Favoritism and Royal Law Part 2

All right, per usual, we start with the review of last week. And that's perfect here because this is part two of what we covered last week. The title, again, is Favoritism, Loyal Law, and Law of Liberty. And I'm going to, again, take the liberty of reading the first 13 verses because that's the theme of today's lesson. We're going to change gears a little bit next week in terms of the title of the topic.

Okay, James 2.1.

My brethren, do not hold the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with partiality. But there should come into your assembly a man with gold rings and fine apparel, and there should also come in a poor man in filthy clothes, and you pay attention to the one wearing the fine clothes and say to him, you sit here in a good place, and say to the poor man, you stand over there and sit here at my footstool.

Have you not shown partiality among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts? Listen, my beloved brethren, has God not chosen the poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which he promised to those who love him? But you have dishonored the poor man. Do not the rich oppress you and drag you into the courts? Do they not blaspheme that noble name by which you are called? If you really fulfill the royal law according to the scripture, you shall love your neighbors yourself and you do well.

But if you should show partiality, you commit sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors. For whosoever shall keep the whole law and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all. For he who said, Do not commit adultery, also said, Do not murder. Now if you do not commit adultery, but you do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law. So speak, and so do as those who will be judged by the law of liberty. For judgment is without mercy to the one who has shown no mercy, and mercy triumphs over judgment.

These are kind of challenging verses in a way, and that's always fun to be a teacher, because I think we who teach learn more than maybe you do, and maybe we learn less. I don't know. Let's see. Let's see, first of all, reviewing last week, which were verses 8 through 10. So the ongoing contrast of loving your neighbor as yourself and partiality is the theme here. And just some thoughts about that. You know, the royal law is also an antithesis to the law of transgressors. And we're going to look at that a little bit more detail.

And, you know, as we mentioned last week, you know, how we how are we doing loving others as ourselves? Well, this is not a capability of the flesh, the sin nature of the old man, whatever you want to call it. And Christ said it perfectly. A new commandment I give to you that you love one another is I have loved you, that you also love one another. What's that mean? Loving another as Christ has loved us. Carolyn, what's that mean? We can't love one another. I mean, there's no way we can really love one another. Well, not the way Christ loved us, right?

Absolutely. So this is the new creation we are in Christ Jesus. That's simple, but that difficult. Because we still carry this flesh around with us, but how's the flesh doing? You can't buff it up enough to love one another or even yourself as Christ loved us. So anyway, I think, excuse me, that's kind of the bottom line with that.

And by the way, if you're a law keeper, you must keep the whole law. So that's a scenario, verse eight from last week. And you know, I love this verse, and we mentioned this last week too. Galatians 3, 24, wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ that we might be justified by faith. So the law was there for a reason. And remember, in the sanctuary, we're studying Romans.

And Romans, first of all, deals with creation as God's presentation to man about his glory. But then also to the Jewish nation, he has the Mosaic law, which they can't keep. And then to us who don't have the Mosaic law, the Gentile falls short of his or her own law system. So in a sense, being a transgressor, no matter what kind of law you want to put this under, is doomed to fail, is it not?

All right, so let's turn to verses 11 through 13 this week. For he who said, do not commit adultery also said, do not murder. Now, if you don't commit adultery, but you do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law. And of course, that text is given to us in the Ten Commandments and in Deuteronomy and several other places in the Old Testament. Now, I kind of like what Constable said here.

He says, James illustrated this point with a hypothetical case involving two very severe violations of the law. All sins are not equally serious, and that the consequences of some sins are greater than others, But all sins are equally serious in that any sin is a violation of God's will. So put very, very well. And Martin and I have this discussion all the time about the consequences of various types of sin.

So let's drill down on that a little bit. Let's compare the consequences of adultery and murder, which are the most glaring cases of violation of duty towards one's neighbor, to those we don't honestly notice and I think often ignore. Let's drill down on that. You know, we might question the book of Ecclesiastes.

What does the book of Ecclesiastes tell us? Everything's vanity. And here's Solomon, the wisest man ever to live, right? And he claims that everything he's done and everything that's apparent to him is all vanity. And by the way, I kind of went back in the book of Ecclesiastes to kind of review this. I mean, he never quits.

I mean, vanity is used, I don't know, I don't know how many times I've encountered it, but I just picked one verse, 217. Therefore, I hated life because the work that was done under the sun was distressing to me for all this vanity and grasping for the wind. So how about the vanity that we all demonstrate at times and don't even realize it? The vanity of life itself and all the things that we kind of think about and do here, it's vain, but is there a consequence of that for most of us most of the time?

No. And I think the other thing is pride. But you know, John says very nicely, for all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, excuse me again, And the pride of life is not of the father, but of the world. So, you know, is it wrong to be proud about your children and their accomplishments? I don't think so.

But there's a lot of pride that really cuts into every other aspect of our worldly existence here. So these, what I'm trying to point out here is the consequences of vanity and pride may not be apparent to yourself, much less anybody else, or sometimes to somebody else, but not yourselves. But yet the consequences of that are not like murder and adultery. We don't need to go through the consequences of murdering somebody.

I mean, they used to put him to death, right? I think capital punishment would be nice if it would return. I guess there was a shooting in Texas again yesterday where nine people were gunned down and two seriously, or several seriously injured. What's the matter with this world system? I mean, it all begins with Adam.

People still have to have some responsibility if they're under the law to themselves. And then I think Romans 13, 9 kind of summarizes it nicely. For the commandments, You shall not commit adultery. You shall not murder. Very telling in terms of what we're studying today. You shall not steal. You shall not bear false witness. You shall not covet. And if there is any other commandment, are all summed up in this saying, namely, you shall love your neighbor as yourself.

So, you know, we're going to get to this in more detail, but let me just kind of pause here for a second and just state this. And what about being delinquent in love? Won't that invalidate everything? I mean, if you're under the royal law and you're not loving, you're falling short. And now as believers under this law of liberty, which we're going to get to today, you know, the lack of love for one another is also violating that principle of grace. But nevertheless, the price has been paid and we're going to return to that. Thoughts about that? Nobody has anything to say? Sorry.

But you see the principle, I mean, you know, Paul sums up the Mosaic Law in verse 9 of chapter 13 and says, oh, by the way, you shall not covet, etc. And if there is any other commandment, all are summed up in this. You know, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. Well, I think that if you love your neighbor as yourself, you're not going to do any of those things. Well, I think that's an outcome of that.

Does everyone agree with these, as Constable put it, but Margaret and I talk a lot about that all the time, the consequences of murder and adultery are a little different than pride and vanity, but yet all of God's glory. Well, some sins, like the first you mentioned there, that in this world you are punished for both those conceivably. So by murder, adultery these days, you know, it's changed, but you know, you still suffer for that. Sometimes you don't seem to suffer immediately, but maybe you suffer in the long term. Look at all the stealing going on. Look at all the, you know, the shoplifting. Stop being persecuted for a large extent.

But you know when there's no consequence, which gets back to what you were saying about capital punishment. You know, the fact that there's no capital punishment any longer for murder, that these people who are killing these people don't have that kind of in front of them, they don't even have to think about it. Well, if you think about this in terms of biblical truth and God's principles, the just punishment for killing someone else is capital punishment. Exactly. And then secondly, is it a deterrent to crime? Well, the liberal will argue that it's not a deterrent to crime. But I kind of think that maybe that mindset is incorrect. I think it is in part a deterrent to Christ.

But before God, in terms of this is a principle of God. Apropunishment is just punishment. Yes, Old Testament, the New Testament doesn't really get directly at that issue. But nevertheless, the principles of God never change. Okay, nothing about rabbit trail here. One more thing on the rabbit trail though.

It's interesting that whether it's murder or lying, very different in the natural law, but with God's law, you sin on any ground and you're separated from God for eternity. So they're kind of the same when it comes to when God looks at it. Well, the neat thing about that, Jimmy, is we see the contrast between the royal law, which makes you a transgressor, and the Law of Liberty, which is in the last verse, which we'll come to in more detail. But the Law of Liberty, you know, Paul said, should I continue in sin that grace may abound, God forbid, meaning never let it be.

So we're called to a different life, and that life is the Lord Jesus Christ within us, empowered by the Holy Spirit, to ultimately love one another as we love ourselves. All right. Remember, James is pretty practical. He's writing, we'll come to this at the end of today's lesson, but he's writing to the Jewish believer, now a Christian, no longer a Jew, that these people are tied up in the old ways, aren't they? They never quit, at least looking back from whence they've come. And, you know, I think Paul also sends us reminders of what David said in the Psalms and what Solomon said in Ecclesiastes about sin.

And I'm going to, again, back to Romans 3.12. They've all turned aside. They have together become unprofitable. There is none that does good, no, not one. Both Solomon and David are quoted in the Psalms and Ecclesiastes with that similar verse. So that's pulling Old Testament Scripture into the New Testament and Paul writes to the Roman Church about this. All right, go to verse 12 then.

So speak and so do as those who will be judged by the law of liberty. Hmm, different law. So speak and so do our imperative verbs. That means, you know, this isn't some casual consideration. They're to speak as if they're being judged by the law of liberty.

So what's the law of liberty? Try not to all in. Well, first of all, First of all, the V is not there apparently, because it's italicized, so I'm assuming it's just... You mean by law of liberty? Well, the V there, it says by V. The V is not there, so it's just by law of liberty. So in that case, usually you talk about law as a principle. So this is a principle of liberty. So that's how I would start down this path. I don't know whether you do that or not, but anyway. Well, I didn't remove B because I didn't pick that up. The B wasn't there. But nevertheless, I think the interpretation would be the same. I think so too. All right, and as those who will be judged by the law of liberty, let's drill down on that. So the question I just asked, so what is this law of liberty and what kind of judgment is this? How are we being judged by the law of liberty?

Well, can we say it's connected with grace? I'm just throwing ideas out here. Well, we operate on a platform of grace, right? That's how we walk and that carries us as believers, being transformed and conformed to the image of the Son. What has to do with mercy, right? Okay, we're going to get to that. Mercy versus grace, these are different terms and have different meanings. So what kind of judgment do we get from when we violate? Let's say you're not loving one another. That's the theme here. But ultimately, how are we judged? How do we judge when we fall short? What if you get angry? What if you have bad thoughts? You're speaking as a believer, right? Yes. That's common. I think actually somebody's talking about a loss of fellowship.

Okay, but then how are we alerted to that? Don't we have the Holy Spirit watching us? And usually, you know, wouldn't we recognize what we've done or what we've said and we apologize or we ask forgiveness or, you know, those kind of things to, as Roger said, get back in fellowship because we need to recognize and acknowledge what we've done. I think we, I'm going to generalize this, I have no data to share with you, but I think we fail with one another in that, but I think we particularly fail with the world system if in fact we operate in a world system. We go to work there, we go to play there, we go to do whatever we do in a world system. And when we ultimately violate that relationship as God sees us, we should be asking them for forgiveness too. I think that's a real witness as to who we are in Christ. So anyway, that's all right.

So first, will be is a present active participle. So those who will be judged, okay, so that's occurring now. And ultimately, to be judged is present passive. So judged by whom? I think we just kind of touched on that. Who judges us? Well, scriptural truth judges us. We're engaged in scriptural truth by the power and understanding of the Holy Spirit. Okay, so that's where the judgment comes into play.

So, this law of liberty, why are the verbs in the present tense? And I kind of just alluded to that. And I'm going to disagree with Constable here a little bit, so that's going to follow. Why do you think this is present tense instead of, say, future?

In other words, some day you're going to be judged by this. Well, isn't he talking about this is your lifestyle? I mean, this is how you're to be a believer. You should be speaking and doing. Yeah. Again, James is a very practical guy here. This is day in and day out activity as a believer in a world system. connected to our walk with present tense. So speak as so do as those who will be judged by the law of liberty. It will seems like its future, but it's present active. It's going to be happening now. So when we fall short of God's glory and offend, ultimately this law of liberty, we're convicted by the spirit, but that happens now. All right. So a couple of verses here.

James 1.25. We're going back to chapter one now.

But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues at it and is not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the word, this one will be blessed in what he does. Blessed now. Relation six, who bear one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ. Now, the law of Christ can be used interchangeably. where the Law of Liberty Christ hasn't given us a rule set to live by. This is a new life that's scripturally based and sound. Another verse, John 8, 36, Therefore if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed. What does that freedom mean for believers? When Christ is going to make us free? Jim, what does that mean to you, seeing Christ making you free? Freedom to serve God?

Please God. Okay, and keep thinking out loud. Freedom from the law. Okay, but freedom from the law. Law of sin and death. Condemnation of sin. Okay, and there's somebody online. Jimmy, was that you or was that Roy? I said freedom from sin and death. There you go.

How about freedom to live a life free of sin? I mean, remember, Mercy deals with the penalty of sin, but grace deals with the power to make sin what it is. It's historic before God in terms of our righteousness. So, therefore, the Son makes you free. He's made us free from the power of sin in addition to the mosaic law of sin. And we'll be free indeed. I love that. You'll be free indeed.

How many of us think day in and day out how free we are before the Lord to live a life that's glorified to Him? Without sin being the manifesting factor. That's one reason to keep God's Word before your eyes because you tend to forget what you have in our Savior. Remembering Him who knew no sin to be made sin for each one of us that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.

Roger, go ahead. Yeah, Roy has a comment. Roy, go ahead. Well, just a thought. Heimlich Heart today really summed up what we're free from. The power of sin, the old man, the world, the law, and the devil. I mean, wow. The whole world system and everything beyond it, right? Yeah. What a liberty.

And the final verse I'll share here is Galatians 5, I love this one too. Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage. Isn't that what Christ promised when I, I'm going to make you free and you'll be free indeed? And Paul goes on to say stand fast therefore, and the liberty by which Christ has made us free. Beautiful. So this law of liberty has a whole different set of standards and it's all based on the cross, the crucifixion and the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ.

All right, moving on. I like that. I entertain myself when I animate. You may not be entertained. We can talk after class. OK, Cosmo, I'm using him a lot today. McCoy really didn't want too much of this. I'm not being critical. I know. And that's what you find.

What's needed is that, you know, I'm so thankful we have such great people to look at and you start looking at what one brother says and another brother says and you think one will just really resonate with you and the other one will say well I don't know and so thank you lord that I can look at all these.

And what you find typically this wasn't this week so much but what you find I think is the very controversial things if you look at multiple commentators and they kind of disagree and that makes us think we may have the mind of price but it's not working completely is it? All right Kossel another quote from him We need to speak and act accordingly, namely, without prejudice towards others. Remember this theme here, partiality and not loving others as yourself. Since he is speaking to believers, the judgment to which he refers must be the judgment of believers at the judgment seat of Christ. And I disagree. I think this is the judgment we get in the condition that we're in right now. And there's nothing future tense about any of these verbs here. The present active participles or present passive, they're now.

And I think that's, I'm not being critical of Constable, but I just think that's an example of maybe trying to rightly divide the word of truth. And don't forget it's not the judgment seat of Christ, that's the bema, that's the reward ceremony. So you have to, as we taught back and we taught those verses, it's a reward ceremony. So rewards are in view, not judgment. That's right. And along that line, I think ultimately at that judgment seat, you're right. There's not going to be any of our shortcomings going to be brought up there. Where Bonnie's brought glory to the Lord and where Jim's brought glory to the Lord and Wayne, ultimately that's going to be rewarded there. But I don't see anything here about eternal rewards based on our condition and how we're caring ourselves.

Don't you think it has more to do with non-believers looking at believers and appreciating and wondering why they have a different view of, you know, Or maybe because they do apologize for their... I think we want to be different in the world than just everyone else. And I think that's part of it too. The Lord wants us to be a witness and to be different.

And think about why the world system looks at the church as a bunch of hypocrites. And I think that in part relates to wrong teaching. But I think it also relates to wrong behavior of the way the world system looks at the bleak. And you know, increasingly politically, this right wing Christian view of politics is really being criticized left and right.

I mean, but remember, our citizenship is in heaven. It's not here. So don't get too wrapped up in all this. really performers and are heavily clothing as he looks down at how he's being glorified for our lives. All right, Jameson, Fawcett and Brown is one of my favorite commentators. I don't quote them very often, but I thought this was good.

If we will not in turn practice the law of love to our neighbor, And that law of grace condemns us still more heavily than the old law. Let's come back to that. Which spake nothing but wrath to him who offended in the least particular. And quotes James 2.13, which is the verse that we're coming into. So what do you think of that? That the law of grace condemns is that that condemnation is still more heavy than the old law. Why would Jamison Fawcett Brown state that that way? And do you agree? So it gets into, I think, a theme that is worth thinking about here a little bit. Let me preface that by this.

But on many occasions, David did turn to the Lord and ask for forgiveness, didn't he? And just an example of that is in Psalm 133 and 4. And by the way, this is one of multiple examples of the Psalms. If you, Lord, should mark inequities, O Lord, who can stand?

But there is forgiveness with you. that you may be feared. Okay, so that brings up this concept of the law, the royal law, the Mosaic law or law system versus this law of liberty or the law of Christ. Is not this atonement versus propitiation? And that's where I think Jameson, Fawcett and Brown are coming from.

What was the process of atonement, which is really, really Old Testament forgiveness that David was asking for or counting on? It was covering over the president. And remember in Galatians, there's the sacrifice of bulls and goats can never take away sin. So this was covering sin by the sacrifice of the high priest once a year for the entire nation of Israel.

But what's propitiation? Appreciation is appeasement. God is now satisfied. So that's, I think, where Jamieson, Fawcett, and Brown are coming from. When we fall short of God's glory, sure, the penalty may not be worse, but ultimately, because of Christ and everything he's accomplished, we've been disobedient to that appeasement that he's done on our behalf. I think it's an interesting thing to think about.

Leviticus 19.22, the priest shall make atonement for him with a ram of the trespass offering before the Lord for his sin which he has committed and the sin which he has committed shall be forgiven him. Okay, so is that true forgiveness in terms of the cross? Well, if you look forward, but it's not at the time the sacrifice was made.

Romans 3.25, which we're studying up front, whom God set forth, meaning Christ, as a propitiation by his blood through faith to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his forbearance, God has passed over the sins that were previously committed. And we all love 1 John 2, 2. And he himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but for the sins of the entire world. Isn't that a tremendous verse? So all those unbelievers out there, their sins have been forgiven too.

I mean, that appeasement is a permanent thing. It's done once. And the thing we have to remind ourselves of, personally and to one another, is when we fall short of God's glory, He's not going to get back on the cross again. So I think what they're pointing to, the law of grace condemns us still more heavily than the old law relates to the fact that nobody could keep the old law. But now we have someone who in fact has not only kept the law but paid the price for it eternally, if you will, of peace.

Any other thoughts about that? Now keep in mind, Old Testament, they're asking for forgiveness. But is that the same forgiveness that we have today as believers? Just thinking about the five things that I mentioned there earlier from the Hungry Heart, the one thing that is not stated in those fives is the very thing you just touched on, that God is satisfied with Christ's gift of His life in our place. So the penalty for sin has been paid in full. Isn't that great?

Amen. I think it's interesting that God had passed over the sins of the people in the Old Testament. He didn't forgive them, but he's just letting it go for now. But I think there's evidence that that was an act of asking God's forgiveness. It was just covering it up, because God had a plan. The eternal covenant had yet to be fulfilled, right? All right, we need to keep moving here now.

Verse 13, the last verse of this section, for judgment is without mercy to the one who has shown no mercy, and mercy triumphs over judgment. This is a very interesting verse. All right, so I'll play it. For judgment is without mercy to the one who has shown no mercy. I'm just re-quoting that verse.

Whose mercy is being addressed here? with God's mercies. Other thoughts, sir? When you say triumphs over judgment, when God does not treat us the way we deserve, I think is what you're heading towards. Is that right, Bob? go on and ask a second question. Does this relate to eternal rewards or a rock here? And I think it comes back to what we mentioned before. Constable, you've heard of him. You've got two segments of what he says.

For Christians, it is sometimes harder to be impartial towards sinners who flaunt their sin than it is those who acknowledge that they have sinned. I agree with that. However, because Christ died for all, we should reach out to all as he did rather than being unfriendly and cliquish. This is true whether the sinners are homosexuals, AIDS patients, the murderers of unborn children, in other words abortion, liars, adulterers, thieves, or gossips.

Now, is that God's mercy? Yeah, I think it is. Jim, I think you're right. This is God's mercy. So mercy triumphs over judgment. And if in fact mercy didn't triumph over judgment, what would the judgment be? Yeah, it's death. Death in terms of the works of the believer that fall short or death in terms of physical death of those who do not have salvation. Hey Bob, how about turning that around?

His mercy on us is based on His judgment of Christ on the cross. That's good. That's the reason He can be merciful. We're going to see that in the main service here. That's the reason He can be merciful because He judged Christ. We're going to close with that here too in a few minutes. Constable again says this.

This section of verses may raise a question in some minds concerning how James viewed the Christian's relationship to the Mosaic Law. Was he implying that we are responsible to keep the whole Mosaic Code? His own words at the Jerusalem Council showed that this was not his view, and you can go back and look at the Acts section, and I agree with Kasimov that this clearly demonstrates that he was not intending the new church to live under the Mosaic Laws. And I skipped part of the paragraph, it was long.

Christians live under a new set of rules, the Law of Liberty. Israelites live under a different set of rules, the Law of Moses. The fact that the Golden Rule was part of the Mosaic Law, as well as the Law of Christ, does not mean that we're still under the Mosaic Law. So again, principles of God never change. And remember, the Mosaic Law was perfectly righteous, and God intended it to never be anything short of perfectly righteous.

So then I think we think that since mercy triumphs, or by the way, excuse me again, mercy triumphs, another way to interpret that, rejoices over judgment. Isn't that a neat way? It's not only triumphing over judgment, but it's rejoicing over judgment. Actually, even stronger, you could say boast. It's amazing.

God's mercy is beyond our, you know, because of Christ. So how should we reflect on this? Well, doesn't the mercy of God in Christ towards us lead us to show mercy towards our fellow men, making mercy triumph over judgment, which we all deserve? Yeah, I think that affects our behavior, the way we look at others, too. And that's what Constable said in that previous section about you know, whoremongers, abortionists, and all the other kind of things that go contrary to the principle of God, in addition to mosaic law violation.

And I think it really does. And there are a couple of verses that came to mind here. Matthew 5 said, Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. Yes, Sermon on the Mount, and I know all that, but nevertheless, that is the principle of God. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. That's kind of legal in its own sense and will be lived out in the Jewish nation during the millennium. But nevertheless, I think that relates to us. Blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy. So in a sense, mercy trumps judgment. 913, but go and learn what this means. I desire mercy and not sacrifice for I did not come to call the righteous but sinners. And the final verse here, Ephesians 2, 4 and 5.

But God, who is rich in mercy because of his great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses and sins, made us alive together with Christ. By grace, you've been saved. So that brings in this principle of grace. And remember, God is not only merciful, but filled with grace. and with truth. And I've pulled this off the web, but it's just kind of nice. So grace emphasizes the giving of what we do not deserve, whereas mercy emphasizes the withholding of what we justly deserve. So it's nicely phrased there, I think, in terms of the difference between mercy and grace.

And I think the verses in Ephesians really distinguish the two very nicely too. Okay, for God. Stop there. Yes, Wayne? We separate grace and mercy so we know which is which. I think they're all grace because God isn't constrained to do any of that. I mean, he doesn't have to provide mercy. So it's all considered grace, isn't it? Well, it ultimately could be interpreted that way, yes. But mercy, I think, is the fact that we should be justly punished for all of our sins. But for the fact that he doesn't. But grace gives us a life, doesn't it? It gives us a position, and through that position we have a life to live that glorifies God.

That didn't occur under the Mosaic Law. And if you look back at the Old Testament, I'm doing Daniel now in the beginning. And so it's amazing how people like Daniel and Joseph and David and others just stand out in terms of being godly men. But yet we know that we didn't learn anything about Daniel and Joseph in terms of their shortcomings, but I'm sure they had them.

Any other closing thoughts here this morning? All right. Wayne, would you close us in prayer, please? Father, thank you for this time together and the fact that we can still meet and learn more of your grace and mercy to us. And we just thank you for this hour coming and we pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.