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If you have your Bibles, we will 
be in Ephesians chapter 2 this morning. Ephesians chapter 2. And we'll be looking at Ephesians 
chapter 2 verses 1 through 10. Ephesians chapter 2 verses 1 
through 10. And while you're turning there, 
I want to again give you greetings from the First Baptist Church 
of Provo, Utah, where I'm blessed to be a member and one of the 
pastors of the church. And God is moving in Provo, Utah. His historic triune gospel is 
going forth there through God's churches. And it's such a joy 
and be with Free Grace Baptist Church. And it is my first time 
in Canada. And I've gotten to know Pastor 
Cam and Pastor Jim and what a joy they are. And I look forward 
to getting to know more of you throughout today. But I want 
to honor your time most by getting into the word together. So if 
you're not there yet, we'll be in Ephesians Chapter 2, verses 
1 through 10. And if you like sermon titles, 
and you're a note taker, you can title this sermon, The Joy 
of the Gospel. The Joy of the Gospel. I'm going to read the text, Ephesians 
2, 1 through 10. We'll bow for prayer once more, 
and then we'll get right into it. God's Word says to us and for 
us through the Apostle Paul in Ephesians 2, 1-10. And you He made alive who were 
dead in trespasses and sins. in which you once walked according 
to the course of this world, according to the prince of the 
power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of 
disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves 
in the lust of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and 
of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the 
others. Verse four, but God, who is rich 
in mercy, because of his great love with which he loved us, 
even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ 
by grace, he even say. and raised us up together and 
made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that 
in the ages to come, he might show the exceeding riches of 
his grace and his kindness towards us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved 
through faith. And that not of yourselves, it 
is the gift of God. Not of works, lest anyone should 
boast. For we are his workmanship, created 
in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand 
that we should walk in them. This is the word of the Lord. 
Let us pray together. Father, as we think about the 
joy of your gospel this morning, help us to come away from this 
place, away from this gathering, more conformed to the image of 
your Son. Help us, oh God, to love you 
more, to love one another more. As you know, this dear church 
family has gotten to celebrate getting new members in. I pray 
that those new members that have covenanted with this church would 
grow to love your gospel even more through being a part of 
this church family together. And I pray that this sermon would 
help this church family to do that. And would you bless the 
church that calls themselves Free Grace Baptist Church this 
morning through the preaching of your word. Help me to preach 
well, help the congregation to listen well, all to the praise 
of your glorious grace. We offer this time up to you 
as we continue our worship to you. And we pray all these things 
in the name of your son, Jesus. Amen. So if you're a note taker, my 
outline for the joy of the gospel is quite simple. In verses one 
through four, I want you to see the bad news. Verses one through 
three, I want you to see the bad news in verses one through 
three. And then in verses four through 
10, I want you to see the good news. So verses one through three, 
you to see the bad news and verses 4 through 10 I want you to see 
the good news. How many of you have read Charles 
Dickens novel A Christmas Carol? Do you remember how it starts 
out? Starts out by talking about old 
Jacob Marley doesn't it? And what does it say about this 
Jacob Marley? The very first thing we find 
out in the book, whoever Jacob Marley was, he was dead. But he wasn't just dead. He was, 
as Dickens would have us know, dead as a doornail. It's become 
kind of an infamous phrase to say that somebody when they die, 
maybe they were a bad person. You might say of that person 
who was very, very wicked, that they're dead as a doornail. And 
there's oftentimes rejoicing over those people that are so 
wicked that we would say something like that about. Well, I would 
submit to you that biblically and spiritually, we are all dead 
as a doornail. We're like Jacob and Molly except 
on the inside. Look at what the text says in 
Ephesians 2. And you He made alive who were 
dead in trespasses and sins. And although in these first three 
verses I told you I want you to see the bad news, There's 
glimpses of good news even in these first three verses. In 
verse 1 we have the little phrase that God has made us alive. We'll get more to that later 
on in the text. Right now, I want us to focus 
on that we were dead in trespasses and sins. That past tense were 
is also a glimpse of good news because that tells us that we 
used to be like that, but we're not like that anymore. But in 
order to really appreciate the gravity of the were in verse 
one, we need to consider for a moment What does it mean to 
be dead in trespasses and sins? Well, in order to do that, I 
want us to go over to the book of Romans. The book of Romans. And I want to read from chapter 
5. This is another letter from my 
dear brother, the Apostle Paul. As you well know, Chapter 5 starting 
in verse 6 down to 11. For when we were still without 
strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely 
for a righteous man will one die, yet perhaps for a good man 
someone would even dare to die. but God demonstrates His own 
love toward us, and that while we were still sinners, Christ 
died for us. Much more than having now been 
justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. For if when we were enemies we 
were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, Much more, 
having been reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. And not 
only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus 
Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation. So there's lots of good news 
there, not unlike Ephesians chapter 2, what we read to start out 
with. But I want to bring to your attention these words. Paul says that we're without 
strength. We are helpless. Paul says that 
we, in and of ourselves, we are ungodly. Paul says, in and of 
ourselves, we are sinners. Now, what does it mean, dear 
friends, to be without strength? It means to be absolutely helpless, 
absolutely unable to do anything for yourself, spiritually speaking. It's as though, and I'm borrowing 
this illustration from another preacher, You had a paraplegic, 
and you were to drop him into a forest, and you gave him no 
map, no compass, and told him he's got to make his way out 
of the forest, but he's got a time limit to do it, because in just 
two hours, a big, massive bulldozer is going to clear the whole forest. He's helpless, isn't he? How 
much more? Are we helpless before a holy 
God in our sinfulness? Paul says we are without strength. There's nothing you can do in 
and of yourself to muster the spiritual strength. to stand 
before a holy God and survive. We are helpless before Him. We 
have nothing to offer Him. The Bible says in the book of 
Isaiah, our best of works are like filthy rags before this 
holy God. In my context in Utah, the LDS 
are very polite. lighter than I am sometimes, 
although that bar is not that high once you get to know me. 
And they seem so sweet, so precious. They're willing to help you if 
you need it. A lot of them would give you 
the shirt off their back if you so needed it. And I oftentimes 
explain to people this. What that means that our best 
works are like filthy rags is that the LDS person can do the 
exact same thing and they can basically even do it better than 
the Christian. So, if they did the exact same 
thing and did it even better than the Christian, their works even though well-performed, 
mean nothing to change their spiritually dead state. They are dead in their trespasses 
and sins. To be ungodly means to be opposed 
to God and His covenant and His law. You see, what Adam and Eve 
did in the garden, that was by definition ungodly, because Adam 
and Eve broke covenant with God. If you want to know what sin 
is, it's lawlessness. It's covenant breaking. It is 
disobedience to the law of God. So to be ungodly is to be a covenant 
breaker and a law breaker and to basically be in your inner 
core opposed to everything that God stands for. And you may say, 
well, I feel like a pretty good person. Not according to the 
scriptures. Friend, the Scriptures say that 
you and I, in and of ourselves, are ungodly. And if that's not 
enough, dear friends, the Scripture tells us that we are sinners. To be a sinner means to miss 
the mark. It means to be absolutely lawless 
in your being. It means to go after everything 
God has ever said not to do. Job says that we drink iniquity 
like water. You think of yourself as a sinner, 
dear friend. Because in and of yourself, that's 
all any of us are. We're sinners. That's our main 
problem. It's that we have sinned against 
the sinless one. We have sinned against the one 
who is perfect and righteous and good and just and holy. And I could sit here and name 
all of his perfections and attributes, and you in and of yourself are 
morally opposed to all those things. You and I, we are not 
good. You and I, we are not just. You 
and I, we are not holy. You and I, we are everything 
that God is not because of our father Adam who sinned in the 
garden. Romans 5, this very chapter teaches 
that in Adam we all die. That, dear friends, is what it 
means to be Dead in trespasses and sins. Not only that, but 
to be dead in trespasses and sins, verse 2 says that in and 
of ourselves, we walked in them. And for those of you here today 
that are not yet trusting in Christ, trusting in this joyous 
good news, you could change the tense of that, and it'd still 
be true, in which you are walking according to the course of this 
world. If you've ever seen a zombie 
movie, maybe you've seen the show Walking Dead that's been 
going on forever and ever and ever. In a very real sense, spiritually 
speaking, we without the joyous gospel made a reality unto us. We are the walking dead. And if that's not enough, There's 
an occultic element to it as well. There's a satanic element 
to it. If it's not enough that we ourselves 
are sinners, but there's also the satanic element that the 
scriptures talk about here. He says, we once walked according 
to the course of this world. We followed after worldly desires, 
passions. But it gets even worse than that. He says, according to the prince 
of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons 
of disobedience. There's really a satanic element 
to the darkening of the human heart as well. 2 Corinthians 
chapter 4 tells us that the God of this world hardens hearts. And the God of this world prowls 
around like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. There really is a satanic element 
to those who feast in sinfulness. That they're not just doing it 
alone, They're doing it and giving joy to devils and being a part 
of satanic kingdoms, dear friends. This is what the unbeliever finds 
himself in. They're very much in league with 
Satan. You know, oftentimes when we 
think of Satan and his demons, We may conjure up images of our 
mind of everybody in hoods and bloodletting and things of that 
nature. Although that does happen, there's 
devil worshipers out there. Oftentimes, the devil's chiefest 
acts come in those who wear suits and ties that look real prim 
and proper and they're just nice. We've got one quote-unquote so-called 
preacher down in the USA that will just smile at you from the 
television. and tell you that you're so kind, 
you're so special, you're so nice, and God just loves you 
just the way you are. And He'll smile at you the whole 
time. I want to tell you, that's the 
work of the devil. That is satanic. What do people 
need to hear? They need to hear that before 
God, they're helpless. They need to hear that before 
God, in and of themselves, they and we once were sinners. But God, as we will see, has 
changed our status. We're now saints before Him. 
Look at what the text says in verse 3. Among whom also we all 
once conducted ourselves in the lust of our flesh, fulfilling 
the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature 
children of wrath, just as the others. There's a tendency amongst 
the more Calvinistic and Reformed to sometimes think, I'm one of 
the elect, I'm special, and to turn their nose up to the center, 
especially around here, I'm told. But Paul would have us not have 
that mindset. Because every time he uses the 
word once in these first three verses, he's reminding the saints 
at Ephesus, this was you. This was you. You once walked according to 
the course of this world. You once walked according to 
the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works 
in the sons of disobedience. I think I can say this with integrity 
in the text. He could have said, of which 
you once were one. And then he goes on to say that 
we once conducted ourselves in the lust of our flesh. We were 
slaves to fleshly desires. We were slaves to our own sensual 
cravings, but now Paul says we're not anymore. Now, I don't want 
to be naive and assume in a congregation of this size that everybody here 
is converted, especially among the young people, because I used 
to be a young person too once, and depending upon your age, 
you might still consider me a young person, and for that, I thank 
you. It's all relative. But with that 
said, teenagers, do you desire the lust of the 
flesh? Do you follow after your own 
passions? Have you found the way to get 
outside of mom and dad's view and do what you want to do? To 
be just sexually deviant? I was riding this morning with 
the visitors to church and I saw some sign or something or another 
that just showed the sexual deviancy of Canada. And let me just say, 
as a citizen of the USA, it's not any better where we're at 
as a whole. Our world craves selfishness 
and sexual sin. Paul says, if you're a Christian, 
that doesn't characterize your life anymore. Paul says that 
that wants ought to be true of you. And even, dear ones, if 
you do fight, do you hate your sin? Are you disgusted by your 
sin? Well, I want us to go into the 
good news. Starting in verse 4. We ought to pay attention to 
the grammar of our Bibles. In verse 4, there's a conjunction 
there, but. But God, who is rich in mercy 
because of His great love with which He loved us, even when 
we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ. By grace, you have been saved. 
I want to stop right there. He goes on forever with this 
sentence. It's as though Paul was breaking 
out in joyous doxology because remember church, Paul called 
himself the chiefest of sinners. So you can imagine that this 
doxology, this transition where he says, but God who is rich 
in mercy, you can imagine as Paul is writing this, he's thinking 
about his own Damascus road experience. where God, in His rich mercy 
and lavish grace, saved Paul's murderous soul. And you can see 
here, dear friends, just the worship that exudes from Paul, 
because he can't stop this sentence. And he begins the good news, 
not by talking about our salvation, but by glorying how good God 
is. That our God is a merciful God. Look at the text. But God who 
is rich in mercy. I think we can say as well, his 
love towards us. Notice that the text says, he 
is great love. It's not just some nebulous form 
of love floating out in the ether, but it's his love. Remember what 
John tells us? God is love. And it's that sacrificial 
love, John 3.16. For God so loved the world that 
he gave his only begotten son, so that all the believing ones 
may not perish and have everlasting life. That's that love of which 
Paul speaks here. It's the sacrificial death of 
his son. You've got to understand just 
how bad you are. And I've got to understand just 
how bad I am. There are so many people all 
around the world, in whatever nation you go to, that's going 
to try to tell you, you're so good, you're so precious, you 
deserve to be loved. That's not true. You and I, dear 
friends, don't deserve love in and of ourselves. You and I are 
not precious in and of ourselves. You and I are dead in our trespasses 
and sins. We're enemies of God. We are 
sinners. We deserve God's holy wrath. That's why the text says that 
we're children of wrath. We're born into it. We are by 
nature, the text says, children of wrath. That means that sin 
is what we do. It's who we are. And then when 
you think about that reality, that there's nothing good in 
us, there's nothing special in us, yet God demonstrates His 
mercy towards us. God demonstrates His love towards 
us. He says, because of His great 
love with which He loved us, even when We were dead in trespasses, even 
when, think about that, God loved you when you were divinely unlovable. God loved you when you didn't 
deserve it. God loved you, dear one, when 
you were a sinner, when you were His enemy. That just simply means 
you're at war with God. And more horrifying than that, 
God is at war with you. And His wrath is pointed at you. God loved you. If that doesn't bring an amen, 
if that doesn't bring a hallelujah to your soul, I don't know what 
will. He goes on to say that God made 
us alive together with Christ. By grace you have been saved. 
I want to focus in on the with Christ here. Because we see in 
chapter 2 verse 1, he starts out, and you, the you there's 
plural, he says, and you all he made alive. Well, down in 
verse 5, he brings up that idea. God has made us alive together 
with Christ. You know what he's talking about 
there? He's talking about the doctrine theologians like to 
call regeneration. That's this supernatural event 
where God converts a sinner. And He takes out that old heart 
of stone that drank water of mechanicality. He takes out that 
old heart that's at enmity with Him. He takes out that old heart 
that's sinful to the core. And He replaces it with a heart 
that longs for Him. Now, I'm not talking sinless 
perfection. The influences of the world are 
still going to be upon you. You're still going to fight. 
And you're going to struggle. And you're going to sin. And when you sin, you're going 
to get up again. And you're going to keep following 
after the Lord Jesus Christ. And until that day of glorification, 
that day when we won't sin anymore, that day when we will get brand 
new bodies. And may I just say this as a 
side note, a lot of people look at me and they'll oftentimes 
say to me, and they mean this well, they'll say, can't you, Just get excited about 
your new glorified body. You won't be in a wheelchair 
anymore. I'll say, yeah, I'm looking forward to that. That'll 
be nice. Pastor Cam and I can do jumping 
jacks together. He won't have a broken foot anymore. And he won't ever break it again 
trying to dance. But, dear friend, that's not 
my most glorious promise in the gospel. You know what my most 
glorious promise in the gospel is? Do you know what your most 
glorious promise in the gospel is? Communion with sinless, communion 
with the triune God of the universe. That's what it means to be with 
Christ. That's what it means to have 
the promise of regeneration. That you were accepted in Him. That you were once an enmity 
with Him. But now, dear friends, we are 
made alive. And we've got that glorious promise 
waiting for us. And every time you gather together 
in church, you're getting a little bit of a slice of that promise. You're getting to taste that 
promise in a sinful, ungodly, wicked world. And that world 
is dead in their trespasses and sins, but yet you're here anticipating 
the great day and our great hope. Have you thought of church like 
that? Have you thought about every time the scriptures talk 
about our hope? Number one, it's always in the 
plural. When he writes his letters, it's to the whole church. So 
it's all of our promises for those who are in Christ. Now look at what the text says 
next. It's a parenthetical here in 
verse five. By grace you've been saved. We'll 
get to that more in a moment. Now, this with Christ causes 
us to be raised up together. And he says it's made us sit 
together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. One day that's 
going to be a reality. When we all gathered together 
around the throne room of glory. And we see God in all of his 
goodness and all of his mercy. And we're not incinerated because 
of our sin and thrown into hell for all of eternity. We get to 
stand before him and we get to worship and praise and glorify 
him. Paul is speaking of that in the 
present because I believe that when we come together like this, 
we join the infinite chorus of the redeemed in glory in singing 
the praises to our triune God. That's why he can speak of it 
as if it's a reality right now. Because in a real sense, when 
we gather together, that is the case. We are joining in something 
far more eternal. The pastor of theologian in Washington, 
D.C. says something that we all ought 
to hear. The USA is not eternal. It's going to crumble. Canada 
is not eternal. It's going to crumble. God's 
kingdom is forever. And when we come together as 
his local churches, and we praise and glorify his name, we are 
living out these verses. We're living out the joy of the 
gospel. So one of my applications, if 
I can give it early, and it always feels weird to give an application 
like this, because you are here. So I'll put it this way. Keep 
coming to church. Do you realize how much you encourage 
one another when every one of you is here? Do you realize how 
much you encourage your pastors and deacons when they see you 
here singing your alums out to the glory of God and sitting 
under the preaching of the Word? We are preparing for the great 
day. of which Paul speaks. Look at 
what he says next in verse 7. That in the ages to come, He 
might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness 
towards us in Christ Jesus. And as I've been thinking about 
this text, When we get to heaven, and we've 
been there for a million years, we're still going to be there 
because of the work of Jesus Christ. We're still going to 
be there because even in heaven, we'll be trusting in the Lord 
Jesus Christ and we'll be thanking him and worship towards him for 
what he's done. And so even a million years from 
now, it's not as though in a million and one years from now, we're 
going to think, okay, now I'm the reason why I'm here. No. in all eternity we will only 
and ever say we are with our God by grace through faith in 
Christ Jesus. So he talks about the riches 
of His grace, one for us in the cross of Christ and the kindness 
of Christ and dying for our sins. And then he talks about in verse 
8 this idea that every Good evangelical Baptist seems to know, for by 
grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of 
works, lest anyone should boast. So we have here the same reminder 
we saw in verse 5. Paul says twice in this passage, 
by grace you have been saved. We will always sing of the grace 
of our God. We will always magnify in the 
grace of Him. It is not of our own works. Nobody in heaven will be able 
to say, I got here because I'm special. Nobody in heaven will 
be able to say, I got here by Jesus, but I'm staying here by 
my own merit. No. It is totally and purely 
by grace, and that grace for us is seen in the life death, 
burial, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus Christ. All of which 
was done, as was said earlier by Pastor Butler, on our behalf. 2 Corinthians 5.21, For He made 
Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that in Him, 
that is Christ Jesus, we might become the righteousness of God. One great theologian, John Calvin, 
put it this way. It is a great exchange. Because when a sinner believes 
and trusts in Christ alone, not only is their heart regenerated, 
but they're given as a free gift, one for them by the death and 
burial and resurrection of Christ. the very righteousness of the 
God man, Jesus Christ. And in that righteousness, dear 
saints, we glory, because it's an alien righteousness. It's 
not our own. Remember I told you that we're 
without strength, we're helpless, we're sinners. We've got no righteousness 
to offer God, but in the grace of Jesus, we have all the righteousness 
we will ever need. And that righteousness, that 
grace is given to us through faith. And that faith, even, 
is not of ourselves. that faith is the gift of God. 
God grants that we have faith. God grants that we believe. So it's not this idea of pull 
yourself up by your bootstrap. God is the one who sovereignly 
bestows faith. God is the one who sovereignly 
bestows belief upon his people. At the same time, we though, 
can call men and women, boys and girls, to place their hope 
alone, their faith alone, their trust alone in Christ alone. If you were here yesterday, you 
heard my Spurgeon lecture, and you heard Spurgeon say such things 
as, try my Jesus, try my Jesus. He was not bashful. He was not 
shy about calling men and women and boys and girls to repent 
of their sin and believe alone in Christ alone. And that is 
the glory of salvation. by grace through faith in Christ 
alone. Then we see in the next verse that this is not of works lest 
anyone should boast. Again, We're not saved by our 
own doing. The faith, it's a gift. Grace, 
it's a gift. We are saved and born again. We are regenerated. We are converted 
because God in his goodness and mercy through the preaching of 
the gospel has saved our souls. And when you think preaching 
there, you can think a wide range of things. People get saved simply 
by the preaching of the Bible itself through the Word of God 
directly. Others get saved through the 
preaching of the Word by a pastor, a preacher, or perhaps an evangelist. Others get saved through the 
reading of a gospel tract that has biblical truth on it. But 
however it may happen, whether it's through the personal witness 
of somebody, a preacher or what have you, nobody can say they 
saved themselves. Nobody can say they're ones that 
they were the initiators of their own faith in Christ. Now, why 
is all this the case? Well, we get that in verse 10. For we are his workmanship, created 
in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand 
that we should walk in them. Turn, if you will, with me to 
Galatians, Galatians chapter five. And this'll be the last 
little letter we look at from Paul that's not Romans. And I want you to see, starting 
in verse 19, the contrast between the works of the immoral and 
the fruit of the spirit. Verse 19, Now the works of the 
flesh are evident, which are adultery, fornication, uncleanliness, 
lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, 
outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, 
murders, drunkenness, reveries, and the like, of which I tell 
you beforehand, just as I also told you in times past, that 
those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom 
of God. Now look at verse 22. But the 
fruit, that's singular by the way. But the fruit, one fruit 
of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, 
faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such things there is 
no law. So all that to say, God saved 
us by His grace in a way that we cannot boast at all in order 
that we would exude not the works of the flesh, which by the way 
are what it means to be dead in trespasses and sins. I mainly 
spoke of it before through Romans 5 in your position towards God 
and Him towards you. But you want to talk about the 
position towards the fellow man? That's the way it works itself 
out in the works of the flesh. But God saved you from all that. 
You once walked in those things. And now you're saved to the glorious 
sweet fruit of God's Spirit. So let me ask you, is your life 
characterized? Not perfect. But are you known 
as somebody that is loving, joyful, kind, patient, so on and so forth? I've found it interesting. I 
remember I was talking to Dr. Jim Renahan once and he brought 
up how interesting it is that self-control, self-control is 
an aspect of the Spirit's fruit. Are you known as somebody with 
self-control? Are you reckless? The text says in Ephesians that 
we're His workmanship. He is the crafter. We're the 
pot. He's going to make something 
beautiful out of every Christian. No exceptions. You may not have 
the world's best faith. Humanly speaking, you may fight, 
you may struggle with sin. If that's you, come back tonight. I want to give you assurance 
of salvation. I want you to be able to say, 
I know that I know that I know that I'm a Christian. But here 
we see that Those who are truly Christians, their life is going 
to be characterized by the biblical fruit. So I ask you, is that 
you? God prepared beforehand that 
we should walk in that fruit. Look again at verse two. When you were dead in trespasses 
and sins, you once walked according to all those things. But for 
the Christian, our life is completely different. You're here this morning and 
you know you've never truly trusted Christ. You know that your life 
is lived like a devil and not like a saint. You can come to Christ today 
and live. You can come to Christ and no 
longer be a walking dead person. You can be made alive as the 
text says twice. You can have the joy of the gospel 
ring in your heart. That's what every God-fearing 
church member in this building wants for you. Don't let anything 
or anybody keep you from knowing the joy of having your sins forgiven. All you gotta do is trust. All 
you gotta do is believe upon Him. Believe upon the one who 
died for guilty sinners and rose again and ascended on their behalf. Because my gospel also says that 
He's coming back again one day to make all things new. Are you 
ready? I want you to be ready. And so 
does every God-fearing Christian in here. Walk circumspectly in 
the Spirit, by God's grace, for His glory. Let us pray together. Father, we thank You so much 
for Your Gospel. We thank You that in a way we'll 
never understand completely. that your son, your eternal son, 
assumed human flesh. And according to his human nature, 
he experienced everything that we do in the sinful world, and 
yet was sinless. We thank you that this sinless 
one died the death that we deserve. And we ask and pray for those 
who have not trusted this one who died and rose again for sinners, 
that sinners in this room would not go out of this place without 
trusting in him. We thank you for the gospel and 
joy that you've given each one of us. Help us to live life in 
step with the Spirit, as I've said. And we pray all these things 
in the name of your Son. Amen.