Gospel of John, 5:1-38

Okay, everybody hear me alright? We're in John chapter 5. Chris last week had worked down through about 14. And what he was doing was talking about the man who was healed at the pool of Bethesda. The questions I handed out had to do with what feast it was, which Chris covered, so we'll start at question 2.

What does the statement in verse 14 represent as regard God and his people Israel? Because in verse 14 he says to the man, Behold, thou art made well. Sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee. Now, the problem with a question like that or with a statement like that is that one might think, is he talking about me in the 21st century as a believer? I mean, I tell Craig all the time, if he doesn't clean up his act, he's really going to get in trouble with the Lord. Isn't that what he's saying? Isn't that what the Lord is saying?

You know, don't sin anymore unless the worst thing come upon you. Does that fit? Where does that fit in terms of Judaism or Christianity? Which one? Judaism, sure. And because these people are under a law system, the Lord Jesus had demonstrated grace to them, to him, on the Sabbath, but they're still under the Mosaic system. And the Mosaic system is always, there's consequences for sin. As we'll see later on, there'll be other people who are sick or lame, And the disciples will ask the Lord Jesus, well did this man sin or did his father sin? And that's a principle under the Mosaic system where, you know, I'm sure glad that system doesn't work today because my son would be in big trouble. because he'd have to pay for an awful lot of sins that he doesn't know that I did. Anyway, so it's a principle that functions under the mosaics system rather than under the grace we live under.

Question. Isn't that she was thinking why they were having so many? Oh, yeah. Yes. That's a good point. Why do you think they are under the law? Yeah. Oh, are they like that? Yeah, they feel that way. Oh, do they feel that way? But the reason I think is God choosing this so that they will be transformed into his image. Her granddaughter and grandson, or no, son and daughter with grandkids. I've gone through over the last few months, seizures, gallbladder, all kinds of medical problems. And the stress is almost too much on them. And their viewpoint is, is that, well, I wonder what we did to make God angry. Why is he picking on us so much? Kind of what the viewpoint is.

I think you have to come to the conclusion if you live today in Christ, that there isn't any punishment from God about your behavior. Or if you're not living the pristine Christian life and you have suffering in your life, that it isn't because you were a bad guy. Now, that's not to say that if you decide to go out and sin, there aren't going to be consequences for it. There certainly are. But because we do live under grace, I don't think there's a cause and effect of God is punishing me because I'm not living up to the standard. If that were true, I don't think half of us would be here.

Having said all of that, understanding what grace is, and that it's unlimited and unmerited blessings from God based on what Christ did, not what you do, and that circumstances, trying circumstances in a believer's life, I think you've got a handle on it. designed to cause you to go towards Christ, not run away from Him, and to recognize that He is using all things to approve you and to conform you to the image of His Son. Now, I must say that lots and lots of believers don't buy into that. And it's because they're raised in a quasi-law system that's cause and effect, punishment, reward. You know, fear of punishment, hope for reward, rather than just living under grace. So, is that okay? That's kind of where that came from. Question three.

Why did the Jews persecute Jesus regards the miracle? Why was it one of those things that really upset them? And there's a question four says, why did they seek to kill Jesus in response? Why were they upset about the miracle? First of all, when they question the man who was cured, what's he doing?

He's carrying his bed around. And the Jews are saying, wait a minute, this is the Sabbath. You can't be carrying your bed around. It's against the rules. So this guy's 38 years old, has been sick for 38 years and hasn't been on his feet in 38 years. And on the Sabbath, he's carrying his bed away from the pool of Bethesda because Jesus healed him. And the Jews are all over him because he's working, you know, on the Sabbath. So why are they angry about that? Yeah, I mean, the Sabbath. was a pretext to cover their rejection. That's right.

The Jews had the mosaic law system, which they knew they weren't to violate because it was, you know, a punishment condemnation thing. But what they what they had done, they had subtly put together a whole nother system of laws that if they didn't break that law, then they wouldn't break the mosaic law. So something like carrying around your bed being a violation of one of their principles would keep them from violating the fact that you were supposed to rest on the Sabbath. So what the Lord Jesus had done was had his grace had violated their principle.

That's what made him mad. I don't know if you observe this, but if you're associating with people who live under a strict law system, whether it's Christianity or something, any kind of a code, you violate the code, you're in trouble. You're going to hear about it. There's no grace in law. You see that? There's no grace at all. And it doesn't necessarily, I mean, the most visible example is in religious circles, but there are others, you know, like in the military, you'll see it. Other places like that where the principles, well, we all do it that way.

Then question four, in verse 17 and 18, the Lord Jesus said, in 16 he said, the Jews persecuted Jesus and sought to slay him because he had done these things on the Sabbath day. But Jesus answered them, my father works hitherto and I work. Therefore the Jews sought the more to kill him because he not only had broken the Sabbath, but said also that God was his father, making himself equal with God. So why did the Jews seek to kill him? What really made him angry now? I mean, they're upset pretty much because of what appears to be a violation of the Sabbath. But what's the next issue?

He claims deity. Now, it's interesting. He claims equality with God the Father. But Jack and I had a discussion this week, not only that, but from their perception, they thought he was saying, well I'm another God equal to God. You see, it wasn't necessarily that I'm the son of God and we're one. It was, their perception was, well I'm another deity equal to the Father. So, in their minds, that's blasphemy.

What's interesting about this verse is that I thought in the Garden of Eden that God rested on the seventh day from all of his work, right? It doesn't say so here, it says he's working. How come he's working? What's he working? He's holding the world together. Holding the world, well that's not work. Not for God. Why is he and the Father working? I thought, you know, he pronounced the creation good, And in his seventh day he rested. It sounds to me like he went back to work. How come? To redeem, yeah. Now there's a new issue, isn't there? What's the new issue? Sin. And who has the responsibility to deal with the sin issue? God does. Why? Why does he? Why isn't it you and me? We can't.

He can wipe us all out and he's still got the offense. Right? His holiness and his righteousness has still been offended and it must be satisfied. So he's working. He and the Father are working and they're working on the sin issue. So it sort of fits in with question five.

A quote from John Darby says, it shows in what depths of grace that neither the Father nor himself could find their Sabbath in the midst of misery and of the sad fruits of sin. Jehovah and Israel might impose the Sabbath as an obligation by the law and make it a token of the previous truth that his people should enter into the rest of God, but in fact When God was truly known, there was no rest in existing things.

He wrought in grace. His love could not rest in misery. An interesting thing about God. He's holy, righteous, and good, and He's also loving and gracious. But I think you've got to have them all in perspective. He could not be gracious until His holiness was satisfied. Do you see that?

He could not, because of His character and who He is, Just say about sin, ah, never mind. It's okay, we'll just let it go. He couldn't do that. Could not do that because of his character. Now you think, well, gee, that's, he's pretty stiff and stern. Yeah, he is.

And what's cool about that is that when he does take care of the sin issue, and he makes declarations, he's just as rigid about those, about the grace and the standing that we all have in Christ, as he was about the fact that I can't exercise grace and my love towards sinners until I fix the sin issue and satisfy my righteousness. Question 6. What does the statement of verse 19 tell us about Christ's mode of operation as a dependent man on the earth?

And then Jesus answered and said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, the Son can do nothing of himself but what he sees the Father do. For whatever things he does, These also does the Son in the same manner. For the Father loves the Son and shows Him all things that He Himself does. And He will show Him greater works than these that you might marvel.

So the question is, what does it tell us about the mode of operation as a dependent man on the earth? Now here's the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the second person of the Trinity. He's the Son of God. But how does he live? He lives as a totally dependent man. Totally dependent. I mean, there isn't... Saturday afternoon he doesn't get three hours to do his own thing. You see that? He lives totally dependent because the verse says, the son can do nothing of himself but what he sees the father do.

Is that true for you and me too? What do you think? Should be. How is it true of us? Or how should it be true of us? Number one, it's a little scary to think I can't do anything of myself. Isn't that a scary proposition? I mean, the Constitution says I can. We are Americans after all. But the Lord Jesus says, I don't ever do anything of myself, not a single thing. I only do what I see my Father doing. So I can say to God, well, I haven't seen much lately. What's up? How do I know what my Father's doing? Or can I even know? How do I know? Through the Word of God.

What's the Spirit's job here on the earth? What's He come to do? So he reveals Christ to the believer, so what do we do? Is revealing Christ to the believer sort of an inactive icon? The point is that as we behold the glory of the Lord Jesus, what do we see? We see what he's doing. We see a life in action. and we have that same life in us. So we can say the same thing.

This is a very interesting verse because if the Lord Jesus is that dependent on his Father to live while he's on the earth and he's God himself, shouldn't we be at least approaching that same dependency? One of the toughest things for the Spirit of God to teach a Christian is dependency.

Because he wants a list of rules and stuff to do and off on his own. He would much rather be told what to do than to have intimacy. Much rather. I'd much rather be religious than I would in fellowship, if the truth be known. You know, God is a scary character.

But here, look at the intimacy between the father and the son, and the same intimacy, as when we get to John 17, you'll see it even more graphically, the same intimacy is afforded to us that we can live with the Word of God, which means you've got to spend a little time in it, with the Word of God, and we can find out what God is doing.

And we can say, whatever you're doing, that's what I'm doing. We've been given His Spirit, and we have the very life of the resurrected Christ, and we've been placed in Him. The principle ought to be the same, don't you think? I do. So He's not independent.

So, dropping down to verse 20-22, I read 20, 21, For the Father raises up the dead, and gives them life, even so the Son gives life to whom He will. For the Father judges no man, but He hath committed all judgment to the Son. So my question is, what are the two things that demonstrate the glory of the Son of God? The first one is that He quickens, or He gives life, and two, He judges.

Now, it's interesting. This word, a lot of translations use the word give life. I love the word quicken because it means more than just giving life. It means giving his very own life. And so it means to make alive. And usually this word has to do with the life that has been given to us by the Lord Jesus Christ himself, his very life.

Now, what about this judging thing? The Father has given all judgment into the Son. What's He judging about? What's the judgment going to be based on? Now, it's interesting. The Lord Jesus is dishonored, He's despised, and He's disallowed of men. Right? Because they're going to crucify Him. Because of that, God gives Him the ability to judge. So what does he judge? What is he going to judge? The clause that follows that, in verse 23, that all men should honor the Son and the Father, or honor the Son even as they honor the Father. Yeah. Here's the point. In every judgment that we know about.

There's the beam of judgment for Christians, right? Who's the judge? The Lord Jesus Christ, right? At the Great White Throne judgment, who's the judge? The Lord Jesus Christ, right? So he is the judge. He's the one that's not only going to judge believers' good works and reward us, but he's also the judge at the Great White Throne because he's the issue. He's the focus. And that's been given into his hands by the Father.

And as Joanne's talking about in 23 and 4, question 8 is, all men will honor him. What's the difference between believers and unbelievers honoring him? What's the difference? Which verse are you referring to? 23 and 24. I think we have the same Bible, don't we? 23 and 24. What's the difference between believers and non-believers honoring him? Because both of them are going to do it. What's the difference? Yeah, one's going to be forced to do it. Non-believers are going to be forced to honor Christ. Every knee will bow, every voice shall proclaim.

I don't know, you guys in this room, do we have to force you? We just lighten up on the command a little bit? No. The life we have in Christ doesn't need any prompting in order to honor the Father and the Son. We do it spontaneously, as Jack said, because of the life we have.

Both groups will do it. The motivation will be totally different. Every human being, everyone, which includes every non-believer, will honor God. Everyone. We're all going to be standing there going, yeah, see, it's about time. No. They will, because He is God. So, believers who are in Christ with his life don't have to be compelled to honor him. Because we have the life, the life is honoring to God. Question nine.

Why would the Son of Man have to be granted to have life in himself? First 25, 26, 27, 26 primarily says, as the father has life in himself, so hath he given to the son to have life in himself. Why does he have to get it? Because he's a man. He's the son of man. and he's dependent. He's even dependent on God for life. I mean, it's an astonishing thing in my mind to think about the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the second person of the Trinity, who is the creator of everything, is so dependent on the Father, he even depends on Him for life.

Don't you think somewhere in the back of your mind, underneath the covers, that he's kind of existing on his own? Don't you kind of feel that way? No, no. He's totally dependent on the Father. Totally. Even for life. So, where does that put you and me? Makes us totally dependent.

Again, I repeat, I think it's difficult for us to realize the degree of dependency that God would have us have in Him, in Christ. of the absolute fullness of life both essential and ethical which belongs to God and through him both as to the Logos and to Christ in whom the Logos put in human nature in other words the Word of God real life real and genuine life active and vigorous devoted to God blessed in the portion even in this world of those who put their trust in Christ but after the resurrection to be consummated by ascension among a more perfect body and to last forever.

Do you find the rest of the security of salvation in verse 24? What do you think? Is there a certain rest about the security of your salvation there? I'm sure you all are like me, running to believers all the time who doubt their salvation and kind of wish you had verses at hand to say, well let's go take a look at this one, and there's a couple in the passages.

This is a really good one. This is a really good one. If you sit with me and you say to me, look, I say unto you, he that hears my word, and believes in him that sent me, has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but is passed from death to life. So, if I hear his word and I believe, have I passed from death to life?

Well, how come I'm going to die then? Well, I won't. You all are. I'm getting measured. Why? What does he mean that I pass from death to life? It's spiritual. Out from death. Yeah, I've been taken out of those who are the dead ones, separated from God, and I have been placed in Christ who is life. How did that happen? Just because he said so? How did it happen? Courtney knows the answer, he's dying to answer it. Now it isn't belief that does it. How did it happen? What are the mechanics? You were baptized into Christ. Into Christ when? When were you baptized? At what point in Christ's life were you baptized into him? The moment you believed.

Nope. In his death. You were placed in him at the point in which he was dying. Right? Separating from what? Death itself. So that if he was raised to newness of life, so were you. So he can say, look, and you can say to people, you know what? I'm already dead. I died already. My body is going to stop functioning one of these days, but I'm dead and alive. I don't know about the rest of you guys, but I'm alive. And the reason I'm alive is because I did already die. You see, when a non-believer leaves this planet, They just stay in death.

And they stay hooked to that sin nature, which is condemned. But you and I, because of our faith in Christ and the work of Christ, have already gone through the process of death and life in Him. So, lots of security there. Actually, I think the identification truths are the foundation of the security of a believer. If you know those truths and believe them, you know there isn't any going back.

Because if you're united to Christ in his resurrection, how do you get lost? He's got to go back. He's got to go back in the grave, up on the cross, come back alive in the flesh, and come down off that cross. And he's not going there, which means I'm not going there. So, we've been already to Calvary.

How many resurrections are we talking about in these verses? Primarily down to verse 29. and shall come forth, well 28, marvel not at this, for the hour is coming in which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, and shall come forth they that have done good unto the resurrection of life, and they that have done evil unto the resurrection of damnation. How many resurrections?

Six? One million. Five? Two. Four. Or like the kids say in Sunday school, lots of them. How many people are on the earth? Lots of them. How many people did the Lord Jesus save? Oh, a lot. How many sins did the world commit? Oh, jillions and millions and trillions. How many resurrections? Two.

Bema? When does the Bema happen? What precedes the Bema judgment? This little thing called the Rapture? And if you happen to have already left the planet, what happens to you? You get joined up with your body, now a glorified body, and you meet Christ in the air, right? and you go to this thing called the beam of judgment, and oh boy, there's going to be heck to pay there, right? Guys that didn't do all those works you were supposed to do. What's going to happen there? What kind of a judgment is it? Rewards. That's a judgment of rewards. That's what it's all about. The whole event is just to reward us. There's none of this, oh, slap on the hand.

I talked to a lady this week, she said, you know, she's 94 years old. She said, I'm really worried. She said, I learned about identification, position, truths, all these wonderful things about 40 years ago, and I just haven't talked about it enough. And I think the Lord is really disappointed in me.

I said, well, let's see. He says in Ephesians that he's foreordained that we should walk in these works that he determined. So what you're saying to me is that when we get to the beam of judgment, he's going to say, hey, I gave you 10, but you got here with nine. She said, oh, I guess I'm going to get there with all of them. I said, well, or maybe you're one of those people that show up at the beam and pull the 11th one out of your pocket.

She said, Lord, you didn't know about this one, but I did 11. No. You can't be disappointed because the works are foreordained. You're not going to miss any, which means you're not going to miss any rewards either. Do you know that this fire that's going to happen, this big, huge bonfire, which Courtney and I are going to share, that burns up our dead works, that is a huge blessing. You know why?

Because we don't ever have the privilege of ever remembering any of that. Nothing will ever get in the way, in all eternity, of just beholding the glory of the Lord. You're never going to think about, boy, I remember back in 1969, that sin I committed. Never. Your focus will be so enwrapped with Christ that you'll never turn away from Him. Never. Because there won't be a reason to.

10. Is it a mistake to think that our greatest happiness would be to take our own way? That's a simple question. It's either yes or no. Greg says, yeah, it'd be a mistake. Everybody agree with him or not? Yeah, it's a huge mistake. The happiest man or woman on the earth is the one who makes the will of God supreme in his life and her life. We haven't seen a lot of it yet, but we're going to see it as we go through John further.

The one thing that Jesus was focused on was to do the will of his Father. That's the one thing he never varies from. When we get to Lazarus being raised from the dead, I mean, you and I, if we had the power to raise people from the dead and we got the call, we'd be up there this afternoon. The Lord Jesus waits, because it's the will of the Father that He waits. It is the supreme joy of the believer to do the will of the Father, only Him.

11. What is the issue here regarding His witnessing not being true if it's being done by Himself? Verse 31. If I bear witness of myself, my witness is not true. What is the problem with that? because anyone could make a statement. In the Jewish system, you had to have a couple, three witnesses for everything, didn't you? And so he says, if I just have a witness of myself, my witness isn't true. And the reason that this is so important is that when the Antichrist comes, he's going to claim that he's his own witness.

Now, the Lord Jesus calls into question, well, I've got a few of them. As a matter of fact, I have five here and over the next eight or ten verses he shows what his witnesses are. The first one is easy. He witnesses to himself. The second one is in verse 33. Who is the second witness? John the Baptist. The third witness is verse 36.

And what is it? It's his works. The works bore witness. Miracles, Nicodemus even stated so. Only God could perform such things as he did. So the works bore witness that he was sent one of the Father. What's the fourth one? Verse 37. The Father. The Father bore witness to him, the Jordan River and the Mount of Transfiguration when we get to it. So he's got four, and what's the fifth one? The Word of God, verse 39.

Search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life, and they are they which testify of me. Are you and I to search the scriptures to find eternal life an abstract thing or are we to search them to find Christ himself? What do you think? Why do you search the scriptures? Why do you even open it up and read it?

Increase your brain power. Yeah, increase your brain power. Become a theologian. Answer all those tough questions on Sunday morning. No, it's to know Christ. And he's standing in front of the Jews, right? And what is he saying to them? Hey fellas, you got the principle wrong. You're studying those scriptures so that you can all be rabbis. The real issue is, those scriptures are there to reveal me. Oops, now he made him mad again. So, five witnesses.

The scriptures are designed to reveal the person of Christ to his life. Life isn't obtainable by just becoming familiar with scripture or obeying the scriptures. In 2 Timothy, Paul says to Timothy that from childhood you have known the holy scriptures which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. In other words, what the Lord Jesus is saying, you read your Bibles but you're not willing to come to me.

Isn't that interesting? We don't have that problem today, do we? It's a huge problem today. We study the scriptures, we're learning. I mean, there are more Bibles in the United States than there probably were people on the earth at the time of Christ. And why do we have so many of them? So we can all get really smart. Interesting.

Why does honor from one another prove insufficient? Courtney and I are going down the road and we're honoring one another. Why isn't it sufficient? You can't be trusted. You're talking about him. Why is it not good enough? Well, I'll find somebody better than Courtney. I'll pick Jack. Okay, I'll pick Vern then. Oh hey, Vern's acceptable. So how come me and Vern going down the street, how come we prove insufficient in honoring each other? How come? As it pertains to what?

Just as it pertains to whether we're to be honored or not. We're good guys, we're worthy of your respect. In 2 Corinthians 10-12, Paul says, For we dare not make ourselves of the number, or compare ourselves with some that commend themselves. But they measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise. or they don't understand. Do you understand what he's saying? So where does the comparison go? Only the honor that comes from God.

That's right. That's exactly right. We can always find somebody worse than us. Oh, absolutely. Line them up. I love this, that righteous ladder that we all live on. There are way more people below me than above me. There's only a few up above me, but a lot of you guys down there.

So, when it comes to honor, the honor is from the Father and the Son. And dependency means that God is able to honor you because He can manifest the life of His Son through you. And that's what's honorable. So, I'm going to finish early. Awesome. My last question was, what does the statement in verse 46 prove? Boy, did I jump in a hurry.

What does it prove? Scriptures bear witness of Christ. The Old Testament. It proves that Moses wrote the Talmud, the first five books of the Bible, because Christ said he did right there. So if just if he's doing the works of the. And here's a reference. Yeah, that's exactly right.

So, in verse 40 he says, you will not come to me that you might have life. Put yourself in the mindset of a Jew. How did you get life, supposed life, by being a Jew? How did you get it? You're born a Jew, but how do you get this righteousness before God? Yeah, you have to obey the Mosaic system, right?

So, he says to them, wait a minute, I got a new plan. You need to come to me if you want to have life. Think that upsets them? They're not happy about that. I mean he's making all of these statements here about who he is in front of this Jewish group in the temple after he's healed somebody and they're all upset because he violated their laws about resting on the Sabbath and he's telling them I'm life. Is that the first one? He's saying I am life and you won't come to me. He says I receive not honor from men, but I know you that you have not the love of God in you."

Well, think about this. If I'm a godly Jew, and I'm listening to this, what am I thinking? If I'm Nicodemus sitting and listening to this, what am I thinking? Boy, I've got this whole system down, I'm doing really well with it, and if this guy really is a prophet from God with new information, he's saying some things to me that change everything that I know to be the way things ought to be, right? So what struck me about this was, if you're raised in a legal Christian environment, and pick on me, I was raised in Catholicism, but I don't know how many Catholics get saved, if any, I know there some are. But believers that are raised in a covenant or a reformed environment, right? And they find themselves in front of somebody who is telling them about grace.

How receptive are they going to be to that? They get their bristles up. They don't like it. Yeah, Lewis Barry Chafer said grace is the most hated thing on the planet. You can't do anything. That's right, and that's why. The reason grace is so hated is because it leaves no room for the old man to do anything. There's nothing for you to do. There's nothing for you to do, because it's all of grace.

And, you know, if you scrape the veneer off and understand what grace really is, and then if it's extended to you, you're supposed to respond to it, aren't you? Aren't you? How do you respond to it? To grace? Yeah. Thank you. Take it. That's all you do. And you know what's cool about that? God extends his grace, right? Which means he's doing everything. And how does he reward you? For taking it. For believing him. For using it. For saying thank you. Because you're not going to say thank you unless you take it. If I offer you 20 bucks and I'm not going to do it because you'll take it. And you say thank you, you took it.

I've come in the Father's name and you receive me not. If another shall come in his own name, him you will receive. Who is this guy that's going to come in his own name? Anybody? I mentioned it five minutes ago. It's the Antichrist. He comes in his own name. He doesn't come in the name of the Father. He comes in his own name.

Don't you find it interesting that the Lord Jesus Christ at no time comes in his own name? Question? How can you believe who receive honor one of another and seek not the honor that comes from God only? Do you not think that I will accuse you to the Father?

There is one that accuses you, even Moses, in whom you trust. For had you believed Moses, you would have believed me, for he wrote of me." This has just got to fry the mind of a Jew. If you really believed Moses, you'd believe me. But if you believe not his writings, how shall you believe my words?

So, the Lord Jesus is, what he's done now, and as you're going to see as we go forward, what he's done now, he's set up and given the Jews all the reason they need to hunt him down and crucify him. It's all right here. He's done it in the temple, he's done it in front of the leaders, and he's really laid it on them. Because he has taken their religion, and he has said, you know, if you really believe Moses, you would recognize me if you believed my words.

But you don't, and you're condemned. They're not happy. Would you be? I watched some idiot last night on the tube try to convince me that the resurrection wasn't true. The guy made me angry. Can you imagine if you're a Jew and here's this guy standing in front of you saying, now if you'd have believed Moses, you'd believe me. You'd know who I am.

But you don't, and because you don't, you're going to be condemned. You ready? I'm going to pray and then we'll hand up next week's stuff, okay? Let's close. Dear Father, how we thank you for your grace. We thank you for the life that we have in your dear son, the Lord Jesus Christ. And we pray in his precious name. Amen.