Mark chapter 10. This is a glad occasion. Thankful that all the friends and family and brothers and sisters of John could be here to share in this special day. I want to answer two questions this morning.
Why should I be baptized and what does baptism mean? Well, strictly speaking, the word baptism is immersion. That's the translation. If we went from the Greek language of the word baptism into English, we would translate it immersion or dip to immerse one.
But I want to try and develop that a little bit more as we go along. But why should I be baptized? And secondly, what does baptism mean? And I want to look at Mark chapter 10, beginning in verse 32.
We'll read through verse 45. Now they were on the road going up to Jerusalem. And Jesus was going before them. And they were amazed.
And as they followed, they were afraid. Then He took the twelve aside again and began to tell them the things that would happen to Him. Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem. And the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and to the scribes.
And they will condemn him to death and deliver him to the Gentiles. And they will mock him and scourge him and spit on him and kill him. And the third day he will rise again. Then James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to him saying, Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask.
And he said to them, What do you want me to do for you? They said to him, Grant us that we may sit. One on your right hand and the other on your left in your glory. But Jesus said to them, you do not know what you ask.
Are you able to drink the cup that I drink and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with? They said to him, we are able. So Jesus said to them, you will indeed drink the cup that I drink and with the baptism I am baptized with, you will be baptized. But to sit on my right hand and on my left is not mine to give, but it is for those for whom it is prepared.
And when the ten heard it, they began to be greatly displeased with James and John. But Jesus called them to himself and said to them, You know that those who are considered rulers over the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. Yet it shall not be so among you. But whoever desires to become great among you shall be your servant.
And whoever of you desires to be first shall be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give His life a ransom for many. Amen. Let us pray.
Our Father, we thank You for the Holy Scriptures and we thank You for our Lord Jesus Christ and the good news concerning His life, His ministry, His death, and His resurrection. God, we know apart from Your grace, apart from the blood of Jesus, we would all be dead in our trespasses and sins. How we thank You that You have powerfully made us alive together with Him by Your Spirit and by Your Word. We pray even now that Your Holy Spirit would be at work among us that You would encourage our hearts in the events of this day, that You would cause us to see yet another trophy of Your sovereign grace, of Your power in the saving of sinners.
We ask through Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.
Introduction
Well, if we ask the question, why should I be baptized? Or in this instance, why should John Williams be baptized? The Bible tells us several things, but I just want to focus on two reasons this morning. The first reason is the death of Christ.
Why should I be baptized? Because Jesus died for sinners and rose again. And the second reason is because He commands it. This is something that the Lord Jesus has given to His church in order to observe and to obey until He comes again in glory.
So those are the two reasons why I should be baptized.
The Death of Christ
Now notice, first of all, the death of Christ. In this particular passage that we see here, Jesus speaks of His baptism. In verse 38, Jesus said to them, You do not know what you ask. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?
Christ's Baptism vs. His Death
He is referring here not to his baptism that he underwent through water. Remember that he came to John the Baptist. John the Baptist saw him and John the Baptist said to him, why are you coming to me for baptism? I should be baptized by you.
That was His physical baptism, going into the water, down with John, and coming up. And the Spirit came down, and the Father said, This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. That was Christ's physical, or first, baptism. That's not what He's referring to here.
What He's referring to here is His death. He's already spoken of His death. Notice back in chapter 10 at verse 33. He says, Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man, that's Jesus Christ, will be betrayed to the chief priests and to the scribes, and they will condemn Him to death and deliver Him to the Gentiles.
And they will mock Him and scourge Him and spit on Him and kill Him. And the third day He will rise again. That is Christ's baptism. That is Christ going through the torment and the suffering associated with His death at Calvary.
That's what He refers to when He chides these disciples, John and James, when they've come to Him and they're looking for position in the kingdom. He says, grant to us that we may sit on your right and on your left. Jesus says, you don't know about the cup that I need to drink. You don't know about the baptism that I need to undergo.
He is referring to His death.
Why Believers Are Baptized
That is why people get baptized. Not because they performed well. Not because they have changed their life. Not because they have done some noble deed.
They are baptized because Jesus went to the cross. Because Jesus died on Calvary's tree for the sins of all those whom the Father had given unto Him.
The Cup of Wrath
Christ speaks in this passage about drinking a cup. Now, this doesn't mean a physical cup. He's talking about drinking the wrath of God. We could look at several Scriptures in the Old Testament that highlight this fact. where God would give a cup of wrath to a particular nation.
Sometimes Israel. Sometimes surrounding nations. In the New Testament, we see Jesus refer to this cup. Well, it means simply that.
God's wrath and anger because of sin. Jesus Christ would drink down the very wrath of God. There's an instance in the Garden called Gethsemane. prior to going to the cross, where Jesus prays and He says to His Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me. Then he resolves and he says, nevertheless, not my will, but thine be done.
He is willing to drink that cup down because God would be pleased to save his people from their sins. He speaks of this baptism. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with? Again, the word means to immerse.
We might say someone's immersed in their work. We might say someone is immersed in their hobby. We might look at Canuck fans and say they are immersed in the Canucks. You meet someone whose every thought is about a particular thing, and you come away saying, boy, they're really into that.
They're really into that particular activity. That's what Christ is speaking of here. This baptism would be an overwhelming, See, the word baptized wasn't just used in religious contexts. It was also used in military contexts.
One time a ship was baptized. That means it was sunk. It was immersed. It was shot down in such a way that it went fully into the water.
Jesus is speaking about this baptism of being overwhelmed unto death. You ask the question, why did He do this? Because we're sinners. That's the glory of the Christian gospel.
Sometimes the Christian gospel is sort of presented like this. Accept Jesus into your heart and you'll have a really happy day. The glory of the gospel is rather this, that God is accepting sinners into His heart through the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus went to the cross for us.
Jesus went to the cross for sinners. He himself said, I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. So you ask and you say, why would Jesus be baptized in such a way? In Luke 12 50, he says, I have a baptism to be baptized with and how distressed I am till it is accomplished.
His baptism here refers to being overwhelmed by some difficult experience or ordeal. His death and sufferings are compared to a raging flood of sorrow. When we look at that tank and we see our brother go into that water and we ask the question, why is he doing that? The primary answer is because Jesus did so much for him.
It's all about the Gospel. The gospel simply is a word that means good news. And the good news is this, that God is a holy and a righteous God. That all we, like sheep, have gone astray.
That's bad news, actually. But in order to have good news, you've got to have bad news first. All we, like sheep, have gone astray. We've not done what God says to do.
He's told us the good that we're supposed to do. We don't do it. And yet the good news is that Jesus came. Jesus lived obedient to His Father.
Jesus fulfilled the righteous requirements of God's law. And Jesus died as a sacrifice and as a substitute on the cross. Probably that word substitute is one we need to appreciate more and more as we are Christians. If I would have been hit by a truck on the way to church today, Cam would have preached.
Pastor Porter would have brought it. He would have been my substitute. I was scheduled to preach. I was supposed to preach.
I was to take this place and proclaim the Word this morning. But if I got whacked en route, Cam would have been a substitute. He would have taken my place. He would have stood behind this pulpit.
That's the glory of the word, substitution, when we think about Jesus. We should have been on that cross. We should have been what Jesus describes here, delivered, condemned, mocked, scourged, spat upon. That's what we deserve because we're sinners.
The Bible says the wages of sin is death. The gift of God is eternal life through our Lord Jesus Christ. We deserve the death. We deserve the mocking.
We deserve the scourging. We deserve the spitting. But Jesus is our substitute. Jesus took that for us.
Jesus went on that cross, not because He was a sinner, but because the Father heaped all of our sins upon Him. And He was our substitute when He cried that cry at the end of the Gospel account, when He said, My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me? You know in your heart of hearts that should be true of you. God should forsake us because we've sinned.
God should cast us off because we have rebelled against His holy law. God should banish us. Hell and suffering and judgment and all the wrath of God ought never to surprise anyone who has that much understanding of our sin against the holy God. But Jesus is our substitute.
Jesus stood in our place. Jesus took the wrath of God. Jesus suffered hell so that we don't have to. So when we ask the question, why should I get baptized?
Or why should John Williams be baptized today? It is because that Jesus Christ was baptized unto death. That He was overwhelmed with distress. That He went to the very lengths to save His people from their sins.
But he speaks here, not only of being killed, but on the third day he will rise again. So he goes on to command this as an activity. Baptism doesn't save us. It's not like we go into the water as sinners and we come out as Christians.
That's not the way it works. There's only one way of salvation, and it's by grace through faith in Jesus. It's the blood of Christ that cleanses us, that makes us alive. But baptism is commanded by our Lord nonetheless.
And Jesus commanded it to His church.
Christ's Command to Be Baptized
Turn to Mark 16 for just a moment. In Mark 16, after Jesus had risen from the dead, just before He goes back to heaven, the Lord Jesus gives this instruction in Mark 16 at verse 15, and He said to them, Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. He who believes and is baptized will be saved, but he who does not believe will be condemned. In Matthew's account, in Matthew 28, verses 18 to 20, the Lord Jesus gives this command.
He says in Matthew 28 at verse 18, And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you. And, lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." So, we should be baptized because Jesus died and rose again. Now, of course, for those who believe that, if you've not believed the Gospel, if you have not come to know Jesus as Lord and Savior, then baptism isn't for you.
But if you have believed in that, if you have taken Christ as your Savior, you can say with that hymn that we sing, I am His and He is mine. And then as well, because of His command.
What Baptism Means
And that brings us to consider next, what does baptism mean? I mean, why on the 7th of December would John Williams go into some water? I mean, do you ever stop and kind of break it down that way? I mean, it seems a little odd when you stop and think about it.
I mean, not odd because Jesus commanded it, but why? Why does God give us water when we come into a saving knowledge of Christ and identify with Him? Why does He give us bread and wine? Because we're real people.
Living in a real world. And God gives us real symbols and real helps for our faith.
What Baptism Is Not
We need to understand what baptism is not. It's not a magical rite. There's no hocus pocus here. The water didn't just magically appear.
I actually came last night, about 6.30, went down into the boiler room and opened the tap. That water, if it wasn't warm, would be the same water we're going to drink today. Unless, of course, you like warm water to drink, you're free to go and drink some of that warm water. It's not magical.
There's no hocus pocus there. It doesn't become something other than tap water in Chilliwack. Believers are made holy and believers are blessed, not through physical water in a Baptist tank, but through the blood of Jesus Christ alone. Don't forget that.
Baptism is not for unbelievers. It is not to be done because everyone else is doing it, or because someone is pressuring you, or because some certain church says that unless you do this you can't be saved. No. Not a magical rite.
It's not for unbelievers. It is not ultimately necessary for salvation. It is a command by Christ. It is something that we should obey.
But when we look at the thief on the cross, he was not baptized, and nevertheless, he went to heaven. Jesus said, whoever does not believe will be condemned. He doesn't say whoever does not believe and is baptized. So we need to understand what it does not It's not a magical rite.
It's not for unbelievers. It's not necessary for salvation.
Baptism as Act of Obedience
It is rather an act of obedience, as we've said. An act of obedience. This is something very important for the church today. We seem to have forgotten this little act of obedience.
We like to do things our own way. We like to pick and choose what of God's commands we're actually going to follow. And that's not acceptable. Jesus says that you must be baptized.
As a believer in him, this is a means by which you identify publicly with him. So, it's not an option. As well, baptism is a declaration of the gospel in a non-verbal form. Isn't that great?
A declaration of the gospel in a non-verbal, without words. When our brother goes into that water and he goes down into it and he comes back up, that highlights the glory of the gospel. It shows something of what it is to die with Christ, to be buried with Christ, and to be risen again with Christ. One man said that baptism simply expresses the verbal content of the gospel in a non-verbal form.
Our confession of faith says baptism is an ordinance of the New Testament, ordained by Jesus Christ to be unto the party baptized, a sign of his fellowship with him in his death and resurrection. of His being engrafted into Him. Engrafted means to come into the Lord Christ. It signifies remission of sin and of His giving up unto God through Jesus Christ to live and walk in newness of life. So,
Identification with the Triune God
baptism teaches identification with the triune God. That's what Jesus says. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name singular of the triune God, in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit." So, when our brother goes into that water today and he comes back out, he is making a public declaration of his identification with the living God. There are no more other gods in his life.
There's no idols in his life. There is nothing else that he is chasing after. All the sin that the Lord has given Him the power to overcome is being sacrificed through the blood of Christ. He is making a public declaration of His unity with the God of the Bible.
Isn't that a blessed statement? It's almost like the wedding ring that you exchange at the altar when you get married. What does that ring do? It identifies you.
It marks you. It's like the brand on the cattle. Your wife can be in another room, or you could be in a big place with a lot of people. Your wife can look across and see that ring and say, he's mine.
He's mine. That's what it is. You're marked. You're marked property.
You're owned. See, it's never a question of being owned and not being owned. The Bible teaches us we're always owned by someone. Pastor Cam read in Ephesians chapter 2, if we are not believers in Jesus Christ, we are owned by the devil.
But when by God's grace that power of sin has been broken, when the blood of Jesus Christ has cleansed us from all sin, when we by His grace have believed on Christ, we are now His property. I remember early on preaching a sermon from Matthew 1230 in this church, probably 11 or 12 years ago, where Jesus said, He who is not with me is against me. He who does not gather scatters. I remember using an illustration of what it means to be God's property.
Imagine if you were driving down in Chilliwack and you saw an old deserted building. It used to be a restaurant, but now it's all covered in dirt and grime and all the stainless steel looks betrayed because it looks full of stains. You see rats and you see mice and you see all kinds of rodents and all kinds of cockroaches. Thankfully, I haven't seen any in Chilliwack, where I come from in Southern California, there's quite a few cockroaches.
If you're not hip on the whole cockroach thing, count yourself blessed that you live here in Chilliwack. But you see this place and you drive by it every day and it's just mucky and filthy and full of garbage and you think, man, how could that have ever been a place where anybody would have ever wanted to go? Lo and behold, some other week you're driving by and you can't believe it. The stainless steel really is living up to its name.
It looks shiny. It looks clean. There's no more rats. No more mice, no more cockroaches.
People are going in there. They're having dinner. They're enjoying it. You're hearing about all the good things that are going on in that place.
You notice a sign and it says, under new management. That's what it means to be a Christian. You're under new management. See, at one time your heart was filled with cockroaches and rats and mice and sewage and all those things.
See, that's where the Bible says we are all at. apart from the knowledge of Jesus Christ. You see, Jesus comes in the power of the gospel, in the power of the good news, and He washes that heart clean, and He plants His flag, and He writes above you, under new management. And so, baptism is the identification with the triune God, that you are now someone else's property. This is a public declaration of, I do.
And I ain't going back. By the grace of God, I will go on.
Union with Christ
Baptism also teaches us union with Jesus Christ. Union means, again, that whole marriage bond. We have come together with the Lord Christ. Paul uses this in Romans 6, verses 1-6.
Baptism does not provide that union, but rather baptism portrays or pictures that union. Union with Christ. Being in Him. Hopefully you were following along when Pastor Cam was reading in Ephesians 1.
Over and over and over again, the words, in Him, are used by Paul. Union with Christ. We're in Him. In John 15, our Lord Jesus teaches us something of the solidarity or the unity between Himself and His people.
He is the true vine and we are the branches. In the epistle to the Corinthians and in Ephesians and Colossians, He uses the analogy that the body is His and He is the head. We are in Jesus Christ. We are in union with Him in His death, in His burial, and in His resurrection.
Christ is ours and we are Christ.
Forgiveness of Sins Portrayed
A third thing pictured is the forgiveness of sins. Again, baptism does not provide forgiveness, but rather portrays or pictures forgiveness. He goes into that water. It's not the water that cleanses him from his sin.
It's the blood of Jesus. It's the death of Christ at Calvary. Paul in Hebrews 9 says, without the shedding of blood, there is no remission. That's why when you read the Old Testament, there's all these animal sacrifices.
Those all pointed forward to the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. That's why when God dealt with Adam and Eve, He made skins for them to cover them after they sinned. That's why when Abraham was about to plunge that knife into his son Isaac, the angel of the Lord came and stopped him. And the instruction from Mount Moriah that day was, the Lord will provide a lamb.
That's why Christ came and died for sinners and rose again. We talk about the blessings of the Gospel. I think forgiveness is probably right up there at number one. There's nothing better than having God say, I forgive you.
Isn't it? No more guilt. No more pain in the conscience. No more fear.
I mean, there's still fear. I mean, if you walk out in front of a bus and you see it coming, You know what? It's not unrighteous to feel a bit of fear. If you're staring eyeball to eyeball with a grizzly bear, fear is a legitimate response.
But not fear in terms of God. Maybe fear about being mauled or ripped apart by this big, huge grizzly bear. But not fear of where you're going. God's taking care of my sin.
God has covered it. God has washed it. God has provided a Lamb. God has given us Jesus as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.
The forgiveness of sins is uniquely portrayed through baptism. He comes up out of the water. We see a man who has, by the grace of God, been forgiven.
Application
I want to close with three brief applications. The first is to John Williams. It's another thing that the Confession says. It speaks of newness of life.
It says, and of his, the person being baptized, of his giving up unto God through Jesus Christ to live and walk in newness of life. That's what you're supposed to do. I have been richly blessed in knowing John Williams. We've had a lot of Bible studies together.
It's like a blessing that God, in his grace and in his kindness, would give me a friend and a brother like John. And we've actually gone over some of these things before. And I just want to remind you, John, this is what a Christian looks like, giving up unto God. See, Christian, there's a lot of misconceptions about what Christians are out there.
They're perfect or they're holy or they're somehow arrived. No, they're sinners saved by grace. The day that any of us as Christians ever portray pride and arrogance and we're something someone else isn't is the day we betrayed the gospel. The gospel is not about a bunch of good, polished, handsome people getting better.
The gospel is about sinners being convicted, being shown the mercy of God through Jesus Christ, and knowing what it is to be cleansed. That's what the gospel is. A Christian looks like one who is giving himself to God through Jesus Christ. It's not always easy.
In fact, it's probably always hard. Some of you are familiar with John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress. He depicts Christian as having that burden of sin on his back. He leaves the city of destruction and he comes to that cross and that burden of sin is gone.
Do you know what? In the Christian life, there is a burden placed there. It's easy. It's light.
It's not painful. It's not destructive. But Jesus did say we are to take His yoke upon Him. We need to live in a manner that is worthy of the Gospel.
And it's hard. It's one of the things we've talked about a lot. It's difficult. You've got three constant enemies as a Christian.
The world. I mean, face it, this world is no friend to those who are trying to follow God. Through media, through friends, through peers, through whoever, we have a lot of pressure about not following God. We have the devil, whom Peter describes as one who goes about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.
You know, it may be the case that we can guard our hearts against that world and against that devil. But it's the flesh, it's what's inside here that perhaps at times is the most difficult. And so, John Williams, I encourage you today, a Christian is not one who has perfected himself. A Christian is one who continually throws himself at the mercy of God.
That's what a Christian is. He's not one who has performed and been rewarded. He is one who has been saved by grace through faith. And to continually cast yourself upon Jesus Christ.
Faith in Jesus is the one thing needful. Faith in Jesus is the one thing needful. The best way to feed that faith is through the Bible. You need to nourish your heart and soul.
You need to instruct yourself in the things of God. Prayer. Prayer is absolutely crucial. Living in dependence upon God.
One man is well said of prayer. It isn't, you know, the fridge magnet. It isn't, you know, the light-hearted, you know, let's just have a little bit of a conversation. He likens prayers to walkie-talkies on the field of battle.
If you are in the thick of battle, you would be dependent upon that walkie-talkie because it connects you to others. It connects you to power. It connects you to airstrikes. It connects you to defense.
It connects you to resources. That's how we are to view prayer. It is a walkie-talkie on the field of battle for our well-being and for our protection and for our faith to grow. And also fellowship, being with the Christian people. being with the Church of Christ.
The Scripture is very clear that bad company corrupts good morals. It isn't usually the case that we wear white trousers. Hopefully none of us as men wear white trousers. But if we do, we don't wear white trousers, walk through a muddy day in Chilliwack, and clean up all those puddles.
That's not normally what happens. We wear the white trousers, we go out into the puddles, and our white trousers get filthy. We need to remember that analogy. It's not always the case that we're going to exercise godly influence on everybody.
There is a righteous doctrine of running and hiding. Remember Joseph and Potiphar's house. Potiphar's wife was coming on to him day by day. Joseph was a red-blooded man like all the rest of us.
How did he guard himself? He ran. Fellowship with Christians is absolutely crucial, and that brings me to some charges for our church. John Williams is being baptized today because Jesus died on the cross and rose again.
We ought to give glory to God. We ought to give glory and praise to God. We need to receive John Williams as a brother in Jesus Christ. We need to love him.
I say need. Hopefully we already all do. I'm just reminding us. We need to encourage him.
We need to pray for him. We need to be everything to him that we pray and hope he'll be to us. See, God never intended for us to live the Christian life in isolation. In fact, the Proverbs speaks against such a mindset.
Whoever separates himself, according to Proverbs 18.1, seeks his own desire. We are to live in community. We are to be with one another, even if we don't always agree on everything. Even if sometimes people bug us.
We need to bless God for the fellowship of the saints. We need to praise God that he has given to us a church and that he is saving sinners, that he is adding to our numbers, that he is giving us those gifts and tokens of his grace. Baxter said, in the communion of the saints is wisdom, safety and delight. And when my heart declines and faints, it's raised by their heat and light.
That's a great sentiment. So we need to encourage, pray for, love, and help our brother along the narrow way in this church. And for any here that don't know Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, you know, again, sometimes Christians talk as if they're part of an exclusive club. Well, it is exclusive in one sense because the only way in is through the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.
But it's not exclusive in the sense that it's only for this group or it's only for these people. This is a faithful saying, Paul said, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world sinners to save. If you're a sinner, If you have rebelled against God, if you have gone astray, there's hope, there's mercy, there's grace. And it's in God through Jesus Christ our Lord.
The Gospel is about belief. John and I have talked about this as well. God calls us to walk by faith, not by sight. You know, when we get saved, it's not as if now the road just opens up, and there's rose petals, and there's blue birds, and everything's just happy.
We need to believe, like the psalmist said, that yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will not fear, for Thou art with me. See, it takes faith. It's easy to believe in God when there's rose petals and when there's blue birds and when the sun is always shining. You need supernatural grace from on high to believe that in the midst of the valley of the shadow of death, God is there with you, seeing you through it.
So if you don't know Christ today, the answer is, believe on Him. Believe the gospel and you will be saved. Let us pray.
Closing Prayer
Our Father, we thank you so very much for the glory of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We thank you for the forgiveness of sins. We thank you for mercy. We thank you for all of the kindness that you have demonstrated at the cross.
And I would pray this day, God, that John, our brother, would look back upon this day with fond thoughts. with great joy and great encouragement, that God He would give Himself wholly unto you, that He would walk in newness of life, that He would seek by grace each and every day to fear and to honor and to glorify you. Help us as a church to pray for one another. Help us to encourage one another. Help us, Lord God, to worship You as we are supposed to in spirit and in truth, and keep from us the pettiness and the the frivolity and all the things that so often sidetracks us.
Help us to be like Paul, reaching forward, forgetting the things behind, pressing toward the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. And we pray for any who do not know you here, we call upon you, God of sovereign power, God of glorious grace to open the heart and cause sinners to see themselves before You and to see the glory of Jesus Christ as Savior and as Lord. And we pray in His most blessed name, Amen.