1. Contamination

2. Clothing

3. Coming

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This morning we’ll be reading chapter three. Let’s go to the Lord and ask His blessing upon The reading and the hearing, and the preaching of God’s word before we do so, let’s pray together.

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Our God father would come again now to you. And we are eager to hear your word. Become to sit at your feet and to be still and to listen. We pray heavenly Father, help us to settle our souls, in focus our hearts and our minds help us to receive from you that which is more most important, your word. Because there, you give us yourself, your grace, your blessing your kingdom is every read of Jesus in the Gospel, and salvation from our sins is for all these that we earn and long and so we pray, Lord, open our eyes and our hearts that we might accept by faith all that we hear, that it may change our lives and our hearts and that we may be transformed evermore into the image of our Savior Jesus Christ. It’s in his name that we pray and all Gods People said, Amen. Amen Zechariah chapter three Zechariah three, please give your full attention. This is the word of our God.

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Then he showed me Josh with a high priest, standing before the angel of the Lord and Satan standing at his right hand to accuse him. And the Lord said to Satan, the Lord rebuke you, Satan. The Lord who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you. Is not this a brand plucked from the fire. Joshua was standing before the angel close with filthy garments. And the angel said to those who were standing before him, remove the filthy garments from him. And to him, he said, Behold, I have taken your iniquity away from you. I’m gonna close you with pure vestments, and I Let them put a clean turban on his head. And so they put a clean turban on his head and clothed him with garments. And the angel of the Lord was standing by an angel, the Lord solemnly assured Joshua that says, The Lord of hosts, if you will walk in my ways, and keep my charge, then you shall rule my house and have charge of my courts. That will give you the right of access among those who are standing here. Here now or Josh, or the high priest, you and your friends who sit before you, there man who are assigned, you hold I will bring my servant, the branch. For behold on the stone that I have set before Joshua on a single stone. with seven eyes, I will engrave its inscription, declares the LORD of hosts and I will remove the iniquity of this land in a single day. In that day, declares the LORD of hosts, every one of you will invite his neighbor to come under his vine and under his fig tree.

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Before the reading of God’s Word May he had his blessing to it.

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Well, this past July, marks a full four years since the Garbarino has arrived in Fort Wayne. And as I look back over the course of those years, it’s very evident that very much has happened. much has changed. The Lord has done many things in our lives and all of our lives. The love of Christ people has been overwhelming to us at times. God’s love through his people through you, his people. Through much pain and difficulty The Lord has used his people to encourage and to support and to comfort us, even as he grows us all together. In those first couple of years, many of us lost loved ones. The Lord has brought us through much pain and suffering. In 2019, particularly was very difficult year. And then 2020 has been a year that so far no one would have imagined, whatever have been. Very many things have changed since 2016. When I arrived here, there was, of course, no pandemic, or no shut downs, there were no masks. There are no fights over masks, no protests, no writing, no looting in various cities across the country. Of course, politics and cultures change. Moment by moment, many things changed. Another thing that has changed is all the babies that you’ve had in the congregation, it’s been a glorious thing, right? That’s a big change to any family. But there’s one thing that has not changed, does not change, no, ever will change. And that’s the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. That is not a man that he should change. Scripture declares. He is the same yesterday, today and indeed forever. And a great exchange that takes place in the salvation of sinners. Right the provision of goods Odd for his people that does not change. We see that in our text this morning in Zechariah. Chapter Three, we’ve been reminded, as we’ve looked through a number of times, I’ve quoted a theologian, those encouraging words about Zechariah. That says Zechariah is the longest and most obscure of any old testament of any of the Prophets, and the most difficult of any Old Testament book to interpret. And that is indeed the case.

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And while the prophets and Zechariah can indeed be very difficult at points, they are glorious, they were glorious, because they preach Christ, they preach that same unchanging Christ and the New Testament, and even before throughout the entire Bible. And so we’ll see in our text this morning, the gospel God’s provision, in our hope. Recall that Zechariah is a prophet who’s ministering in the time of Israel’s history when they had been restored to the land for 70 years. 70 years in exile. There were To the land. Zechariah is God’s man to encourage them to repent and to renew their covenant with him. This repentance and renewal would of course be necessary for the people to be ready to worship once the temple is rebuilt is completed. And so in Zachariah, we see he is giving a series given a series of visions. And they are given to encourage the people that God would dwell in their myths that he would be with them, his people and that God would save them from the evil without and the evils within the visions gave comfort to them, and even more so to us.

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So we see how faithful God is how he keeps his promises. We can look back and we can look forward, that he will still do so even for us and so up to this point, as we’ve looked at Zechariah and these, the three visions before they’ve been four are encouraged. For their encouragement and their comfort and need for us as well, and God has challenged them, and he calls them to return to Him. And He promises to restore them to defeat their enemies, to be their God and to abide with them to dwell with them. And this is all, of course, fulfilled in Christ. We’ve seen this time and again, God with his people, Emmanuel, let’s never forget the blessing that is ours. As we look back at this Old Testament book, Zechariah, the blessing that is ours and having the full revelation of God, the full picture in bright New Testament lights. And so as I said, this is the fourth vision Zechariah the fourth night vision as they’re referred to, and the deals with God as guardian of His courts, and unclean priesthood, in our dire need to be made acceptable before God. Right God has his guardian and this unclean priesthood in our need.

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And we see in summary, that Because we are in and of ourselves in our flesh in our fallen state because we are broken and dirty and sinful, we need a Savior, who is both willing and able to accomplish that salvation. For us if we were to have we are to have salvation. The Lord must be the one who does this, he must do these things, to make these promises around reality for his people. This fourth vision proclaims the good news of the gospel, his righteousness for our sins. And as we look at the flow of this fourth vision, and we see that it unfolds like this, and there’s an outline in the back of your liturgy, there we see the contamination in verses 123 the contamination of our own filthy garments. Then verses four to seven, the clothing of God’s pure garments, and then verses eight to 10 speaks of the coming of the branch, the coming of the branch so we have the contamination, the clothing and the calming of the branch. First in verses 123 we see the contamination Our hilty Gorman’s. This vision opens. And it’s a courtroom scene, right? We’ll lot we’re all aware of what goes on in the courtroom, whether from television or movies or being on jury duty. We all have, we’re all acquainted with this there is. So there are three figures. That factor in here. There’s the accused, right, the person who’s on trial, and then the accuser, the prosecutor. And then the judge.

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Zacharias sees these verse one, it says, Then he showed me Josh with a high priest, standing before the angel of the Lord and Satan, and his right hand to accuse him. Joshua is the accused. He is the first person as we look at these visions, thus far to be discussed as an individual right beforehand, they have been, there’s been some in some symbolic right the figures and the things that are going on have been symbolic, but here is the first time that that a person is As mentioned, Joshua. And Joshua is who he is the high priest. And this is very important regarding what is going on right the context, the rebuilding of the New City, right, they will need a priest who’s capable to minister, the act the duties of the priesthood.

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Right now this isn’t Of course, the Joshua from Exodus or from the book of Joshua. It’s another Joshua, but the name means the same thing. Right Yeshua, the Lord saves or salvation is of the Lord. And of course, you’ll remember as well that the Greek version of this name is Jesus yay Seuss Jesus. The Lord say, salvations of the Lord in Zechariah sees Joshua is someone who he made with whom he’s familiar. In Joshua, the high priest is the accused. Also we see the angel of the Lord, right this is Christ Himself standing by the title angel of the Lord is not new, does not appear for the first time here in Zechariah. We see it in other places.

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Other times in the Old Testament, and this is why many scholars throughout the history of the church, john Calvin included, understand this to be a Christian often write a, an appearing of Jesus before the Incarnation and have good reason to believe this at key moments in redemptive history. As redemptive history unfolds, we see this messianic divine figure. Throughout we see it in Genesis, we see an exodus, to be sure we see it in the prophets. And we can look at passages in places like Exodus 23, where God promises to send an angel before his people to lead them into the promised land. We’d have time to unfold all of the arguments for that and all the evidence for that, but in a very Trinitarian way, Angel the Lord must be both identified with and distinguished from God. And so the angel of the Lord speaks to God and God speaks to the angel for these reasons and others, as I I’ve said, some people like even as far back as Justin Martyr in the second century, and up until today have concluded that these are appearances of the pre incarnate Christ, the Lord Himself.

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And so we see this angel of the Lord, he assumes the place in this courtroom scene, of whom of the judge, and the accuser, Satan, or just the accuser, and he is accusing. This is what the name Satan means, as you may well know, it means accuser. And there’s a repetition in Hebrew, the translation of that verse, this is the accuser standing at his right hand to accuse him. That’s the emphasis there. Satan loves to accuse God’s people, because he knows that God is just and he knows that God cannot go back on his word, and that he must punish the wrongdoer because God is perfectly holy, and perfectly just and so Satan accuses because he hates man Because he knows that man bears the image of God, and it’s the glory of God and He wants that image or else he wants that image, that glory not to be towards Jesus. And so he accuses the accusers, like in job or like in Revelation over and over is the antagonist of God’s people. And here he accuses Joshua, the high priest.

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And what is the charge that this accuser makes the charges, the filthy garments, the filthy garments, not just dirty, filthy. Joshua is the high priest. Right? Think about that. He’s the man to represent the people of God in the holy placed place. He is to be clean, ceremonially clean. He is the man to be pure or to make sacrifices for the people of God. But he is unacceptable. As we look at the passage, and we look at the The words the word filthy there, it’s a very sanitized word. Oddly enough, it’s actually very gross term, very graphic term. What it actually says is much comes much closer to describing fallen man’s spiritual condition. Filthy there in that context means excrement smeared. It’s gross, and that would render anyone unacceptable even on an earthly level. It’s the most vile thing someone could think of to describe the worst kind of dirtiness. Right think of dressing up to go somewhere to a child’s wedding, or to an anniversary, dinner or to a prom or fill in the blank. We would never think of going somewhere with excrements soiled garments. Right most of us are horrified when we step in the messes of our cats and dogs, let alone on our clothing. How much more the high priest the man chosen to Pure ceremonially. For the P, it’s represent for the people of God to the Lord Himself. It’s a bad situation. High Priests standing before God going into the holy place where God while physically disgusting and of course, ceremonially unclean and undone. And this was indicative of the priesthood and Zacharias day, if nothing else, but for the defilement of being an exile under pagan rule.

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This is a big problem. It’s a bad problem. The preset was unholy and it was defiled. And even though they were the nation, in covenant with God, this is the situation. And so in the vision, the high priest steps into court into the courtroom to be accused, and Satan steps forward, and he accuses Joshua and his accusation is accurate, and it’s credible, even though he is the father of lies. these accusations are true. And you can say that this person is a sinner. He is unacceptable. He’s filthy. And this is really what these garments symbolize. Right? they symbolize sin. This is what makes us unacceptable in God’s sight. Not even our good works, not even our righteousness, or apparent righteousness makes us acceptable before God.

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We have lots of folks, as I mentioned, who’ve had over the course of the last few years, many babies in this church parents, and all of you who are parents, we know that when we are new parents, we go through a period of rapid growth. Right? We are shocked sometimes, and all that all the things that our babies do, and as new parents, and if you who are parents know this our gross tolerance factor quickly goes way up. Because as wonderful and sweet as our babies are, they make really unpleasant man. In their diapers and have to be changed, someone’s got to do it. One of my professors told me once that he said, I don’t know much about economics, but when he had his first child, he finally knew what a gross domestic product was. And that’s true. I think we can all relate to that reality, right? Imagine wearing something like clothes smeared with baby diapers.

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So okay, I’m ready for the banquet. Let’s go to the wedding. The only reason God accepts any of us any of our works is because of Jesus Christ. And this is what gives Satan’s accusations so much power and credibility by Joshua was clothed with filthy garments in rags, and he is unfit for God’s presence. And the priesthood was impure. It was defiled. So Josh was contaminated. He was unclean. He was filthy, even as all of us brothers and sisters before the Lord on our own Before he got a hold of you were unclean, were filthy, as well in the contamination of your own filthy garments. This is the reality the contamination that we see. And then next we see beautifully and gloriously, the clothing of God’s pure garments. What God does as he acts upon Josh, what even as he acted upon you, in verses four to seven, we see in this vision that the Lord could have rightly condemned Joshua could have said, Satan is correct, and you need to be punished. And that’s the case from the prosecutor Satan. That is what he’s saying.

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But that’s not what the Lord does. It’s not what he does. rather look in verse two if we go back. And the Lord said to Satan, the Lord rebuke you are saying, The Lord who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you. Is not this brand pluck from the fire? right there’s a double rebuke from the Lord. To the accuser. The judge is saying to the prosecutor, I’m throwing this case out of court. He’s mine. The court chose him and brought him out of exile. And he has like a burning stick drawn, saved, pluck from the exile. And he has been chosen to serve in my court. You don’t have a case against him. I refuse to admit this evidence. Oh, accuser. But the judge because he is just he can’t just merely throw it out. We’ve seen that the accusation is true. Joshua is what he’s defiled. He does have filthy garments on for three tells us and so what what must happen the judge must provide the righteousness that the priest is in need of the judge must provide the righteousness. He has to do something in order to clear Joshua. of all these charges. The Angel of the Lord knows that The charges against Joshua are valid as long as Joshua remains in those disgusting garments. And so he provides Joshua with the very thing that was needed in verse four.

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And the angel said to those who were standing before him, remove the filthy garments from him. And to him he said, Behold, I have taken away your iniquity. I will close you with pure vestments, right? The garments dirty garments are iniquity says I will clothe you with pure garments, pure vestments, pure priestly close. God makes Joshua acceptable for the priesthood, God makes Joshua suitable to stand in his presence. And then in verse five, let them put a clean turban on his head, like the turban was a significant part of the clothing. He completed the clothing and the shows that the Lord took away the remaining of the priesthood and made ready the priests for service is the Lord who cleans and concentrates in commissions the priests.

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That’s why in verses six and seven, he assures Joshua that he is acceptable before the Lord and he Commission’s him as high priest. Joshua is what we read he is to guard God’s courts, his dwelling place in the temple, he is to guard the worship and ensure that the worship of the people of the temple is pure and undefiled. He is now fit for service. He’s commissioned to go and do so. And the you know, the mission vision also shows us something else. Again, that God does not change. His ways do not change. We see in this vision that the Old Testament understood well this truth. It teaches the concept of righteousness imputed to the center given to the center from another is the same in the Old Testament and the New Testament. It is the same all the way through it does not change.

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The doctrine of what we call technically imputed righteousness is not only taught by Paul in Romans and Galatians. It is taught throughout the Bible. It’s the same as in Isaiah, Isaiah 61, where he proclaims the good news of God’s salvation imputed to sinful man given to sinful man. And it’s the same concept that we see right here in Zechariah. Chapter Three, God is the subject and we are the object. Right God is the one doing the clothing we only receive. Joshua wasn’t told, go change your clothes. God reaches down in clothe him. He removed the filth, put pure garments on him. And this is all in the Old Testament. More generally, perhaps, but in the New Testament with bright lights Reality of God clothing and cleaning, acting upon sinners. God makes man and right standing before him is an act of God. Not merely that he provides for our righteous sins and removes our sin, he does so but he is the very one who had an urn, that righteousness that took sin upon himself and that great exchange that we read. We read about in Second Corinthians chapter five, at great exchange in ourselves, you know, brothers and sisters, there’s only futility, there’s only despair, only dirtiness.

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All of us need to be cleaned and cleansed. Filthy person can’t clean himself. He’s filthy. This is only accomplished in Jesus Christ. And this is just what Jesus does for his people. You and I. This is what these visions give us 500 years before Christ and they’re all point to and therefore filled in Christ even as he worked upon us, again Second Corinthians five, that glorious that most glorious exchange verse 21. For our sake he made him to be sin, who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. The glorious exchange of the gospel. Like Josh Well, we too are unfit to appear before God are seen as like polluted garments, and we need clean garments. If we were to stand before Him, we need to be cleaned. And in this vision we see ourselves for we are Joshua on our own, we are sinners in the hands of a justly angry God. But it’s God’s chosen in Christ. You are sinners in the pierced hands of Jesus Christ, the suffering servant, your Savior. That’s who we are. Like Joshua recipients of God’s grace, his gift and grant to his children were clothed by God himself in the robes of His righteousness.

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He removes our filthy robes, and he gives us pure, pure, spotless robes. So there’s contamination of our own filthy garments and then the glorious clothing, cleansing of God’s pure garments. And now in verses eight to 10, the coming of the branch, right we’ve seen the problem or the contamination in the clothes, the provision of God in clothing us, and then the prophecy of the coming of the branch.

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In verses eight to 10, verse eight and verse eight, the angel of the Lord tells Joshua, that Joshua and the priests are assigned. They are a type in a symbol of something that is to come at that point in history. They are a type and symbol of the great high priest, the greater High Priest, that was still to come. Of course, we know this was Jesus Christ. The Lord. We’re saying here now oh Joshua, the high priest, you and your friends who sit before us before you, for they are men who are assign, Behold, I will bring my servant, the branch, right? My servant, the branch. These are terms that are repeated in places like the book of Isaiah, its covenantal language, speaking of the Messiah, that he would assume the role of servant of God, and that he would come to save his people as the savior of God’s people, and that’s what happened. He became a servant for our sake. At the branch, you know, this describes the coming of the Messiah from David’s line, you recall from the tree chop down coming out of that stump, right, Isaiah 11 says this, there shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from its roots shall bear fruit And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him.

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The spirit of wisdom and understanding the spirit of counsel in Might, spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord at the great tree of David to Solomon as chopped down, but the promise is what that a branch will come out. Right It is a restoration. Jeremiah 3023 says similarly, Behold, the days are coming when I will raise a branch from the stump of Jesse. These are prophecies about Christ. He is the branch he is the servant. The Old Testament is telling us about Jesus He is the one right and we fast forward to Matthew chapter one and Luke chapter one. Remember Gabriel’s announcement to marry in the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father, David, and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever. of his kingdom there shall be no.

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And then Matthew chapter one, the book of the genealogy of Christ, son of David sekirei, his vision is about the Lord Jesus Christ. And as those who live on this side of the life, death, and resurrection of the Lord, we have much revelation that we’ve been given to us that’s been given to us. And we have every reason to trust in our great God and Savior, what he has given what he’s done, and when he says something, he’s going to do it. In ourselves that may be hard to believe. All that we’re told all the glorious promises, even that will be raised from the dead, and that he’s conquered all of our enemies. You’re so slow to believe. Our faith is weak. it’s sometimes hard to grasp and to have faith in those things. But it’s going to happen, but he has promised that it will happen and so we can live our lives. With joy, and serve with vigor, God’s word is trustworthy. Numbers nine mentions a stone.

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A stone said before Joshua was seven eyes or facets. And this refers to the stone set in the turban of the high priest, which had an inscription that Zechariah refers to Zechariah 394. Behold, on the on the stone that I have set before Joshua on a single stone with seven eyes, I will engrave its inscription declares the LORD of hosts and I will remove the iniquity of this land in a single day. So Zechariah sees envision Joshua receiving the stone from the Lord and being made acceptable with the inscription. Right again, this is the the inscription that was given to Aaron in Exodus 28 that we read that said, holy to the Lord, holy to the Lord in those words, Verses nine and 10 of Zechariah three go on to describe the consummation, the ultimate fulfillment, the wrapping up of all things. This is a prophecy.

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This is Prophet saying about the Day of Atonement, a great day of atonement, a day that would coincide with all of this prophecy, that neighbors, it says in verse 10, the neighbors, even the Gentiles would be brought in, and they would be invited to sit under the fig tree with Israel. Again, recall swelling, the border swelling in a miserable city. And that day came, of course, came in the crucifixion of Christ. Right when that atonement was made, and that is there that we see the contrast of Josh with the high priest with Jesus, the greater High Priest, Joshua is pointing to Christ. But ultimately, Josh will like you and I. He is a recipient of God’s grace, right. He receives God’s grace, the Day of Atonement. That Great Day of Atonement shows the contrast between the two Joshua and Jesus right. What did Joshua receive? He received a clean turban set upon his head. What did Jesus get on his head? crown of thorns. Blood. Joshua was close with clean garments that were not his own. They were given to him and Jesus whose garments are always clean, he took upon himself filthy garments.

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Joshua was declared acceptable to God on the basis God’s provision of righteousness. Jesus was of course acceptable in his own right by his own obedience. If he was forsaken by God on the cross, because of the sin laid upon him, for you and I Joshua’s sin was removed, and atone for Jesus who had no sin of his own was made sin for our sake. And we might, what does it say become the righteousness of God. And yet because of that Josh with Jesus because of that great high priest, the greater high priest is because of him that we can say that the accuser has nothing on us he has nothing against us. There is now therefore no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Romans eight declares gloriously, Satan stands up to accuse and he says, You’re guilty.

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But Jesus says, What? Satan has nothing on me. And you being united to him by faith is nothing on you brothers and sisters, right? Remember john 14 in the upper room discourse, when when Jesus ready to leave his disciples, and he says, the ruler of this world is coming. He has no claim on me. Right? Verse 30, he has no claim on me. He has nothing in me. He has nothing no crime to accuse Jesus of Sitting could accuse any of us of course, he could bring a huge case against any one of you. We’re all guilty beyond our desire to admit in ways that we don’t even consciously know of. Not so against Jesus. Not one thing. Not one thing. In fact, he is the only one that Satan can rightfully accused of anything. Jesus not only wiped clean your record, because he bore all of your punishment. He did, but he also gave you his file, he gave you his record imputed to transfer files. There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. And our glorious hope and assurance is that the accuser will ultimately be destroyed. We put it into the Revelation chapter 12. I’m going to read from read verses, starting in verse seven, Revelation 12. We see the glorious hope and assurance that this accusers days are numbered, he will ultimately be destroyed. Revelation 12, starting in verse seven.

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Now war arose in heaven, Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon in the dragon, and his angels fought back. But he was defeated, and there was no longer any place for them and heaven. And the great dragon was thrown down that ancient serpent who was called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the word the whole world. And he was thrown down to the earth and his angels were thrown down with him. And I heard a loud voice in heaven saying, now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of His Christ have come for the accuser. of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before God and they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb by the word of their testimony,

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right that describes we fit in there right This describes you, your Christian right the accuser has been cast down. To quote him again from last week low is Doom ashore. Is Doom is sure in the blood of the Lamb has conquered the accuser for you who belong to Him. That lamb, your high priest, God, the sun has closed you with His righteousness, the robes the pure vestments of His righteousness, and there is now no condemnation for you. This is the good news. Not only from the New Testament from the Old Testament as well. All the way through, you know, Joshua, like the rest of the people were soiled and dirtied by that by the ADA. exile by the Babylonian exile, and there was a serious problem. And these were serious questions as they come out and they try to make sense of it all. Was the exile too great for them to overcome? today and the high priests be made clean again and pure again.

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Was there any hope for them? And we to ask similar questions do we not? We’ve all done shameful things. We all have things in our past and even closer, even probably this morning, that haunt us with guilt that we cannot seem to get rid of. Maybe that deep sense of regret and shame and guilt leaves us feeling as though we are forever soiled by permanent marks of our own record. And like ink that stains our hands and you can’t get it off. Or conferences or blackened and dirty in the quietness of our own minds, and Your own heart maybe you ask questions as well. Is my past too corrupt to move on from to move ahead? Can I really be clean again? Is there still hope for me? Praise God brothers and sisters, there is hope and there is cleansing. Yet for you and I in Jesus Christ, there is sure hope, pure cleansing for you today and forever.

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As you repent and believe, know the peace that Christ offers to you. The peace that is extended to you. That is a sure reality, right? Peace of conscience is one of those benefits of salvation. One of those benefits that flow from our justification or being right with God, peace of conscience. Glory in your great savior because he is a great Savior. The gospel is still in always good news. You’re Christian. And that is news that does not change. And we rejoice because of this. You have a savior that gave his life for you that became sin for you. He closed you with His perfection. He promises your victory in him even until the end. So remember this week and always, brothers and sisters, you have been made new, new creation. Though you were beyond hope, and unable to cleanse yourself, you’re willing and able Savior has accomplished your salvation. And in doing so, he has freed you from those filthy garments. He has freed you from bondage of sin from the guilt of that sin. He has freed you from the accusations of the enemy, whose Doom is sure he has freed you to live your life. wrote in his righteousness into live for Him.

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Trust in the Gospel Dear Christian, believe his promise to you and who you are in Christ and trusting and believing, may we continually be challenged and assured and comforted and changed as we walk with this great God and Savior who never ever changes. Amen. Let’s pray. Our Heavenly Father, we delight to give you praise Lord, we are awed by the promise of the gospel or that we are so, so weak to believe. Order doubting hearts are overwhelmed by the magnitude of your love and forgiveness that we pray, Father that you would help us to believe who we are who you say that we are. That sin, raised the walk in newness of life united to Jesus or Savior. Father, we pray that you would continue to be with us, to change us and grow us and shape us through the means of grace. Through all that you do the providential acts of our lives. We answer all these things in Christ’s name, Amen.