Principle & The Principles of Grace

We had gotten the ten, use your best efforts to define grace something more than we get what we don't deserve. I think we went around and did most of that, didn't we? Okay. Can the one distributing grace be put under an obligation by those who are receiving grace? Understand the question? Can the one who is distributing grace, in this case God, Can he be put under an obligation by those who are the receivers of the grace?

How many think, yeah, maybe? How many think, no way? Oh, cool. There aren't very many chickens in here. No, you can't, because if you did, what would happen? It wouldn't be grace. See that? Grace does not have... And one of the things that that paper I gave you to study next week, he spends a lot of time talking about that very issue. about obligation. The one who is the dispenser of grace can never be put under obligation by those who he or she dispenses the grace to. So, explain the difference of God's grace in the Old Testament and the New Testament.

We talked some about that a couple of weeks ago. Anybody want to jump off the bridge and go for that one? No? Coward. In the Old Testament, did God dispense grace? Yeah, he sure did. But was it the system under which he was operating? Do you understand what I mean by that? A law system.

But you have to say that God is the author of doing favors for man. Don't you have to say that? Because man certainly wouldn't come up with that kind of a program in almost every context. What does man deserve in the Old Testament? In every context, what does he deserve? Death, nothing. He brings sin to the table and God brings blessing. Although sometimes there was condemnation, still there was blessing.

And what we had started down through was in Exodus 34, about how Moses had come down from the mountain and the Jews were worshipping a calf and all of that was going on and then Moses and the Lord had this conversation and then the Lord said to Moses to remake the tablets, which is a gracious act on his part because he didn't have to. Remake the tablets and I'll write upon these tablets in the words that were on the first tablets which you broke. So that's a gracious act. And in verse six in Exodus 34, and the Lord passed by before him.

And this is the space in which Moses wanted to see the glory of God. And God told him, well, he couldn't. But I will show you sort of the back parts of my glory. And you can describe those as his graciousness, his mercy, his long suffering, his goodness and his truth. And he saw that glory. in a reflective manner to the point where Moses's face glowed. But he couldn't see it.

What's the difference between that and what you and I get to do? Moses said, I want to see your glory. God said, well, you can't, but I'll sort of show you a reflective or, you know, I'll turn away and you can look this way. What's the difference between that and you and me?

We're in the presence of the glory. Do we have to put on the shades? What can we do? We can behold the glory of the Lord face to face. Now, because we're here in this world and Christ is in the heavenlies, it's a reflective kind of a thing through the Word of God. But there's none of this, I'm going to put you in the cleft of the rock and pass by you and you get the peak. It's not like that. And how often can you do that? Only on Sundays? Maybe Fridays? Continuously, all the time.

Undeserved? Absolutely, because it's grace. What's interesting about a thorough study of the Jews under the law, can you find any place where they deserved anything? They really deserve, they bring sin and weakness to the table. God brings judgment sometimes, but also grace. And how could God be gracious in the Old Testament?

Under what basis? Well, the blood of bulls and goats wouldn't do it. He did it on credit. He had that credit card, you know, the Calvary credit card. Jillions of miles on that thing. And he could look forward to what Christ was going to do and totally satisfy him so he could exhibit or demonstrate grace by covering their sins, but not putting them away, by not condemning them in some cases and continuing to show some grace to them. But once the cross happens, the whole scenario changes. And that's why we live under this system of grace.

Paul in Acts 20.24 in the New Testament, but I but I hold not my life of any account as dear unto myself so that I may accomplish my course and the mystery which I received from the Lord Jesus, and here's the mystery, to testify the gospel of the grace of God. Paul was the guy that God called to testify of, to teach and to demonstrate what grace was and is. Say that again? Acts 20, 24.

And just to give you a statistic, the word charis, which we talked about, is mentioned 155 times in the New Testament. Paul uses it 130. So that leaves 25 for the rest of the authors of the New Testament. Paul uses it 130 times. Every single epistle of Paul begins with the word grace and closes with the mention of grace. Every single one of them.

So his ministry was to teach grace. And as we move into today's lesson, we'll talk about why it was important that he do that. The last question from last week is an interesting one. Is it dangerous to teach grace? Steve says yeah. No? What do you think? Huh? I got lots of yeses. You don't think it is. It can be. Why can it be dangerous? Why would you consider teaching grace to be dangerous? People want to have their ears tickled. They want to operate under a rule. They want to be told what to do. Steve. Pretty much. Pretty much. Although he was living under the mosaic law, fulfilling it, you know, I mean, he he did what was required. But yeah.

Isn't grace a scary thing? Why? Why do you think it's kind of scary? Not deserved. But doesn't grace sort of say to you, you can do what you want? You're kind of free to, I'll decide. Isn't that the scary part about it? You'd surrender to it or it wouldn't motivate you. And if I'm not told what to do and told precisely what to do, then I don't know what to do, so I'm not going to respond. Or I'm going to make up my own mind. There is an amendment to the Constitution that says that I'm under grace, right?

So would it be inconsistent with the Word of God not to teach a system under which we live? Put it that way. Would it be totally inconsistent with the Word of God not to teach grace? Yeah, it would be inconsistent, because that's what the Word of God teaches. But I must say that most look at grace as an agency that doesn't control behavior.

Right? Don't you look at it that way? That the grace, well, it's leniency. Right? Or it's... Actually, it's quite the opposite, because grace actually is the greatest motivating factor in the Christian life that there is. It is at the top of the list. It's why a believer does anything.

So it's not dangerous to teach grace, although you'll hear, you may not hear it phrased that way, but you'll certainly hear it couched in a, you know, in a context where, oh, I don't know if we want to go that far. If I'm the distributor of grace to you, and because the definition is that it's unmerited and it's unlimited blessing, on my part to you, which means there's no cause in you why I should do what I'm doing. So if you put me under an obligation, then it isn't grace. It destroys the definition.

So when you're dealing with God, here comes God at us, unlimited, totally unmerited, blessing all the time based on what Christ has done, And, you know, it's interesting. We kind of do a little tap dance around the Lord sometimes and say, well, I did. And so you got to, you know, or I obeyed you. And so you need to respond because you said you would say when, in fact, what grace is, it's always beyond my need. It's always greater than I ever anticipated or ever thought about. And there's absolutely nothing I can do to merit any of it.

Unconditional love is because the love is in the lover, not the object loved. God loves me because of who He is, not because I can dance. That's the way He is. And even Aristotle, that definition we gave from Aristotle, he knew that about grace, that it's uncompensated favor with no expectation of anything in return.

Now, let me ask you a question right there. That, I think, is where the hard part is for us. We don't mind people extending grace to us, do we? The thing that bugs us is that we've got to pay them back. Or I'm in a position where I either can't pay him back or I don't have to. Think about that mentality. There's nothing you can do to pay God back. Nothing.

Under having to. You sure do. Yeah, absolutely you do. That's my definition. It's pretty good. We don't deserve it. Yet when the favor or the grace is extended towards us, we're always searching for something in us that deserved it. And somehow to demonstrate back to God that, gee, we're really appreciative. Did I respond graciously enough? Rather than... Well, about that question in the Old Testament, it was, in a sense, God was under obligation. If you catch the law, because of the covenant, God was obligated.

And you see, Many times, where Moses comes to God and says, these are your people, you've promised them all these things, and I know they've sinned, but he goes back to that covenant and that obligation that God has. I've heard a lot of Christians throughout take these Old Testament ideas, and one I hear often is in the Chronicles, it says that my people which are called by my name shall humble themselves and pray, and they apply that to us. If you do this, then God's going to bless you.

Well, that doesn't apply to us, because we don't have to do anything to get God's blessing, but a lot of people still see grace from the Old Testament perspective, that once we do certain things because of this law, because of the covenant, then God is obligated to do other things. In the New Testament, the covenant is not between us. Okay, one of the things you mentioned that I think we should talk about just for a second God Dealt with Israel based on promise. He told Abraham I'm going to do and he gave him a list and one of the great things that Romans 5 talks about is the fact that when the law came and 400 and some years later, it didn't negate the promise.

God was going to do what he was going to do. And it didn't matter if it's a unilateral promise or unilateral covenant, which means God is making the promise with no expectation of you to respond or not. He just says, Abraham, here's what I'm going to do. Abraham is accounted righteous because he believes God. But what if he didn't believe God? God said, Oh, the promise is off. No, no promises there. So God operates under promise with the Jews, which formulates blessing towards them even though they violate the law all the time.

Yes. That's great. I'm going to repeat that and see if I get it right. The principle in the Old Testament of, if then, if you obey me, then I will bless you, is a principle under which Old Testament persons lived and the principle with which God operated. But now that grace has come, The if-then principle, which is like gravity in concrete, has been replaced by the grace principle.

Is it a change in time at the cross? Or is it a thing that applies to people who are still living under the law? Okay, that's a good question. The question is, in today's stewardship or dispensation, Those that are not believers, do they live under a law system?

How many think, yeah, they do? I got one. How many think they don't? I got one, two, three, four. How many aren't sure? They do live under a law system. They don't live under the mosaic law. but they live under Romans chapter 1, specifically lays out what God expects of man. He says, look, I've revealed myself to you in your conscience and in my creation. I expect you to do a couple of things. One is to honor me as God, and two is to be thankful.

What if you don't do that? What's the next verse? Bye. Down you go. He turns you over to yourself. Is that a law-based system? Absolutely it is. He said, I've done this. You have to respond. If you don't respond, there's a consequence. Is that law? That's not grace in my book.

Yeah, I think all men are under, not a mosaic system, but a law-based system, yeah. So, like, he's talking about the Old Testament principle. Does that apply to anybody living now after the cross? Not the mosaic system, not the law system under which the nation of Israel lived. But all mankind is under what I guess we could describe it as the moral law.

We're under, well, the only two things that I know of that the Bible speaks of for non-believers is Romans chapter 1. God says, look, I want you to Honor me as God, and I want you to be thankful." He doesn't guarantee salvation. He just says, that's your responsibility, man. And the reason it is your responsibility is because I have revealed myself to you.

That, in and of itself, is a lost system, and every human being is under that system today. We're also under, if you look in the latter parts of the Book of Romans, We're subject to the civil law. I mean, you can't be doing 60 and a 20 and a cop pulls you over and say, wait a minute, I'm under grace. You know, I get a free get out of jail card. No way. You're subject to those kinds of things, even though you live in a principle of grace. So the world lives under a lost system. A cultural law, maybe, but it's a system with consequences.

When it comes to God, I think the only thing that God requires, initially, from man, is they're acknowledging him as God and they're being thankful. What do they need to be thankful about? The fact that they're created, and he's gracious enough to have even brought them into existence.

Did that answer your question? Okay. Streaking ahead here. The first question for today was, what is the design of grace and what is it supposed to accomplish? Why? I mean, here comes God operating in a grace system. Why did he do it? What is his purpose? What does he want to do with this grace system? Show everybody, oh gee, God is gracious? Is that what he's up to?

Why is it there? How about this? Maybe there's a way of controlling conduct other than rules. Is there an option? The option is grace is there to prevent sin from reigning. And grace is there. It's not a license to sin, but it's actually a system to prevent sin. Does that make sense? Are you with me? Grace is there to prevent sin from reigning. Let me ask you this. Does sin reign? Is it a reigning principle? I know it's tough for you Americans to talk about reigning, but does sin reign? Is it the controlling, all-encompassing factor?

Yes, it is. Sin and death is. Grace has been brought so that sin won't reign anymore. And it's a system to prevent sin. How many of you think that by perfect obedience to any kind of law system you can prevent sin? Nobody's hand went up. No. The law actually is the impetus of sin. But grace is the one system under which sin can be prevented.

So it has a design, and there's a reason why it's here, because it has a purpose and it has a goal to accomplish, and that's to prevent sin and to keep sin from reigning. That's what grace is here to do. So, Scripture says there are two things that we can be under, and the verses, Romans 3, 9, What then, are we better than they, talking of the Jews better than the Gentiles? No, and no wise, for we before laid to the charge, both of Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin. That doesn't mean just the Republicans. That means every single human being is under sin. Every single one.

But Romans 6.14, which is our kind of title verse, For sin shall not have dominion over you.

Why? Because you're not under law, you're under grace. What's the principle under which we can live where we can prevent sin from reigning? Prevent sin from even happening? Grace. That's the system. Sinful acts are activated by a law system, right? Everybody buy that? I mean, that's a principle that we talk about a lot around here. Wherever there's law, there's sin, and wherever there's sin, there's death. Those three are like triplets. They go together. Wherever there's law, there's sin, and wherever there's sin, there's death. Those three go together. I can't repeat that often enough. And I'm not talking about Mosaic Law. I'm also talking about the little black box right behind your right ear, which is your little, I'm going to do this and I ain't going to do that. That's the law system.

Grace is the system under which sin doesn't reign, nor does death. Do you think grace is a natural way for us to think? I got one no. Who thinks no, it's not? Who thinks, oh yeah, if I thought about it long enough, I'd come up with, I'd be thinking about grace. No. We absolutely don't know anything about grace. Our makeup in Adam is not a gracious, prone creature. He does not understand grace.

So Paul has to, as he's the apostle of grace, he knows that he knows that about man, and so he knows that he's got to teach it. He's got to explain it. If it's not taught, you'll never get it. Do you believe that? If we're not taught grace, we'll never get it. We'll never understand it. Ever.

Now, studying the Word of God teaches you grace. Hanging around with people that understand a little bit of grace and show you where the grace is, you'll learn it. But if you're not taught, you won't come up with it on your own. You have to be taught grace.

So grace isn't the natural way we think. So it's foreign to the way our natural mind functions. You won't understand grace, and this statement is said in a gracious manner, you won't understand grace until you get into the Word and study it. You won't understand it. Because that's where it is. That's where the explanation of what it is and how it functions.

The Word of God is the only gracious book on the planet. It's the only one. And books that are written by gracious people who understand the Word of God. But the grace book is the Word of God. And without the Word of God, you don't understand grace. And when you're studying the Word of God, especially in Paul's epistles in the New Testament, Look for the grace that's there. Sometimes we believers go in there and we're looking for the rules. We're so familiar with the law system that we are looking for what I can do to be either more pleasing to God and what I can avoid doing that would be less pleasing to God. Or he said, you gotta. If you look for the grace, because that's what you're looking for.

Why do you think Paul always writes his epistles Position first, then condition. Why do you think he does it that way? Because position is grace, and condition is the response to the grace. See? Position isn't the set of rules and condition, how you keep the rules. That's not what it is. Position is the grace, and the condition is the response to the grace. Okay? Now, question four.

Do you agree with this statement? There is no more immoral, rotten, and filthy to the core person, filthy to the core with sin than a person who's a legalist. Do you agree with that statement? Want me to say it again? There's no more immoral, rotten, and filthy to the core with sin than a person who's a legalist. Legalist. So that means you, not me, must be filthy to the core. Say that again. It's our nature to be legal. Is it sinking into what that statement means? If you're going to live under a law system, if you're a legalist, can I come up to you and say, you know what? You're immoral. You're rotten. You're filthy to the core with sin because you're a legalist. Would that be a true statement? So if I say that to you, you're not going to hit me? Well, you might hit me. So if you go to Romans chapter 7, verse 7 and 8, and I'll read, what shall we say then?

Is the law sin? God forbid. May I had not known sin, but by the law. Oh. For I had not known strong desires, except the law had said thou shall not have strong desires. But sin, taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of strong desires. For without the law, sin is inactive, dead, dormant. So, if that statement is true, and it's in the Word of God, then if I'm operating by a law system, what's the law doing for me?

What's it doing for me? That's exactly right. It's creating occasion to sin, and not only that, not only is the occasion there, but it's whipping up the strong desire to sin. I gotta tell you, when you confront that concept, it's a little, oh, that can't be true, you know? Because I mean, all my life, from I'm this big, I'm raised with a set of rules, and I know the little box I'm supposed to live in, and if I obey my parents, and if I do this and do that, then I'll avoid consequences, and if I'm really pleasing to them, then they'll be nice to me, you know, buy me birthday presents and smile at me and won't spank me. But then the Word of God comes along and says, you know what? Every time the law says you shouldn't, what does it produce in me? This incredible desire to do it, whatever it is.

That's a principle. Like you're talking about principles like gravity. That's a biblical principle. and it's indefilable, it won't go away. If you go to a lost system, that's what the consequence is going to be. I don't care what it is. There's lots of laws, pick one.

He uses the description of strong desire because strong desire is actually what the sin nature is. It has strong desires to express itself through the human being. And so the law says, oh by the way, the very core of your existence, that's illegal. And the old man says, really? I'll show you. I'll have strong desires as often and as much as I want. You can't tell me. That's how law works. Now, can you control that? If you go to law and here it comes, how do you get out of that? If you recognize what's happening, how do you escape from that, or can you? Grace? Who said grace? Yeah, you escape by grace. But if you don't understand it, you have no way out.

So it's interesting, there's always a consequence for going to law, always. and it's death every time. What law does is it doesn't leave sin sort of dormant. It activates sin to its peak. And here's the problem. The one who functions under law thinks they're doing well, they're doing good, and that's in and of itself is what makes them a major sinner.

Remember what we said What qualifies a person to be under grace? Remember when I asked that question? The question I asked, the best understanding of grace is comprehended by whom? Yeah, the person that knows they need it. The one who knows they're unworthy. That's the one that will grab onto grace in a hurry. But the one who doesn't think they need it, who thinks they're doing pretty good, And a person who doesn't need grace, that's the one who's blind. Yeah, we've been there, done that. And that's why we have to learn it.

So the bigger sinner, as far as scripture is concerned, is among the legalists. More because of their mental attitude, even though they might look better than you who are living under grace. The problem is, with the legalists is that they're prideful. I'm prideful. When I'm under the law, or I'm entertaining these thoughts of how well I'm doing, I'm prideful.

So, how is grace known? How do you know it? Study the Word of God, but it's interesting. John 1, 16 and 17, which this verse we visited before, The Apostle John in the first chapter of his gospel is talking about the Lord Jesus Christ, and he's trying to explain to his audience the core of the character of this one Christ. And he says, of his fullness have we all received and grace for grace. For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. So grace and truth show up in a person Law shows up in a person in Moses.

So how is grace known? Dying to sin. Better than that. How is grace known? Study in the Word of God, right? But even beyond that, how is grace known? Is grace just this commodity or this concept that sort of floats around out there? called grace, and if you need it, you pull into the gas station of grace and you get 40 gallons of super unleaded grace. Is that what it is? My point is, being taught, what are you taught? When I say, how do you know grace? I'm talking about a who, not a what. That's exactly right. I'm talking about the Lord Jesus Christ himself. Grace and truth came by him, right?

Romans 5.15 says, But not as a trespass, so also as to free gift.

For if by the trespass of the one the many died, much more did the grace of God and the gift of grace by the one man, Jesus Christ, as abound unto many. The purpose of the word of God is to reveal the person of Christ to you. In the study of the Word of God, you're going to see grace, but you don't know it until you know Christ. And the Spirit of God has been sent to reveal the person of Christ to you. I mean, what good is grace? If you come up to me and you want me to be gracious to you, I'll give you 14 pages and you can go home with it. And you can study it. But if I'm not a gracious person, what have you learned?

The point is that Jesus Christ is the one who is gracious and the one who brought grace. And the whole purpose of the Word of God is to reveal this glorious, gracious person to you and me. So not only do we know the principles of it, but we can see how it functions in Him through His Word.

See that? Trick question. Should we be in anticipation of what God is going to do for us? Think carefully now. Should we be in anticipation of what God is going to do for us? Ooh, I've got to know. Got any yeses? Guys are crafty. How many aren't sure? No. God isn't going to do anything for us that he hasn't already done. So if we live under grace, what's our obligation? To get God to do things? No, it's to find out what he already has done. I read in The Hungry Heart one time, and I forget who the author was, if you can go over in your mind and come up with a single blessing in which God has not already blessed us, then the whole thing is a fraud. One thing.

When he says, I've blessed you with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus. Now you can always say, yeah, but he didn't give me a Mercedes. Spiritual blessings in the heavenlies. I don't think they have Mercedes there. Not a thing.

He has already blessed us. And so, rather than trying to get God to do something for you that he hasn't already done is not gracious. It's a legal system. you already have. And not only that, it's going to take you the rest of eternity just to sort of scratch the surface of them. It's amazing. So, do you think grace has the power to control us? Now be honest. Do you think grace has the power to control us? Or are you really hoping that that's the case? You think it does? I think it absolutely does.

We've got your Bibles. Open up to Titus 2, 11 and 12. Somebody read 11 and then we'll talk about that for a minute and then 12. The grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. Okay, the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. So it's here. It's here, right? Salvation is here and the grace is here. Okay, now read 12 please. So what does that verse tell us that grace is here to do?

What's it designed to do? To teach us, right? What's it going to teach us? Well, it teaches us that we should live soberly, and righteously and godly in this present world. Isn't that interesting? That here comes the grace of God and it's designed specifically to teach us something. It's designed to teach us that we should live soberly, righteously and godly in this present world.

So I would say the answer to the question, does grace have the power to control us? It's a definite yes. Absolutely it does. Now, just so I don't miss this part, the denying ungodliness is a one-time deal. You do it once at the point of salvation. You turn your back on anything that's ungodly and anything that's worldly.

But the teaching part goes on and on and on. The grace never stops teaching us. And what does it teach us? It teaches us how to live soberly and righteously and godly. Don't you love that? So it does have the power to control. And not only that, does grace abound, or is it just enough? It abounds.

Romans 5.20, Moreover, the law entered, that the offense might abound. Uh-oh, I'm in trouble. I was having enough trouble before the law got here. Now it's here and sin's abounding. I am toast. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound, or super abounded.

Can you out-sin God's grace? What do you think? But way back here, you kind of think you can, don't you? I mean, you can turn your back on God, and you can sin, and you can be a real dog, you know? You can be prideful, you can be... What's that? that grace is unconditional, no matter what you do. Now, what's interesting about that is that if you make a statement like that, people are going to say, well, that gives you a license to be sinful.

But if you understand grace, you understand, no, actually, what it really does is it teaches me how not to be sinful. That's what it really does. Yeah. Well, you can try. But the grace is the thing that's going to teach you how that's done. So the grace of God will come towards you through His Word, through the agency of the Spirit of God, to teach you how to live that way. And not only that, it isn't only the teaching part of it, the academic part of it, but it teaches you the motive, it teaches you the energy and the life that lives that way, who is Christ Himself. See? It's not just Oh, I've got the Grace Book of Rules in my pocket and I'm going to give it to you.

It's going to teach you how to live this way. No, that's not how the teaching goes. That teaching seems to be as much equipping. It's not just showing you the way, but it gives you everything you need to live righteously. Yes. So it doesn't just say, OK, go ahead and do this. Like you say, it equips you and it enables you. Right. It equips you to live righteously and not just teaches you, it equips you.

I agree. Let's talk about conscience for a minute. Don't you find it interesting that in the discussion of grace you don't get the discussion of conscience at the same time? Why do you think that's so? I mean, the man outside of Christ is really relying on his conscience a lot. Young believers rely on their conscience a lot. You know, it's kind of that do this, don't do this sort of mechanism within us. Can you rely on grace the same way? You can rely on grace to equip you and to teach you, but where's the reliance?

That's exactly right. It's on the life of Christ Himself. As you and I grow in the knowledge and the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, what do we discover? First of all, we have the life that's His life, and it only responds and is pleasing to similar life, if you understand what I mean by that. And as we grow in the knowledge and grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, we know, through the Word and through the teaching of grace, what pleases Him and what doesn't please Him.

And it isn't a set of rules, it's like in a marriage. I know, after a couple of weeks with Donna, what pleases her and doesn't please her. And I, without even thinking about it, avoid what is displeasing to her and can't wait to do things that are pleasing to her. It isn't because of a set of rules, it's because I love her.

And we have a life that functions in harmony under grace. Well, you know, expand that infinitely with the relationship between you and the Lord Jesus Christ. For He is who He is. And the Spirit of God is opening up an intimacy with Him and expanding and equipping and manifesting the life of Christ through you. The factor in you is not conscience anymore, it's Him. He becomes the driving force of why you do anything.

I don't know if I'd go that far. Law breeds conscience? I don't know. I don't know if I have an answer for that. Anybody else got any thoughts about that? Say that again? is built on their religion. Some people think that the conscience comes from God in the Yeah. For those of you who didn't hear that, conscience is only as good as what the input, what the society or what your culture has put into it. And she used the example of Muslims.

You know, their conscience lets them do all kinds of stuff we wouldn't do in our culture. And as you, if you've studied anthropology in different cultures throughout the world, people have a different moral system and they'll do things that we wouldn't do. And we do things that they would never think about doing. So it's not reliable. So we got to close. Well, that was the second bell, right? Father, we thank you for your grace towards us. And we thank you for the life we have in your son and the fact that you are causing us to grow in the knowledge and grace of him. We pray in his precious name. Amen.