people can understand. But the moment that a people or a person individually begins fighting against that knowledge and revelation of truth, even in a natural realm, they're fighting against God. And they're without excuse. They shake that fist at God and they will not accept certain truth, not because it's objectively not true, it's because they don't want it. They don't want that truth. It makes life inconvenient for them, although they can clearly see that it's right, it's true, it's good, but I don't want it. I don't want to acknowledge that there is a God, a supreme God over all of this, to whom I will give answer. The Lord says when they did not like to retain the knowledge of him in their hearts, their minds, they became foolish. Fools are made when the truth is rejected. Fools are sealed in their folly not because they're too ignorant to learn, it's that they won't learn. They won't receive truth and they reject truth. They reject the knowledge.

Now, what Paul was saying to these Jews here is that you're doing the same thing. You are rejecting truth. You're making it look like you have the truth. We have the covenants. We have the covenant with God. We have the commandments. We have the oracles of God, the very sayings of God. We have them. We have the law. That's not good enough. It's not good enough to have the creation around us. It's not good enough to have a conscience. The conscience is the witness on the stand that either accuses you of wrongdoing or excuses you for doing the right thing, but it's not good enough to have the conscience. We must obey it. We must listen to and believe that that is the truth.

Now, of course, we can have a misguided conscience. I understand that, but God gave us that conscience to lead us to the understanding of what the truth is, to lead us to the understanding of the truth.

There is something in us that rejoices when evil is held accountable. I'm so glad that he didn't get away with it, and yet I've never seen somebody come into a courtroom and say, Judge, let's just forget this case. I'm guilty. Let's go ahead and get on with the program here. Nobody does that. They don't do that, but they rejoice when someone else is held accountable for their evil. People go to prison still thinking, well, I'm not really guilty of what they said, and yet we applaud when others get their just desserts. Why is it that we don't go into the courtroom and say, Judge, this is all true? Now, yes, I guess there is a case where you know the evidence is so mounted up against you, you can plead guilty, but that's even what the desire to get a lesser sentence, right? So that we're not going to, it's not because, well, my conscience was just working on me and I really thought I needed to tell the truth. It's very, very unusual when that's the case, but John 3 19 says that men love darkness, rather than light.

Why? Why do men love darkness rather than light? It's because their deeds are evil, right? It's because it's uncomfortable what the light reveals, and especially when I am unwilling to turn away from that which the light is showing up, and when I'm unwilling to let the truth change me. It's not good enough just to know it, if you're not going to change, you're not going to change it by God's grace, but the scripture says to us as believers that those that come to the light, they do it why? That their deeds maybe may manifest, that they are wrought in God. As believers, we should want to please God out of love to Him because of His love to us. It's not good enough to hate. As Christians today, it is not good enough for us to simply hate the consequences of our wrongdoing. I'm sorry I got caught. I'm sorry that that, you know, made everybody feel bad or something like that, but not actually say, you know, what I did was wrong. Godly sorrow over and repentance of the wrong. That's what, that's a mark of a believer, isn't it? That's a mark of a child of God who truly sorrows over not just the consequences of my sins. Well, if I, but actually, I'm grieved by this sin. I am truly sorrowful at heart by God's grace.

You know, there are people that the world is full of behavioral reform, and sometimes we, even those that name the name of Christ, resort to those kinds of things, and they have no power to change the heart, do they? They have no power to change the spirit within. They might reform the outside. I think there's so many groups. I didn't even realize how many, you know, there's Alcoholics Anonymous. I saw there's Narcotics Anonymous, Gamblers Anonymous, Eating Disorders Anonymous, Codependents Anonymous, different groups like that. All of it's based in psychology. It blames your environment, blames, you know, so many different things, and you're not really, it's not really your fault, but you're just kind of like a victim of circumstances or something like that. We got to work together to get better at overcoming this, these challenging circumstances we find ourselves in. Well, and it may actually there, you know, I think there is at least for a year, I think I looked at a study that was done for a year, I think it was something like 55% of Alcoholics Anonymous stayed sober for a year after going through that, but you can go through that program and not actually get to the root of the problem, right? Not actually get to the root of the issue. The root of our problem goes back to Adam. It goes back to Adam, and I don't want to say that to say we're going to put all the blame on Adam because that would be doing the same thing that psychology does, right? It's all Adam's fault. I just kind of wound up here, you know, I don't know how, but we must identify that we did. We are sons and daughters of Adam and that we have inherited a sinful nature. We're, you know, we're born in sin, shape it in iniquity, right? We have that sinful tendency. Romans chapter 5, look there with me, Romans chapter 5 and verse number 12 says, wherefore, Romans 5 verse number 12, let's turn there together, it says in there Romans 5 12, wherefore as by one man sin entered into the world and death by sin and so death passed upon all men, listen to this last phrase, for that all have sinned.

Now it doesn't simply say death passed upon all men because it's all Adam's fault. Now he's definitely got a large part to do with this, you know, as the head of the race, but at the same time all have sinned. All have sinned. There's no way to beautify those words. They are starkly true. They're just, they are what they are. All have sinned. It didn't say certain class of people, certain race of people, certain gender of people, certain age group. No, all have sinned. God didn't create robots. God created Adam with a will. God created him with a choice and he created us as sons of Adam in his image with the ability to choose. We've said before that he gave us the, he gave mankind, he gave human beings the ability to exercise dominion over the creatures of the earth. He gave us, he created us in his image and that he made us uniquely eternal. We will never die. He made us with the ability to reason, to have a conscience, no right from wrong, to have a will with which we can choose, not mere instincts, but we can choose. He gave us the capacity to imagine, to be creative in our thinking and our ability to make things that is unique and sets us apart from the animal kingdom, the plant kingdom. We have that ability that God has given to us, but we find ourselves missing the mark of pleasing God. Even with all the capabilities we have, we are by birth and by practice we are, we're in sin. We have sinned. We've missed the mark.

That's the main scripture, the main word both in the Old Testament and the New Testament. Those words primarily mean to miss the mark and we think of that band of, what was it, 700 men there in, I think it was in Judges 20, yes, Judges 20 verse number 16. It speaks of those who didn't miss the mark. They could sling stones and hit with the accuracy of a hair's breath. They could hit with a stone. That was hitting a target, hitting the target. The only one that hits the target is the Lord Jesus Christ. We have all sinned, even the first Adam sinned and missed the mark. He fell short of the glory of God and sin is, simply put, it can mean a lot of things. Transgressing the boundary, it could speak of a, you know, something, even sin in the Old Testament. There's certain words that speak of something that's crooked that should be straight, something that's crooked. And so it's the deviation in some way from God's, well, revealed will. And he reveals his will. Yes, he reveals a certain degree of it in the creation around us, but expressly reveals it in his word, in his law. And as we saw, this is knowing. Jew, you know the things that are right, but you're content with an appearance. Pastor Peacock used to call it playing the game of Christianity, playing at, playing church, playing Christianity. No, we must be genuinely in our hearts Christians, not just be content with the appearance, not just content with the facade, as were the Pharisees. Sin is when we say or we do or we think, not just do, but we think, we say, we do anything that is deviating from God's will, isn't it? It's deviating from what God wants for us.

God made man upright, Ecclesiastes will tell us, but man has sought out many and inventions. He sought out many inventions. Some might argue though, well, why did God create man with the ability to turn away and die in his sin? Why did God even create, if he knew that was a possibility, why did he do that? It's like, I was talking with my brother this week. He said, well, why did God make a, I mean, why do people make cruise ships that somebody could jump off of? If you could jump off of a cruise ship and drown in the water, well, maybe they should have made it a prison boat that you couldn't get out of. Well, then we wouldn't really be complaining, wouldn't we? Why did you make a boat that you couldn't have the ability? Why did they make roads you could jump off the side of a mountain? I mean, we could go down the list. There's a lot of cruel people that put the road system in our country. No, man chose.

And that's what we resoundingly see when we look at the Scriptures. People choose, right or wrong. They choose to run from the light because their deeds are evil. And you know, God is holy and just and he must judge sin, but he also made a way of escape. It's like saying, you made the cruise ship or whatever kind of ship you're talking about, and the person jumped off board, we might say Adam jumped off the ship, but, and we're in the water out here and we need to be saved, but what happens when you choose to reject Jesus Christ who has been thrown out, the lifeline that's been thrown out to you to save you? Then it's not Adam's fault anymore. That's your fault. It's your sin that has separated you. What does the Scripture say? The soul that sinneth it shall die. Not the prophet Ezekiel wasn't. It said, I'm tired of, and God was saying this through him, but I'm tired of hearing this proverb, you know, the fathers have eaten sour grapes and the children's teeth are set on edge. You know, that the children are paying for the sins of the fathers. Well, there is a certain extent to which, yes, we do pay for the sin of our father Adam to a certain point, or we may pay for our own parents' sins to a certain point. We may reap the repercussions of some of those sins, but there's going to come a day. There comes a day.

Maybe you're born in a home where you didn't have the opportunity. I had the opportunity, and I have therefore more responsibility to the truth because I was given light very early on in my life. I was given much blessing. There's some that don't even hear about the certain truth, even naturally, or come to see it and become accountable for it until later on, and yet when they do, everyone will give an account of himself unto God. Everyone will give an account to the Lord. We talked about before children. I don't claim to know the exact age. I think of my own children. I have a little bit of maybe an educated guess I can say about when age of accountability comes for each one of them because I see them day in and day out, and I hear what they're thinking, at least as they verbalize it, and I might have a little better idea with my own children, but I'm not God in that. There's a day that comes where a child, a young person, will be accountable now for their own sin before God. Yes, they've inherited Adam's nature, of course, but now they will be accountable for the truth they have received and they've received with understanding. There's a time in life, yes, there is a time in life that, as the scripture will show us, Deuteronomy 139 talks about, let's look over there at that phrase, in Deuteronomy 139. Deuteronomy chapter 1 verse 39. It says there, this is speaking of the children of the parents who refused to enter the promised land. Remember Deuteronomy 139 says, Moreover your little ones which ye said should be a prey, and your children which in that day, when the parents had rejected entering the land, it wasn't at the Kadesh Barnea, it said which in that day had no knowledge between the good and evil. They, your children, shall go in thither and unto them will I give it and they shall possess it. They did not have, it was not their choice to make at that time. They were not mature enough to even know, to make the choice. I think we certainly turn to that passage of scripture where David said, you cannot come again to me, but I will go to be with you after this son. The child died that he had illegitimately with Bathsheba in the childhood. The child fell sick and died, didn't make it. But as we think of that, there's many passages in scripture, even when we look at Nineveh, the Lord said to Jonah, should not I spare Nineveh that great city wherein are more than six score thousand persons that cannot discern between the right hand and their left and also much cattle. There are examples of how Isaiah would say, for before the child shall know to refuse the evil. In Isaiah 7 verse 16, and choose the good, the land that thou course shall be broken or forsaken of both her kings. So there's a time in life where we might say that we're not yet reaching that age of accountability.

What I'm, what we're speaking about here, what the Lord is dealing with the Jews about in this through Paul and the second chapter is, to him that knoweth to do right and doeth it not, to him it is sin. And the soul that sinneth it shall die.

The child of God, we saw when we were going through the book of John, first John, we saw there that we not only love God in words, but we love him in deeds, right? James talks about that. He says, you know, you look at yourself in the mirror, you say, you see what manner of man you were and you go back the same way you were. Well, he says, faith without works is dead. Faith without works is a facade. It's an image. It's no better than the Jews that Paul is dealing with here. He says, it's just a game you're playing and you're deceiving your self. You're deceiving your self.

But, but, I think about, I think about when we look at the scriptures of how, you see, this is not necessarily the most encouraging message, Pastor Daniel, but I think about it. We had better mean business with God. If we call ourselves Christians, we had better, we had better not be playing a game because God doesn't play games. God doesn't, God doesn't play around. He says what he means and means what he says. People think, people think in this world that they can know good from evil, right from wrong, and just continue to live how they want and it'll all turn out for them in the end. If we call ourselves Christians, we better not take comfort in saying, well, I'm better than the world. I want to be careful even in talking to our children about how bad the world is getting. And the world is bad, yes. The world is bad. But I don't want them to think, well, we're much better than the world is. You know, we're just already so much better. Well, that doesn't make a person saved. Just because you're better, because you have different standards in your home, that's not what saves you. It is a personal relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. It is personally every one of us will stand before God and give an account of ourselves before God. I won't be able to stand for you. You won't be able to stand for me. We will give an account to God for what we've done with his truth.

The Scripture makes it clear. Those who will be deceived did what? There's a lot of things that could be said, but one thing that was said by Paul there, was it to the Thessalonians, he said, they received not the love of the truth that they might be saved. Did it say they didn't hear the truth? They didn't talk about the truth? They did not receive the love of the truth that they might be saved. Thank God, if you've received the love of the truth, and you know, you like, David, search me, try me, Lord, see if there be any wicked way of me. Private, personal, individual, real religion, pure religion before God. God, we saw recently, looking for those who will worship him in spirit and in truth. Not formality, not a form of godliness, but a denial of the power thereof. No, in reality, before God, trembling at his word, loving and delighting in his word, broken and contrite before him. We see here that there is going to be, it makes me tremble when I think about those who have had a lot of light, but they've just willfully sinned against that light that they've had. I think about what the scripture says even. There's a point of accountability, but there's also degrees of punishment that will come. There are degrees. Hell is not going to be some sort of, you know, uniform punishment. Don't ask me how that looks exactly. I do not claim to know exactly, but I do read a lot of things in the scripture that say there's going to be a greater punishment for those who knew more and still rejected it. The scripture makes that very clear. The scripture bears it out with no uncertainty.

There's three points that I want to make on that, and I know we must draw to a conclusion here, but the level of light, the level of understanding a person had of the truth will come into bearing. It will be on the heart and mind of the judge when he ultimately judges. Look with me in our text here in Romans chapter 2, verse 12. What did it say there? Romans chapter 2, back in our text here in verse number 12. It says, for as many as have sinned without law shall also perish without law. But then listen to this, and as many as have sinned in the law shall be judged by the law. So there's a judgment for those who have sinned without the law, and then there's a judgment for those who have sinned with the law, the knowledge of the law. I think of what we read in Luke chapter 12, verse 47. Luke 12, verse 47. What does it say there? In verse number 47, we read, and that servant which knew his Lord's will and prepared not himself, neither did according to his will shall be beaten with many stripes, but he that knew not and did commit things worthy of stripes, they both sinned, right, shall be beaten with few stripes. For unto, here's a principle, a truth that we keep in mind, for unto whosoever much is given of him shall much be much required, and to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the Lord.

If I've said it once, I've said it a thousand times, the law that was supposed to humble the Jew and cry out to God, God be merciful to me, a sinner instead puffed him up in pride. Ah, we've got nobody else has the law like we do. Hey, you missed the point. God gave us a conscience to do the same thing, right, or at least to a certain degree the same thing as the law, to help us to see you're a sinner, you are helpless without God. Cast yourself upon him, turn to him, sorrow over your own transgressions. Don't just, don't just bemoan the sins of others, look at your own sin.

And then we see that there is a corresponding responsibility that goes with the privilege that was received. Then we see also in, I remember that passage in James 3 where it says be not many masters, many teachers, for we shall receive the greater condemnation. There's a great weight that goes along with teaching, you know, and the problem with the Pharisees was they taught, but they did not. They wouldn't even so much as lift the burden themselves, but they would make other people do what they wouldn't do themselves. They were hypocrites. So it's imperative that as a leader, if you have a leadership position, it's very important that you be, that you walk in truth, that you love the truth, that you not just say the truth, but you actually believe what you're saying. You're not some salesman for some products that you don't even believe in, no, you're a representative of the King of Kings and you're teaching the truth.

And finally, I see in the scripture, in our texts this morning, there's this other thing in verse number 5. In Romans chapter 2, verse number 5, there's this statement made here. In Romans chapter 2 and verse number 5, we read these words. He says, but after thy hardness and impenitent heart, you should have repented, but you didn't. But after thy hardness and impenitent heart, what are you doing by your hardening of your heart, stiffening of your neck, your impenitence in your own heart? What are you doing by doing that? Well, you're treasuring up unto thyself wrath, storing it up against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God. You'll give an account, whatever degree of truth you had, you will give an account for what you've done with that truth.

If we were honest with ourselves today, are we Sunday Christians or are we real Christians? Do we really believe the things that we say I don't doubt for the moment that every one of us, in some way or another, we are falling short of the glory of God because the scripture says that we are. But is it your practice in your life to practice what you teach, whatever level that is? Are you living in harmony with the light of and loving the truth that God has given you in your heart, not just before men, but in your own heart before God? Is it real? Is he real to you?

I think about growing up in a Christian home, it's so easy to play the part. It's so easy to play the game and go with the flow, at least for a while. And yet the day comes, thank God for the day when my hypocrisy was unveiled. And may we, may we love the truth. May we embrace the truth. May we come to the light and say, Lord, if there's something in my life, that's the mark of a true child of God, is it not? That we would love him with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength. That our religion would not just be public religion, but it would be private heart reality of a relationship with him. That's the only thing that's going to get us into God's heaven. It's not any amount of good works we've done, but Lord, people will stand before him one day and say, we've done many wonderful works. That's not what God is looking for. He's looking for the reality, the reality. He's not a respecter of persons, we've read here in the text. He's not a respecter of persons. He knows who you are. He knows who I am. May we, may we live as those who will give an account to the Lord. Let's pray.

Our Heavenly Father, thank you for the truth. Thank you for your, your, the reality of the unchanging nature of your word, of the, even in a fallen planet, the constant reminders that we have around us to a pagan and a lost world that does not even know or have any reason to believe, listen to the Bible, at least to begin with, they, they can see in this world there are certain truths that are self-evident in the creation. They're plainly seen. The invisible God is, is made apparent in the visible things that he has created, that you've created. And so help us, Lord, help us to just love the truth, help us to walk in that truth, help us to speak the truth. May others be able to see that it is, it is real. God is real. I was thinking back of an individual I thought I shared hearing an illustration recently of how this young, this man when he was younger saw his father as he sang the hymns and sometimes he noticed a tear would roll down his cheek, not that, not that a tear is the full evidence of genuine religion, but there was something about the heart in the singing of that song that caused him to, caused him to have great gratitude for what had been done for his soul. And Lord, may our children be able to see, may our grandchildren be able to see that God is real, not only in the words we say, but in the things we do, in the privacy. Maybe they see some private things in our lives. May they be able to see that there, there is a real personal relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ here. And I want, I want to know that as well. Bless us now as we conclude this service. May everything we think, say, and do in the final moments. And as we go out our separate ways today, be pleasing in your sight. We ask in Jesus' name. Amen.